THE ADMINISTRATION OF JULES GREVY
January, 1879, to December, 1887
The resignation of the marechal de Mac-Mahon was followed by the
immediate gathering, in accordance with the constitution, of the
National Assembly, which chose as President for seven years Jules Grevy.
The new chief magistrate, elected without a competitor, was already
seventy-two, and had in his long career won the reputation of a
dignified and sound statesman, in whose hands public affairs might be
entrusted with absolute safety. He represented a step beyond the
military and aristocratic regime which had preceded him. The embodiment
of the old _bourgeoisie_, he had, along with its qualities, some of its
defects. Eminently cautious, his statesmanship had been at times a
non-committal reserve more than constructive genius. His parsimony soon
caused people to accuse him of unduly saving his salary and state
allowances, while his personal dislikes led him to err grievously in
his choice of advisers, or rather in his elimination of Gambetta, to
whom circumstances now pointed.
Jules Grevy hated Gambetta, undeniably the leading figure in the
Republican party since the death of Thiers, and neglected to entrust to
him the formation of a Cabinet. Thiers himself had shown greater wisdom.
He, too, had disliked the raging and apparently futile volubility of the
young tribune during the Franco-Prussian War, but Thiers got over
calling Gambetta a "fou furieux." On the contrary, just after the
Seize-Mai and before his own death, when Thiers was expecting to return
to the Presidency as successor to a discredited Mac-Mahon, he had
intended to make Gambetta the head of his Cabinet. For Gambetta with
maturity had become more moderate. Instead of drastic political remedies
he was gradually evolving, as already stated, the policy of
"Opportunism" so closely linked with his name, the method of gradual
advance by concessions and compromises, by taking advantage of occasions
and making one's general policy conform with opportunity.
If Gambetta, as leader of the majority group in the Republican party,
which had evicted Mac-Mahon, had become Prime Minister, it is conceded
that the precedent would have been set by the new administration for
parliamentary government with a true party leadership, as in Great
Britain. Instead, Grevy entrusted the task of forming a Ministry to an
upright but colorless leader named Waddington, at the head of a
composite Cabinet, more moderate in policy than Gambetta, who became
presiding officer of the Chamber of Deputies. The consequence was that,
after lasting less than a year, it gave way to another Cabinet led by
the great political trimmer Freycinet,[9] until in due time it was in
turn succeeded by the Ministry of Jules Ferry in September, 1880.
It must not be inferred that nothing was accomplished by the Waddington
and Freycinet Ministries. Indeed, Jules Ferry, the chief Republican next
to Gambetta, was himself a member of these two Cabinets before leading
his own.
The lining-up of Republican groups, as opposed to the Monarchists, under
the new administration was: the Left Centre, composed as in the past of
ultra-conservative Republicans, constantly diminishing numerically; the
Republican Left, which followed Jules Ferry; the Republican Union of
Gambetta; and, finally, the radical Extreme Left, which had taken for
itself many of the advanced measures advocated by Gambetta when he had
been a radical. One of its leaders was Georges Clemenceau. Between the
two large groups of Ferry and Gambetta there was little difference in
ideals, but Gambetta was now the Opportunist and Ferry made his own
Gambetta's old battle-cry against clericalism.
[Illustration: JULES FERRY]
The Chamber elected after the Seize-Mai was by reaction markedly
anti-Clerical, and the Waddington Cabinet, to begin with, contained
three Protestants and a freethinker. Obviously steps would soon be taken
to defeat the "enemy." In this movement Jules Ferry was from the
beginning a leader, by direct action as well as by the educational
reforms which he carried out as Minister of Public Instruction. Jules
Ferry became, more than Gambetta, the great bugbear of the Clericals
and the author of the "lois scelerates."
