motion by adopting the Order of the Day, pure and simple, by 407 votes against 273.

While so far the Ministers were proceeding prosperously with their reactionary schemes, they received a severe check in the result of the elections which took place on the 14th of December for the purpose of filling the still vacant seats in the Assembly. The adherents of the Republic proved equally strong in town and country, and returned their four candidates triumphantly. Even Brittany, the supposed land of Catholic and Legitimist predilections, sent up by a large majority a Radical Deputy for the Finistère. On their next appearance in the Assembly the Ministers were surrounded by anxious members of the Right, who implored them to make a complete purification of the Provincial Administration as the only means of turning the tide of success. Such pressure was hardly needed, as the Duc de Broglie was already working with the Commission of Thirty to obtain as much power for the Central Government under the new laws as possible. Moreover, it was well known that a large disfranchisement of voters was in contemplation under the impending revision of the Electoral Law.

Our last notice of political events for the year must be directed to the Budget of M. Magne. When the MacMahon Government came into office it found itself in presence of a deficit of 149,000,000 francs for the coming year. M. Magne set to work and proposed a series of new taxes destined to balance the Budget for 1874. A Committee appointed to report on M. Magne's proposals accepted all but 28,000,000 francs demanded by the Minister of Finance, but rejected a proportional stamp duty, charge for redirecting and forwarding letters, and tax on goods sent by train proposed by him. The Committee, it is said, desires to terminate its work here, and, instead of proposing new taxes itself for 28,000,000 francs, to let M. Magne submit a fresh plan for raising that amount. It is said also that M. Magne intends to support his views before the Chamber, but that he will not refuse a compromise, his chief desire being to see the Budget balanced and the credit of France maintained.

Meanwhile, by a large majority, the Assembly agreed to give the President an increase of salary to enable him to hold receptions and entertainments at the Elysée during the ensuing season, befitting the acknowledged head of the French nation in its social as well as political aspects.

The Presidential crisis and the Ministerial crisis having thus come to an end, there was a comparative lull in political excitement, and public attention gave itself eagerly to the close of the remarkable and dramatic trial which had been in progress at the Trianon since the 6th of October. On that day Marshal Bazaine had been brought from his house of temporary confinement at Versailles to face the tribunal of military officers, presided over by the Duc d'Aumale, and render an account of his stewardship when, having under his command the "Army of the Rhine," the grandest of all

the French forces when the late Emperor made his fatal war against Germany, he allowed himself to be hemmed up in Metz for two months by the enemy, and finally, without having attempted any effective sortie, surrendered men, guns, colours at a blow, and destroyed the only chance that might possibly have remained to France. For then the Army of the Loire was doing its best to relieve Paris, and the German beleaguering forces were hard strained to cover the enceinte; but as soon as Prince Frederick Charles had despatched Bazaine and his 170,000 men as prisoners to Germany, he was able to turn his victorious forces on the raw recruits of Gambetta, and the result was inevitable. The French correspondent of one of our English journals thus describes the opening of the Bazaine trial:

:

"The drums beat and the Council opens its first sitting. The Duc d'Aumale wears the uniform of a General of Division, with the grand cordon of the Legion of Honour en sautoir. On his left, and in the same uniform, sit General de Chabaud-Latour, Generals de la Motterouge, Tripier, Guiod, Martimprey, Princeteau, and Martinez-Deschenez; on his right, General Pourcet and his substitutes; below, two clerks; in front, the Marshal's counsel, M. Lachaud, assisted by his son. The Duke orders the accused' to be brought in. Marshal Bazaine enters in full costume. He wears the red cordon of the Grand Cross of the Legion of Honour, and the Star. His head is grey, large, very bald, and his face pale; the moustache is black, the eye feverish. On a sign from the presiding judge he sits down. The sun floods the hall with light. Out of doors the weather is magnificent. We can hear the rattle of the carriages arriving, and see the increasing excitement of the public outside.

