after due notice on his part. But the preamble was the important part of the Report. It began, "The National Assembly, considering that it has the right to exercise constituent powers," &c. Now this involved a curious contradiction in the position of parties. The Left, denying the Chamber to be constituent, had endeavoured by the Rivet proposition to force a Republican constitution on the country; the Right asserting the Chamber to be constituent by the Vitet proposition, yet refused to make a constitution for the country, and simply prolonged the Provisorium. The preamble was carried after an animated contest, and the only addition to it was made by the insertion of a personal reference and compliment to M. Thiers himself, as the newly-appointed President, at the instance of M. Dufaure.

But a President of the French Republic, governing France outside the walls of Paris, was a state of things both anomalous and undignified. So Thiers felt: and in this respect his feelings coincided with the ardent desires of the Radical party in the Chamber for a replacement of the seat of government within the walls of the capital. The Right, on the other hand, deprecated to the uttermost a step which would have brought their deliberations again under the supervision of the Paris mob and its abettors; and through the medium of M. Ravinel, one of their members, they brought forward a motion for transferring definitively to Versailles the whole of the Government offices. In spite of Thiers's opposition, this motion received the substantial approval of the majority.

The

Meanwhile, how to provide for current expenses was the great difficulty with M. Pouyer-Quertier, the Finance Minister. Budget Committee reported on September 8th in favour of twothirds of his proposed taxes, but postponed the discussion of the impost on raw materials till after the recess. M. Pouyer-Quertier moved that, to pay his way, a tax of ten centimes should be levied on all the proposed direct and indirect taxes; but his motion was rejected. Finally, the last twenty-four hours of the session were occupied with the arrangement of the business which had lain nearer Thiers's heart than any other-the evacuation of ten of the occupied provinces by the German troops. The terms of peace had stipulated the payment of the indemnity by instalments, due at certain periods, and to be followed by the successive evacuation by the Germans of the occupied departments, until, the whole debt discharged, the Germans should have surrendered all their "material guarantees." The close of the whole operation was not contemplated at a nearer date than March, 1874. But Thiers was convinced that nothing was more essential to France than to get rid of the invader. The cost of maintaining him during his occupation was one thing; the moral evil and degradation of bearing his presence in the country was still more to be deprecated. Accordingly, by dint of vigorous financial expedients, and notably by the successful national loan, he quickly raised money for the

first instalment. Then, to expedite matters, he had recourse to paper instead of bullion, and offered the Germans good bills at short dates as valid payment. Prince Bismarck was not averse from the negotiation; he, too, wished in the interests of Germany to bring the business to a close. Still it was something to yield material guarantees for what were after all only" promises to pay," and the Emperor's Ambassador, Count Arnim, was instructed to stipulate for a concession in return. This concession was to be the grant of free trade, for a definite period, between the conquered provinces of Alsace and Lorraine and their former mother-country, France, the severance from which, on commercial as well as sentimental grounds, they had greatly regretted. Now free trade was a bugbear to Thiers, and at first he hesitated; however, the furtherance of his great object overbore every scruple in his mind, and all would speedily have been arranged, save for a modification voted by the Assembly, which so altered the character of the arrangement that Bismarck withdrew his assent. After a long series of negotiations M. Pouyer-Quertier at last, on the 13th of October, signed at Berlin a Convention with the German Chancellor, by which the exceptional advantages for Alsace and Lorraine were to terminate at the end of 1872 instead of six months later, and some faint reciprocity was accorded in favour of French manufactures. The paper-money payments were then to be accepted, and six Departments in the east of France evacuated at once by the German soldiers, but left as neutral territory, not at present to be occupied for military purposes by the French, and in case of default in French payments to be reoccupied by the Germans. France undertook to pay 80,000,000 francs every fortnight until the 650,000,000 should be paid, which would entitle her to the entire resumption of the Departments in question. Thus by the end of October, out of the thirty-six Departments held by the invading forces in the month of February, six only remained actually in their hands-viz. Ardennes, Marne, Haute-Marne, Vosges, Meuse, and Meurthe.

