France and the Republic

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and the Republic, by William Henry Hurlbert

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Title: France and the Republic A Record of Things Seen and Learned in the French Provinces During the 'Centennial' Year 1889
Author: William Henry Hurlbert
Release Date: May 16, 2007 [EBook #21498]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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FRANCE AND THE REPUBLIC
A RECORD OF THINGS SEEN AND LEARNED IN THE FRENCH PROVINCES DURING THE 'CENTENNIAL' YEAR 1889
BY WILLIAM HENRY HURLBERT AUTHOR OF 'IRELAND UNDER COERCION'
WITH A MAP
LONDON LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO. AND NEW YORK: 15 EAST 16th STREET
1890
All rights reserved

PRINTED BY SPOTTISWOODE AND CO., NEW-STREET SQUARE LONDON
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1890 by William Henry Hurlbert in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington
* * * * *
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION PAGE
I. Scope of the book--French Republicanism condemned by Swiss and American experience--Its relations to the French people xxiii
II. M. Gambetta's Parliamentary revolution--What Germany owes to the French Republicans--Legislative usurpation in France and the United States xxvi
III. The Executive in France, England, and America--Liberty and the hereditary principle--General Grant on the English Monarchy--Washington's place in American history xxxvii
IV. The legend of the First Republic--A carnival of incapacity ending in an orgie of crime--The French people never Republican--Paris and the provinces--The Third Republic surrendered to the Jacobins, and committed to persecution and corruption--Estimated excess of expenditure over income from 1879 to 1889, 7,000,000,000 francs or 280,000,000l. li
V. Danton's maxim, 'To the victors belong the spoils'--Comparative cost of the French and the British Executive machinery--The Republican war against religion.--The present situation as illustrated by past events lxviii
VI. Foreign misconceptions of the French people--An English statesman's notion that there are 'five millions of Atheists' in France--Mr. Bright and Mr. Gladstone the last English public men who will 'cite the Christian Scriptures as an authority'--Signor Crispi on modern constitutional government and the French 'principles of 1789'--Napoleon the only 'Titan of the Revolution'--The debt of France for her modern liberty to America and to England lxxvi VII. The Exposition of 1889 an electoral device--Panic of the Government caused by Parisian support of General Boulanger--Futile attempt of M. Jules Ferry to win back Conservatives to the Republic--Narrow escape of the Republic at the elections of 1889--Steady increase of monarchical party since 1885---Weakness of the Republic as compared with the Second Empire lxxxix
VIII. How the Republic maintains itself--A million of people dependent on public employment--M. Constans 'opens Paradise' to 13,000 Mayors--Public servants as political agents--Open pressure on the voters--Growing strength of the provinces.--The hereditary principle alone can now restore the independence of the French Executive--Diplomatic dangers of actual situation--Socialism or a Constitutional Monarchy the only alternatives xcvi
CHAPTER I
IN THE PAS-DE-CALAIS
Calais--Natural and artificial France--The provinces and the departments--The practical joke of the First Consulate--The Counts of Charlemagne and the Prefects of Napoleon--President Carnot at Calais--Politics and Socialism in Calais--Immense outlay on the port, but works yet unfinished--Indifference of the people--A president with a grandfather--The 'Great Carnot' and Napoleon--The party of the 'Sick at heart'--The Louis XVI. of the Republic--Léon Say and the 'White Mouse'--Gambetta's victory in 1877--Political log-rolling, French and American--Republican extravagance and the 'Woollen Stocking'--Boulanger and his legend--Wanted a 'Great Frenchman'--The Duc d'Aumale and the Comte de Paris--The Republican law of exile--The French people not Republican--The Legitimists and the farmers--A French journalist explains the Presidential progress--Why decorations are given 1-22
CHAPTER II
IN THE PAS-DE-CALAIS--(continued)
Boulogne--Arthur Young and the Boulonnais--Boulogne and Quebec--The English and French types of civilisation--A French ecclesiastic on the religious question--The oppressive school law of 1886--The Church and the Concordat--Rural communes paying double for free schools--Vexatious regulations to prevent establishment of free schools--All ministers of religion excluded from school councils--Government officers control the whole system--Permanent magistrates also excluded--Revolt of the religious sentiment throughout France against the new system--Anxiety of Jules Ferry to make peace with the Church--Energy shown by the Catholics in resistance--St.-Omer--The Spanish and scholastic city of Guy Fawkes and Daniel O'Connell--M. De la Gorce, the historian of 1848--High character of the population--Improvement in tone of the French army--Morals of the soldiers--Devotion of the officers to their profession--Derangement of the Executive in France by the elective principle--The 'laicisation' of the schools--Petty persecutions--Children forbidden to attend the funeral of their priest--The Marist Brethren at Albert--Albert and the Maréchal d'Ancre--A chapter of history in a name--Little children stinting their own food, to send another child to school--President Carnot and