A clerk reads certain documents of form. The President tells the Marshal to stand up. Your name and surname?'-François Achille Bazaine.' 'Your age?'-'Sixty-two years.' 'Your birthplace?' Versailles.' 'Your profession?'-Marshal of France.' The strange impressions produced by these answers may be imagined. We remember we are in the presence of a man accused of having betrayed the army of which he was one of the greatest chiefs; that he was born at Versailles, that he left that town a private soldier, and that it is in that same Versailles that in his face, as Marshal of France, with honours and distinctions heaped upon him, favoured by fortune and glory, that horrible word I treason' is about to be cast."

The acte d'accusation was contained in a Report drawn up by General Rivière, the reading of which occupied seven days. Then followed the personal examination of Marshal Bazaine, which also continued for a week. The Marshal defended himself for not having destroyed the ramparts of Metz and the war material in the fortress before he surrendered, by this dilemma; that if the negotiations for a capitulation had been broken off he would have remained disarmed, and that once the capitulation signed, it would have been a breach of faith to mutilate anything. When asked by

the Duc d'Aumale what more rigorous conditions could possibly have been inflicted upon him than those he finally accepted, he replied instantly that Metz might have been treated as a town taken by assault, and pillaged. The Duke, when he came to the question of the flags "confided to the honour of a Marshal of France," asked in a solemn voice, tremulous with emotion, why they had not been burnt. The prisoner's answer was that, if his orders had been acted upon with sufficient promptitude they would have been. But the Duke remarked that the orders relied upon were verbal, and that the General to whom they were alleged to have been given denied them. On this point he ordered the reading of passages from General Rivière's Report, tending to show that Marshal Bazaine had all along intended to give up the flags to the enemy.

The examination of witnesses next commenced. Most curious was the assemblage of persons who were brought forward to give their evidence as to the Marshal's treachery, negligence, or incapacity. There were the Generals of historic fame, Canrobert, Palikao, Changarnier, Bourbaki, Leboeuf among them; politicians not less noted, as Jules Favre, Gambetta, Rouher; Schneider, the great ironmaster, and President of the Assembly under the Empire; there was Regnier, the mysterious intriguer; Stoffel, the treacherous aide-de-camp; there were the brave foresters and woodmen who carried despatches to and fro at the peril of their lives; and mayors, lawyers, functionaries of all sorts, whose lives had touched at some point or other on the incidents of that memorable siege.

The speech in defence of the Marshal was delivered by Maître Lachaud, an advocate popular at the Paris Bar. It lasted for three sittings, closing on the 10th of December. We quote a contemporary account :

"At half-past four o'clock Maître Lachaud concluded his speech. The Duc d'Aumale then rose and asked the Marshal if he had anything more to add. In the midst of profound silence, the Marshal rose. He said: 'I bear on my breast two words, "Honour" and "Country." They have been my motto for the forty years during which I have served France, alike at Metz and elsewhere. I swear it before Christ.' The Marshal was pale, and he appeared deeply moved. His voice was clear and sonorous.

"The President rose to state that the sitting was suspended for an indefinite time. Immediately afterwards the Court retired, and a detachment of gendarmerie mobile was brought into the hall, which cleared a part of the body of the room. The Marshal retired, as he did so taking a last look at the crowd. In conformity with the custom of courts-martial, the accused was not present while the sentence was read, and this, in consequence, was the last time that the Marshal appeared in the hall. During the absence of the Council the officer in attendance reminded those present of the penalties to which those expressing approbation or disapprobation would expose themselves. The crowd awaited with marked impatience the return of the Council, and the most varied opinions were

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expressed as to the result of their deliberation. At eight o'clock the text of the questions put to the Court was circulated in the Press Gallery. It appeared from this document that the Court had introduced a fourth question by splitting up the paragraph of Article 210, and it was concluded that the condemnation to death might be avoided, and that degradation alone would be, in all probability, the sentence pronounced. The crowd, which took the most varied views, at times, however, believed there would be a sentence of death-a probability which was not received with dissatisfaction. At half-past eight o'clock a captain of the guard informed the public that the utmost silence must be kept during the reading of the sentence. A short time afterwards the words were called out, 'Le Conseil! Debout!' The gendarmerie shouldered arms, and there was the deepest silence throughout the hall. The Council then entered. At this moment the appearance of the audience-hall was truly striking.

