catastrophe, when, profiting by its remnant of strength, it treats with the enemy instead of submitting to an unconditional surrender, the Government of the National Defence is accused elsewhere of culpable levity, is denounced and repudiated. Let France judge us, and all those who but yesterday were prodigal in their protestations of friendship and respect, but who to-day insult us. . . . When at the end of January we resigned ourselves to an effort to make terms it was very late. We had flour only for ten days, and we knew that the devastation of the country rendered revictualling very uncertain. Those who now declaim against us will never know the anguish we. have endured. It was, however, necessary to conceal our anxieties, and to approach the enemy with resolution-with an appearance of readiness still to fight, and of possessing ample provisions. What we desired was this-above all things to usurp no rights. To France alone it belonged to dispose of herself. We desired to reserve that right to her. It cost protracted efforts to obtain the recognition of her sovereignty. It forms the most important feature of our treaty. We have preserved to the National Guard its liberty and its arms. If, notwithstanding our efforts, we have been unable to exempt the army and the Garde Mobile from the operation of the rigorous laws of war, at least we have preserved them from a captivity in Germany and confinement in an intrenched camp under Prussian muskets. We are reproached with not having consulted the Delegation at Bordeaux, but it is overlooked that we were enclosed within an iron circle, that we were unable to break through. It is moreover forgotten that every passing day rendered more terrible the catastrophe of famine, and yet we maintained the discussion, contesting the ground inch by inch for six days, while the inhabitants of Paris, ignorant of their real situation and influenced only by a generous ardour, demanded to be led out to fight. . . . . We have summoned France to elect freely an Assembly which at this supreme crisis will make known its will. We recognize in no one a right to impose a decision upon it either for peace or for war. . . . . In order that its will may be imposed upon all as a law to be respected, there must be the sovereign expression of the free suffrage of all. Now, we do not admit that arbitrary restrictions can be imposed upon that suffrage. . . . To recall the memories of past dissensions at a time when the enemy treads our blood-stained soil is to retard by their rancours the great task of the deliverance of the country. We regard principles as superior to expedients. We do not wish that the first decree of convocation of the Republican Assembly in 1871 should be an act of mistrust directed against the electors. To them belongs the sovereignty; let them exercise it without weakness and the country may be saved. The Government of the National Defence regrets, then, and annuls, if it should be necessary, the decree illegally issued by the Delegation at Bordeaux, and it calls upon all Frenchmen to vote without ostracism for the representatives who may appear to them to be the worthiest of France. Vive la RépubLique! Vive la France!

....

Meanwhile the Germans, whose leaders trusted nothing to chance, or even to probabilities, made every preparation for continued war in case of French obstinacy. Ominous hints were telegraphed from Versailles: "The German arrangements," it was said, "for overrunning France from end to end, should she refuse to submit, will be terribly effective. The temper of the German troops will be very stern should the French pursue the struggle." Another report announced, "With their usual energy the Germans are preparing for a prolonged war. Though they feel almost sure that the end of the war has come, they are arranging every thing to march against Lyons and Bordeaux. Should warlike counsels prevail among the French, fresh reinforcements will be called from Germany. The troops already in the field will press quickly forward. The complete conquest of France will at once be taken in hand." But with the retirement of Gambetta the war fever throughout the country had become effectually mitigated, as the result of the popular appeal presently showed. The elections to the National Assembly took place on the 8th of February. All the numerous parties into which French politicians were divided brought forward their candidates and their manifestoes. Among these, in spite of the disqualifying provisions as to families that had once been royal, appeared the names of the Orleans Princes, the Duc d'Aumale and the Prince de Joinville. "When I consider the situation of France," said the Duc d'Aumale, in his address, "her history, her traditions, the events of the last year, I am struck with the advantages which a constitutional monarchy presents. I believe it can respond to the legitimate aspirations of a democratic society, and guarantee, with order and security, every kind of progress and of liberty. It is with a mixture of filial pride and of patriotic sorrow that I compare France in her actual state with what she was under the reign of my father. . . In my sentiments, in my past, in the traditions of my family, I find nothing which separates me from the Republic. If it be under this form that France wishes to constitute her Government, I am ready to bow before her sovereignty, and will remain her faithful servant."