During the Waddington Ministry Jules Ferry began his efforts for the
reorganization of superior instruction, and among his measures carried
through the Chamber of Deputies the notorious "Article 7" indirectly
aimed at Jesuit influence in _secondary_ teaching as well: "No person
can direct any public or private establishment whatsoever or teach
therein if he belongs to an unauthorized order." The Jesuits had at that
time no legal footing in France, but were openly tolerated. The Senate
rejected this article under the Freycinet Ministry and the law was
finally adopted thus apparently weakened. But Jules Ferry, nothing
daunted, immediately put into operation the no less notorious decrees of
March, 1880, reviving older laws going back even to 1762, which had long
since fallen into disuse. By these decrees the Jesuit establishments
were to be closed and the members dispersed within three months.
Moreover, every unauthorized order was, under penalty of expulsion, to
apply for authorization within a like limit of time. The expulsion of
the Jesuits was carried out with a certain spectacular display of
passive resistance on the part of those evicted. Later in the year
similar steps were taken against many other organizations.
It is evident from the above that the promotion of educational reform
under Republican control was definitely connected with measures directed
against clerical domination. The French Catholic Church, on its part,
treated every attempt toward laicization as a form of persecution. But
Jules Ferry unhesitatingly extended his policy when he became Prime
Minister. His measures were genuinely neutral, but his reputation as a
Voltairian freethinker and a freemason inevitably afforded his opponents
an excuse for their charges.
Jules Ferry's reforms in education, extending over several Cabinet
periods as late as 1882, included secondary education for girls, and
free, obligatory, lay, primary instruction. To Americans accustomed to
such methods of education it is difficult to conceive the struggles of
Jules Ferry and his assistant on the floor of the House, Paul Bert, in
carrying through these measures for the training of the democracy.
In foreign affairs Jules Ferry inaugurated a more active policy
symptomatic of the return of France to participation in international
matters. At the Congress of Berlin, France had avoided entanglements,
but, even at that early period, Lord Salisbury had hinted to M.
Waddington, present as French delegate, that no interference would be
made by England, were France to advance claims in Tunis. This suggestion
came, perhaps, originally from Bismarck, who was not averse to
embroiling France with Italy. That country longed for Tunis so
conveniently situated near Sicily. England, moreover, was probably not
desirous of seeing the Italians thus strategically ensconced in the
Mediterranean.
In 1881, financial manoeuvres and the plundering expeditions into
Algeria of border tribes called Kroumirs afforded a pretext for
intervention, to the indignation of Italy, which was thus more than ever
inclined to seek alliances against France, even with Germany. Here,
indeed, was the germ of the Triple Alliance. An easy advance to Tunis
forced the Bey to accept a French protectorate by the Treaty of the
Bardo on May 12, 1881. Later in the year the situation became rather
serious, and new and rather costly military operations became necessary,
including the occupation of Sfax, Gabes, and Kairouan.
Thus France came into possession of valuable territories, but at the
cost of Italian indignation. Moreover, Jules Ferry, who was always one
of the most hated of party leaders in his own country, reaped no
advantage to himself. His enemies affected to believe that the whole
Tunisian war was a game of capitalists, or was planned for effect upon
elections to the new Chamber. The boulevards refused to take the
Kroumirs seriously and joked about "Cherchez le Kroumir." Finally, on
November 9, 1881, the personal intervention of Gambetta before the newly
elected Chamber of Deputies saved the Cabinet on a vote of confidence.
Jules Ferry none the less determined to resign, and Gambetta, in spite
of Grevy's aversion, was the inevitable man for the formation of a new
Cabinet.
Gambetta's great opportunity had come too late to be effective. The
undoubted leader of the Republic, he had grown in statesmanship since
his early days, but was still hated by men like Grevy who could not get
over their old prejudices. Then the advanced radicals, or
_intransigeants_, thought him a traitor to his old platforms or
_programmes_.[10] They blamed his Opportunism and said that he wanted
power without responsibility. Gambetta's enemies, whether the duc de
Broglie or Clemenceau, talked of his secret influence (_pouvoir
occulte_), and accused him of aspiring to a dictatorship, in fact if not
in name. Their suspicions were somewhat deepened by Gambetta's ardent
advocacy of the _scrutin de liste_ instead of the existing _scrutin
d'arrondissement_.[11]
It was asserted that Gambetta wanted to diminish the independence of
local representation and marshal behind himself a subservient majority.