On the 12th of September M. Thiers, in his new character as President of the Republic, sent to the Assembly a "Message,' which was read by M. Jules Simon, the Minister of Public Instruction. In it the labours of the Session were recapitulated, and the Assembly was invited to adjourn from the 17th of September to December 4. Thiers had already gone through the formality of reappointing his ministers.

A Permanent Committee, consisting of eleven members of the Right, six of the Left, and eight of the Moderate Left and Centre, was appointed to remain at Versailles and control the Government during the recess.

The trials of the Communist prisoners at Versailles had commenced on the 7th of August, after many delays, owing to the amount of evidence to be collected. There were between 3000 and 4000 at Versailles. The whole number on the hands of Government, including those distributed in the various prisons and

hulks between Brest and La Rochelle, amounted to 33,000; but of these upwards of 10,000 were liberated without trial in the course of a few weeks-a somewhat dangerous element to let loose among the population. To the Third Court-martial, under Colonel Merlin, which held its sessions in the Riding-school at Versailles, was assigned the most interesting and important part of the business, the trial of the captive members of the Commune itself, and of the most conspicuous among their agents and officers.

The first sentences were delivered on the 2nd of September. Lullier, the ex-naval officer who had played the popular hero on the 18th of March, and Ferré, the author of the massacre of the hostages, received sentence of death. Urbain and Trinquet, Assi, Billioray, Paschal Grousset, Jourde, the Finance Minister of the Commune, Courbet the painter, and five others were sentenced, some to imprisonment, some to transportation. Descamps and Ulysse Parent were acquitted. It could not be said that these sentences were indicative of a blood-thirsty feeling on the part of the judges. In fact the reaction from the ferocity of the first reprisals in May had disposed men's minds to a merciful consideration of the crime for which the defeated Communists had to answer, except where actual assassination could be laid to their charge, or where the technical obligations of military or naval office had been violated. The condemnation to death of three so-called "pétroleuses" by the Fourth Court-martial, though on very slight actual evidence, might be thought also a moderate result, considering the panic of horror which the stories of female incendiarism had created in the last days of the revolt.

On the 9th of September came on the trial of Colonel Rossel, one of the ablest, and in his private character the most virtuous of the young and daring spirits who had thrown in their lot with the Paris Revolution. Without one dissentient voice, he was condemned to death. The crime of having deserted his military duty was in the eyes of his judges of greater weight than the acts of outrage and villainy which had been proved against many of the acquitted prisoners; and as expounders of martial law it was doubtless not for them to consider the political complications which might well have made it doubtful whether an officer who had taken service under the Emperor Napoleon was morally pledged to the Government which had of its own unauthorized will superseded the empire. Rossel had actually borne commission as an officer under the Government of National Defence: and that, it was said, left him no choice between obeying the Provisoire of M. Thiers and the Bordeaux Assembly, or the Commune which the inhabitants of Paris had elected to administer its affairs. However, there was an extra tribunal entitled the "Committee of Pardons," which was empowered to reconsider on general principles the sentences awarded by the first tribunal, and to this Committee the many and ardent sympathizers with Rossel confidently looked for his ultimate acquittal.

The arch-agitator, Henri Rochefort, cowed in spirit and broken

in health, was tried on the 21st September, and received sentence of transportation for life to some fortress. The only specially important trial that remained was brought before the Sixth Council of War on November 3. It was that of the assassins of Generals Le Comte and Thomas, and it resulted in the condemnation to death of Verdaguer, the Communist officer in command of the company in the Rue des Rosiers on that occasion, and of seven accomplices.