In Paris the elections went off quietly, possibly because the day happened to be a rainy one. It was estimated that about one-fourth of the electors abstained from voting. The successful candidates were, as might have been anticipated, mostly of the advanced Radical type. At the head of the list stood Louis Blanc:

then Victor Hugo, Garibaldi, Quinet, Gambetta, Rochefort. After events attached celebrity to some other names that may here be mentioned; to that of Admiral Saisset, who, attained a temporary popularity with the electors in consequence of a mistaken notion that he had meant to resist the Government capitulation; of Felix Pyat, the audacious journalist, editor of "Le Vengeur," and chief of the so-called "school of political assassination;" of Ranc, who had acted as Gambetta's secretary, and was a man of harsh character and extreme opinions; of Charles Delescluze, an old democratic agitator of the times of 1848, one who had had much experience of revolution, of exile and of prison, and of whom his worst enemies were willing to say that he was honest and enthusiastic. Four members of the International Society were chosen. Perhaps about one-third of the forty-three deputies for the Seine department were men of comparatively moderate and Conservative opinions; among these were Thiers, Favre, and Dorian.

However Radicalism might come to the front in Paris and in some of the other great cities, the general character of the Assembly, returned in consequence of this appeal to the popular voice throughout France, was highly Conservative, and indeed reactionary. The question submitted to the candidates was simply that of making peace or carrying on war; and it was natural that those who came forward on the peace platform should be mostly members of that political party which had had nothing whatever to do with the Napoleonist government or the Republican propaganda; the old Legitimists, in fact, whose voice had so long been silent. The character given of the Assembly by Gustave Flourens, in a pamphlet which he published a few weeks later, is instructive as showing in what light the new Deputies of the Right were regarded at the very outset by the advanced democrats. "The result was," he said, "that we had a chamber the counterpart of that of the Restoration; a chamber of ghosts, of people who were thought to be dead long ago, and who appeared to be quite untouched-to be still alive. Marquises and Abbés, who had without doubt sat in the States-General of 1789 on the benches of the nobility and clergy; a collection of bald heads, deaf ears, and eyes which blinked at any ray of sunlight. This Assembly ought to have had a gravedigger for doorkeeper. For such owls, the cry of Vive la République! was an intolerable outrage'." This resuscitated party acquired the name of the "Rurals."

M. Thiers was returned for 20 out of the 86 Departments; a decided proof that he was looked upon at this juncture by the majority of his fellow-countrymen as the statesman who was most to be trusted for extricating France from its difficulties. Gambetta's name was seen on several lists.

The prospect of a pacific policy on the part of the new Assembly, which the general result of the elections held forth, induced Count Bismarck to concede a prolongation of the armistice till the 24th of February. On the 16th Belfort capitulated. The garrison, 12,000

1 "Paris Livré." G. Flourens. 1871.

strong, was allowed to march out with full military honours. This was the final operation of the great Franco-German War of 1870-71. Meanwhile, on the 13th, the National Assembly was opened at Bordeaux. From 300 to 400 Members were present. Jules Favre, in the name of his colleagues, surrendered the powers of the Government of Defence into the hands of the Assembly, but engaged that they would hold them provisionally till their successors should be appointed. Fifteen committees were then constituted, after the precedent of 1849. Garibaldi was present, and sent in his resignation, in writing, to the temporary acting President of the Assembly: having done which, he desired to say a few words. The President, however, took no notice of his request, and declared the Assembly adjourned. Some uproar followed. When he had entered his carriage, Garibaldi stood up and declared that he had wished to fight for France, and to serve the Republican cause; but that now his mission was at an end. The crowd replied with shouts of Vive Garibaldi ! Vive la République! and on the following day, the popular hero quitted Bordeaux for Marseilles, thence to take ship for his islandhome of Caprera.

