The year 1906 is remarkable in the history of the Third Republic in that
it witnessed the renewal of all the public powers in the state. A new
president of the Republic was elected on the 17th of January ten days
after the triennial election of one third of the senate, and the general
election of the chamber of deputies followed in May--the ninth which had
taken place under the constitution of 1875. The senatorial elections of
the 7th of January showed that the delegates of the people who chose the
members of the upper house and represented the average opinion of the
country approved of the anti-clerical legislation of parliament. The
election of M. Fallières, president of the senate, to the presidency of
the Republic was therefore anticipated, he being the candidate of the
parliamentary majorities which had disestablished the church. At the
congress of the two chambers held at Versailles on the 17th of January
he received the absolute majority of 449 votes out of 849 recorded. The
candidate of the Opposition was M. Paul Doumer, whose anti-clericalism
in the past was so extreme that when married he had dispensed with a
religious ceremony and his children were unbaptized. So the curious
spectacle was presented of the Moderate Opportunist M. Fallières being
elected by Radicals and Socialists, while the Radical candidate was
supported by Moderates and Reactionaries. For the second time a
president of the senate, the second official personage in the Republic,
was advanced to the chief magistracy, M. Loubet having been similarly
promoted. As in his case, M. Fallières owed his election to M.
Clémenceau. When M. Loubet was elected M. Clémenceau had not come to the
end of his retirement from parliamentary life; but in political circles,
with his powerful pen and otherwise, he was resuming his former
influence as a "king-maker." He knew of the precariousness Of Félix
Faure's health and of the indiscretions of the elderly president. So
when the presidency suddenly became vacant in January 1899 he had
already fixed his choice on M. Loubet, as a candidate whose unobtrusive
name excited no jealousy among the republicans. At that moment, owing to
the crisis caused by the Dreyfus affair, the Republic needed a safe man
to protect it against the attacks of the plebiscitary party which had
been latterly favoured by President Faure. M. Constans, it was said, had
in 1899 desired the presidency of the senate, vacant by M. Loubet's
promotion, in preference to the post of ambassador at Constantinople.
But M. Clémenceau, deeming that his name had been too much associated
with polemics in the past, contrived the election of M. Fallières to the
second place of dignity in the Republic, so as to have another safe
candidate in readiness for the Elysée in case President Loubet suddenly
disappeared. M. Loubet, however, completed his septennate, and to the
end of it M. Fallières was regarded as his probable successor. As he
fulfilled his high duties in the senate inoffensively without making
enemies among his political friends, he escaped the fate which had
awaited other presidents-designate of the Republic. Previously to
presiding over the senate this Gascon advocate, who had represented his
native Lot-et-Garonne, in either chamber, since 1876, had once been
prime minister for three weeks in 1883. He had also held office in six
other ministries, so no politician in France had a larger experience in
administration and in public affairs.
The Sarrien ministry.