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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/36226-8.txt b/36226-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..53ff9dd --- /dev/null +++ b/36226-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,7595 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, +Volume 10, Slice 8, by Various + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 10, Slice 8 + "France" to "Francis Joseph I." + +Author: Various + +Release Date: May 25, 2011 [EBook #36226] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ENCYC. BRITANNICA, VOL 10 SL 8 *** + + + + +Produced by Marius Masi, Don Kretz and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + + +Transcriber's notes: + +(1) Numbers following letters (without space) like C2 were originally + printed in subscript. Letter subscripts are preceded by an + underscore, like C_n. + +(2) Characters following a carat (^) were printed in superscript. + +(3) Side-notes were relocated to function as titles of their respective + paragraphs. + +(4) Macrons and breves above letters and dots below letters were not + inserted. + +(5) The following typographical errors have been corrected: + + ARTICLE France: "The importance of their commercial relations was + brought into relief as though it were a new fact." 'commercial' + amended from 'commerical'. + + ARTICLE France: "The revenues of the Carolingian monarch (which are + no longer identical with the finances of the state) consisted + chiefly in the produce of the royal lands (villae), ..." + 'identical' amended from 'indentical'. + + ARTICLE France: "The most salient features of feudal succession + were the right of primogeniture and the preference given to + heirs-male ..." 'preference' amended from 'perference'. + + ARTICLE France: "The law of the 15th of March 1850 established the + liberty of secondary education, but it conferred certain privileges + on the Catholic clergy, a clear sign of the spirit of social + conservatism which was the leading motive for its enactment." 'The' + amended from 'Thd'. + + ARTICLE France: "... on which occasion he exercised his right of + dissolution against a chamber, the moderate but decidedly + republican majority in which he was re-elected by the country." + added 'he'. + + + + + ENCYCLOPAEDIA BRITANNICA + + A DICTIONARY OF ARTS, SCIENCES, LITERATURE + AND GENERAL INFORMATION + + ELEVENTH EDITION + + + VOLUME X, SLICE VIII + + France to Francis Joseph I. + + + + +ARTICLES IN THIS SLICE: + + + FRANCE (part) FRANCIS I. (king of France) + FRANCESCHI, JEAN BAPTISTE FRANCIS II. (king of France) + FRANCESCHI, PIERO DE' FRANCIS I. (king of Sicily) + FRANCESCHINI, BALDASSARE FRANCIS II. (king of Sicily) + FRANCHE-COMTÉ FRANCIS IV. + FRANCHISE FRANCIS V. + FRANCIA FRANCIS OF ASSISI, ST. + FRANCIA, JOSÉ GASPAR RODRIGUEZ FRANCIS OF MAYRONE + FRANCIABIGIO FRANCIS OF PAOLA, ST + FRANCIS FRANCIS OF SALES, ST + FRANCIS I. (Roman emperor) FRANCIS, SIR PHILIP + FRANCIS II. (Roman emperor) FRANCIS JOSEPH I. + + + + +FRANCE (Continued from Volume 10 slice 7). + + +EXTERIOR POLICY 1870-1909 + + The new epoch. + +The Franco-German War marks a turning-point in the history of the +exterior policy of France as distinct as does the fall of the ancient +monarchy or the end of the Napoleonic epoch. With the disappearance of +the Second Empire, by its own fault, on the field of Sedan in September +1870, followed in the early months of 1871 by the proclamation of the +German empire at Versailles and the annexation of Alsace and Lorraine +under the treaty of peace of Frankfort, France descended from its +primacy among the nations of continental Europe, which it had gradually +acquired in the half-century subsequent to Waterloo. It was the design +of Bismarck that united Germany, which had been finally established +under his direction by the war of 1870, should take the place hitherto +occupied by France in Europe. The situation of France in 1871 in no wise +resembled that after the French defeat of 1815, when the First Empire, +issue of the Revolution, had been upset by a coalition of the European +monarchies which brought back and supported on his restored throne the +legitimate heir to the French crown. In 1871 the Republic was founded in +isolation. France was without allies, and outside its frontiers the form +of its executive government was a matter of interest only to its German +conquerors. Bismarck desired that France should remain isolated in +Europe and divided at home. He thought that the Republican form of +government would best serve these ends. The revolutionary tradition of +France would, under a Republic, keep aloof the monarchies of Europe, +whereas, in the words of the German ambassador at Paris, Prince +Hohenlohe, a "monarchy would strengthen France and place her in a better +position to make alliances and would threaten our alliances." At the +same time Bismarck counted on governmental instability under a Republic +to bring about domestic disorganization which would so disintegrate the +French nation as to render it unformidable as a foe and ineffective as +an ally. The Franco-German War thus produced a situation unprecedented +in the mutual relations of two great European powers. From that +situation resulted all the exterior policy of France, for a whole +generation, colonial as well as foreign. + +In 1875 Germany saw France in possession of a constitution which gave +promise of durability if not of permanence. German opinion had already +been perturbed by the facility and speed with which France had paid off +the colossal war indemnity exacted by the conqueror, thus giving proof +of the inexhaustible resources of the country and of its powers of +recuperation. The successful reorganization of the French army under the +military law of 1872 caused further alarm when there appeared to be some +possibility of the withdrawal of Russia from the Dreikaiserbund, which +had set the seal on Germany's triumph and France's abasement in Europe. +It seemed, therefore, as though it might be expedient for Germany to +make a sudden aggression upon France before that country was adequately +prepared for war, in order to crush the nation irreparably and to remove +it from among the great powers of Europe. + +The constitution of the Third Republic was voted by the National +Assembly on the 25th of February 1875. The new constitution had to be +completed by electoral laws and other complementary provisions, so it +could not become effective until the following year, after the first +elections of the newly founded Senate and Chamber of Deputies. M. Buffet +was then charged by the president of the republic, Marshal MacMahon, to +form a provisional ministry in which the duc Decazes, who had been +foreign minister since 1873, was retained at the Quai d'Orsay. The +cabinet met for the first time on the 11th of March, and ten days later +the National Assembly adjourned for a long recess. + + + The crisis of 1875. + +It was during that interval that occurred the incident known as "The +Scare of 1875." The Kulturkampf had left Prince Bismarck in a state of +nervous irritation. In all directions he was on the look out for traces +of Ultramontane intrigue. The clericals in France after the fall of +Thiers had behaved with great indiscretion in their desire to see the +temporal power of the pope revived. But when the reactionaries had +placed MacMahon at the head of the state, their divisions and their +political ineptitude had shown that the government of France would soon +pass from their hands, and of this the voting of the Republican +constitution by a monarchical assembly was the visible proof. +Nevertheless Bismarck, influenced by the presence at Berlin of a French +ambassador, M. de Gontaut-Biron, whom he regarded as an Ultramontane +agent, seems to have thought otherwise. A military party at Berlin +affected alarm at a law passed by the French Assembly on the 12th of +March, which continued a provision increasing from three to four the +battalions of each infantry regiment, and certain journals, supposed to +be inspired by Bismarck, argued that as the French were preparing, it +might be well to anticipate their designs before they were ready. Europe +was scared by an article on the 6th of May in _The Times_, professing to +reveal the designs of Bismarck, from its Paris correspondent, Blowitz, +who was in relations with the French foreign minister, the duc Decazes, +and with Prince Hohenlohe, German ambassador to France, both being +prudent diplomatists, and, though Catholics, opposed to Ultramontane +pretensions. Europe was astounded at the revelation and alarmed at the +alleged imminence of war. In England the Disraeli ministry addressed the +governments of Russia, Austria and Italy, with a view to restraining +Germany from its aggressive designs, and Queen Victoria wrote to the +German emperor to plead the cause of peace. It is probable that there +was no need either for this intervention or for the panic which had +produced it. We know now that the old emperor William was steadfastly +opposed to a fresh war, while his son, the crown prince Frederick, who +then seemed likely soon to succeed him for a long reign, was also +determined that peace should be maintained. The scare had, however, a +most important result, in sowing the seeds of the subsequent +Franco-Russian alliance. Notwithstanding that the tsar Alexander II. was +on terms of affectionate intimacy with his uncle, the emperor William, +he gave a personal assurance to General Le Flô, French ambassador at St +Petersburg, that France should have the "moral support" of Russia in the +case of an aggression on the part of Germany. It is possible that the +danger of war was exaggerated by the French foreign minister and his +ambassador at Berlin, as is the opinion of certain French historians, +who think that M. de Gontaut-Biron, as an old royalist, was only too +glad to see the Republic under the protection, as it were, of the most +reactionary monarchy of Europe. At the same time Bismarck's denials of +having acted with terrorizing intent cannot be accepted. He was more +sincere when he criticized the ostentation with which the Russian +Chancellor, Prince Gortchakoff, had claimed for his master the character +of the defender of France and the obstacle to German ambitions. It was +in memory of this that, in 1878 at the congress of Berlin, Bismarck did +his best to impair the advantages which Russia had obtained under the +treaty of San Stefano. + + + Congress of Berlin. + +The events which led to that congress put into abeyance the prospect of +a serious understanding between France and Russia. The insurrection in +Herzegovina in July 1875 reopened the Eastern question, and in the +Orient the interests of France and Russia had been for many years +conflicting, as witness the controversy concerning the Holy Places, +which was one of the causes of the Crimean War. France had from the +reign of Louis XIV. claimed the exclusive right of protecting Roman +Catholic interests in the East. This claim was supported not only by the +monarchists, for the most part friendly to Russia in other respects, who +directed the foreign policy of the Third Republic until the +Russo-Turkish War of 1877, but by the Republicans, who were coming into +perpetual power at the time of the congress of Berlin--the ablest of the +anti-clericals, Gambetta, declaring in this connexion that +"anti-clericalism was not an article of exportation." The defeat of the +monarchists at the elections of 1877, after the "Seize Mai," and the +departure from office of the duc Decazes, whose policy had tended to +prepare the way for an alliance with the tsar, changed the attitude of +French diplomacy towards Russia. M. Waddington, the first Republican +minister for foreign affairs, was not a Russophil, while Gambetta was +ardently anti-Russian, and he, though not a minister, was exercising +that preponderant influence in French politics which he retained until +1882, the last year of his life. Many Republicans considered that the +monarchists, whom they had turned out, favoured the support of Russia +not only as a defence against Germany, which was not likely to be +effective so long as a friendly uncle and nephew were reigning at Berlin +and at St Petersburg respectively, but also as a possible means of +facilitating a monarchical restoration in France. Consequently at the +congress of Berlin M. Waddington and the other French delegates +maintained a very independent attitude towards Russia. They supported +the resolutions which aimed at diminishing the advantages obtained by +Russia in the war, they affirmed the rights of France over the Holy +Places, and they opposed the anti-Semitic views of the Russian +representatives. The result of the congress of Berlin seemed therefore +to draw France and Russia farther apart, especially as Gambetta and the +Republicans now in power were more disposed towards an understanding +with England. The contrary, however, happened. The treaty of Berlin, +which took the place of the treaty of San Stefano, was the ruin of +Russian hopes. It was attributed to the support given by Bismarck to the +anti-Russian policy of England and Austria at the congress, the German +chancellor having previously discouraged the project of an alliance +between Russia and Germany. The consequence was that the tsar withdrew +from the Dreikaiserbund, and Germany, finding the support of Austria +inadequate for its purposes, sought an understanding with Italy. Hence +arose the Triple Alliance of 1882, which was the work of Bismarck, who +thus became eventually the author of the Franco-Russian alliance, which +was rather a sedative for the nervous temperament of the French than a +remedy necessary for their protection. The twofold aim of the Triplice +was the development of the Bismarckian policy of the continued isolation +of France and of the maintenance of the situation in Europe acquired by +the German empire in 1871. The most obvious alliance for Germany was +that with Russia, but it was clear that it could be obtained only at the +price of Russia having a free hand to satisfy its ambitions in the East. +This not only would have irritated England against Germany, but also +Austria, and so might have brought about a Franco-Austrian alliance, and +a day of reckoning for Germany for the combined rancours of two nations, +left by 1866 and 1871. It was thus that Germany allied itself first with +Austria and then with Italy, leaving Russia eventually to unite with +France. + + + Egyptian question. + +As the congress of Berlin took in review the general situation of the +Turkish empire, it was natural that the French delegates should +formulate the position of France in Egypt. Thus the powers of Europe +accepted the maintenance of the _condominium_ in Egypt, financial and +administrative, of England and France. Egypt, nominally a province of +the Turkish empire, had been invested with a large degree of autonomy, +guaranteed by an agreement made in 1840 and 1841 between the Porte and +the then five great powers, though some opposition was made to France +being a party to this compact. By degrees Austria, Prussia and Russia +(as well as Italy when it attained the rank of a great power) had left +the international control of Egypt to France and England by reason of +the preponderance of the interests of those two powers on the Nile. + +In 1875 the interests of England in Egypt, which had hitherto been +considered inferior to those of France, gained a superiority owing to +the purchase by the British government of the shares of the khedive +Ismail in the Suez Canal. Whatever rivalry there may have been between +England and France, they had to present a united front to the +pretensions of Ismail, whose prodigalities made him impatient of the +control which they exercised over his finances. This led to his +deposition and exile. The control was re-established by his successor +Tewfik on the 4th of September 1879. The revival ensued of a so-called +national party, which Ismail for his own purposes had encouraged in its +movement hostile to foreign domination. In September 1881 took place the +rising led by Arabi, by whose action an assembly of notables was +convoked for the purpose of deposing the government authorized by the +European powers. The fear lest the sultan should intervene gave an +appearance of harmony to the policy of England and France, whose +interests were too great to permit of any such interference. At the end +of 1879 the first Freycinet cabinet had succeeded that of M. Waddington +and had in turn been succeeded in September 1880 by the first Ferry +cabinet. In the latter the foreign minister was M. Barthélemy +Saint-Hilaire, an aged philosopher who had first taken part in politics +when he helped to dethrone Charles X. in 1830. In September 1881 he +categorically invited the British government to join France in a +military intervention to oppose any interference which the Porte might +attempt, and the two powers each sent a war-ship to Alexandria. On the +14th of November Gambetta formed his _grand ministère_, in which he was +foreign minister. Though it lasted less than eleven weeks, important +measures were taken by it, as Arabi had become under-secretary for war +at Cairo, and was receiving secret encouragement from the sultan. On the +7th of January 1882, at the instance of Gambetta, a joint note was +presented by the British and French consuls to the khedive, to the +effect that their governments were resolved to maintain the _status +quo_, Gambetta having designed this as a consecration of the +Anglo-French alliance in the East. Thereupon the Porte protested, by a +circular addressed to the powers, against this infringement of its +suzerainty in Egypt. Meanwhile, the assembly of notables claimed the +right of voting the taxes and administering the finances of the country, +and Gambetta, considering this as an attempt to emancipate Egypt from +the financial control of Europe, moved the British government to join +with France in protesting against any interference on the part of the +notables in the budget. But when Lord Granville accepted this proposal +Gambetta had fallen, on the 26th of January, being succeeded by M. de +Freycinet, who for the second time became president of the council and +foreign minister. Gambetta fell nominally on a scheme of partial +revision of the constitution. It included the re-establishment of +_scrutin de liste_, a method of voting to which many Republicans were +hostile, so this gave his enemies in his own party their opportunity. He +thus fell the victim of republican jealousy, nearly half the Republicans +in the chamber voting against him in the fatal division. The subsequent +debates of 1882 show that many of Gambetta's adversaries were also +opposed to his policy of uniting with England on the Egyptian question. +Henceforth the interior affairs of Egypt have little to do with the +subject we are treating; but some of the incidents in France which led +to the English occupation of Egypt ought to be mentioned. M. de +Freycinet was opposed to any armed intervention by France; but in the +face of the feeling in the country in favour of maintaining the +traditional influence of France in Egypt, his declarations of policy +were vague. On the 23rd of February 1882 he said that he would assure +the non-exclusive preponderance in Egypt of France and England by means +of an understanding with Europe, and on the 11th of May that he wished +to retain for France its peculiar position of privileged influence. +England and France sent to Alexandria a combined squadron, which did not +prevent a massacre of Europeans there on the 11th of June, the khedive +being now in the hands of the military party under Arabi. On the 11th of +July the English fleet bombarded Alexandria, the French ships in +anticipation of that action having departed the previous day. On the +18th of July the Chamber debated the supplementary vote for the fleet in +the Mediterranean, M. de Freycinet declaring that France would take no +active part in Egypt except as the mandatory of the European powers. +This was the occasion for the last great speech of Gambetta in +parliament. In it he earnestly urged close co-operation with England, +which he predicted would otherwise become the mistress of Egypt, and in +his concluding sentences he uttered the famous "_Ne rompez jamais +l'alliance anglaise._" A further vote, proposed in consequence of +Arabi's open rebellion, was abandoned, as M. de Freycinet announced that +the European powers declined to give France and England a collective +mandate to intervene in their name. In the Senate on the 25th of July M. +Scherer, better known as a philosopher than as a politician, who had +Gambetta's confidence, read a report on the supplementary votes which +severely criticized the timidity and vacillation of the government in +Egyptian policy. Four days later in the Chamber M. de Freycinet proposed +an understanding with England limited to the protection of the Suez +Canal. Attacked by M. Clémenceau on the impossibility of separating the +question of the canal from the general Egyptian question, the ministry +was defeated by a huge majority, and M. de Freycinet fell, having +achieved the distinction of being the chief instrument in removing Egypt +from the sphere of French interest. + +Some of the Republicans whose votes turned out M. de Freycinet wanted +Jules Ferry to take his place, as he was considered to be a strong man +in foreign policy, and Gambetta, for this reason, was willing to see his +personal enemy at the head of public affairs. But this was prevented by +M. Clémenceau and the extreme Left, and the new ministry was formed by +M. Duclerc, an old senator whose previous official experience had been +under the Second Republic. On its taking office on the 7th of August, +the ministerial declaration announced that its policy would be in +conformity with the vote which, by refusing supplies for the occupation +of the Suez Canal, had overthrown M. de Freycinet. The declaration +characterized this vote as "a measure of reserve and of prudence but not +as an abdication." Nevertheless the action of the Chamber--which was due +to the hostility to Gambetta of rival leaders, who had little mutual +affection, including MM. de Freycinet, Jules Ferry, Clémenceau and the +president of the Republic, M. Grévy, rather than to a desire to abandon +Egypt--did result in the abdication of France. After England +single-handed had subdued the rebellion and restored the authority of +the khedive, the latter signed a decree on the 11th of January 1883 +abolishing the joint control of England and France. Henceforth Egypt +continued to be a frequent topic of debate in the Chambers; the +interests of France in respect of the Egyptian finances, the judicial +system and other institutions formed the subject of diplomatic +correspondence, as did the irritating question of the eventual +evacuation of Egypt by England. But though it caused constant friction +between the two countries up to the Anglo-French convention of the 8th +of April 1904, there was no longer a French active policy with regard to +Egypt. The lost predominance of France in that country did, however, +quicken French activity in other regions of northern Africa. + + + Algerian policy. + + Tunis. + +The idea that the Mediterranean might become a French lake has, in +different senses, been a preoccupation for France and for its rivals in +Europe ever since Algeria became a French province by a series of +fortuitous incidents--an insult offered by the dey to a French consul, +his refusal to make reparation, and the occasion it afforded of +diverting public attention in France from interior affairs after the +Revolution of 1830. The French policy of preponderance in Egypt had only +for a secondary aim the domination of the Mediterranean. The French +tradition in Egypt was a relic of Napoleon's vain scheme to become +emperor of the Orient even before he had made himself emperor of the +West. It was because Egypt was the highway to India that under Napoleon +III. the French had constructed the Suez Canal, and for the same reason +England could never permit them to become masters of the Nile delta. But +the possessors of Algeria could extend their coast-line of North Africa +without seriously menacing the power which held Gibraltar and Malta. It +was Italy which objected to a French occupation of Tunis. Algeria has +never been officially a French "colony." It is in many respects +administered as an integral portion of French territory, the +governor-general, as agent of the central power, exercising wide +jurisdiction. Although the Europeans in Algeria are less than a seventh +of the population, and although the French are actually a minority of +the European inhabitants--Spaniards prevailing in the west, Italians and +Maltese in the east--the three departments of Constantine, Algiers and +Oran are administered like three French departments. Consequently, when +disturbances occurred on the borderland separating Constantine from +Tunis, the French were able to say to Europe that the integrity of their +national frontier was threatened by the proximity of a turbulent +neighbour. The history of the relations between Tunis and France were +set forth, from the French standpoint, in a circular, of which Jules +Ferry was said to be the author, addressed by the foreign minister, M. +Barthélemy Saint-Hilaire on the 9th of May 1881, to the diplomatic +agents of France abroad. The most important point emphasized by the +French minister was the independence of Tunis from the Porte, a +situation which would obviate difficulties with Turkey such as had +always hampered the European powers in Egypt. In support of this +contention a protest made by the British government in 1830, against the +French conquest of Algiers, was quoted, as in it Lord Aberdeen had +declared that Europe had always treated the Barbary states as +independent powers. On the other hand, there was the incident of the bey +of Tunis having furnished to Turkey a contingent during the Crimean War, +which suggested a recognition of its vassalage to the Sublime Porte. But +in 1864, when the sultan had sent a fleet to La Goulette to affirm his +"rights" in Tunis, the French ambassador at Constantinople intimated +that France declined to have Turkey for a neighbour in Algeria. France +also in 1868 essayed to obtain control over the finances of the regency; +but England and Italy had also large interests in the country, so an +international financial commission was appointed. In 1871, when France +was disabled after the war, the bey obtained from Constantinople a +firman of investiture, thus recognizing the suzerainty of the Porte. +Certain English writers have reproached the Foreign Office for its lack +of foresight in not taking advantage of France's disablement by +establishing England as the preponderant power in Tunis. The fact that +five-sixths of the commerce of Tunis is now with France and Algeria may +seem to justify such regrets. Yet by the light of subsequent events it +seems probable that England would have been diverted from more +profitable undertakings had she been saddled with the virtual +administration and military occupation of a vast territory which such +preponderance would have entailed. The wonder is that this opportunity +was not seized by Italy; for Mazzini and other workers in the cause of +Italian unity, before the Bourbons had been driven from Naples, had cast +eyes on Tunis, lying over against the coasts of Sicily at a distance of +barely 100 m., as a favourable field for colonization and as the key of +the African Mediterranean. But when Rome became once more the capital of +Italy, Carthage was not fated to fall again under its domination and +the occasion offered by France's temporary impotence was neglected. In +1875 when France was rapidly recovering, there went to Tunis as consul +an able Frenchman, M. Roustan, who became virtual ruler of the regency +in spite of the resistance of the representative of Italy. French action +was facilitated by the attitude of England. On the 26th of July 1878 M. +Waddington wrote to the marquis d'Harcourt, French ambassador in London, +that at the congress of Berlin Lord Salisbury had said to him--the two +delegates being the foreign ministers of their respective +governments--in reply to his protest, on behalf of France, against the +proposed English occupation of Cyprus, "Do what you think proper in +Tunis: England will offer no opposition." This was confirmed by Lord +Salisbury in a despatch to Lord Lyons, British ambassador in Paris, on +the 8th of August, and it was followed in October by an intimation made +by the French ambassador at Rome that France intended to exercise a +preponderant influence in Tunis. Italy was not willing to accept this +situation. In January 1881 a tour made by King Humbert in Sicily, where +he received a Tunisian mission, was taken to signify that Italy had not +done with Tunis, and it was answered in April by a French expedition in +the regency sent from Algeria, on the pretext of punishing the Kroumirs +who had been marauding on the frontier of Constantine. It was on this +occasion that M. Barthélemy Saint-Hilaire issued the circular quoted +above. France nominally was never at war with Tunis; yet the result of +the invasion was that that country became virtually a French possession, +although officially it is only under the protection of France. The +treaty of El Bardo of the 12th of May 1881, confirmed by the decree of +the 22nd of April 1882, placed Tunis under the protectorate of France. +The country is administered under the direction of the French Foreign +Office, in which there is a department of Tunisian affairs. The governor +is called minister resident-general of France, and he also acts as +foreign minister, being assisted by seven French and two native +ministers. + + + Extension of African Territory. + + The protectorate system. + +The annexation of Tunis was important for many reasons. It was the first +successful achievement of France after the disasters of the +Franco-German War, and it was the first enterprise of serious utility to +France undertaken beyond its frontiers since the early period of the +Second Empire. It was also important as establishing the hegemony of +France on the southern shores of the Mediterranean. When M. Jules Cambon +became governor-general of Algeria, his brother M. Paul Cambon having +been previously French resident in Tunis and remaining the vigilant +ambassador to a Mediterranean power, a Parisian wit said that just as +Switzerland had its _Lac des quatre_ Cantons, so France had made of the +midland sea its _Lac des deux Cambons_. The _jeu d'esprit_ indicated +what was the primary significance to the French of their becoming +masters of the Barbary coast from the boundary of Morocco to that of +Tripoli. Apart from the Mediterranean question, when the scramble for +Africa began and the Hinterland doctrine was asserted by European +powers, the possession of this extended coast-line resulted in France +laying claim to the Sahara and the western Sudan. Consequently, on the +maps, the whole of northwest Africa, from Tunis to the Congo, is claimed +by France with the exception of the relatively small areas on the coast +belonging to Morocco, Spain, Portugal, Liberia, Germany and England. On +this basis, in point of area, France is the greatest African power, in +spite of British annexations in south and equatorial Africa, its area +being estimated at 3,866,950 sq. m. (including 227,950 in Madagascar) as +against 2,101,411 more effectively possessed by Great Britain. The +immensity of its domain on paper is no doubt a satisfaction to a people +which prefers to pursue its policy of colonial expansion without the aid +of emigration. The acquisition of Tunis by France is also important as +an example of the system of protectorate as applied to colonization. +Open annexation might have more gravely irritated the powers having +interests in the country. England, in spite of Lord Salisbury's +suggestions to the French foreign minister, was none too pleased with +France's policy; while Italy, with its subjects outnumbering all other +European settlers in the regency, was in a mood to accept a pretext for +a quarrel for the reasons already mentioned. Apart from these +considerations the French government favoured a protectorate because it +did not wish to make of Tunis a second Algeria. While the annexation of +the latter had excellent commercial results for France, it had not been +followed by successful colonization, though it had cost France 160 +millions sterling in the first sixty years after it became French +territory. The French cannot govern at home or abroad without a +centralized system of administration. The organization of Algeria, as +departments of France with their administrative divisions, was not an +example to imitate. In the beylical government France found, ready-made, +a sufficiently centralized system, such as did not exist in Algeria +under native rule, which could form a basis of administration by French +functionaries under the direction of the Quai d'Orsay. The result has +not been unpleasing to the numerous advocates in France of protectorates +as a means of colonization. According to M. Paul Leroy-Beaulieu, the +most eminent French authority on colonization, who knows Tunis well, a +protectorate is the most pacific, the most supple, and the least costly +method of colonization in countries where an organized form of native +government exists; it is the system in which the French can most nearly +approach that of English crown colonies. One evil which it avoids is the +so-called representative system, under which senators and deputies are +sent to the French parliament not only from Algeria as an integral part +of France, but from the colonies of Martinique, Guadeloupe and French +India, while Cochin-China, Guiana and Senegal send deputies alone. These +sixteen deputies and seven senators attach themselves to the various +Moderate, Radical and Socialist groups in parliament, which have no +connexion with the interests of the colonies; and the consequent +introduction of French political controversies into colonial elections +has not been of advantage to the oversea possessions of France. From +this the protectorate system has spared Tunis, and the paucity of French +immigration will continue to safeguard that country from parliamentary +representation. After twenty years of French rule, of 120,000 European +residents in Tunis, not counting the army, only 22,000 were French, +while nearly 70,000 were Italian. If under a so-called representative +system the Italians had demanded nationalization, for the purpose of +obtaining the franchise, complications might have arisen which are not +to be feared under a protectorate. + + + The Triple Alliance. + +But of all the results of the French annexation of Tunis, the most +important was undoubtedly the Triple Alliance, into which Italy entered +in resentment at having been deprived of the African territory which +seemed marked out as its natural field for colonial expansion. The most +manifest cause of Italian hostility towards France had passed away four +years before the annexation of Tunis, when the reactionaries, who had +favoured the restitution of the temporal power of the pope, fell for +ever from power. The clericalism of the anti-republicans, who favoured a +revival of the fatal policy of the Second Empire whereby France, after +Magenta and Solferino, had by leaving its garrison at St Angelo, been +the last obstacle to Italian unity, was one of the chief causes of their +downfall. For after the war with Germany, the mutilated land and the +vanquished nation had need to avoid wanton provocations of foreign +powers. Henceforth the French Republic, governed by Republicans, was to +be an anti-clerical force in Europe, sympathizing with the Italian +occupation of Rome. But to make Italy realize that France was no longer +the enemy of complete Italian unity it would have been necessary that +all causes of irritation between the two Latin sister nations were +removed. Such causes of dissension did, however, remain, arising from +economic questions. The maritime relations of the two chief +Mediterranean powers were based on a treaty of navigation of 1862--when +Venice was no party to it being an Austrian port--which Crispi denounced +as a relic of Italian servility towards Napoleon III. Commercial rivalry +was induced by the industrial development of northern Italy, when freed +from Austrian rule. Moreover, the emigrant propensity of the Italians +flooded certain regions of France with Italian cheap labour, with the +natural result of bitter animosity between the intruders and the +inhabitants of the districts thus invaded. The annexation of Tunis, +coming on the top of these causes of irritation, exasperated Italy. A +new treaty of commerce was nevertheless signed between the two countries +on the 3rd of November 1881. Unfortunately for its stability, King +Humbert the previous week had gone to Vienna to see the emperor of +Austria. In visiting in his capital the former arch-enemy of Italian +unity, who could never return the courtesy, Rome being interdicted for +Catholic sovereigns by the "prisoner of the Vatican," Humbert had only +followed the example of his father Victor Emmanuel, who went both to +Berlin and to Vienna in 1873. But that was when in France the duc de +Broglie was prime minister of a clerical government of which many of the +supporters were clamouring for the restitution of the temporal power. +King Humbert's visit to Vienna at the moment when Gambetta, the great +anti-clerical champion, was at the height of his influence was +significant for other reasons. Since the 7th of October 1879 Germany and +Austria had been united by a defensive treaty, and though its provisions +were not published until 1888, the two central empires were known to be +in the closest alliance. The king of Italy's visit to Vienna, where he +was accompanied by his ministers Depretis and Mancini, had therefore the +same significance as though he had gone to Berlin also. On the 20th of +May 1882 was signed the treaty of the Triple Alliance, which for many +years bound Italy to Germany in its relations with the continental +powers. The alliance was first publicly announced on the 13th of March +1883, in the Italian Chamber, by Signor Mancini, minister for foreign +affairs. The aim of Italy in joining the combination was alliance with +Germany, the enemy of France. The connexion with Austria was only +tolerated because it secured a union with the powerful government of +Berlin. It effected the complete isolation of France in Europe. An +understanding between the French Republic and Russia, which alone could +alter that situation, was impracticable, as its only basis seemed to be +the possibility of having a common enemy in Germany or even in England. +But that double eventuality was anticipated by a secret convention +concluded at Skiernewice in September 1884 by the tsar and the German +emperor, in which they guaranteed to one another a benevolent neutrality +in case of hostilities between England and Russia arising out of the +Afghan question. + +It will be convenient here to refer to the relations of France with +Germany and Italy respectively in the years succeeding the signature of +the Triple Alliance. With Germany both Gambetta, who died ten weeks +before the treaty was announced and who was a strong Russophobe, and his +adversary Jules Ferry were inclined to come to an understanding. But in +this they had not the support of French opinion. In September 1883 the +king of Spain had visited the sovereigns of Austria and Germany. +Alphonso XII., to prove that this journey was not a sign of hostility to +France, came to Paris on his way home on Michaelmas Day on an official +visit to President Grévy. Unfortunately it was announced that the German +emperor had made the king colonel of a regiment of Uhlans garrisoned at +Strassburg, the anniversary of the taking of which city was being +celebrated by the emperor by the inauguration of a monument made out of +cannon taken from the French, on the very eve of King Alphonso's +arrival. Violent protests were made in Paris in the monarchical and in +not a few republican journals, with the result that the king of Spain +was hooted by the crowd as he drove with the president from the station +to his embassy, and again on his way to dine the same night at the +Elysée. The incident was closed by M. Grévy's apologies and by the +retirement of the minister of war, General Thibaudin, who under pressure +from the extreme Left had declined to meet _le roi uhlan_. Though it +displayed the bitter hostility of the population towards Germany, the +incident did not aggravate Franco-German relations. This was due to the +policy of the prime minister, Jules Ferry, who to carry it out made +himself foreign minister in November, in the place of Challemel-Lacour, +who resigned. + + + Franco-German relations. + +Jules Ferry's idea was that colonial expansion was the surest means for +France to recover