Year: 1876

!
that remarkable body surrendered by its
own act the plenary authority given it by
! the country in time of peril and disorgan-
| ization, and submitted its services detin-
! irvely to the judgment Of the country and
Of posterity. Its labors have been great, It's
vagaries characteristic, its recurrence TO the
right way usually prompt, its temptations
and opportunities without limit; but
! equally for extravaganza OF temper and for
ultimate sobriety of judgment for virulent
partisanship and for steady ardor of patriot
| ism, for petulance and for wisdom, for
! crowning and substantial success in its eff
forts toward the political reconstruction and
economical restoration of the country, it will
stand in history as the greatest depository
of the national sovereignty ever assembled
in France, as almost the only Chamber
known in the history of that country capa-
bic of comprehending that spirit of compro-
mise which the political language of the
French stigmatizes as dishonorable, but
which with divided people is the only
source Of temperate and successful legisla-
! ton.


This Chamber came into existence upon
| the demand of the Prussian Chancellor. by
| the capitulations at Sedan and Metz all the
effective portion of the imperial army had
been swept from the conqueror's path, and
the lines drawn about Paris were held
month after month with unalterable tenacity.
But the government and the country still
cherished a brilliant hope. Some fragments
of the old regiments and hordes of newly
levied men were brought together in Tou-
raine, the Orleanais and Anjou, and called
the Army of the Loire. 1t was thought that
force could be made from these elements
fit to march on Paris, and which, by coop
Grafton with the garrison Of the beleaguered
capital could force the enemy to relinquish
his hold and perhaps drive him from the
country. Never were means less adequately
adjusted to proposed ends. In January it
became evident that nothing was to be hoped
from the Army Of the Loire; it was equally
evident that Paris could do nothing alone,
and the city came to parley. Then arose
to the mind of the fearfully logical Bis
marck peculiar difficulty. With whom
could he make peace that would
be worth the sheepskin on which its
terms should be displayed? Who was
there capable of binding France by his
words In France there was the so-called
Government of National Defence. 1t was
made up of several persons who to the re-
lentless Chancellor were gentlemen of the
gutter" 1t was, indeed, a mushroom gov
ernment that came up in Paris on a certain
damp night, without any one having called
for it and though its authority had been
recognized, who could say that the country
would not repudiate eventually whatever it
might now determine, or that the indemnity
it might agree to pay could ever be collected
without another war? On the other hand
there was Napoleon at Wilhelmsh0he the
very Emperor on whom the Prussians had
made war. But if they made peace with
him, could he ever mount the throne to full
til its terms without the support of the
Prussian army, and was that the sort of duty
for which Prussian armies were raised2 In
this dilemma Bismarck demanded that cleo
tions should be held and that representa-
tive assembly should be chosen by the suf-





body, as the only one capable in the circum-
stances Of acting for the nation should ratify
the peace he was ready to make or decide to
continue the war.


In consequence Of that necessity of the
enemy therefore, the Chamber was chosen,
assembled at Bordeaux in February, 1871,
and voted for peace by SAC to 107. 1t was,
perhaps, more clearly monarchical in its
convictions than any other representative
body ever convened in France since the Rev
olution. At that time the royalist party was
! the only one that had done no harm within
the memory Of the active generation. For
the Empire had made the war despite the
seven million votes cast for peace, and the
republicans had, by their untimely revolt,
! paralyzed even the resistance that the En-
pire could have made-and had not, when
the nation fell into their hands, either saved
or effectively helped it Both the Empire
and the Republic, therefore, were equally
detested by the nation when the time to vote
came, and people instinctively turned in
every part Of the country, to those old ad-
! herents Of the government that had
been driven out in 1S4S and even to the
adherents Of the one driven out in 1890
men, large number of whom had kept
themselves apart from politics and active
life for generation, and cherished in their
respective circles the aspiration for the
restoration of the elder branch of the Bour-
bons in Henry v, or of the younger in one
of the Orleans princes. NJ Theirs was
elected in dozen departments, and con-
fessedly because he was the recognized head
/ Of the party that for lifetime had sought to
| re-establish the Orleans monarchy. 1t was a
/ Chamber that seemed almost to have q
national mandate to restore the monarchy;