The

Assembly. The Committee added a clause authorizing Government to raise the circulation of the bank to 3200 million francs. rate of issue of the Loan was to be 841 per cent. and the days fixed for the transaction were Sunday 28th, and Monday, 29th of July.

When the appointed day came the excitement in Paris was intense. Not only the Bourse, the Petite Bourse, the Boulevards were crowded, but at each Mairie and office, between two and three hundred in number, applicants, whether gentry, small traders, or workmen in blouses, pressed forward to invest their savings. Nor, even in the Communist quarter of Belleville, did the populace seem less eager than elsewhere to testify their faith in the promises of Government. On the 30th, M. de Goulard was able to announce to the Assembly that the subscriptions had amounted not to three milliards and a half of francs, the anticipated sum, but to forty-one milliards and a half, or nearly twelve times as much, while returns had still to come in from various places. The amount finally given in was forty-three milliards, or 1,720,000,0007., while the greatest part of this enormous subscription was furnished by the French themselves, whose hoards, it was observed, came forth more readily on this occasion than even when invited by the imperial loans of Napoleon III. A vast amount was proffered by both England and Germany. The German subscription alone would have sufficed to cover M. Thiers' original demand.

M. de Goulard's announcement was received with enthusiastic applause. He thus improved the occasion on behalf of religion and of the existing government. "A nation like ours," he said, "showing the faith she has in herself, is justified in counting on the future. She has a right to consider the severe lesson she has received as an expiation of her faults and a surprise of fortune, but, thank Heaven, France is not condemned to see in it a sign of decadence." He added that he felt it necessary to thank God for the protection accorded to France. (Here applause was raised from many parts of the Assembly.) God had given the country an abundant harvest, and had given French patriotism the possibility of extending its generosity towards making the sacrifice which had already been accepted. He concluded, "Let us not forget that it is to France, pacific, laborious, and just-to France, firmly devoted to ideas of order and wise liberty (loud applause on the Right); that it is to a Conservative Republic (repeated applause on the Left)—yes, to a Conservative Republic, faithful to the principles which are the eternal basis of civilized society, that our fellow citizens and foreigners have given testimony of their absolute confidence. Despite our errors and misfortunes, the world has not ceased to believe in us, and does not doubt the destiny which is reserved for us by Providence. Let us not doubt it ourselves, but merit it by union, wisdom, and patience." (Here applause was redoubled on the Left and Left Centre, the Right and Right Centre remaining silent.)

The result of the loan was indeed a brilliant success for M. Thiers

on the eve of the Assembly's prorogation. It hushed the voice of discontent, and blunted for a while the hostile weapons both of Right and Left Extremes.

But already the high-reaching aims of the deputies of the Right in connexion with Marshal McMahon and the future Presidency, as expressed in their party councils of the middle of June, had submitted to abatement in face of the actual political situation; and towards the close of the Session they were fain to content themselves with what vent they could find for their feelings in an attack on M. Gambetta, relatively to certain alleged fraudulent contracts for "Parrott Guns," made during the war by an employé of his government. Dr. Naquet, a distinguished chemist, was the person chiefly implicated. Being put upon his defence, Naquet declared that, in the disproportionate payment he had made for these guns, he had been misled indeed, but had acted himself with perfect integrity. Then one of the riotous episodes so common at this time ensued. The Duc d'Audiffret Pasquier thundered against Dr. Naquet with a violence as uncalled-for as it was undignified. Gambetta's speech, defending the honesty, but admitting the indiscretion, of his subordinate, was moderate as compared with that of the orator of the Right.

The deputies of the Left had their own manifestation, at the close of the Session, in an extra-parliamentary way. On the afternoon of the 2nd of August they met in the Tennis Court at Versailles, and voted a proclamation to the country justifying the conduct of their party during the Session just closing. They adverted to the state of the country on the eve of the elections in June, 1871, when the Monarchical parties were divided among themselves, but united against the Republic. Now, the last six Departments were about to be liberated, the Loan had been twelve times covered, industrial activity had been restored, and political factions had been rendered powerless. This state of things fully justified the conduct of the Left and its support of M. Thiers. The policy of the Republicans had been a policy of conservation and reparation. It was not they who had retarded the peaceful settlement of the country by insisting on the provisional nature of the Republic. They had always sought unity, and had opened their ranks to all accepting the Republic in good faith. They had voted the Taxation on Raw Materials because the majority would not accept the Income Tax, and it was necessary to furnish the Treasury with resources demanded particularly for the interest of the Loan.