its prestige, and that this could be obtained only by +maintaining peaceful relations with all the powers of Europe. His +consequent unpopularity caused his fall in April 1885, and the next year +a violent change of military policy was marked by the arrival of General +Boulanger at the ministry of war, where he remained, in the Freycinet +and Goblet cabinets, from January 1886 to the 17th of May 1887. His +growing popularity in France was answered by Bismarck, who asked for an +increased vote for the German army, indicating that he considered +Boulanger the coming dictator for the war of revenge; so when the +Reichstag, on the 14th of January 1887, voted the supplies for three +years, instead of for the seven demanded by the chancellor, it was +dissolved. Bismarck redoubled his efforts in the press and in diplomacy, +vainly attempting to come to an understanding with Russia and with more +success moving the Vatican to order the German Catholics to support him. +He obtained his vote for seven years in March, and the same month +renewed the Triple Alliance. In April the Schnaebelé incident seemed +nearly to cause war between France and Germany. The commissary-special, +an agent of the ministry of the interior, at Pagny-sur-Moselle, the last +French station on the frontier of the annexed territory of Lorraine, +having stepped across the boundary to regulate some official matter with +the corresponding functionary on the German side, was arrested. It was +said that Schnaebelé was arrested actually on French soil, and on +whichever side of the line he was standing he had gone to meet the +German official at the request of the latter. Bismarck justified the +outrage in a speech in the Prussian Landtag which suggested that it was +impossible to live at peace with a nation so bellicose as the French. In +France the incident was regarded as a trap laid by the chancellor to +excite French opinion under the aggressive guidance of Boulanger, and to +produce events which would precipitate a war. The French remained calm, +in spite of the growing popularity of Boulanger. The Goblet ministry +resigned on the 17th of May 1887 after a hostile division on the budget, +and the opportunity was taken to get rid of the minister of war, who +posed as the coming restorer of Alsace and Lorraine to France. The +Boulangist movement soon became anti-Republican, and the opposition to +it of successive ministries improved the official relations of the +French and German governments. The circumstances attending the fall of +President Grévy the same year strengthened the Boulangist agitation, and +Jules Ferry, who seemed indicated as his successor, was discarded by the +Republican majority in the electoral congress, as a revolution was +threatened in Paris if the choice fell on "the German Ferry." Sadi +Carnot was consequently elected president of the Republic on the 3rd of +December 1887. Three months later, on the 9th of March 1888, died the +old emperor William who had personified the conquest of France by +Germany. His son, the pacific emperor Frederick, died too, on the 15th +of June, so the accession of William II., the pupil of Bismarck, at a +moment when Boulanger threatened to become plebiscitary dictator of +France, was ominous for the peace of Europe. But in April 1889 Boulanger +ignominiously fled the country, and in March 1890 Bismarck fell. France +none the less rejected all friendly overtures made by the young emperor. +In February 1891 his mother came to Paris and was unluckily induced to +visit the scenes of German triumph near the capital--the ruins of St +Cloud and the Château of Versailles where the German empire was +proclaimed. The incident called forth such an explosion of wrath from +the French press that it was clear that France had not forgotten 1871. +By this time, however, France was no longer isolated and at the mercy of +Germany, which by reason of the increase of its population while that of +France had remained almost stationary, was, under the system of +compulsory military service in the two countries, more than a match for +its neighbour in a single-handed conflict. Even the Triple Alliance +ceased to be a terror for France. An understanding arose between France +and Russia preliminary to the Franco-Russian alliance, which became the +pivot of French exterior relations until the defeat of Russia in the +Japanese war of 1904. So the second renewal of the Triplice was +forthwith answered by a visit of the French squadron to Kronstadt in +July 1891. + + + France and Italy. + +While such were the relations between France and the principal party to +the Triple Alliance, the same period was marked by bitter dissension +between France and Italy. Tunis had made Italy Gallophobe, but the +diplomatic relations between the two countries had been courteous until +the death of Depretis in 1887. When Crispi succeeded him as prime +minister, and till 1891 was the director of the exterior policy of +Italy, a change took place. Crispi, though not the author of the Triple +Alliance, entered with enthusiasm into its spirit of hostility to +France. The old Sicilian revolutionary hastened to pay his respects to +Bismarck at Friedrichsruh in October 1887, the visit being highly +approved in Italy. Before that the French Chamber had, in July 1886, by +a small majority, rejected a new treaty of navigation between France and +Italy, this being followed by the failure to renew the commercial treaty +of 1881. Irritating incidents were of constant occurrence. In 1888 a +conflict between the French consul at Massowah and the Italians who +occupied that Abyssinian port induced Bismarck to instruct the German +ambassador in Paris to tell M. Goblet, minister for foreign affairs in +the Floquet cabinet, in case he should refer to the matter, that if +Italy were involved thereby in complications it would not stand +alone--this menace being communicated to Crispi by the Italian +ambassador at Berlin and officially printed in a green-book. But after +Bismarck's fall relations improved a little, and in April 1890 the +Italian fleet was sent to Toulon to salute President Carnot in the name +of King Humbert, though this did not prevent the French government being +suspected of having designs on Tripoli. Italian opinion was again +incensed against France by the action of the French clericals, +represented by a band of Catholic "pilgrims" who went to Rome to offer +their sympathy to the pope in the autumn of 1891, and outraged the +burial-place of Victor Emmanuel by writing in the visitors' register +kept at the Pantheon the words "_Vive le pape._" In August 1893 a fight +took place at Aigues Mortes, the medieval walled city on the salt +marshes of the Gulf of Lyons, between French and Italian workmen, in +which seven Italians were killed. But Crispi had gone out of office +early in 1891, and the ministers who succeeded him were more disposed to +prevent a rupture between Italy and France. Crispi became prime minister +again in December 1893, but this time without the portfolio of foreign +affairs. He placed at the Consulta Baron Blanc, who though a strong +partisan of the Triple Alliance was closely attached to France, being a +native of Savoy, where he spent his yearly vacations on French soil. +That the relations between the two nations were better was shown by what +occurred after the murder of President Carnot in June 1894. The fact +that the assassin was an Italian might have caused trouble a little +earlier; but the grief of the Italians was so sincere, as shown by +popular demonstrations at Rome, that no anti-Italian violence took place +in France, and in the words of the French ambassador, M. Billot, +Caserio's crime seemed likely to further an understanding between the +two peoples. The movement was very slight and made no progress during +the short presidency of M. Casimir-Périer. On the 1st of November 1894 +Alexander III. died, when the Italian press gave proof of the importance +attributed by the Triplice to the Franco-Russian understanding by +expressing a hope that the new tsar would put an end to it. But on the +10th of June 1895, the foreign minister, M. Hanotaux, intimated to the +French Chamber that the understanding had become an alliance, and on the +17th the Russian ambassador in Paris conveyed to M. Félix Faure, who was +now president of the Republic, the collar of St Andrew, while the same +day the French and Russian men-of-war, invited to the opening of the +Kiel Canal, entered German waters together. The union of France with +Russia was no doubt one cause of the cessation of Italian hostility to +France; but others were at work. The inauguration of the statue of +MacMahon at Magenta the same week as the announcement of the +Franco-Russian alliance showed that there was a disposition to revive +the old sentiment of fraternity which had once united France with Italy. +More important was the necessity felt by the Italians of improved +commercial relations with the French. Crispi fell on the 4th of March +1896, after the news of the disaster to the Italian troops at Adowa, the +war with Abyssinia being a disastrous legacy left by him. The previous +year he had caused the withdrawal from Paris of the Italian ambassador +Signor Ressmann, a friend of France, transferring thither Count +Tornielli, who during his mission in London had made a speech, after the +visit of the Italian fleet to Toulon, which qualified him to rank as a +_misogallo_. But with the final disappearance of Crispi the relations of +the two Latin neighbours became more natural. Commerce between them had +diminished, and the business men of both countries, excepting certain +protectionists, felt that the commercial rupture was mutually +prejudicial. Friendly negotiations were initiated on both sides, and +almost the last act of President Félix Faure before his sudden death--M. +Delcassé being then foreign minister--was to promulgate, on the 2nd of +February 1899, a new commercial arrangement between France and Italy +which the French parliament had adopted. By that time M. Barrère was +ambassador at the Quirinal and was engaged in promoting cordial +relations between Italy and France, of which Count Tornielli in Paris +had already become an ardent advocate. Italy remained a party to the +Triple Alliance, which was renewed for a third period in 1902. But so +changed had its significance become that in October 1903 the French +Republic received for the first time an official visit from the +sovereigns of Italy. This reconciliation of France and Italy was +destined to have most important results outside the sphere of the Triple +Alliance. The return visit which President Loubet paid to Victor +Emmanuel III. in April 1904, it being the first time that a French chief +of the state had gone to Rome since the pope had lost the temporal +sovereignty, provoked a protest from the Vatican which caused the +rupture of diplomatic relations between France and the Holy See, +followed by the repudiation of the Concordat by an act passed in France, +in 1905, separating the church from the state. + + + Russian alliance. + +While the decadence of the Triple Alliance had this important effect on +the domestic affairs of France, its inception had produced the +Franco-Russian alliance, which took France out of its isolation in +Europe, and became the pivot of its exterior policy. It has been noted +that in the years succeeding the Franco-Prussian War the tsar Alexander +II. had shown a disposition to support France against German aggression, +as though to make up for his neutrality during the war, which was so +benevolent for Germany that his uncle William I. had ascribed to it a +large share of the German victory. The assassination of Alexander II. by +revolutionaries in 1881 made it difficult for the new autocrat to +cultivate closer relations with a Republican government, although the +Third Republic, under the influence of Gambetta, to whom its +consolidation was chiefly due, had repudiated that proselytizing spirit, +inherited from the great Revolution, which had disquieted the monarchies +of Europe in 1848 and had provoked their hostility to the Second +Republic. But the Triple Alliance which was concluded the year after the +murder of the tsar indicated the possible expediency of an understanding +between the two great powers of the West and the East, in response to +the combination of the three central powers of Europe,--though Bismarck +after his fall revealed that in 1884 a secret treaty was concluded +between Germany and Russia, which was, however, said to have in view a +war between England and Russia. Internal dissension on the subject of +colonial policy in the far East, followed by the fall of Jules Ferry and +the Boulangist agitation were some of the causes which prevented France +from strengthening its position in Europe by seeking a formal +understanding with Russia in the first part of the reign of Alexander +III. But when the Boulangist movement came to an end, entirely from the +incompetency of its leader, it behoved the government of the Republic to +find a means of satisfying the strong patriotic sentiment revealed in +the nation, which, directed by a capable and daring soldier, would have +swept away the parliamentary republic and established a military +dictatorship in its place. The Franco-Russian understanding provided +that means, and Russia was ready for it, having become, by the +termination in 1890 of the secret treaty with Germany, not less isolated +in Europe than France. In July 1891, when the French fleet visited +Kronstadt the incident caused such enthusiasm throughout the French +nation that the exiled General Boulanger's existence would have been +forgotten, except among his dwindling personal followers, had he not put +an end to it by suicide two months later at Brussels. The Franco-Russian +understanding united all parties, not in love for one another but in the +idea that France was thereby about to resume its place in Europe. The +Catholic Royalists ceased to talk of the restitution of the temporal +power of the pope in their joy at the deference of the government of the +republic for the most autocratic monarchy of Christendom; the +Boulangists, now called Nationalists, hoped that it would lead to the +war of revenge with Germany, and that it might also be the means of +humiliating England, as shown by their resentment at the visit of the +French squadron to Portsmouth on its way home from Kronstadt. It is, +however, extremely improbable that the understanding and subsequent +alliance would have been effected had the Boulangist movement succeeded. +For the last thing that the Russian government desired was war with +Germany. What it needed and obtained was security against German +aggression on its frontier and financial aid from France; so a French +plebiscitary government, having for its aim the restitution of Alsace +and Lorraine, would have found no support in Russia. As the German +chancellor, Count von Caprivi, said in the Reichstag on the 27th of +November 1891, a few weeks after a Russian loan had been subscribed in +France nearly eight times over, the naval visit to Kronstadt had not +brought war nearer by one single inch. Nevertheless when in 1893 the +Russian fleet paid a somewhat tardy return visit to Toulon, where it was +reviewed by President Carnot, a party of Russian officers who came to +Paris was received by the population of the capital, which less than +five years before had acclaimed General Boulanger, with raptures which +could not have been exceeded had they brought back to France the +territory lost in 1871. In November 1894, Alexander III. died, and in +January 1895, M. Casimir-Périer resigned the presidency of the Republic, +to which he had succeeded only six months before on the assassination of +M. Carnot. So it was left to Nicholas II. and President Félix Faure to +proclaim the existence of a formal alliance between France and Russia. +It appears that in 1891 and 1892, at the time of the first public +manifestations of friendship between France and Russia, in the words of +M. Ribot, secret conventions were signed by him, being foreign minister, +and M. de Freycinet, president of the council, which secured for France +"the support of Russia for the maintenance of the equilibrium in +Europe"; and on a later occasion the same statesman said that it was +after the visit of the empress Frederick to Paris in 1891 that Alexander +III. made to France certain offers which were accepted. The word +"alliance" was not publicly used by any minister to connote the +relations of France with Russia until the 10th of June 1895, when M. +Hanotaux used the term with cautious vagueness amid the applause of the +Chamber of Deputies. Yet not even when Nicholas II. came to France in +October 1896 was the word "alliance" formally pronounced in any of the +official speeches. But the reception given to the tsar and tsaritsa in +Paris, where no European sovereign had come officially since William of +Germany passed down the Champs Elysées as a conqueror, was of such a +character that none could doubt that this was the consecration of the +alliance. It was at last formally proclaimed by Nicholas II., on board a +French man-of-war, on the occasion of the visit of the president of the +Republic to Russia in August 1897. From that date until the formation of +M. Briand's cabinet in 1909, nine different ministries succeeded one +another and five ministers of foreign affairs; but they all loyally +supported the Franco-Russian alliance, although its popularity +diminished in France long before the war between Russia and Japan, which +deprived it of its efficacy in Europe. In 1901 Nicholas II. came again +to France and was the guest of President Loubet at Compiègne. His visit +excited little enthusiasm in the nation, which was disposed to attribute +it to Russia's financial need of France; while the Socialists, now a +strong party which provided the Waldeck-Rousseau ministry with an +important part of its majority in the Chamber, violently attacked the +alliance of the Republic with a reactionary autocracy. However anomalous +that may have been it did not prevent the whole French nation from +welcoming the friendship between the governments of Russia and of France +in its early stages. Nor can there be any doubt that the popular +instinct was right in according it that welcome. France in its +international relations was strengthened morally by the understanding +and by the alliance, which also served as a check to Germany. But its +association with Russia had not the results hoped for by the French +reactionaries. It encouraged them in their opposition to the +parliamentary Republic during the Dreyfus agitation, the more so because +the Russian autocracy is anti-Semitic. It also made a Nationalist of one +president of the Republic, Félix Faure, whose head was so turned by his +imperial frequentations that he adopted some of the less admirable +practices of princes, and also seemed ready to assume the bearing of an +autocrat. His sudden death was as great a relief to the parliamentary +Republicans as it was a disappointment to the plebiscitary party, which +anti-Dreyfusism, with its patriotic pretensions, had again made a +formidable force in the land. But the election of the pacific and +constitutional M. Loubet as president of the Republic at this critical +moment in its history counteracted any reactionary influence which the +Russian alliance might have had in France; so the general effect of the +alliance was to strengthen the Republic and to add to its prestige. The +visit of the tsar to Paris, the first paid by a friendly sovereign since +the Second Empire, impressed a population, proud of its capital, by an +outward sign which seemed to show that the Republic was not an obstacle +to the recognition by the monarchies of Europe of the place still held +by France among the great powers. Before M. Loubet laid down office the +nation, grown more republican, saw the visit of the tsar followed by +those of the kings of England and of Italy, who might never have been +moved to present their respects to the French Republic had not Russia +shown them the way. + + + Relations with England. + +While the French rejoiced at the Russian alliance chiefly as a check to +the aggressive designs of Germany, they also liked the association of +France with a power regarded as hostile to England. This traditional +feeling was not discouraged by one of the chief artificers of the +alliance, Baron Mohrenheim, Russian ambassador in Paris, who until 1884 +had filled the same position in London, where he had not