The Wilmington daily Republican. (Wilmington, Del.) 1890-1902, 1892-02-20
CAUSE OF THE CRISIS.
Events Which Led to tho With
draMnl of the Cabinet.

Events Which Led to tho With
drawal of the Cabinet.
The present crisis is not the first that
has threatened the overthrow or dis
ruption of the cabinet during the last
two years, but M. de Freycinet has here
tofore contrtved to bridge over his diff
culties. lii July last the ministry was
defeated in the chamber of deputies on
an Interpolation concerning the en-
forcement of the German passport regu-
lations in Alsace- Lorraine, by vote OF
288 to 203; but, on the following day,
the sober second thought of the cham
Der led to an expression of confidence in
the government by vote of 319 to 1903.
The very next day, however, the cham
ber again brought M. de Freycinet to
the verge of resignation by rejecting
his proposal to grant the sum of 900, 900
francs to the Ecole Polytechnic. This
difficulty, also, was smoothed over, but
the opposition organs were outspoken
in their prediction that the ministry
would not last three months longer.
Matters went along with comparative
Bmoothness until new issue arose-or,
rather an old one was revived-in the
fall. This was the question of the rela-
tion of the state to the church, and was
precipitated by the uproar caused by
the disturbance at the tomb of Victor
Emanuel in Rome during a pilgrimage
of French workingmen to that city.
Some of the French bishops resented the
treatment received by the pilgrims, and
M. Fallieres minister of worship, issued
a circular enjoining them from leaving
their dioceses without the consent of the
government.
The Archbishop of AK openly disre-
garded this order, and was prosecuted
and punished by a fine for so doing.
The French government appealed to the
pope to put an end to the clerical agita-
tion against the government which re-
suited from this incident, and his holi-
ness virtually complied with this request
by writing q letter to Cardinal Richard,
archbishop of Paris, enjoining the French
prelates to give their adhesion to the
republic. Cardinal Richard refused to
communicate the contents of this letter
to the French bishops, on the ground
that the time was inopportune for SO
doing. The pope, however, has dis
played great moderation in dealing with
the issue, and on the very day that the
Freyeinet ministry was defeated on
minor question bearing upon this im
portant issue he ordered the papal nun
cio-a Paris to distribute copies of the
conciliatory letter among the bishops.
Meanwhile M. de Freycinet, on Dec.
10, declared in the chamber of deputies
that he would never allow the protein
sions of the clergy to go unbound by the
laws, but stated that the government
was opposed TO the separation of church
and state. He then announced that in
January he would.introduce bill relat-
ing to associations. This measure would
not be especially directed against the
clergy, but they must take warning. A
vote of confidence in the government
was then proposed, which was carried by
the narrow margin of 243 to 223. The
minority on this occasion was composed
of l43 ReactiOnaries, SO Radicals and 81
Boulangists.
This alliance of the two extremes
those who We're dissatisfied with the
ministry because it would not give full
latitude to the clergy, and those who
were determined to push the church to
the wall-was not sufficiently strong to
overthrow the government. But when
urgency was demanded for this same
bill dealing with associations the Rad
icals mustered 101 votes in opposition to
the ministry, and 1t was defeated.