To Gambetta the _scrutin de liste_ was the truly republican form of
representation, the one existing under the National Assembly and
abolished by the reactionaries under the new constitution.
Thus, Gambetta had against him, during the campaign for renewal of the
Chamber of Deputies in the summer of 1881, not only the anti-Republicans
but also timid liberals like Jules Simon, the influence of President
Grevy, and the _intransigeants_. The Senate was averse to the _scrutin
de liste_ and rejected, in the spring of 1881, the measure which
Gambetta carried through the Chamber. Gambetta, formerly the idol of the
working classes of Paris, met with opposition, was hooted in one of his
own political rallies, and was re-elected on the first ballot in one
only of the two districts in which he was a candidate.
The elections of the Chamber of 1881 resulted in a strongly Republican
body, in which, however, the majority subdivided into groups. Gambetta's
"Union republicaine" was the most numerous, followed by Ferry's "Gauche
republicaine," and the extremists. A certain fraction of Gambetta's
group, including Henri Brisson and Charles Floquet, also tended to stick
together. They were the germ of what became in time the great Radical
party.
It had been hoped that Gambetta would bring into his Cabinet all the
other leaders of his party, and at last form a great governing ministry.
But men like Leon Say and Freycinet refused their collaboration because
of divergence of views or personal pride. Gambetta then decided to pick
his collaborators from his immediate friends and partisans, some of whom
had yet a reputation to make. The anticipated "Great Ministry" turned
out to be, its opponents said, a "ministere de commis," a cabinet of
clerks. The fact that it contained men like Waldeck-Rousseau, Raynal,
and Rouvier showed, however, that Gambetta could discover ability in
others. But it was declared that the "dictator" was marshalling his
henchmen. The extremists, especially, were furious because Gambetta also
magnanimously gave important posts to non-Republicans like General de
Miribel and the journalist J.-J. Weiss.
The "Great Ministry" remained in office two months and a half and came
to grief on the proposed revision of the constitution, in which Gambetta
wished to incorporate the _scrutin de liste_. In January, 1882, it had
to resign and Gambetta died on the last day of the same year. Thus, the
third Republic lost its leading statesman since the death of Thiers.
The year 1882 was filled by the two ineffective Cabinets of Freycinet
(second time) and of Duclerc. Under the former, France made the mistake,
injurious to her interests and prestige, of withdrawing from the
Egyptian condominium with Great Britain and allowing the latter country
free play for the conquest and occupation of Egypt. Thus the fruits of
De Lesseps' piercing of the Isthmus of Suez went definitely to England.
The death of Gambetta under the Duclerc-Fallieres Ministry[12] seemed to
reawaken the hopes of the anti-Republicans, and Jerome Napoleon, chief
Bonapartist pretender since the decease of the Prince Imperial, issued a
manifesto against the Republic. Parliament fell into a ludicrous panic,
various contradictory measures were proposed, and in the general
confusion the Cabinet fell after an adverse vote.
In this contingency President Grevy did what he should have done before,
and called to office the leading statesman. This was now Jules Ferry.
At last France had an administration which lasted a little over two
years. But Ferry was still intensely unpopular. He had become the
successor of Gambetta and the exponent of the policy of Opportunism,
which he tried to carry out with even more constructive statesmanship.
But he was totally wanting in Gambetta's magnetism, and his domineering
ways made him hated the more. The Clericals opposed him as the
"persecutor" of the Catholic religion, and the Radicals thought he did
not go far enough in his hostility to the Church. For Jules Ferry saw
that the times were not ripe for disestablishment, and that the system
of the _Concordat_, in vogue since Napoleon I, really gave the State
more control over the Clergy than it would have in case of separation.
The State would lose its power in appointments and salaries. Jules Ferry
knew that the Church could be useful to him, and the politic Leo XIII,
very different from Pius IX, was ready to meet him part way, though the
Pope himself had to humor to a certain extent the hostility to the
Republic of the French Monarchists and Clericals. Jules Ferry, like
Gambetta, also had to put up with the veiled hostility of President
Grevy, working in Parliament through the intrigues of his son-in-law
Wilson. Moreover, Ferry was made to bear the odium for a long period of
financial depression, which had lasted since 1882, starting with the
sensational failure (_krach_) of a large bank, the Union generale. So
his career was made a torture and he was vilified perhaps more than any
man of the third Republic.