learned to love +England, and who enjoyed in France a popularity rarely accorded to the +diplomatic agent of a foreign power. An _entente cordiale_ has since +been initiated between England and France. But it is necessary to refer +to the less agreeable relations which existed between the two countries, +as they had some influence on the exterior policy of the Third Republic. +England and France had no causes of friction within Europe. But in its +policy of colonial expansion, during the last twenty years of the 19th +century, France constantly encountered England all over the globe. The +first important enterprise beyond the seas seriously undertaken by +France after the Franco-German War, was, as we have seen, in Tunis. But +even before that question had been mentioned at the congress of Berlin, +in 1878, France had become involved in an adventure in the Far East, +which in its developments attracted more public attention at home than +the extension of French territory in northern Africa. Had these pages +been written before the end of the 19th century it would have seemed +necessary to trace the operations of France in Indo-China with not less +detail than has been given to the establishment of the protectorate in +Tunis. But French hopes of founding a great empire in the Far East came +to an end with the partial resuscitation of China and the rise to power +of Japan. As we have seen, Jules Ferry's idea was that in colonial +expansion France would find the best means of recovering prestige after +the defeat of 1870-71 in the years of recuperation when it was +essential to be diverted from European complications. Jules Ferry was +not a friend of Gambetta, in spite of later republican legends. But the +policy of colonial expansion in Tunis and in Indo-China, associated with +Ferry's name, was projected by Gambetta to give satisfaction to France +for the necessity, imposed, in his opinion, on the French government, of +taking its lead in foreign affairs from Berlin. How Jules Ferry +developed that system we know now from Bismarck's subsequent expressions +of regret at Ferry's fall. He believed that, had Ferry remained in +power, an amicable arrangement would have been made between France and +Germany, a formal agreement having been almost concluded to the effect +that France should maintain peaceable and friendly relations with +Germany, while Bismarck supported France in Tunis, in Indo-China and +generally in its schemes of oversea colonization. Even though the +friendly attitude of Germany towards those schemes was not official the +contrast was manifest between the benevolent tone of the German press +and that of the English, which was generally hostile. Jules Ferry took +his stand on the position that his policy was one not of colonial +conquest, but of colonial conservation, that without Tunis, Algeria was +insecure, that without Tongking and Annam, there was danger of losing +Cochin-China, where the French had been in possession since 1861. It was +on the Tongking question that Ferry fell. On the 30th of March 1885, on +the news of the defeat of the French troops at Lang-Son, the Chamber +refused to vote the money for carrying on the campaign by a majority of +306 to 149. Since that day public opinion in France has made amends to +the memory of Jules Ferry. His patriotic foresight has been extolled. +Criticism has not been spared for the opponents of his policy in +parliament of whom the most conspicuous, M. Clémenceau and M. Ribot, +have survived to take a leading part in public affairs in the 20th +century. The attitude of the Parisian press, which compared Lang-Son +with Sedan and Jules Ferry with Émile Ollivier, has been generally +deplored, as has that of the public which was ready to offer violence to +the fallen minister, and which was still so hostile to him in 1887 that +the congress at Versailles was persuaded that there would be a +revolution in Paris if it elected "the German Ferry" president of the +Republic. Nevertheless his adversaries in parliament, in the press and +in the street have been justified--not owing to their superior sagacity, +but owing to a series of unexpected events which the most foreseeing +statesmen of the world never anticipated. The Indo-China dream of Jules +Ferry might have led to a magnificent empire in the East to compensate +for that which Dupleix lost and Napoleon failed to reconquer. + +The Russian alliance, which came at the time when Ferry's policy was +justified in the eyes of the public, too late for him to enjoy any +credit, gave a new impetus to the French idea of establishing an empire +in the Far East. In the opinion of all the prophets of Europe the great +international struggle in the near future was to be that of England with +Russia for the possession of India. If Russia won, France might have a +share in the dismembered Indian empire, of which part of the frontier +now marched with that of French Indo-China, since Burma had become +British and Tongking French. Such aspirations were not formulated in +white-books or in parliamentary speeches. Indeed, the apprehension of +difficulty with England limited French ambition on the Siamese frontier. +That did not prevent dangerous friction arising between England and +France on the question of the Mekong, the river which flows from China +almost due south into the China Sea traversing the whole length of +French Indo-China, and forming part of the eastern boundary of Upper +Burma and Siam. The aim of France was to secure the whole of the left +bank of the Mekong, the highway of commerce from southern China. The +opposition of Siam to this delimitation was believed by the French to be +inspired by England, the supremacy of France on the Mekong river being +prejudicial to British commerce with China. The inevitable rivalry +between the two powers reached an acute crisis in 1893, the British +ambassador in Paris being Lord Dufferin, who well understood the +question, upper Burma having been annexed to India under his +viceroyalty in 1885. The matter was not settled until 1894, when not +only was the French claim to the left bank of the Mekong allowed, but +the neutrality of a 25-kilometre zone on the Siamese bank was conceded +as open to French trade. It is said that at one moment in July 1893 +England and France were more nearly at war than at any other +international crisis under the Third Republic, not excluding that of +Fashoda, though the acute tension between the governments was unknown to +the public. + +The Panama affair had left French public opinion in a nervous condition. +Fantastic charges were brought not only in the press, but in the chamber +of deputies, against newspapers and politicians of having accepted +bribes from the British government. At the general election in August +and September 1893 M. Clémenceau was pursued into his distant +constituency in the Var by a crowd of Parisian politicians, who brought +about his defeat less by alleging his connexion with the Panama scandal +than by propagating the legend that he was the paid agent of England. +The official republic, which changed its prime minister three times and +its foreign minister twice in 1893, M. Develle filling that post in the +Ribot and Dupuy ministries and M. Casimir-Périer in his own, repudiated +with energy the calumnies as to the attempted interference of England in +French domestic affairs. But the successive governments were not in a +mood to make concessions in foreign questions, as all France was under +the glamour of the preliminary manifestations of the Russian alliance. +This was seen, a few weeks after the elections, in the wild enthusiasm +with which Paris received Admiral Avelane and his officers, who had +brought the Russian fleet to Toulon to return the visit of the French +fleet to Kronstadt in 1891. The death of Marshal MacMahon, who had won +his first renown in the Crimea, and his funeral at the Invalides while +the Russians were in Paris, were used to emphasize the fact that the +allies before Sebastopol were no longer friends. The projector of the +French empire in the Far East did not live to see this phase of the +seeming justification of the policy which had cost him place and +popularity. Jules Ferry had died on the 17th of March 1893, only three +weeks after his triumphant rehabilitation in the political world by his +election to the presidency of the Senate, the second post in the state. +The year he died it seemed as though with the active aid of Russia and +the sympathy of Germany the possessions of France in south-eastern Asia +might have indefinitely expanded into southern China. A few years later +the defeat of Russia by Japan and the rise of the sea-power of the +Japanese practically ended the French empire in Indo-China. What the +French already had at the end of the last century is virtually +guaranteed to them only by the Anglo-Japanese alliance. It is in the +irony of things that these possessions which were a sign of French +rivalry with England should now be secured to France by England's +friendliness. For it is now recognized by the French that the defence of +Indo-China is impossible. + + + African policy. + + French and English rivalry. + + Upper Nile exploration. + + Marchand mission. + + Fashoda. + + Convention of 1898. + +Had the French dream been realized of a large expansion of territory +into southern China, the success of the new empire would have been based +on free Chinese labour. This might have counterbalanced an initial +obstacle to all French colonial schemes, more important than those which +arise from international difficulties--the reluctance of the French to +establish themselves as serious colonists in their oversea possessions. +We have noted how Algeria, which is nearer to Toulon and Marseilles than +are Paris and Havre, has been comparatively neglected by the French, +after eighty years of occupation, in spite of the amenity of its climate +and its soil for European settlers. The new French colonial school +advocates the withdrawal of France from adventures in distant tropical +countries which can be reached only by long sea voyages, and the +concentration of French activity in the northern half of the African +continent. Madagascar is, as we have seen, counted as Africa in +computing the area of French colonial territory. But it lies entirely +outside the scheme of African colonization, and in spite of the loss of +life and money incurred in its conquest, its retention is not popular +with the new school, although the first claim of France to it was as +long ago as the reign of Louis XIII., when in 1642 a company was founded +under the protection of Richelieu for the colonization of the island. +The French of the 19th and 20th centuries may well be considered less +enterprising in both hemispheres than were their ancestors of the 17th, +and Madagascar, after having been the cause of much ill-feeling between +England and France under the Third Republic down to the time of its +formal annexation, by the law of the 9th of August 1896, is not now the +object of much interest among French politicians. On the African +continent it is different. When the Republic succeeded to the Second +Empire the French African possessions outside Algiers were +inconsiderable in area. The chief was Senegal, which though founded as a +French station under Louis XIII., was virtually the creation of +Faidherbe under the Second Empire, even in a greater degree than were +Tunis and Tongking of Jules Ferry under the Third Republic. There was +also Gabun, which is now included in French Congo. Those outposts in the +tropics became the starting-points for the expansion of a French sphere +of influence in north Africa, which by the beginning of the 20th century +made France the nominal possessor of a vast territory stretching from +the equatorial region on the gulf of Guinea to the Mediterranean. A +large portion of it is of no importance, including the once mysterious +Timbuktu and the wilds of the waterless Sahara desert. But the steps +whereby these wide tracts of wilderness and of valuable territory came +to be marked on the maps in French colours, by international agreement, +are important, as they were associated with the last serious official +dispute between England and France before the period of _entente_. M. +Hanotaux, who was foreign minister for the then unprecedented term of +four years, from 1894 to 1898, with one short interval of a few months, +has thrown an instructive light on the feeling with which French +politicians up to the end of the 19th century regarded England. He +declared in 1909, with the high authority of one who was during years of +Anglo-French tension the mouthpiece of the Republic in its relations +with other powers, that every move in the direction of colonial +expansion made by France disquieted and irritated England. He complained +that when France, under the stimulating guidance of Jules Ferry, +undertook the reconstitution of an oversea domain, England barred the +way--in Egypt, in Tunis, in Madagascar, in Indo-China, in the Congo, in +Oceania. Writing with the knowledge of an ex-foreign minister, who had +enjoyed many years of retirement to enable him to weigh his words, M. +Hanotaux asserted without any qualification that when he took office +England "had conceived a triple design, to assume the position of heir +to the Portuguese possessions in Africa, to destroy the independence of +the South African republics, and to remain in perpetuity in Egypt." We +have not to discuss the truth of those propositions, we have only to +note the tendency of French policy; and in so doing it is useful to +remark that the official belief of the Third Republic in the last period +of the 19th century was that England was the enemy of French colonial +expansion all over the globe, and that in the so-called scramble for +Africa English ambition was the chief obstacle to the schemes of France. +M. Hanotaux, with the authority of official knowledge, indicated that +the English project of a railway from the Cape of Good Hope to Cairo was +the provocation which stimulated the French to essay a similar +adventure; though he denied that the Marchand mission and other similar +expeditions about to be mentioned were conceived with the specific +object of preventing the accomplishment of the British plan. The +explorations of Stanley had demonstrated that access to the Great Lakes +and the Upper Nile could be effected as easily from the west coast of +Africa as from other directions. The French, from their ancient +possession of Gabun, had extended their operations far to the east, and +had by treaties with European powers obtained the right bank of the +Ubanghi, a great affluent of the Congo, as a frontier between their +territory and that of the Congo Independent State. They thus found +themselves, with respect to Europe, in possession of a region which +approached the valley of the Upper Nile. Between the fall of Jules Ferry +in 1885 and the beginning of the Russian alliance came a period of +decreased activity in French colonial expansion. The unpopularity of the +Tongking expedition was one of the causes of the popularity of General +Boulanger, who diverted the French public from distant enterprises to a +contemplation of the German frontier, and when Boulangism came to an end +the Panama affair took its place in the interest it excited. But the +colonial party in France did not lose sight of the possibility of +establishing a position on the Upper Nile. The partition of Africa +seemed to offer an occasion for France to take compensation for the +English occupation of Egypt. In 1892 the Budget Commission, on the +proposal of M. Étienne, deputy for Oran, who had three times been +colonial under secretary, voted 300,000 francs for the despatch of a +mission to explore and report on those regions, which had not had much +attention since the days of Emin. But the project was not then carried +out. Later, parliament voted a sum six times larger for strengthening +the French positions on the Upper Ubanghi and their means of +communication with the coast. But Colonel Monteil's expedition, which +was the consequence of this vote, was diverted, and the 1,800,000 francs +were spent at Loango, the southern port of French Congo, and on the +Ivory Coast, the French territory which lies between Liberia and the +British Gold Coast Colony, where a prolonged war ensued with Samory, a +Nigerian chieftain. In September 1894, M. Delcassé being colonial +minister, M. Liotard was appointed commissioner of the Upper Ubanghi +with instructions to extend French influence in the Bahr-el-Ghazal up to +the Nile. In addition to official missions, numerous expeditions of +French explorers took place in Central Africa during this period, and +negotiations were continually going on between the British and French +governments. Towards the end of 1895 Lord Salisbury, who had succeeded +Lord Kimberley at the foreign office, informed Baron de Courcel, the +French ambassador, that an expedition to the Upper Nile was projected +for the purpose of putting an end to Mahdism. M. Hanotaux was not at +this moment minister of foreign affairs. He had been succeeded by M. +Berthelot, the eminent chemist, who resigned that office on the 26th of +March 1896, a month before the fall of the Bourgeois cabinet of which he +was a member, in consequence of a question raised in the chamber on this +subject of the English expedition to the Soudan. According to M. +Hanotaux, who returned to the Quai d'Orsay, in the Méline ministry, on +the 29th of April 1896, Lord Salisbury at the end of the previous year, +in announcing the expedition confidentially to M. de Courcel, had +assured him that it would not go beyond Dongola without a preliminary +understanding with France. There must have been a misunderstanding on +this point, as after reaching Dongola in September 1896 the +Anglo-Egyptian army proceeded up the Nile in the direction of Khartoum. +Before M. Hanotaux resumed office the Marchand mission had been formally +planned. On the 24th of February 1896 M. Guieysse, colonial minister in +the Bourgeois ministry, had signed Captain Marchand's instructions to +the effect that he must march through the Upper Ubanghi, in order to +extend French influence as far as the Nile, and try to reach that river +before Colonel Colvile, who was leading an expedition from the East. He +was also advised to conciliate the Mahdi if the aim of the mission could +be benefited thereby. M. Liotard was raised to the rank of governor of +the Upper Ubanghi, and in a despatch to him the new colonial minister, +M. André Lebon, wrote that the Marchand mission was not to be considered +a military enterprise, it being sent out with the intention of +maintaining the political line which for two years M. Liotard had +persistently been following, and of which the establishment of France in +the basin of the Nile ought to be the crowning reward. Two days later, +on the 25th of June 1896, Captain Marchand embarked for Africa. This is +not the place for a description of his adventures in crossing the +continent or when he encountered General Kitchener at Fashoda, two +months after his arrival there in July 1898 and a fortnight after the +battle of Omdurman and the capture of Khartoum. The news was made known +to Europe by the sirdar's telegrams to the British government in +September announcing the presence of the French mission at Fashoda. Then +ensued a period of acute tension between the French and English +governments, which gave the impression to the public that war between +the two countries was inevitable. But those who were watching the +situation in France on the spot knew that there was no question of +fighting. France was unprepared, and was also involved in the toils of +the Dreyfus affair. Had the situation been that of a year later, when +the French domestic controversy was ending and the Transvaal War +beginning, England might have been in a very difficult position. General +Kitchener declined to recognize a French occupation of any part of the +Nile valley. A long discussion ensued between the British and French +governments, which was ended by the latter deciding on the 6th of +November 1898 not to maintain the Marchand mission at Fashoda. Captain +Marchand refused to return to Europe by way of the Nile and Lower Egypt, +marching across Abyssinia to Jibuti in French Somaliland, where he +embarked for France. He was received with well-merited enthusiasm in +Paris. But the most remarkable feature of his reception was that the +ministry became so alarmed lest the popularity of the hero of Fashoda +should