On the 17th the Assembly, which had already appointed M. Grévy as its President, proceeded to choose a head of the Executive Administration. The statesman fixed upon was M. Thiers. His answer was delivered in a written speech. Though appalled, he said, at the painful task imposed upon him by the country, he accepted it with obedience, devotion, and love-sentiments of which France stood all the more in need, forasmuch as she was unfortunate, more unfortunate than at any former period of her history. But, he added, she is still great, young, rich, and full of resources; and will always remain a lasting monument of human energy. He then announced the list of the Ministers whom he had selected as his colleagues : these were-M. Dufaure, Minister of Justice; Jules Favre, of Foreign Affairs; Picard, of the Interior; Jules Simon, of Public Instruction; Lambrecht, of Commerce; Le Flô, of War; Pothuan, of Marine; De Larcy, of Public Works.

In the sitting of the 17th occurred an incident which might have proved embarrassing. A declaration was laid before the Assembly by M. Keller, signed by the Deputies of the Departments in Alsace and Lorraine, to the effect that they desired to remain French, and to be guaranteed from the threatened severance. M. Thiers dexterously urged that the petition should be taken into consideration at once; and thus driven to a point, the Committee appointed to consider the subject resolved that it should be handed over to the negotiators who were about to treat with Prussia; whereby the difficulty was evaded.

On the 19th M. Thiers addressed the House. He said that he

did not lay down any programme. A programme was always a vague thing, but at the present time there was only one line of policy to follow; and there was urgent need to put an end to the evils afflicting the country, and to terminate the occupation by the enemy.

The country had need of peace, which must be courageously discussed, and only accepted if honourable. He announced the reconstitution of the Councils-General and the municipalities by fresh elections. The Government, he declared, would devote all its powers to pacify and reorganize the country, to revive credit, and reorganize labour: nothing was more pressing than that task. The Constitutional question should be left in abeyance till France was out of the enemy's grasp.

Jules Favre then proposed that the Assembly should appoint a Committee of fifteen Deputies to proceed at once to Paris, and be in constant communication with the negotiators, duly reporting upon their proceedings to the Assembly.

M. Thiers proposed that the Assembly should suspend its sittings during the negotiations.

On Monday, the 21st, M. Thiers, M. Jules Favre, M. Ernest Picard, and the fifteen Commissioners chosen from the Assembly, arrived in Paris. M. Thiers spent the whole of the next day in conference with Count Bismarck at Versailles. On Wednesday he was received by the German Emperor at the Prefecture, and then visited the Crown Prince. The armistice was extended to the evening of Sunday, the 26th, the German negotiators announcing positively that should further delays be interposed, the war should be renewed at that moment, and no later. Thus driven into a corner, the French negotiators were obliged to renounce the hope of support from the neutral Powers with which they had hitherto dallied; and the Emperor William telegraphed to Berlin on the 26th, that the Preliminaries of peace had just been signed, and were awaiting the ratification of the Assembly at Bordeaux. The armistice was then extended to the 6th, and subsequently to the 12th of March. The Preliminaries were these :

"1. France renounces in favour of the German Empire the following rights :-The fifth part of Lorraine, including Metz and Thionville, and Alsace less Belfort.

"2. France will pay the sum of five milliards of francs, of which one milliard is to be paid in 1871, and the remaining four milliards by instalments extending over three years.

"3. The German troops will begin to evacuate the French territory as soon as the Treaty is ratified. They will then evacuate the interior of Paris and some Departments lying in the western region. The evacuation of the other Departments will take place gradually after payment of the first milliard, and proportionately to the payment of the other four milliards.

"Interest at the rate of five per cent. per annum will be paid on the amount remaining due from the date of the ratification of the Treaty. "4. The German troops will not levy any requisitions in the Department occupied by them, but will be maintained at the cost of France.

"5. A delay will be granted to the inhabitants of the territories annexed, to choose between the two nationalities.