The future dissolution of the Assembly was touched upon. "When the Budget of 1873 has been voted," it was said, "when the legislation concerning the re-organization of the Army had been completed, it was to be hoped the Assembly would appreciate the immense change in ideas and things which had taken place since its election, and would acknowledge its mission to be terminated, and the moment to have arrived when the Republic should be placed in

the hands of a new Assembly, whose task should be to develope and strengthen the work of national redemption and regeneration, and rally around the great citizen, who would have in history the proud honour of associating his name with the definitive foundation of the French Republic."

The Assembly was prorogued on the 4th of August; and the day afterwards M. Thiers went to seek repose and the refreshment of sea-breezes at Trouville. Everywhere on his route he was received with loud acclamations. And indeed, however uncertain the prospects of the future might be, his reflections at this moment could scarcely fail to be those of self-gratulation and complacency. But in his hour of triumph the veteran statesman could spare sympathy for one of the competing political leaders around him, over whom a heavy cloud had just fallen: one of the house whose trusted follower he had himself been in days gone by. The Duc d'Aumale was bereaved, on the 25th of July, of his only surviving son, François, Duc de Guise, a promising youth of eighteen, who died, after a short attack of scarlet fever, at Paris, his father having left him for the baths of Aix, in Savoy, only a few days previously. This much-lamented scion of the House of Orleans was consigned to the tomb at Dreux, in presence of various members of his family, and of the Duc d'Aumale himself, now, the age of fifty, a childless widower. Great commiseration was felt on all sides for the sorrowing prince. To a deputation which visited him with a message of condolence, he replied that all ambition was over for him henceforward, but that he would never be deaf to the voice of his country as long as she should see fit to demand his services.

at

CHAPTER II.

FRANCE.

Inquiry into the Insurrection of March 18, 1871-Council of Capitulation-Trochu's Libel Case-Trials of Blanqui and other Communists-Executions at SatoryRépublique de M. Thiers-Gambetta-Republican banquets-Gambetta at Grenoble-Alarm of the Conservatives-Pilgrimages in the South of FrancePermanent Committee on 10th of October-Expulsion of Prince Napoleon-M. Thiers at Trouville-His visit to M. Guizot-Political Manifestoes-Elections of 20th October-Royalist banquet at Bordeaux-Meeting of the Assembly—Thiers' Message General Changarnier's Interpellation-Thiers' threatened Resignation -Kerdrel Commission-M. de Batbie's Report-Speech of M. Thiers-Dufaure Commission Resignation of M. Lefranc-Official Appointments-Debate on Petitions for Dissolution-Minor Measures-Committee of Pardons.

MEANWHILE public opinion had events of the past two years.

continued to occupy itself with the A commission appointed to inquire

1872.]

Inquiry into the Insurrection of March.

[191

into the circumstances of the Communist Insurrection of March 18th, 1871, published its Report before the Easter recess, in three bulky quarto volumes, The strongly Conservative and alarmist tone of the Report may be sufficiently indicated by the following somewhat magniloquent passage:

REESE

LIBRARY IT

"We are in presence of a new invasion of barbarians. They are not at our gates, but in the midst of us, in our cities, seated at our hearths. They do not come, like their forerunners of the fourth and fifth centuries, to bring to a worn-out world regenerating blood. It is with murder and fire that they advance, and it is not so much the stone fabric as the moral fabric that they seek to destroy. Denying the truths which hitherto have been the honour of the human race, they attack not only property, the family, those secular bases of all society; they arraign the existence of God, the immortality of the soul. Rejecting the distinction between good and evil, the freedom and the moral value of human actions, they parade in full day the corruptions, the basenesses, the savage appetites which till now remained unavowed in the lowest depths of society. . . . The ideas in the name of which the insurrection of the 18th of March was made are not new. They have arisen in all the great crises of humanity, in the East as in the West. They are to be found in Egypt in the third and fourth centuries. . . . That which is new is the organized and truly formidable army which is put at their service by the Internationale."