be at the expense of that of the parliamentary republic, that it +put an end to the public acclamations by despatching him secretly from +the capital--a somewhat similar treatment having been accorded to +General Dodds in 1893 on his return to France after conquering Dahomey. +The Marchand mission had little effect on African questions at issue +between France and Great Britain, as a great settlement had been +effected while it was on its way across the continent. On the 14th of +June 1898, the day before the fall of the Méline ministry, when M. +Hanotaux finally quitted the Quai d'Orsay, a convention of general +delimitation was signed at Paris by that minister and by the British +ambassador, Sir Edmund Monson, which as regards the respective claims of +England and France covered in its scope the whole of the northern half +of Africa from Senegambia and the Congo to the valley of the Nile. +Comparatively little attention was paid to it amid the exciting events +which followed, so little that M. de Courcel has officially recorded +that three months later, on the eve of the Fashoda incident, Lord +Salisbury declared to him that he was not sufficiently acquainted with +the geography of Africa to express an opinion on certain questions of +delimitation arising out of the success of the British expedition on the +Upper Nile. The convention of June 1898 was, however, of the highest +importance, as it affirmed the junction into one vast territory of the +three chief African domains of France, Algeria and Tunis, Senegal and +the Niger, Chad and the Congo, thus conceding to France the whole of the +north-western continent with the exception of Morocco, Liberia and the +European colonies on the Atlantic. This arrangement, which was completed +by an additional convention on the 21st of March 1899, made Morocco a +legitimate object of French ambition. + + + The entente with England. + +The other questions which caused mutual animosity between England and +France in the decline of the 19th century had nothing whatever to do +with their conflicting international interests. The offensive attitude +of the English press towards France on account of the Dreyfus affair was +repaid by the French in their criticism of the Boer War. When those +sentimental causes of mutual irritation had become less acute, the press +of the two countries was moved by certain influences to recognize that +it was in their interest to be on good terms with one another. The +importance of their commercial relations was brought into relief as +though it were a new fact. At last in 1903 state visits between the +rulers of England and of France took place in their respective capitals, +for the first time since the early days of the Second Empire, followed +by an Anglo-French convention signed on the 8th of April 1904. By this +an arrangement was come to on outstanding questions of controversy +between England and France in various parts of the world. France +undertook not to interfere with the action of England in Egypt, while +England made a like undertaking as to French influence in Morocco. +France conceded certain of its fishing rights in Newfoundland which had +been a perpetual source of irritation between the two countries for +nearly two hundred years since the treaty of Utrecht of 1713. In return +England made several concessions to France in Africa, including that of +the Los Islands off Sierra Leone and some rectifications of frontier on +the Gambia and between the Niger and Lake Chad. Other points of +difference were arranged as to Siam, the New Hebrides and Madagascar. +The convention of 1904 was on the whole more advantageous for England +than for France. The free hand which England conceded to France in +dealing with Morocco was a somewhat burdensome gift owing to German +interference; but the incidents which arose from the Franco-German +conflict in that country are as yet too recent for any estimate of their +possible consequences. + + + The work of M. Delcassé. + +One result was the retirement of M. Delcassé from the foreign office on +the 6th of June 1905. He had been foreign minister for seven years, a +consecutive period of rare length, only once exceeded in England since +the creation of the office, when Castlereagh held it for ten years, and +one of prodigious duration in the history of the Third Republic. He +first went to the Quai d'Orsay in the Brisson ministry of June 1898, +remained there during the Dupuy ministry of the same year, was +reappointed by M. Waldeck-Rousseau in his cabinet which lasted from June +1899 to June 1902, was retained in the post by M. Combes till his +ministry fell in January 1905, and again by his successor M. Rouvier +till his own resignation in June of that year. M. Delcassé had thus an +uninterrupted reign at the foreign office during a long critical period +of transition both in the interior politics of France and in its +exterior relations. He went to the Quai d'Orsay when the Dreyfus +agitation was most acute, and left it when parliament was absorbed in +discussing the separation of church and state. He saw the Franco-Russian +alliance lose its popularity in the country even before the Russian +defeat by the Japanese in the last days of his ministry. Although in the +course of his official duties at the colonial office he had been partly +responsible for some of the expeditions sent to Africa for the purpose +of checking British influence, he was fully disposed to pursue a policy +which might lead to a friendly understanding with England. In this he +differed from M. Hanotaux, who was essentially the man of the +Franco-Russian alliance, owing to it much of his prestige, including his +election to the French Academy, and Russia, to which he gave exclusive +allegiance, was then deemed to be primarily the enemy of England. M. +Delcassé on the contrary, from the first, desired to assist a +_rapprochement_ between England and Russia as preliminary to the +arrangement he proposed between England and France. He was foreign +minister when the tsar paid his second visit to France, but there was no +longer the national unanimity which welcomed him in 1896, M. Delcassé +also accompanied President Loubet to Russia when he returned the tsar's +second visit in 1902. But exchange of compliments between France and +Russia were no longer to be the sole international ceremonials within +the attributes of the French foreign office; M. Delcassé was minister +when the procession of European sovereigns headed by the kings of +England and of Italy in 1903 came officially to Paris, and he went with +M. Loubet to London and to Rome on the president's return visits to +those capitals--the latter being the immediate cause of the rupture of +the concordat with the Vatican, though M. Delcassé was essentially a +concordatory minister. His retirement from the Rouvier ministry in June +1905 was due to pressure from Germany in consequence of his opposition +to German interference in Morocco. His resignation took place just a +week after the news had arrived of the destruction of the Russian fleet +by the Japanese, which completed the disablement of the one ally of +France. The impression was current in France that Germany wished to give +the French nation a fright before the understanding with England had +reached an effective stage, and it was actually believed that the +resignation of M. Delcassé averted a declaration of war. Although that +belief revived to some extent the fading enmity of the French towards +the conquerors of Alsace-Lorraine, the fear which accompanied it moved a +considerable section of the nation to favour an understanding with +Germany in preference to, or even at the expense of, friendly relations +with England. M. Clémenceau, who only late in life came into office, and +attained it at the moment when a better understanding with England was +progressing, had been throughout his long career, of all French public +men in all political groups, the most consistent friend of England. His +presence at the head of affairs was a guarantee of amicable Anglo-French +relations, so far as they could be protected by statesmanship. + +By reason of the increased duration and stability of ministries, the +personal influence of ministers in directing the foreign policy of +France has in one sense become greater in the 20th century than in those +earlier periods when France had first to recuperate its strength after +the war and then to take its exterior policy from Germany. Moreover, not +only have cabinets lasted longer, but the foreign minister has often +been retained in a succession of them. Of the thirty years which in 1909 +had elapsed since Marshal MacMahon retired and the republic was governed +by republicans, in the first fifteen years from 1879 to 1894 fourteen +different persons held the office of minister of foreign affairs, while +six sufficed for the fifteen years succeeding the latter date. One must +not, however, exaggerate the effect of this greater stability in +office-holding upon continuity of policy, which was well maintained even +in the days when there was on an average a new foreign minister every +year. Indeed the most marked breach in the continuity of the foreign +policy of France has been made in that later period of long terms of +office, which, with the repudiation of the Concordat, has seen the +withdrawal of the French protectorate over Roman Catholic missions in +the East--though it is too soon to estimate the result. In another +respect France has under the republic departed a long way from a +tradition of the Quai d'Orsay. It no longer troubles itself on the +subject of nationalities. Napoleon III., who had more French temperament +than French blood in his constitution, was an idealist on this question, +and one of the causes of his own downfall and the defeat of France was +his sympathy in this direction with German unity. Since Sedan little has +been done in France to further the doctrine of nationalities. A faint +echo of it was heard during the Boer war, but French sympathy with the +struggling Dutch republics of South Africa was based rather on +anti-English sentiment than on any abstract theory. (J. E. C. B.) + + BIBLIOGRAPHY OF FRENCH HISTORY.--The scientific study of the history + of France only begins with the 16th century. It was hampered at first + by the traditions of the middle ages and by a servile imitation of + antiquity. Paulus Aemilius of Verona (_De rebus gestis Francorum_, + 1517), who may be called the first of modern historians, merely + applies the oratorical methods of the Latin historiographers. It is + not till the second half of the century that history emancipates + itself; Catholics and Protestants alike turn to it for arguments in + their religious and political controversies. François Hotman published + (1574) his _Franco-Gallia_; Claude Fauchet his _Antiquités gauloises + et françoises_ (1579); Étienne Pasquier his _Recherches de la France_ + (1611), "the only work of erudition of the 16th century which one can + read through without being bored." Amateurs like Petau, A. de Thou, + Bongars and Peiresc collected libraries to which men of learning went + to draw their knowledge of the past; Pierre Pithou, one of the authors + of the _Satire Ménippée_, published the earliest annals of France + (_Annales Francorum_, 1588, and _Historiae Francorum scriptores + coetanei XI._, 1596), Jacques Bongars collected in his _Gesta Dei per + Francos_ (1611-1617) the principal chroniclers of the Crusades. Others + made a study of chronology like J.J. Scaliger (_De emendatione + temporum_, 1583; _Thesaurus temporum_, 1606), sketched the history of + literature, like François Grudé, sieur of La Croix in Maine + (_Bibliothèque françoise_, 1584), and Antoine du Verdier (_Catalogue + de tous les auteurs qui ont écrit ou traduit en français_, 1585), or + discussed the actual principles of historical research, like Jean + Bodin (_Methodus ad facilem historiarum cognitionem_, 1566) and Henri + Lancelot Voisin de La Popelinière (_Histoire des histoires_, 1599). + + But the writers of history are as yet very inexpert; the _Histoire + générale des rois de France_ of Bernard de Girard, seigneur de Haillan + (1576), the _Grandes Annales de France_ of François de Belleforest + (1579), the _Inventaire général de l'histoire de France_ of Jean de + Serres (1597), the _Histoire générale de France depuis Pharamond_ of + Scipion Dupleix (1621-1645), the _Histoire de France_ (1643-1651) of + François Eudes de Mézeray, and above all his _Abrégé chronologique de + l'histoire de France_ (1668), are compilations which were eagerly + read when they appeared, but are worthless nowadays. Historical + research lacked method, leaders and trained workers; it found them all + in the 17th century, the golden age of learning which was honoured + alike by laymen, priests and members of the monastic orders, + especially the Benedictines of the congregation of St Maur. The + publication of original documents was carried on with enthusiasm. To + André Duchesne we owe two great collections of chronicles: the + _Historiae Normannorum scriptores antiqui_ (1619) and the _Historiae + Francorum scriptores_, continued by his son François (5 vols., + 1636-1649). These publications were due to a part only of his + prodigious activity; his papers and manuscripts, preserved in the + Bibliothèque Nationale at Paris, are an inexhaustible mine. Charles du + Fresne, seigneur du Cange, published Villehardouin (1657) and + Joinville (1668); Étienne Baluze, the _Capitularia regum Francorum_ + (1674), the _Nova collectio conciliorum_ (1677), the _Vitae paparum + Avenionensium_ (1693). The clergy were very much aided in their work + by their private libraries and by their co-operation; Père Philippe + Labbe published his _Bibliotheca nova manuscriptorum_ (1657), and + began (1671) his _Collection des conciles_, which was successfully + completed by his colleague Père Cossart (18 vols.). In 1643 the Jesuit + Jean Bolland brought out vol. i. of the _Acta sanctorum_, a vast + collection of stories and legends which has not yet been completed + beyond the 4th of November. (See BOLLANDISTS.) The Benedictines, for + their part, published the _Acta sanctorum ordinis sancti Benedicti_ (9 + vols., 1668-1701). One of the chief editors of this collection, Dom + Jean Mabillon, published on his own account the Vetera analecta (4 + vols., 1675-1685) and prepared the _Annales ordinis sancti Benedicti_ + (6 vols., 1703-1793). To Dom Thierri Ruinart we owe good editions of + Gregory of Tours and Fredegarius (1699). The learning of the 17th + century further inaugurated those specialized studies which are + important aids to history. Mabillon in his _De re diplomatica_ (1681) + creates the science of documents or diplomatics. Adrien de Valois lays + a sound foundation for historical geography by his critical edition of + the _Notitia Galliarum_ (1675). Numismatics finds an enlightened + pioneer in François Leblanc (_Traité historique des monnaies de + France_, 1690). Du Cange, one of the greatest of the French scholars + who have studied the middle ages, has defined terms bearing on + institutions in his _Glossarium mediae et infimae latinitatis_ (1678), + recast by the Benedictines (1733), with an important supplement by Dom + Carpentier (1768), republished twice during the 19th century, with + additions, by F. Didot (1840-1850), and by L. Favre at Niort + (1883-1888); this work is still indispensable to every student of + medieval history. Finally, great biographical or bibliographical works + were undertaken; the _Gallia christiana_, which gave a chronological + list of the archbishops, bishops and abbots of the Gauls and of + France, was compiled by two twin brothers, Scévole and Louis de + Sainte-Marthe, and by the two sons of Louis (4 vols., 1656); a fresh + edition, on a better plan, and with great additions, was begun in 1715 + by Denys de Sainte-Marthe, continued throughout the 18th century by + the Benedictines, and finished in the 19th century by Barthélemy + Hauréau (1856-1861). + + As to the nobility, a series of researches and publications, begun by + Pierre d'Hozier (d. 1660) and continued well on into the 19th century + by several of his descendants, developed into the _Armorial général de + la France_, which was remodelled several times. A similar work, of a + more critical nature, was carried out by Père Anselme (_Histoire + généalogique de la maison de France et des grands officiers de la + couronne_, 1674) and by Père Ange and Père Simplicien, who completed + the work (3rd ed. in 9 vols., 1726-1733). Critical bibliography is + especially represented by certain Protestants, expelled from France by + the revocation of the Edict of Nantes. Pierre Bayle, the sceptic, + famous for his _Dictionnaire critique_ (1699), which is in part a + refutation of the _Dictionnaire historique et géographique_ published + in 1673 by the Abbé Louis Moréri, was the first to publish the + _Nouvelles de la république des lettres_ (1684-1687), which was + continued by Henri Basnage de Beauval under the title of _Histoire des + ouvrages des savants_ (24 vols.). In imitation of this, Jean Le Clerc + successively edited a _Bibliothèque universelle et historique_ + (1686-1693), a _Bibliothèque choisie_ (1703-1713), and a _Bibliothèque + ancienne et moderne_ (1714-1727). These were the first of our + "periodicals." + + The 18th century continues the traditions of the 17th. The + Benedictines still for some time hold the first place. Dom Edmond + Martène visited numerous archives (which were then closed) in France + and neighbouring countries, and drew from them the material for two + important collections: _Thesaurus novus anecdotorum_ (9 vols., 1717, + in collaboration with Dom Ursin Durand) and _Veterum scriptorum + collectio_ (9 vols., 1724-1733). Dom Bernard de Montfaucon also + travelled in search of illustrated records of antiquity; private + collections, among others the celebrated collection of Gaignières (now + in the Bibliothèque Nationale), provided him with the illustrations + which he published in his _Monuments de la monarchie françoise_ (5 + vols., 1729-1733). The text is in two languages, Latin and French. Dom + Martin Bouquet took up the work begun by the two Duchesnes, and in + 1738 published vol. i. of the Historians of France (_Rerum Gallicarum + et Francicarum scriptores_), an enormous collection which was intended + to include all the sources of the history of France, grouped under + centuries and reigns. He produced the first eight volumes himself; his + work was continued by several collaborators, the most active of whom + was Dom Michel J. Brial, and already comprised thirteen volumes when + it was interrupted by the Revolution. In 1733, Antoine Rivet de La + Grange produced vol. i. of the _Histoire littéraire de la France_, + which in 1789 numbered twelve volumes. While Dom C. François Toustaint + and Dom René Prosper Tassin published a _Nouveau Traité de + diplomatique_ (6 vols., 1750-1765), others were undertaking the _Art + de vérifier les dates_ (1750; new and much enlarged edition in 1770). + Still others, with more or less success, attempted histories of the + provinces. + + In the second half of the 18th century, the ardour of the Benedictines + of St Maur diminished, and scientific work passed more and more into + the hands of laymen. The Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-lettres, + founded in 1663 and reorganized in 1701, became its chief instrument, + numbering among its members Denis François Secousse, who continued the + collection of _Ordonnances des rois de France_, begun (1723) by J. de + Laurière; J.-B. de La Curne de Sainte Palaye (_Mémoires sur l'ancienne + chevalerie_, 1759-1781; _Glossaire de la langue française depuis son + origine jusqu'à la fin de Louis XIV_, printed only in 1875-1882); + J.