The extremists had in time another grievance against Jules Ferry in his
opposition to a radical revision of the constitution. The enemies of the
Republic still feigned to believe, especially when the death of the
comte de Chambord in 1883 had fused the Legitimists and Orleanists, that
an integral revision would pave the way for a monarchical restoration.
The Radicals demanded the suppression of the power of the Senate, whose
consent was necessary to summon a constitutional convention. A Congress
was summoned in 1884 at which the very limited programme of the Ministry
was put through. The changes merely eliminated from the constitution the
prescriptions for senatorial elections. After this, by an ordinary
statute, life-senatorships were abolished for the future, and some
changes were made in the choice of senatorial electors.
Jules Ferry was what would to-day be called an imperialist. In this he
may have been unwise, for the French, though intrepid explorers, do not
care to settle permanently far from the motherland. The north coast of
Africa might have been a sufficient field for enterprise. But Jules
Ferry thought that the Triple Alliance of Germany, Austria, and Italy,
formed in 1882, was going to isolate France permanently in Europe. So
she was to regain her prestige by territorial annexations in the Sudan,
the Congo, Madagascar, Annam, and Tonkin.
The French had some nominal rights on Tonkin since 1874, and
disturbances there had caused a revival of activities. When the French
officer Riviere was killed in an ambuscade in May, 1883, Jules Ferry
sent heavy reinforcements and forced the King of Annam to acknowledge a
French protectorate. This stirred up the Chinese, who also claimed
Annam, and who caused the invasion of Tonkin by guerillas supported by
their own troops. After various operations in Tonkin the Treaty of
Tien-tsin was signed with China in May, 1884, by which China made the
concessions called for by the French. Within a month Chinese troops
ambuscaded a French column at Bac-Le and the Government decided on a
punitive expedition. Thus France was engaged in troublesome warfare with
China, without direct parliamentary authorization. The bombardment of
Foo-chow, the attack on the island of Formosa, and the blockade of the
coast dragged along unsatisfactorily through 1884 and 1885.
While Jules Ferry in the spring of 1885 was actually negotiating a final
peace with China on terms satisfactory to the French, the cession of
Annam and Tonkin with a commercial treaty, and while he was
categorically affirming in the Chamber of Deputies the success of
military operations in Tonkin, a sudden dispatch from the East threw
everything into a turmoil. General Briere de l'Isle telegraphed from
Tonkin that the French had been disastrously defeated at Lang-son and
General de Negrier severely wounded. The news proved to be a grievous
exaggeration which was contradicted by a later dispatch some hours
after, but the damage was done. On March 30, in the Chamber of Deputies,
Jules Ferry was insulted and abused by the leaders of a coalition of
anti-Republicans and Radicals. The "Tonkinois," as his vilifiers called
him, disgusted and discouraged, made little attempt to defend himself,
and his Cabinet fell by a vote of 306 to 149. On April 4, the
preliminaries of a victorious treaty of peace were signed with China.
The fall of Jules Ferry was a severe blow to efficient government. It
marked the end, for a long time, of any effort to construct satisfactory
united Cabinets led by a strong man. It set a precedent for innumerable
short-lived Ministries built on the treacherous sands of shifting
groups. It paved the way for a deterioration in parliamentary
management. It accentuated the bitter hatred now existing between the
Union des gauches, as the united Gambetta and Ferry Opportunist groups
called themselves, on the one hand, and the Radicals and the Extreme
Left on the other. The Radicals, in particular, were influential, and
one of their more moderate members, Henri Brisson, became the head of
the next Cabinet. Brisson's name testified to an advance toward
radicalism, but the Cabinet contained all sorts of moderate and
nondescript elements, dubbed a "concentration" Cabinet. Its chief
function was to tide over the elections of 1885, for a new Chamber of
Deputies. In anticipation of this election Gambetta's long-desired
_scrutin de liste_ had been rather unexpectedly voted.
