France and the Republic

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