-B. d'Anville (_Notice sur l'ancienne Gaule tirée des monuments_, + 1760); and L.G. de Bréquigny, the greatest of them all, who continued + the publication of the _Ordonnances_, began the _Table chronologique + des diplômes concernant l'histoire de France_ (3 vols., 1769-1783), + published the _Diplomata, chartae, ad res Francicas spectantia_ (1791, + with the collaboration of La Porte du Theil), and directed fruitful + researches in the archives in London, to enrich the _Cabinet des + chartes_, where Henri Bertin (1719-1792), an enlightened minister of + Louis XV., had in 1764 set himself the task of collecting the + documentary sources of the national history. The example set by the + religious orders and the government bore fruit. The general assembly + of the clergy gave orders that its _Procès verbaux_ (9 vols., + 1767-1789) should be printed; some of the provinces decided to have + their history written, and mostly applied to the Benedictines to have + this done. Brittany was treated by Dom Lobineau (1707) and Dom Morice + (1742); the duchy of Burgundy by Dom Urbain Plancher (1739-1748); + Languedoc by Dom Dominique Vaissète (1730-1749, in collaboration with + Dom Claude de Vic; new ed. 1873-1893); for Paris, its secular history + was treated by Dom Michel Félibien and Dom Lobineau (1725), and its + ecclesiastical history by the abbé Lebeuf (1745-1760; new ed. + 1883-1890). + + This ever-increasing stream of new evidence aroused curiosity, gave + rise to pregnant comparisons, developed and sharpened the critical + sense, but further led to a more and more urgent need for exact + information. The Académie des Inscriptions brought out its _Histoire + de l'Académie avec les mémoires de littérature tirés de ses registres_ + (vol. i. 1717; 51 vols. appeared before the Revolution, with five + indexes; _vide_ the _Bibliographie_ of Lasteyrie, vol. iii. pp. 256 et + seq.). Other collections, mostly of the nature of bibliographies, were + the _Journal des savants_ (111 vols., from 1665 to 1792; _vide_ the + _Table méthodique_ by H. Cocheris, 1860); the _Journal de Trévoux_, or + _Mémoires pour l'histoire des sciences et des beaux-arts_, edited by + Jesuits (265 vols., 1701-1790); the _Mercure de France_ (977 vols., + from 1724 to 1791). To these must be added the dictionaries and + encyclopaedias: the _Dictionnaire de Moréri_, the last edition of + which numbers 10 vols. (1759); the _Dictionnaire géographique, + historique et politique des Gaules et de la France_, by the abbé J.J. + Expilly (6 vols., 1762-1770; unfinished); the _Répertoire universel et + raisonné de jurisprudence civile, criminelle, canonique et + bénéficiale_, by Guyot (64 vols., 1775-1786; supplement in 17 vols., + 1784-1785), reorganized and continued by Merlin de Douai, who was + afterwards one of the _Montagnards_, a member of the Directory, and a + count under the Empire. + + The historians did not use to the greatest advantage the treasures of + learning provided for them; they were for the most part superficial, + and dominated by their political or religious prejudices. Thus works + like that of Père Gabriel Daniel (_Histoire de France_, 3 vols., + 1713), of Président Hénault (_Abrégé chronologique_, 1744; 25 editions + between 1770 and 1834), of the abbé Paul François Velly and those who + completed his work (_Histoire de France_, 33 vols., 1765 to 1783), of + G.H. Gaillard (_Histoire de la rivalité de la France et de + l'Angleterre_, 11 vols., 1771-1777), and of L.P. Anquetil (1805), in + spite of the brilliant success with which they met at first, have + fallen into a just oblivion. A separate place must be given to the + works of the theorists and philosophers: _Histoire de l'ancien + gouvernement de la France_, by the Comte de Boulainvilliers (1727), + _Histoire critique de l'établissement de la monarchie françoise dans + les deux Gaules_, by the abbé J.B. Dubos (1734); _L'Esprit des lois_, + by the président de Montesquieu (1748); the _Observations sur + l'histoire de France_, by the abbé de Mably (1765); the _Théorie de la + politique de la monarchie française_, by Marie Pauline de Lézardière + (1792). These works have, if nothing else, the merit of provoking + reflection. + + At the time of the Revolution this activity was checked. The religious + communities and royal academies were suppressed, and France violently + broke with even her most recent past, which was considered to belong + to the _ancien régime_. When peace was re-established, she began the + task of making good the damage which had been done, but a greater + effort was now necessary in order to revive the spirit of the + institutions which had been overthrown. The new state, which was, in + spite of all, bound by so many ties to the former order of things, + seconded this effort, and during the whole of the 19th century, and + even longer, had a strong influence on historical production. The + section of the Institut de France, which in 1816 assumed the old name + of Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-lettres, began to reissue the + two series of the _Mémoires_ and of the _Notices et extraits des + manuscrits tirés de la bibliothèque royale_ (the first volume had + appeared in 1787); began (1844) that of the _Mémoires présentés par + divers savants_ and the _Comptes rendus_ (subject index 1857-1900, by + G. Ledos, 1906); and continued the _Recueil des historiens de France_, + the plan of which was enlarged by degrees (_Historiens des croisades, + obituaires, pouillés, comptes_, &c.), the _Ordonnances_ and the _Table + chronologique des diplômes_. During the reign of Louis Philippe, the + ministry of the interior reorganized the administration of the + archives of the departments, communes and hospitals, of which the + _Inventaires sommaires_ are a mine of precious information (see the + _Rapport au ministre_, by G. Servois, 1902). In 1834 the ministry of + public instruction founded a committee, which has been called since + 1881 the Comité des Travaux historiques et scientifiques, under the + direction of which have been published: (1) the _Collection des + documents inédits relatifs à l'histoire de France_ (more than 260 + vols. have appeared since 1836); (2) the _Catalogue général des + manuscrits des bibliothèques de France_; (3) the _Dictionnaires + topographiques_ (25 vols. have appeared); and the _Répertoires + archéologiques_ of the French departments (8 vols. between 1861 and + 1888); (4) several series of _Bulletins_, the details of which will be + found in the _Bibliographie_ of Lasteyrie. At the same time were + founded or reorganized, both in Paris and the departments, numerous + societies, devoted sometimes partially and sometimes exclusively to + history and archaeology; the Académie Celtique (1804), which in 1813 + became the Société des Antiquaires de France (general index by M. + Prou, 1894); the Société de l'Histoire de France (1834); the Société + de l'École des Chartes (1839); the Société de l'Histoire de Paris et + de l'Île-de-France (1874; four decennial indexes), &c. The details + will be found in the excellent _Bibliographie générale des travaux + historiques et archéologiques publiés par les sociétés savantes de + France_, which has appeared since 1885 under the direction of Robert + de Lasteyrie. + + Individual scholars also associated themselves with this great + literary movement. Guizot published a _Collection de mémoires relatifs + à l'histoire de France_ (31 vols., 1824-1835); Buchon, a _Collection + des chroniques nationales françaises écrites en langue vulgaire du + XIII^e au XVI^e siècle_ (47 vols., 1824-1829), and a _Choix de + chroniques et mémoires sur l'histoire de France_ (14 vols., + 1836-1841); Petitot and Monmerqué, a _Collection de mémoires relatifs + à l'histoire de France_ (131 vols., 1819-1829); Michaud and Poujoulat, + a _Nouvelle Collection de mémoires pour servir a l'histoire de France_ + (32 vols., 1836-1839); Barrière and de Lescure, a _Bibliothèque de + mémoires relatifs à l'histoire de France pendant le XVIII^e siècle_ + (30 vols., 1855-1875); and finally Berville and Barrière, a + _Collection des mémoires relatifs à la Révolution Française_ (55 + vols., 1820-1827). The details are to be found in the _Sources de + l'histoire de France_, by Alfred Franklin (1876). The abbé J.P. Migne + in his _Patrologia Latina_ (221 vols., 1844-1864), re-edited a number + cf texts anterior to the 13th century. Under the second empire, the + administration of the imperial archives at Paris published ten volumes + of documents (_Monuments historiques_, 1866; _Layettes du trésor des + chartes_, 1863, which were afterwards continued up to 1270; _Actes du + parlement de Paris_, 1863-1867), not to mention several volumes of + _Inventaires_. The administration of the Bibliothèque impériale had + printed the _Catalogue général de l'histoire de France_ (10 vols., + 1855-1870; vol. xi., containing the alphabetical index to the names of + the authors, appeared in 1895). Other countries also supplied a number + of useful texts; there is much in the English Rolls series, in the + collection of _Chroniques belges_, and especially in the _Monumenta + Germaniae historica_. + + At the same time the scope of history and its auxiliary sciences + becomes more clearly defined; the École des Chartes produces some + excellent palaeographers, as for instance Natalis de Wailly (_Éléments + de paléographie_, 1838), and L. Delisle (q.v.), who has also left + traces of his profound researches in the most varied departments of + medieval history (_Bibliographie des travaux de M. Léopold Delisle_, + 1902); Anatole de Barthélemy made a study of coins and medals, Douët + d'Arcq and G. Demay of seals. The works of Alexandre Lenoir (_Musée + des monuments français_, 1800-1822), of Arcisse de Caumont (_Histoire + de l'architecture du moyen âge_, 1837; _Abécédaire ou rudiment + d'archéologie_, 1850), of A. Napoléon Didron (_Annales + archéologiques_, 1844), of Jules Quicherat (_Mélanges d'archéologie et + d'histoire_, published after his death, 1886), and the dictionaries of + Viollet le Duc (_Dictionnaire raisonné de l'architecture française_, + 1853-1868; _Dictionnaire du mobilier français_, 1855) displayed to the + best advantage one of the most brilliant sides of the French + intellect, while other sciences, such as geology, anthropology, the + comparative study of languages, religions and folk-lore, and political + economy, continued to enlarge the horizon of history. The task of + writing the general history of a country became more and more + difficult, especially for one man, but the task was none the less + undertaken by several historians, and by some of eminence. François + Guizot treated of the _Histoire de la civilisation en France_ + (1828-1830); Augustin Thierry after the _Récits des temps + mérovingiens_ (1840) published the _Monuments de l'histoire du tiers + état_ (1849-1856), the introduction to which was expanded into a book + (1855); Charles Simonde de Sismondi produced a mediocre _Histoire des + français_ in 31 vols. (1821-1844), and Henri Martin a _Histoire de + France_ in 16 vols. (1847-1854), now of small use except for the two + or three last centuries of the _ancien régime_. Finally J. Michelet, + in his _Histoire de France_ (17 vols., 1833-1856) and his _Histoire de + la Révolution_ (7 vols., 1847-1853), aims at reviving the very soul of + the nation's past. + + After the Franco-German War begins a better organization of scientific + studies, modelled on that of Germany. The École des Hautes Études, + established in 1868, included in its programme the critical study of + the sources, both Latin and French, of the history of France; and from + the _séminaire_ of Gabriel Monod came men of learning, already + prepared by studying at the École des Chartes: Paul Viollet, who + revived the study of the history of French law; Julien Havet, who + revived that of Merovingian diplomatics; Arthur Giry, who resumed the + study of municipal institutions where it had been left by A. Thierry, + prepared the _Annales carolingiennes_ (written by his pupils, Eckel, + Favre, Lauer, Lot, Poupardin), and brought back into honour the study + of diplomatics (_Manuel de diplomatique_, 1894); Auguste Molinier, + author of the _Sources de l'histoire de France_ (1902-1904; general + index, 1906), &c. Auguste Longnon introduced at the École des Hautes + Études the study of historical geography (_Atlas historique de la + France_, in course of publication since 1888). The universities, at + last reorganized, popularized the employment of the new methods. The + books of Fustel de Coulanges and Achille Luchaire on the middle ages, + and those of A. Aulard on the revolution, gave a strong, though + well-regulated, impetus to historical production. The École du Louvre + (1881) increased the value of the museums and placed the history of + art among the studies of higher education, while the Musée + archéologique of St-Germain-en-Laye offered a fruitful field for + research on Gallic and Gallo-Roman antiquities. Rich archives, + hitherto inaccessible, were thrown open to students; at Rome those of + the Vatican (_Registres pontificaux_, published by students at the + French school of archaeology, since 1884); at Paris, those of the + Foreign Office (_Recueil des instructions données aux ambassadeurs + depuis le traité de Westphalie_, 16 vols., 1885-1901; besides various + collections of diplomatic papers, inventories, &c.). Those of the War + Office were used by officers who published numerous documents bearing + on the wars of the Revolution and the Empire, and on that of + 1870-1871. In 1904 a commission, generously endowed by the French + parlement, was entrusted with the task of publishing the documents + relating to economic and social life of the time of the Revolution, + and four volumes had appeared by 1908. Certain towns, Paris, Bordeaux, + &c., have made it a point of honour to have their chief historical + monuments printed. The work now becomes more and more specialized. + _L'Histoire de France_, by Ernest Lavisse (1900, &c.), is the work of + fifteen different authors. It is therefore more than ever necessary + that the work should be under sound direction. The _Manuel de + bibliographie historique_ of Ch. V. Langlois (2nd edition, 1901-1904) + is a good guide, as is his _Archives de l'histoire de France_ (1891, + in collaboration with H. Stein). + + Besides the special bibliographies mentioned above, it will be useful + to consult the _Bibliothèque historique_ of Père Jacques Lelong (1719; + new ed. by Fevret de Fontette, 5 vols., 1768-1778); the _Geschichte + der historischen Forschung und Kunst_ of Ludwig Wachler (2 vols., + 1812-1816); the _Bibliographie de la France_, established in 1811 (1st + series, 1811-1856, 45 vols.; 2nd series, 1 vol. per annum since 1857); + the publications of the Société de Bibliographie (_Polybiblion_, from + 1868 on, &c.); the _Bibliographie de l'histoire de France_, by Gabriel + Monod (1888); the _Répertoire_ of the abbé Ulysse Chevalier + (_Biobibliographie_; new ed. 1903-1907; and _Topobibliographie_, + 1894-1899). Bearing exclusively on the middle ages are the + _Bibliotheca historica medii aevi_ of August Potthast (new ed. 1896) + and the _Manuel_ (_Les Sources de l'histoire de France_, 1901, &c.) of + A. Molinier; but the latter is to be continued up to modern times, the + 16th century having already been begun by Henri Hausser (1st part, + 1906). Finally, various special reviews, besides teaching historical + method by criticism and by example, try to keep their readers _au + courant_ with literary production; the _Revue critique d'histoire et + de littérature_ (1866 fol.), the _Revue des questions historiques_ + (1866 fol.), the _Revue historique_ (1876 fol.), the _Revue d'histoire + moderne et contemporaine_, accompanied annually by a valuable + _Répertoire méthodique_ (1898 fol.); the _Revue de synthèse + historique_ (1900 fol.), &c. (C. B.*) + + +FRENCH LAW AND INSTITUTIONS + +_Celtic Period._--The remotest times to which history gives us access +with reference to the law and institutions formerly existing in the +country which is now called France are those in which the dominant race +at least was Celtic. On the whole, our knowledge is small of the law and +institutions of these Celts, or Gauls, whose tribes constituted +independent Gaul. For their reconstruction, modern scholars draw upon +two sources; firstly, there is the information furnished by the +classical writers and by Caesar and Strabo in particular, which is +trustworthy but somewhat scanty; the other source, which is not so pure, +consists in the accounts found in those legal works of the middle ages +written in the neo-Celtic dialects, the most important and the greater +number of which belong to Ireland. A reconstruction from them is always +hazardous, however delicate and scientific be the criticism which is +brought to bear on it, as in the case of d'Arbois de Jubainville, for +example. Moreover, in the historical evolution of French institutions +those of the Celts or Gauls are of little importance. Not one of them +can be shown to have survived in later law. What has survived of the +Celtic race is the blood and temperament, still found in a great many +Frenchmen, certain traits which the ancients remarked in the Gauls being +still recognizable: _bellum gerere et argute loqui_. + +_Roman Period._--It was the Roman conquest and rule which really formed +Gaul, for she was Romanized to the point of losing almost completely +that which persists most stubbornly in a conquered nation, namely, the +language; the Breton-speaking population came to France later, from +Britain. The institutions of Roman Gaul became identical with those of +the Roman empire, provincial and municipal government undergoing the +same evolution as in the other parts of the empire. It was under Roman +supremacy too, as M. d'Arbois de Jubainville has shown, that the +ownership of land became personal and free in Gaul. The law for the +Gallo-Romans was that which was administered by the _conventus_ of the +magistrate; there are only a few peculiarities, mere Gallicisms, +resulting from conventions or usage, which are pointed out by Roman +jurisconsults of the classical age. The administrative reforms of +Diocletian and Constantine applied to Gaul as to the rest of the empire. +Gaul under this rule consisted of seventeen provinces, divided between +two dioceses, ten in the diocese of the Gauls, under the authority of +the praetorian prefect, who resided at Treves; and the other seven in +the _dioecesis septem provinciarum_, under the authority of a +_vicarius_. The Gallo-Romans became Christian with the other subjects of +the empire; the Church extended thither her powerful organization +modelled on the administrative organization, each _civitas_ having a +bishop, just as it had a _curia_ and municipal magistrates. But, +although endowed with privileges by the Christian emperors, the Church +did not yet encroach upon the civil power. She had the right of +acquiring property, of holding councils, subject to the imperial +authority, and of the free election of bishops. But only the first germs +of ecclesiastical jurisdiction are to be traced. In virtue of the laws, +the bishops were privileged arbitrators, and in the matter of public +sins exercised a disciplinary jurisdiction over the clergy and the +faithful. In the second half of the 4th century, monasteries appeared in +Gaul. After the fall of the Western empire, there was left to the +Gallo-Romans as an expression of its law, which was also theirs, a +written legislation. It consisted of the imperial constitutions, +contained in the Gregorian, Hermogenian and Theodosian codes (the two +former being private compilations, and the third an official +collection), and the writings of the five jurists (Gaius, Papinian, +Paulus, Ulpian and Modestinus), to which Valentinian III. had in 426 +given the force of law. + +_The Barbarian Invasion._--The invasions and settlements of the +barbarians open a new period. Though there were robbery and violence in +every case, the various barbarian kingdoms set up in Gaul were +established under different conditions. In those of the Burgundians and +Visigoths, the owners of the great estates, which had been the +prevailing form of landed property in Roman Gaul, suffered partial +dispossession, according to a system the rules regulating which can, in +the case of the Burgundians, be traced almost exactly. It is doubtful +whether a similar process took place in the case of the Frankish +settlements, but their first conquests in the north and east seem to +have led to the extermination or total expulsion of the Gallo-Roman +population. It is impossible to say to what extent, in these various +settlements, the system of collective property prevailing among the +Germanic tribes was adopted. Another important difference was that, in +embracing Christianity, some of the barbarians became Arians, as in the +case of the Visigoths and Burgundians; others Catholic, as in the case +of the Franks. This was probably the main cause of the absorption of the +other kingdoms into the Frankish monarchy. In each case, however, the +barbarian king appeared as wishing not to overthrow the Roman +administration, but to profit by its continuation. The kings of the +Visigoths and Burgundians were at