"The Duc d'Aumale, in a clear and energetic voice, spoke as follows:-'In the name of the French people, the Council of War, &c., delivers the following judgment:-François Achille Bazaine, Marshal of France, is he guilty, firstly, of having capitulated before the enemy in the open field?-Unanimously, Yes. Secondly, had this capitulation the effect of making those under his command lay down their arms?-Unanimously, Yes. Thirdly, is he guilty of having negotiated with the enemy before having done everything prescribed by duty and honour?-Unanimously, Yes. Fourthly, is he guilty of having surrendered a fortified place, the protection of which had been entrusted to him?-Unanimously, Yes. In consequence of this, Marshal Bazaine is condemned to the penalty of death, with military degradation, and ceases to belong to the Legion of Honour, and, besides, is condemned to pay the expense of the trial as regards the State. The Council orders that the sentence shall be read to the Marshal in the prison, in presence of the assembled guard under arms.' A mournful silence succeeded these words, and the sitting then closed. The crowd left silently by the different passages. Outside the night was dark, and the avenues of the Trianon were only occasionally lighted up by the lamps of carriages driving towards the railway station."

But the actual doom was less terrible than it seemed. At the same time that the sentence was pronounced, the judges agreed unanimously that a recommendation for mercy should be addressed to Marshal MacMahon; and, in consequence of their appeal, the punishment was commuted into one of twenty years' seclusion. The military degradation inflicted on the culprit was also allowed to be divested of the humiliating ceremonies ordinarily attending it. The Isle St. Marguerite, where the Man in the Iron Mask had of yore expiated his mysterious crime, was assigned as Bazaine's prison-house. Public opinion agreed pretty unanimously, both in France and out of France, that the issue of the trial was a just one. Had Thiers remained in power, indeed, the trial itself

would probably never have taken place. He would have found reasons for postponing it until the accused could have been restored, unmarked, to freedom; being convinced that minute inquiry into the disasters of the war could produce no public advantage sufficient to compensate for the exposure of national scandals. The Government of Marshal MacMahon, however, had decided otherwise.

Some surprise had been caused by the abstention of M. Thiers from all part in parliamentary debate since the date of his retirement from power. His pronounced adhesion to the general politics of the Opposition had tended to unite and strengthen the parties of which it was composed; but he had not come forward as a leader or supporter, by the eloquence of his tongue, in any of the fights which had taken place within the walls of the Assembly. Just before Christmas, however, when the members of the Committee of M. Calmon, the successful candidate in the Seine et Oise, waited upon the ex-President to exchange congratulations with him on the result of the election there, M. Thiers expressed his pleasure in the choice they had made of "one of his most active colleagues and devoted friends, who, under both those designations, had been made the object of the peculiar hostility of the reactionary party;" while at the same time he took the opportunity of expressing anew his own views upon the future prospects of the Republic and its "infallible triumph" in the end. The Republic, he said, was certain to overcome, by the force of "public opinion," all the futile resistance made to it; and it was thought that, by the outspoken way in which the veteran statesman declared himself on this occasion, he was meditating fresh displays ere long of his partisan and oratorical vigour on the battle-field where his triumphs had so often been won.

CHAPTER III.

GERMANY.

GERMANY.-Ministerial Crisis-Bismarck's Explanation-Ecclesiastical Laws-Debates in Prussian Diet-Imperial Diet-Suppression of some Religious Orders-Protest of Bishops at Fulda-Resistance to Ecclesiastical Laws-Archbishop LedochowskiAlsace and Lorraine-Press Bill-Royal Visits-Treaty with Persia-Column of Victory-Old Catholics-Bishop Reinkens-Congress at Constance and at Dortmund -Correspondence between the Pope and the Emperor-Elections to Prussian DietBismarck resumes Prussian Premiership-Civil Registration Bill-Refractory Prelates Pope's Encyclical-Press Legislation-Financial Statement-Death of King of Saxony and of Queen Dowager of Prussia.

AUSTRO-HUNGARY.-Reform Bill-Events in Imperial Family-Great ExhibitionFinancial Panic-Royal Visitors-New Reichsrath-Emperor's Speech-Infallibilism in Hungary-Ministerial Crisis in Hungary-Buda-Pesth-Emperor's Jubilee.

THE Prussian Ministerial crisis that had occurred in December, 1872, continued to occupy attention at the beginning of the new