The decision of the Committee of Pardons to commute the capital sentence passed on Lullier and on the three pétroleuses created no surprise, and it gave increased hope to those who anticipated a favourable consideration of Rossel's case at their hands. For Ferré, who also pleaded for a reversal, hardly any one could have desired a milder fate than that with which he was threatened. But to the general surprise the Committee proved inexorable, not only with regard to the murderer of the hostages but with regard to Rossel also. The final appeal, which Thiers himself was understood to have supported against the influence of the predominant "Right," was rejected on the 26th of November. To the subsequent earnest intercession of Rossel's parents, and of a deputation of Paris students, who crowded to his carriage-door with a petition for mercy, Thiers only replied by alleging his powerlessness in face of the Committee. On the morning of the 28th this brave and gifted, if ill-judging young officer, was taken to the Artillery Butts, on the plain of Satory, along with the atrocious Ferré and Bourgeois, a convicted serjeant, and there shot, all three meeting their fate with the utmost courage. About the same time Gaston Crémieux, the barrister, who had led the Communist movement at Marseilles, expiated his crime in a similar way on the scene of his exploits.

However justifiable on legal grounds, the execution of Rosselcoming as it did so long after the offence for which it was decreedunquestionably made a painful impression on the public mind, and enhanced the unpopularity of Thiers, who it was generally believed could effectually have prevented it had he possessed the will or the courage to exert his influence. Meanwhile, the intercession of the Paris students in favour of a condemned Communist gave addi'tional strength to the resolution of the majority of the Assembly not to hazard the transference of the seat of government to the interior of the capital.

The interval that elapsed between the prorogation and reunion of the Assembly was filled by many rumours and anticipations. A Bonapartist reaction; a fusion between the Bourbon houses; a remodelling of the existing government, either by a dissolution of the Assembly, as Gambetta and his party eagerly desired, or by its renewal in thirds at stated periods; these were matters widely and eagerly discussed through the darkening months of autumn. Early in October, M. Lambrecht, the Minister of the Interior, died suddenly. His place was filled by M. Casimir Perier, a son of the old minister of Louis Philippe. The elections for the Conseils Généraux came off on the 8th and 15th of the same month. They proved

generally favourable to Liberal-Conservative interests. But for a moment they raised also the hopes of the Bonapartists. Prince Jerome Bonaparte suddenly visited Corsica, and was elected a member of the Council there. His party then endeavoured to raise him to its Presidency. Government, however, was on the alert. Not only was he defeated by two votes in the presidential candidature, but the validity of his election to the Council at all was called in question, and the end of the affair was that the baffled Prince took ship and retired to Italy. For the princes of the House of Orleans, on the other hand, more valid prospects seemed to be opening. The Duc d'Aumale was elected President of the CouncilGeneral at Beauvais, and the newspaper organs of his party went so far as to recommend his candidature for the Presidency of the Republic, vice Thiers. In the month of November the world heard of a veritable little Court being collected around the sons of Louis Philippe in their ancestral hunting-grounds at Chantilly.

An important matter under consideration during the recess was the revisal of the Commercial Treaty with England. Thiers, who had never been in favour of this Treaty, considered that the approaching expiration of the ten years' term for which it was concluded afforded a good opportunity if not of entirely repealing, at least of modifying it in many respects. Negotiations accordingly were entered into with the British government, which are related in another part of our historical survey. In consequence of the difficulties which arose, it was agreed that the matter should stand over till it could be brought as a whole before the Assembly.

That body met at Versailles on the 4th of December. It is said that the deputies came back with more Conservative tendencies than before, owing to the alarm they had taken during their rural retreat, at the symptoms of increasing Radicalism in the provinces. With them came the two Orleans princes, D'Aumale and Joinville, both elected Deputies, but bound by their promise to Thiers not to take their seats in the Assembly. They now came to be released from that promise. Their plea was, that the engagement they had taken to Thiers to save him from embarrassment when acting as provisional Chief of the Executive, applied to the then political constitution of the Government, but was not binding when the Constitution had undergone a change, and the position of Thiers was changed with it. They presented themselves, unwelcome guests, at the house of the President of the Republic on the 5th. He put them off for three days, and even then gave them an evasive

answer.

On the 7th Thiers came to the House and read his own Presidential Message. He declared the balance of good to outweigh that of evil in the present condition of affairs, dwelt on the peaceable foreign relations of France, and spoke of the ease and quiet with which the disbandment of the National Guards had been carried out. He dealt with the subject of Commercial Treaties; apologized for the temporary Free-trade Convention arranged with Alsace