first actually representatives of the +Western empire, and Clovis himself was ready to accept from the emperor +Anastasius the title of consul; but these were but empty forms, similar +to the fictitious ties which long existed or still exist between China +or Turkey and certain parts of their former empires, now separated from +them for ever. + +As soon as the Merovingian monarch had made himself master of Gaul, he +set himself to maintain and keep in working order the administrative +machinery of the Romans, save that the administrative unit was +henceforth no longer the _provincia_ but the _civitas_, which generally +took the name of _pagus_, and was placed under the authority of a count, +_comes_ or _grafio_ (_Graf_). Perhaps this was not entirely an +innovation, for it appears that at the end of the Roman supremacy +certain _civitates_ had already a _comes_. Further, several _pagi_ could +be united under the authority of a _dux_. The _pagus_ seems to have +generally been divided into hundreds (_centenae_). + +But the Roman administrative machinery was too delicate to be handled by +barbarians; it could not survive for long, but underwent changes and +finally disappeared. Thus the Merovingians tried to levy the same direct +taxes as the Romans had done, the _capitatio terrena_ and the _capitatio +humana_, but they ceased to be imposts reassessed periodically in +accordance with the total sum fixed as necessary to meet the needs of +the state, and became fixed annual taxes on lands or persons; finally, +they disappeared as general imposts, continuing to exist only as +personal or territorial dues. In the same way the Roman municipal +organization, that of the _curiae_, survived for a considerable time +under the Merovingians, but was used only for the registration of +written deeds; under the Carolingians it disappeared, and with it the +old senatorial nobility which had been that of the Empire. The +administration of justice (apart from the king's tribunal) seems to have +been organized on a system borrowed partly from Roman and partly from +Germanic institutions; it naturally tends to assume popular forms. +Justice is administered by the count (_comes_) or his deputy +(_centenarius_ or _vicarius_), but on the verdict of notables called in +the texts _boni homines_ or _rachimburgii_. This takes place in an +assembly of all the free subjects, called _mallus_, at which every free +man is bound to attend at least a certain number of times a year, and in +which are promulgated the general acts emanating from the king. The +latter could issue commands or prohibitions under the name of _bannus_, +the violation of which entailed a fine of 60 _solidi_; the king also +administered justice (_in palatio_), assisted by the officers of his +household, his jurisdiction being unlimited and at the same time +undefined. He could hear all causes, but was not bound to hear any, +except, apparently, accusations of deliberate failure of justice and +breach of trust on the part of the _rachimburgii_. + + + Character of the Merovingian kingship. + +But what proved the great disturbing element in Gallo-Roman society was +the fact that the conquerors, owing to their former customs and the +degree of their civilization, were all warriors, men whose chief +interest was to become practised in the handling of arms, and whose +normal state was that of war. It is true that under the Roman empire all +the men of a _civitas_ were obliged, in case of necessity, to march +against the enemy, and under the Frankish monarchy the count still +called together his _pagenses_ for this object. But the condition of the +barbarian was very different; he lived essentially for fighting. Hence +those gatherings or annual reviews of the _Campus Martius_, which +continued so long, in Austrasia at least. They constituted the chief +armed force; for mercenary troops, in spite of the assertions of some to +the contrary, play at this period only a small part. But this military +class, though not an aristocracy (for among the Franks the royal race +alone was noble), was to a large extent independent, and the king had to +attach these _leudes_ or _fideles_ to himself by gifts and favours. At +the same time the authority of the king gradually underwent a change in +character, though he always claimed to be the successor of the Roman +emperor. It gradually assumed that domestic or personal character that, +among the Germans, marked most of the relations between men. The +household of the king gained in political importance, by reason that the +heads of the principal offices in the palace became at the same time +high public officials. There was, moreover, a body of men more +especially attached to the king, the _antrustions_ (q.v.) and the +commensals (_convivae regis_) whose _weregeld_ (i.e. the price of a +man's life in the system of compensation then prevalent) was three times +greater than that of the other subjects of the same race. + +The Frankish monarch had also the power of making laws, which he +exercised after consulting the chief men of the kingdom, both lay and +ecclesiastical, in the _placita_, which were meetings differing from the +_Campus Martius_ and apparently modelled principally on the councils of +the Church. But throughout the kingdom in many places the direct +authority of the king over the people ceased to make itself felt. The +_immunitates_, granted chiefly to the great ecclesiastical properties, +limited this authority in a curious way by forbidding public officials +to exercise their functions in the precinct of land which was _immunis_. +The judicial and fiscal rights frequently passed to the landowner, who +in any case became of necessity the intermediary between the supreme +power and the people. In regard to this last point, moreover, the case +seems to have been the same with all the great landowners or _potentes_, +whose territory was called _potestas_, and who gained a real authority +over those living within it; later in the middle ages they were called +_homines potestatis_ (_hommes de poeste_). + +Other principles, arising perhaps less from Germanic custom strictly +speaking than from an inferior level of civilization, also contributed +towards the weakening of the royal power. The monarch, like his +contemporaries, considered the kingdom and the rights of the king over +it to be his property; consequently, he had the power of dealing with it +as if it were a private possession; it is this which gave rise to the +concessions of royal rights to individuals, and later to the partitions +of the kingdom, and then of the empire, between the sons of the king or +emperor, to the exclusion of the daughters, as in the division of an +inheritance in land. This proved one of the chief weaknesses of the +Merovingian monarchy. + + + Position of the Church. + +In order to rule the Gallo-Romans, the barbarians had had inevitably to +ask the help of the Church, which was the representative of Roman +civilization. Further, the Merovingian monarch and the Catholic Church +had come into close alliance in their struggle with the Arians. The +result for the Church had been that she gained new privileges, but at +the same time became to a certain extent dependent. Under the +Merovingians the election of the bishop _a clero et populo_ is only +valid if it obtains the assent (_assensus_) of the king, who often +directly nominates the prelate. But at the same time the Church retains +her full right of acquiring property, and has her jurisdiction partially +recognized; that is to say, she not only exercises more freely than ever +a disciplinary jurisdiction, but the bishop, in place of the civil +power, administers civil and criminal justice over the clergy. The +councils had for a long time forbidden the clergy to cite one another +before secular tribunals; they had also, in the 6th century, forbidden +secular judges under pain of excommunication to cite before them and +judge the clergy, without permission of the bishop. A decree of Clotaire +II. (614) acknowledged the validity of these claims, but not completely; +a precise interpretation of the text is, however, difficult. + + + Carolingian period. + + Beginnings of the feudal system. + +The Merovingian dynasty perished of decay, amid increasing anarchy. The +crown passed, with the approval of the papacy, to an Austrasian mayor of +the palace and his family, one of those mayors of the palace (i.e. chief +officer of the king's household) who had been the last support of the +preceding dynasty. It was then that there developed a certain number of +institutions, which offered themselves as useful means of consolidating +the political organism, and were in reality the direct precursors of +feudalism. One was the royal benefice (_beneficium_), of which, without +doubt, the Church provided both the model and, in the first instance, +the material. The model was the _precaria_, a form of concession by +which it was customary for the Church to grant the possession of her +lands to free men; this practice she herself had copied from the +five-years leases granted by the Roman exchequer. Gradually, however, +the _precaria_ had become a concession made, in most cases, free and for +life. As regards the material, when the Austrasian mayors of the palace +(probably Charles Martel) wished to secure the support of the _fideles_ +by fresh benefits, the royal treasury being exhausted, they turned to +the Church, which was at that time the greatest landowner, and took +lands from her to give to their warriors. In order to disguise the +robbery it was decided--perhaps as an afterthought--that these lands +should be held as _precariae_ from the Church, or from the monastic +houses which had furnished them. Later, when the royal treasury was +reorganized, the grants of land made by the kings naturally took a +similar form: the _beneficium_, as a free grant for life. Under the +Merovingians royal grants of land were in principle made in full +ownership, except, as Brunner has shown, that provision was made for a +revocation under certain circumstances. No special services seem to have +been attached to the benefice, whether granted by the king or by some +other person, but, in the second half of the 9th century at least, the +possession of the benefice is found as the characteristic of the +military class and the form of their pay. This we find clearly set forth +in the treatise _de ecclesiis et capellis_ of Hincmar of Reims. The +_beneficium_, in obedience to a natural law, soon tended to crystallize +into a perpetual and hereditary right. Another institution akin to the +_beneficium_ was the _senioratus_; by the _commendatio_, a form of +solemn contract, probably of Germanic origin, and chiefly characterized +by the placing of the hands between those of the lord, a man swore +absolute fidelity to another man, who became his _senior_. It became the +generally received idea (as expressed in the capitularies) that it was +natural and normal for every free man to have a _senior_. At the same +time a benefice was never granted unless accompanied by the +_commendatio_ of the beneficiary to the grantor. As the most important +_seniores_ were thus bound to the king and received from him their +benefices, he expected through them to command their men; but in reality +the king disappeared little by little in the _senior_. The king granted +as benefices not only lands, but public functions, such as those of +count or _dux_, which thus became possessions, held, first for life, and +later as hereditary properties. The Capitulary of Kiersy-sur-Oise (877), +which was formerly considered to have made fiefs legally and generally +hereditary, only proves that it was already the custom for benefices of +this kind, _honores_, to pass from the father to one of the sons. + + + Reforms of Charlemagne. + + Carolingian fiscal system. + + The Church under Charlemagne. + +Charlemagne, while sanctioning these institutions, tried to arrest the +political decomposition. He reorganized the administration of justice, +fixing the respective jurisdictions of the count and the _centenarius_, +substituting for the _rachimburgii_ permanent _scabini_, chosen by the +count in the presence of the people, and defining the relations of the +count, as the representative of the central authority, with the +_advocati_ or _judices_ of _immunitates_ and _potestates_. He +reorganized the army, determining the obligations and the military +outfit of free men according to their means. Finally, he established +those regular inspections by the _missi dominici_ which are the subject +of so many of his capitularies. From the _De ordine palatii_ of Hincmar +of Reims, who follows the account of a contemporary of the great +emperor, we learn that he also regularly established two general +assemblies, _conventus_ or _placita_, in the year, one in the autumn, +the other in the spring, which were attended by the chief officials, lay +and ecclesiastical. It was here that the capitularies (q.v.) and all +important measures were first drawn up and then promulgated. The +revenues of the Carolingian monarch (which are no longer identical with +the finances of the state) consisted chiefly in the produce of the royal +lands (_villae_), which the king and his suite often came and consumed +on the spot; and it is known how carefully Charlemagne regulated the +administration of the _villae_. There were also the free gifts which the +great men were bound, according to custom, to bring to the _conventus_, +the contributions of this character from the monasteries practically +amounting to a tax; the regular personal or territorial dues into which +the old taxes had resolved themselves; the profits arising from the +courts (the royal _bannus_, and the _fredum_, or part of the +compensation-money which went to the king); finally, numberless +requisitions in kind, a usage which had without doubt existed +continuously since Roman times. The Church was loaded with honours and +had added a fresh prerogative to her former privileges, namely, the +right of levying a real tax in kind, the _tithe_. Since the 3rd century +she had tried to exact the payment of tithes from the faithful, +interpreting as applicable to the Christian clergy the texts in the Old +Testament bearing on the Levites; Gallican councils had repeatedly +proclaimed it as an obligation, though, it appears, with little success. +But from the reign of Pippin the Short onwards the civil law recognized +and sanctioned this obligation, and the capitularies of Charlemagne and +Louis the Debonnaire contain numerous provisions dealing with it. +Ecclesiastical jurisdiction extended farther and farther, but +Charlemagne, the protector of the papacy, maintained firmly his +authority over the Church. He nominated its dignitaries, both bishops +and abbots, who were true ecclesiastical officials, parallel with the +lay officials. In each _pagus_, bishop and count owed each other mutual +support, and the missi on the same circuit were ordinarily a count and a +bishop. In the first collection of capitularies, that of Ansegisus, two +books out of four are devoted to ecclesiastical capitularies. + + + The law under the Frank monarchy. + +What, then, was the private and criminal law of this Frankish monarchy +which had come to embrace so many different races? The men of Roman +descent continued under the Roman law, and the conquerors could not hope +to impose their customs upon them. The authorized expression of the +Roman law was henceforth to be found in the _Lex romana Wisigothorum_ or +_Breviarium Alarici_, drawn up by order of Alaric II. in 506. It is an +abridgment of the codes, of that of Theodosius especially, and of +certain of the writings of the jurists included under the Law of +Citations. As to the barbarians, they had hitherto had nothing but +customs, and these customs, of which the type nearest to the original is +to be found in the oldest text of the _Lex Salica_, were nothing more +than a series of tariffs of compensations, that is to say, sums of money +due to the injured party or his family in case of crimes committed +against individuals, for which crimes these compensations were the only +penalty. They also introduced a barbarous system of trial, that by +compurgation, i.e. exculpation by the oath of the defendant supported by +a certain number of _cojurantes_, and that by ordeal, later called +_judicium Dei_. In each new kingdom the barbarians naturally kept their +own laws, and when these men of different races all became subject to +the Frankish monarchy, there evolved itself a system (called the +_personnalité des lois_) by which every subject had, in principle, the +right to be tried by the law of the race to which he belonged by birth +(or sometimes for some other reason, such as emancipation or marriage). +When the two adversaries were of different race, it was the law of the +defendant which had to be applied. The customs of the barbarians had +been drawn up in Latin. Sometimes, as in the case of the first text of +the Salic law, the system on which they were compiled is not exactly +known; but it was generally done under the royal authority. At this +period only these written documents bear the name of "law" (_leges +romanorum_; _leges barbarorum_), and at least the tacit consent of the +people seems to have been required for these collections of laws, in +accordance with an axiom laid down in a later capitulary; _lex fit +consensu populi et constitutione regis_. It is noteworthy, too, that in +the process of being drawn up in Latin, most of the _leges barbarorum_ +were very much Romanized. + +In the midst of this diversity, a certain number of causes tended to +produce a partial unity. The capitularies, which had in themselves the +force of law, when there was no question of modifying the _leges_, +constituted a legislation which was the same for all; often they +inflicted corporal punishment for grave offences, which applied to all +subjects without distinction. Usage and individual convenience led to +the same result. The Gallo-Romans, and even the Church itself, to a +certain extent, adopted the methods of trial introduced by the Germans, +as was likely in a country relapsing into barbarism. On the other hand, +written acts became prevalent among the barbarians, and at the same time +they assimilated a certain amount of Roman law; for these acts continued +to be drawn up in Latin, after Roman models, which were in most cases +simply misinterpreted owing to the general ignorance. The type is +preserved for us in those collections of _Formulae_, of which complete +and scientific editions have been published by Eugène de Rozière and +Carl Zeumer. During this period, too, the Gallican Church adopted the +collection of councils and decretals, called later the _Codex canonum +ecclesiae Gallicanae_, which she continued to preserve. This collection +was that of Dionysius Exiguus, which was sent to Charlemagne in 774 by +Pope Adrian I. But in the course of the 9th century apocryphal +collections were also formed in the Gallican Church: the False +Capitularies of Benedictus Levita, and the False Decretals of Isidorus +Mercator (see DECRETALS). + +All the subjects of the Frankish monarchy were not of equal status. +There was, strictly speaking, no nobility, both the Roman and the +Germanic nobility having died out; but slavery continued to exist. The +Church, however, was preparing the transformation of the slave into the +serf, by giving force and validity to their marriages, in cases, at +least, when the master had approved of them, and by forbidding the +latter unjustly to seize the slave's _peculium_. But between the free +man (_ingenuus_) and the slave lay a number of persons of intermediate +status; they possessed legal personality but were subject to +incapacities of various kinds, and had to perform various duties towards +other men. There was, to begin with, the Roman colonist (_colonus_), a +class as to the origin of which there is still a controversy, and of +which there is no clear mention in the laws before the 4th century; they +and their children after them were attached perpetually to a certain +piece of land, which they were allowed to cultivate on payment of a +rent. There were, further, the _liti_ (_litus_ or _lidus_), a similar +class of Germanic origin; also the greater number of the freedmen or +descendants of freedmen. Many free men who had fled to the great +landowners for protection took, by arrangement or by custom, a similar +position. Under the Merovingian régime, and especially under the +Carolingians, the occupation of the land tended to assume