Such were the sentiments of the majority in the Commission, representing accurately the reactionary element of the Versailles Assembly; but a minority of five entered their protest against the strength of the language employed, and also against the severe strictures which the Report contained against the Government of the 4th September.

The disasters of the late war also were passed under official review. A Council of Inquiry, with Marshal Baraguay d'Hilliers at its head, had been appointed to investigate the circumstances of those successive capitulations which had delivered so many French fortresses and battalions into the hands of the enemy. Its decisions were given in early in May. In consequence of them some of the commanding officers were dismissed the service; some were severely censured, some were reserved for trial by court-martial. Of the catastrophe of Sedan it was decided that the whole blame rested. with the exile of Chiselhurst, a culprit beyond reach of the national vengeance. The ex-Emperor himself accepted the responsibility and defended the issue in the following letter addressed to the generals who had served under him on the fatal 2nd of September :

"General,-I am responsible to the country, and I can accept no other judgment but that of the nation regularly consulted. Nor is it for me to pass an opinion on the report of the commission on the capitulation of Sedan. I shall only remind the principal witnesses of that catastrophe of the critical position in which we found ourselves. The army commanded by the Duke of Magenta nobly

did its duty, and fought heroically against an enemy of twice its numbers. When driven back to the walls of the town and into the town itself, 14,000 dead and wounded covered the field of battle, and I saw that any longer to contest the position was an act of desperation. The honour of the army having been saved by the bravery which had been displayed, I then exercised my sovereign right, and gave orders to unfurl a flag of truce. I claim the entire responsibility of that act. The immolation of 60,000 men could not have saved France, and the sublime devotion of her chiefs and soldiers would have been uselessly sacrificed. We obeyed a cruel but inexorable necessity. My heart was broken, but my conscience was tranquil.

"Camden Place, May 12, 1872.

NAPOLEON."

With regard to the surrender of Paris the Council of Inquiry declined to pronounce any judgment, alleging evasively that being a military commission, it was incompetent to pass sentence on the acts of a civil government. The Report on the capitulation of Strasburg, on the other hand, was a melancholy commentary on the transitory nature of popular fame. All the sentimental admiration that had once been lavished on the fortress and its defender when the statue on the Place de la Concorde was decked with immortelles and Uhrich's name was paraded on a leading thoroughfare, was now treated as mythical delusion. Bad discipline, corruption, want of foresight, of spirit, and of integrity were considered as established by the evidence. General Uhrich, stung to the quick, requested to be tried by a Council of War.

But the chief interest of the inquiry was concentrated on the story of the capitulation of Metz. The public feeling against the Imperialist Marshal who put his hand to that deed of military shame was very strong. It was the favourite theory, cherished the more because it provided a balm for national self-love, that treason was at the bottom of his conduct; and no favourable issue to his trial was expected. It was surmised, indeed, that if the finding of the Council should be what appearances made probable, nothing short of a capital sentence would be held sufficient retribution. But Bazaine, instead of waiting to be inculpated or exculpated by the committee of inquiry, chose to offer himself as an accused man for trial by court martial. He first published, early in May, his own narrative of the transactions in which he had been concerned as commander of the Army of the Rhine, and then constituted himself a prisoner at Versailles, where a small house was assigned to him near the prison of St. Pierre. His trial was postponed from time to time, while legal investigations continued to be made; and it was still outstanding when the year came to an end.

General Trochu fought his own battle against popular imputations of treason and mismanagement by prosecuting for libel Messrs. Villemessant and Vitu, the one the Editor of the Figaro, and the other a writer in that journal. The cause came on in March, in the Assize Court of the Seine. The jury, though fining