or was it closed by this kind of semi-dictatorship, a mark of confidence and esteem, entrusted to Marshal MacMahon? or yet again, if the Republic really was founded-without the Republicans-how could the place on which they had a right to hang their colours be refused to them? Such was the pressing alternative of the double attack, and the ambiguity of the defence, threatened on all sides.

The Duc de Broglie intended to give an explanation before Europe and public opinion: in a circular addressed to the diplomatic agents, dated November 25th, he set forth the formula of the new system in these terms:

"By the law of November 20th, Marshal MacMahon receives one of the highest marks of confidence which a nation can bestow on a man. . France awaits from him a firm and moderate policy which will win respect for authority and law, restrain the revolutionary spirit, protect Conservative interests, and thereby ensure the peaceful development of the prosperity of the nation."

On the whole, neither a Republic nor a Monarchy. Men did not even venture to use the word truce, which would have seemed too definite, and been too clear a reminder of the Bordeaux compact. The dark room was still there!

The Duc de Broglie, who had turned out M. Thiers, who had witnessed the fiasco of the Comte de Chambord as he had foreseen it, who had wished for and obtained the vote on the Septennate, was the first victim of his own laborious victories. He had said some weeks before: "All these people will soon make me responsible for their mistakes." A dislocated majority, a discredited Cabinet, weariness, discouragement, ill-feeling, such was the aftermath

of a day on which constraint had been exerted on the Assembly to extract from it an ad interim Cæsar.

The schism in the majority was soon to be accomplished by that group of the Extreme Right which had so much to complain of, and so much with which to reproach itself. It met on November 22nd at the house of the Duc de La RochefoucauldBisaccia: "The influence which the Orleanist party seeks to gain over the mind of the Marshal was discussed," says M. de Vinols, and he adds that the group decided to come to the aid of MM. de La Bouillerie and Ernoul, the Legitimist members of the Cabinet.

There were sacrifices to be made, this was felt by everybody; but the question was to find out whether the Duc de Broglie would continue in power was he to eliminate others or to be eliminated ?

On the day after the division the Assembly had adjourned to November 24th. That day, on resuming its sitting, the Assembly heard a message from Marshal MacMahon in which the word Republic was not even mentioned.

Interpella

The question of M. Léon Say with tion of M. reference to the non-convocation of the Léon Say electoral colleges in the departments, where seats were vacant, at once came up for discussion. This question was aimed at the special part played by the Ministry in the recent crisis: it was putting the Duc de Broglie on the stool of repentance.

M. Léon Say said that the Ministry, by deferring the elections, "had betrayed the confidence reposed in it, that it had wished to falsify the wishes of the country, at the time when a vote of the majority might have settled its destinies." "We are

looking on at the last days of the Cabinet of May

25th," observed M. Léon Say. terrupted the Duc de Broglie. that he meant to show fight.

"That is true," in

But it was obvious

After a debate in which M. Beulé displayed his last feat of arms, the Duc de Broglie rallied the majority once again by one of those offensive manœuvres which were habitual with him: The Republicans, in playing with such words as these," he said, in reply to M. Léon Say, “are playing with fire and petroleum." The order of the day pure and simple accepted by the Government was carried by 360 to 311.

The Duc de Broglie kept his feet; but M. Beulé was obliged to confess, in the course of the debate that, for himself at any rate, the Cabinet was down.

The Journal Officiel of November 25th inserted the following note: "The Ministers have placed their resignations in the hands of the Marshal-President, who has accepted them."

The negotiations for the formation of the new Cabinet were already opened.

The Duc Decazes was the man of the day. Up to now he had been able to appear without compromising himself, and to impose his will without running any risks. He was a very able man, and perhaps the shrewdest of all the high personages whom the course of events called successively to the front of the stage. In his skilful fencing, with his ever-ready smile, in his touch, adroit, supple and light, in his air of doing nothing, he retained as much of Talleyrand's manner as could be tolerated by modern times. He was a politician by birth, and to the marrow of his bones.

The Decazes were Girondins. They served the Bonapartes, they served the Bourbons, they served the Orleans family, always, however, keeping up their ties with the Liberal party; they were parliamentary men, and from father to son possessed those average minds, which are above all suited, as Richelieu says, to "balance" great things.

En

The whites, the purists, hold in horror these charming and well-balanced men who are on the fringe of parties, and whose suppleness is at times very dangerous to the causes which they serve. nobled by Henri IV, overwhelmed with favours by the affectionate friendship of Louis XVIII, raised by King Frederick of Denmark to the Duchy of Glücksberg, the family had, in the course of fifty years, taken its place in the highest social circles without entirely losing its connection with the bar and the world of business. The old Duke, Elie Decazes, the favourite of Louis XVIII, had founded and managed, up to his death in 1860, the important establishments of Decazeville.

His son, Duke Louis, was born at Paris in 1819. Before the fall of Louis-Philippe he had belonged to the diplomatic corps and had been successively Secretary of an Embassy and Plenipotentiary Minister. In retirement in 1848, member of the General Council of the Gironde under the Empire, he had waged a very keen opposition to the Government of Napoleon III, and had been among those who invaded the Chamber on September 4th in the uniform of National Guards. A deputy for the Gironde in the National Assembly, a personal friend of the Comte de Paris and the Duc d'Aumale, he occupied a prominent position in the parliament. There he shone discreetly, with his fine manners, his serious

air, moderate and shrewd, his regular features, with whiskers already white and shaggy eyebrows, his piercing, anxious look, and an indescribable air of quickness, revealing vivacity of understanding and wit if not stability and safety. The perfect man of the world sometimes revealed just the ear-tip of the Gascon.

He had activity, judgment, coolness, free and expensive habits, great needs, with a general manner of life very skilfully combined, full of wit and tact ; sarcastic and circumspect, he was, with his dangerous smile, one of those whom orators look at when they speak. Not altogether suited to the battles of the tribune, and, in this, inferior to the Duc de Broglie, and the Duc Pasquier, he was at his best in councils and private meetings. His authority was supported by his silence; his reserve had brought about his fortune; he installed himself noiselessly in the favour of the Assembly and in that of the new President.

When the Duc de Broglie had formed his first ministry on May 25th, he had not thought it necessary to confer a portfolio on the Duc Decazes: just as M. Thiers had sent the Duc de Broglie himself to the Embassy in London, he had appointed to London his own future successor at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. London is not so very far from Paris, and the Duc Decazes, not without requiring some pressure, consented at last to enter the new Broglie Cabinet; but he imposed conditions.

He demanded a rupture with the Extreme Right, and that the new policy should be directed towards the union of the Centres as a pledge, he demanded that the Ministers compromised in the enterprise of the restoration of the monarchy should be put aside;