The workings of the new method of voting were less satisfactory than had
been anticipated. Republican dissensions and a greater union of the
opposition caused a tremendous reactionary landslide on the first
ballot. This was greatly reduced on the second ballot, so that the
Republicans emerged with a large though diminished majority. But the old
Left Centre had practically disappeared and the Radicals were vastly
more numerous. The great divisions were now the Right, the moderate
Union des gauches, the Radicals, and the revolutionary Extreme Left. The
Brisson Cabinet was blamed for not "working" the elections more
successfully and it resigned at the time of President Grevy's
re-election. He had reached the end of his seven years' term and was
chosen again on December 28, 1885. He was to have troublesome
experiences during the short time he remained in the Presidency.
The Freycinet, Goblet, and Rouvier Cabinets, which fill the rest of
Grevy's Presidency, were largely engrossed with a new danger in the
person of General Boulanger. He first appeared in a prominent position
as Minister of War in the Freycinet Cabinet. A young, brilliant, and
popular though unprincipled officer, he soon devoted himself to demagogy
and put himself at the head of the jingoes who called Ferry the slave of
Bismarck. The expeditions of Tunis and Tonkin had, moreover, thrown a
glamour over the flag and the army.
Boulanger began at once to play politics and catered to the advanced
parties, who adopted him as their own. He backed up the spectacular
expulsion of the princes, which, as an answer to the monarchical
progress, drove from France the heads of formerly reigning families and
their direct heirs in line of primogeniture, and carried out their
radiation from the army. The populace cheered the gallant general on his
black horse, and when Bismarck complained that he was a menace to the
peace of Europe Boulanger's fortune seemed made. At a certain moment
France and Germany were on the brink of war in the so-called Schnaebele
affair.[13] So, when Boulanger was left out of the Rouvier Cabinet
combination in May, 1887, as dangerous, he played more than ever to the
gallery as the persecuted saviour of France and, on being sent to take
command of an army corps in the provinces at Clermont-Ferrand, he was
escorted to the train by thousands of enthusiastic manifestants.
Meanwhile, President Grevy was nearing a disaster. In October, 1887,
General Caffarel, an important member of the General Staff, was arrested
for participating in the sale of decorations. When Boulanger declared
that the arrest of Caffarel was an indirect assault on himself,
originally responsible for Caffarel's appointment to the General Staff,
the affair got greater notoriety. The scandal assumed national
proportions when it was found to involve the President's own son-in-law
Daniel Wilson, well known to be a shady and tricky politician, who had
the octogenarian President under his thumb. The matter reached the scale
of a Cabinet crisis, since it was by an overthrow of the Ministry that
the President could best be reached. Unfortunately, Grevy could not see
that the most dignified thing for him to do was to resign, even though
he was in no way involved in Wilson's misdemeanors. For days he tried to
persuade prominent men to form a Cabinet; he tried to argue his right
and duty to remain. But finally the Chamber and Senate brought actual
pressure upon him by voting to adjourn to specific hours in the
expectation of a presidential communication. He bowed to the inevitable
and retired from the Presidency with the reputation of a discredited old
miser, instead of the great statesman he had appeared on beginning his
term of office.
FOOTNOTES:
[9] Gambetta's former assistant during the national defence after the
first disasters; a brilliant organizer, but in general policy a
_nolonte_, to use the term Gambetta coined about him on the basis of the
word _volonte_. As Minister of Public Works he initiated at this period
great improvements in the internal development of France, especially in
the railways.
[10] Especially as to the unlimited revision of the constitution and the
_immediate_ separation of Church and State.
[11] Gambetta's contempt for the parochialism of the elections by
district was great. He felt that departmental tickets would favor the
choice of better men. One must remember how large a proportion of the
French Deputies are physicians to appreciate the scorn of Gambetta's
saying that the _scrutin d'arrondissement_ produced a lot of
_sous-veterinaires_, that is, men who were not even decent
"horse-doctors."
[12] M. Fallieres took the place of Duclerc as President of the Council
during the last days.
[13] The French claimed that a government official had been lured over
the frontier and illegally arrested.