the character +of tenure; but free ownership of land continued to exist under the name +of _alod_ (_alodis_), and there is even evidence for the existence of +this in the form of small properties, held by free men; the capitularies +contain numerous complaints and threats against the counts, who +endeavoured by the abuse of their power to obtain the surrender of these +properties. + + + Anarchy and feudal origins. + +_Period of Anarchy and the Rise of Feudalism._--The 10th and 11th +centuries were a period of profound anarchy, during which feudalism was +free to develop itself and to take definitive shape. At that time the +French people may be said to have lived without laws, without even fixed +customs and without government. The legislative power was no longer +exercised, for the last Carolingian capitularies date from the year 884, +and the first laws of the Capetian kings (if they may be called laws) do +not appear till during the 12th century. During this period the old +capitularies and _leges_ fell into disuse and in their place territorial +customs tended to grow up, their main constituents being furnished by +the law of former times, but which were at the outset ill-defined and +strictly local. As to the government, if the part played by the Church +be excepted, we shall see that it could be nothing but the application +of brute force. In this anarchy, as always happens under similar +conditions, men drew together and formed themselves into groups for +mutual defence. A nucleus was formed which was to become the new social +unit, that is to say, the feudal group. Of this the centre was a chief, +around whom gathered men capable of bearing arms, who commended +themselves to him according to the old form of vassalage, _per manus_. +They owed him fidelity and assistance, the support of their arms but not +of their purse, save in quite exceptional cases; while he owed them +protection. Some of them lived in his castle or fortified house, +receiving their equipment only and eating at his table. Others received +lands from him, which were, or later became, fiefs, on which they lived +_casati_. The name fief, _feudum_, does not appear, however, till +towards the end of this period; these lands are frequently called +_beneficia_ as before; the term most in use at first, in many parts, is +_casamentum_. The fief, moreover, was generally held for life and did +not become generally hereditary till the second half of the 11th +century. The lands kept by the chief and those which he granted to his +men were for the most part rented from him, or from them, for a certain +amount in money or in kind. All these conditions had already existed +previously in much the same form; but the new development is that the +chief was no longer, as before, merely an intermediary between his men +and the royal power. The group had become in effect independent, so +organized as to be socially and politically self-sufficient. It +constituted a small army, led, naturally, by the chief, and composed of +his feudatories, supplemented in case of need by the _rustici_. It also +formed an assembly in which common interests were discussed, the lord, +according to custom, being bound to consult his feudatories and they to +advise him to the best of their power. It also formed a court of +justice, in which the feudatories gave judgment under the presidency of +their lord; and all of them claimed to be subject only to the +jurisdiction of this tribunal composed of their peers. Generally they +also judged the villeins (_villani_) and the serfs dependent on the +group, except in cases where the latter obtained as a favour judges of +their own status, which was, however, at that time a very rare +occurrence. + +Under these conditions a nobility was formed, those men becoming nobles +who were able to devote themselves to the profession of arms and were +either chiefs or soldiers in one of the groups which have just been +described. The term designating a noble, _miles_, corresponds also to +that of knight (Fr. _chevalier_, Low Lat. _caballerius_), for the reason +that chivalry, of which the origins are uncertain, represents +essentially the technical skill and professional duties of this military +class. Every noble was destined on coming of age to become a knight, and +the knight equally as a matter of course received a fief, if he had not +one already by hereditary title. This nobility, moreover, was not a +caste but could be indefinitely recruited by the granting of fiefs and +admission to knighthood (see KNIGHTHOOD AND CHIVALRY). + + + Private war. + +The state of anarchy was by now so far advanced that war became an +individual right, and the custom of private war arose. Every man had in +principle the right of making war to defend his rights or to avenge his +wrongs. Later on, doubtless, in the 13th century, this was a privilege +of the noble (_gentilhomme_); but the texts defining the limits which +the Church endeavoured to set to this abuse, namely, the Peace of God +and the Truce of God, show that this was at the outset a power possessed +by men of all classes. Even a man who had appeared in a court of law and +received judgment had the choice of refusing to accept the judgment and +of making war instead. Justice, moreover, with its frequent employment +of trial by combat, did not essentially differ from private war. + +It is unnecessary to go further and to affirm, with certain historians +of our time, for example Guilhermoz and Sée, that the only free men at +that time, besides the clergy, were the nobles, all the rest being +serfs. There are many indications which lead us to assume, not only in +the towns but even in the country districts, the existence of a class of +men of free status who were not _milites_, the class later known in the +13th century as _vilains_, _hommes de poeste_, and, later, _roturiers_. +The fact more probably was that only the nobles and ecclesiastics were +exempt from the exactions of the feudal lords; while from all the others +the seigneurs could at pleasure levy the _taille_ (a direct and +arbitrary tax), and those innumerable rights then called +_consuetudines_. Free ownership, the _allodium_, even under the form of +small freeholds, still existed by way of exception in many parts. + +Had, then, the main public authority disappeared? This is practically +the contention of certain writers, who, like M. Sée, maintain that real +property, the possession of a domain, conferred on the big landed +proprietor all rights of taxation, command and coercion over the +inhabitants of his domain, who, according to this view, were always +serfs. But this is an exaggeration of the thesis upheld by old French +authors, who saw in feudalism, though in a different sense, a confusion +of property with sovereignty. It appears that in this state of political +disintegration each part of the country which had a homogeneous +character tended to form itself into a higher unit. In this unit there +arose a powerful lord, generally a duke, a count, or a viscount, who +sometimes came to be called the _capitalis dominus_. He was either a +former official of the monarchy, whose function had become hereditary, +or a usurper who had formed himself on this model. He laid claim to an +authority other than that conferred by the possession of real property. +He still claimed to exercise over the whole of his former district +certain rights, which we see him sometimes surrendering for the benefit +of churches or monasteries. His court of justice was held in the highest +honour, and to it were referred the most important affairs. But in this +district there were generally a number of more or less powerful lords, +who as a rule had as yet no particular feudal title and are often given +the name of _principes_. Often, but not always, they had commended +themselves to this duke or count by doing homage. + + + The royal power. + +On the other hand, the royal power continued to exist, being recognized +by a considerable part of old Gaul, the _regnum Francorum_. But under +the last of the Carolingians it had in fact become elective, as is shown +by the elections of Odo and Robert before that of Hugh Capet. The +electors were the chief lords and prelates of the _regnum Francorum_. +But following a clever policy, each king during his lifetime took as +partner of his kingdom his eldest son and consecrated and crowned him in +advance, so that the first of the Capetians revived the principle of +heredity in favour of the eldest son, while establishing the hereditary +indivisibility of the kingdom. This custom was recognized at the +accession of Louis the Fat, but the authority of the king was very weak, +being merely a vague allegiance. His only real authority lay where his +own possessions were, or where there had not arisen a duke, a count, or +lord of equal rank with them. He maintained, however, a general right of +administering justice, a _curia_, the jurisdiction of which seems to +have been universal. It is true that the parties in a suit had to submit +themselves to it voluntarily, and could accept or reject the judgment +given, but this was at that time the general rule. The king dispensed +justice surrounded by the officers of his household (_domestici_), who +thus formed his council; but these were not the only ones to assist him, +whether in court or council. Periodically, at the great yearly +festivals, he called together the chief lords and prelates of his +kingdom, thus carrying on the tradition of the Carolingian _placita_ or +_conventus_; but little by little, with the appropriation of the +_honores_, the character of the gathering changed; it was no longer an +assembly of officials but of independent lords. This was now called the +_curia regis_. + + + The Church. + +While the power of the State was almost disappearing, that of the +Church, apart from the particular acts of violence of which she was +often the victim, continued to grow. Her jurisdiction gained ground, +since her procedure was reasonable and comparatively scientific (except +that she admitted to a certain extent compurgation by oath and the +_judicia Dei_, with the exception of trial by combat). Not only was the +privilege of clergy, by which accused clerks were brought under her +jurisdiction, almost absolute, but she had cognizance of a number of +causes in which laymen only were concerned, marriage and everything +nearly or remotely affecting it, wills, crimes and offences against +religion; and even contracts, when the two parties wished it or when the +agreement was made on oath, came within her competence. Such, then, were +the ecclesiastical or Christian courts (_cours d'église, course de +chrétienté_). The Church, moreover, remained in close connexion with the +crown, the king preserving a quasi-ecclesiastical character, while the +royal prerogatives with regard to the election of bishops were +maintained more successfully than the rights of the crown, though in +many of the great fiefs they none the less passed to the count or the +duke. It was at this time too that the Church tried to break the last +ties which still kept her more or less dependent on the civil power; +this was the true import of the Investiture Contest (see INVESTITURE, +and CHURCH HISTORY), though this was not very acute in France. + + + The feudal monarchy. + + Roman law. + + The customs. + +The period of the true feudal monarchy is embraced by the 12th and 13th +centuries, that is to say, it was at this time that the crown again +assumed real strength and authority; but so far it had no organs and +instruments save those which were furnished by feudalism, now organized +under a regular hierarchy, of which the king was the head, the +"sovereign enfeoffer of the kingdom" (_souverain fieffeux du royaume_), +as he came later on to be called. This new position of affairs was the +result of three great factors: the revival of Roman Law, the final +organization of feudalism and the rise of the privileged towns. The +revival of Roman law began in France and Italy in the second half of the +11th century, developing with extraordinary brilliance in the latter +country at the university of Bologna, which was destined for a long time +to dominate Europe. Roman law spread rapidly in the French schools and +universities, except that of Paris, which was closed to it by the +papacy; and the influence of this study was so great that it transformed +society. On the one hand it contributed largely to the reconstitution of +the royal power, modelling the rights of the king on those of the Roman +emperor. On the other hand it wrought a no less profound change in +private law. From this time dates the division of old France into the +_Pays de droit écrit_, in which Roman law, under the form in which it +was codified by Justinian, was received as the ordinary law; and the +_Pays de coutume_, where it played only a secondary part, being +generally valid only as _ratio scripta_ and not as _lex scripta_. In +this period the customs also took definitive form, and over and above +the local customs properly so called there were formed customs known as +_general_, which held good through a whole province or _bailliage_, and +were based on the jurisprudence of the higher jurisdictions. + + + Final organization of feudalism. + + Feudal character of justice. + +The final organization of feudalism resulted from the struggle for +organization which was proceeding in each district where the more +powerful lords compelled the others to do them homage and become their +vassals; the _capitalis dominus_ had beneath him a whole hierarchy, and +was himself a part of the feudal system of France (see FEUDALISM). +Doubtless in the case of lords like the dukes of Brittany and Burgundy, +the king could not actually demand the strict fulfilment of the feudal +obligations; but the principle was established. The question now arises, +did free and absolute property, the _allodium_, entirely disappear in +this process, and were all lands held as tenures? It continued to exist, +by way of exception, in most districts, unchanged save in the burden of +proof of ownership, with which, according to the customs, sometimes the +lord and sometimes the holder of the land was held charged. In one +respect, however, namely in the administration of justice, the feudal +hierarchy had absolute sway. Towards the end of the 13th century +Beaumanoir clearly laid down this principle: "All secular jurisdiction +in France is held from the king as a fief or an _arrière-fief_." +Henceforth it could also be said that "All justice emanates from the +king." The law concerning fiefs became settled also from another point +of view, the fief becoming patrimonial; that is to say, not only +hereditary, but freely alienable by the vassal, subject in both cases to +certain rights of transfer due to the lord, which were at first fixed by +agreement and later by custom. The most salient features of feudal +succession were the right of primogeniture and the preference given to +heirs-male; but from the 13th century onwards the right of +primogeniture, which had at first involved the total exclusion of the +younger members of a family, tended to be modified, except in the case +of the chief lords, the eldest son obtaining the preponderant share or +_préciput_. Non-noble (_roturier_) tenancies also became patrimonial in +similar circumstances, except that in their case there was no right of +primogeniture nor any privilege of males. The tenure of serfs did not +become alienable, and only became hereditary by certain devices. + + + Rise of the privileged towns. + +Feudal society next saw the rise of a new element within it: the +privileged towns. At this time many towns acquired privileges, the +movement beginning towards the end of the 11th century; they were +sanctioned by a formal concession from the lord to whom the town was +subject, the concession being embodied in a charter or in a record of +customs (_coutume_). Some towns won for themselves true political +rights, for instance the right of self-administration, rights of justice +over the inhabitants, the right of not being taxed except by their own +consent, of maintaining an armed force, and of controlling it +themselves. Others only obtained civil rights, e.g. guarantees against +the arbitrary rights of justice and taxation of the lord or his provost. +The chief forms of municipal organization at this time were the _commune +jurée_ of the north and east, and the _consulat_, which came from Italy +and penetrated as far as Auvergne and Limousin. The towns with important +privileges formed in feudal society as it were a new class of lordships; +but their lords, that is to say their burgesses, were inspired by quite +a new spirit. The crown courted their support, taking them under its +protection, and championing the causes in which they were interested +(see COMMUNE). Finally, it is in this period, under Philip Augustus, +that the great fiefs began to be effectually reannexed to the crown, a +process which, continued by the kings up to the end of the _ancien +régime_, refounded for their profit the territorial sovereignty of +France. + + + Great officers of the crown and peers of France. + +The crown maintained the machinery of feudalism, the chief central +instruments of which were the great officers of the crown, the +seneschal, butler, constable and chancellor, who were to become +irremovable officials, those at least who survived. But this period saw +the rise of a special college of dignitaries, that of the Twelve Peers +of France, consisting of six laymen and six ecclesiastics, which took +definitive shape at the beginning of the 13th century. We cannot yet +discern with any certainty by what process it was formed, why those six +prelates and those six great feudatories in particular were selected +rather than others equally eligible. But there is no doubt that we have +here a result of that process of feudal organization mentioned above; +the formation of a similar assembly of twelve peers occurs also in a +certain number of the great fiefs. Besides the part which they played at +the consecration of kings, the peers of France formed a court in which +they judged one another under the presidency of the king, their +overlord, according to feudal custom. But the _cour des pairs_ in this +sense was not separate from the _curia regis_, and later from the +parlement of Paris, of which the peers of France were by right members. +From this time, too, dates another important institution, that of the +_maîtres des requêtes_. + + + Growth of the royal power. + +The legislative power of the crown again began to be exercised during +the 12th century, and in the 13th century had full authority over all +the territories subject to the crown. Beaumanoir has a very interesting +theory on this subject. The right of war tends to regain its natural +equilibrium, the royal power following the Church in the endeavour to +check private wars. Hence arose the _quarantaine le roi_, due to Philip +Augustus or Saint Louis, by which those relatives of the parties to a +quarrel who had not been present at the quarrel were rendered immune +from attack for forty days after it; and above all the _assurements_ +imposed by the king or lord; on these points too Beaumanoir has an +interesting theory. The rule was, moreover, already in force by which +private wars had to cease during the time that the king was engaged in a +foreign war. But the most appreciable progress took place in the +administrative and judicial institutions. Under Philip Augustus arose +the royal _baillis_ (see BAILIFF: section _Bailli_), and seneschals +(q.v.), who were the representatives of the king in the provinces, and +superior judges. At the same time the form of the feudal courts tended +to change, as they began more and more to be influenced by the +Romano-canonical law. Saint Louis had striven to abolish trial by +combat, and the Church had condemned other forms of ordeal, the +_purgatio vulgaris_. In most parts of the country the feudal lords began +to give place in the courts of law to the provosts (_prévôts_) and +_baillis_ of the lords or of the crown, who were the judges, having as +their councillors the _avocats_ (advocates) and _procureurs_ +(procurators) of the assize. The feudal courts, which were founded +solely on the relations of homage and tenure, before which the vassals +and tenants as such appeared, disappeared in part from the 13th century +on. Of the seigniorial jurisdictions there soon remained only the +_hautes_ or _basses justices_ (in the 14th century arose an intermediate +grade, the _moyenne justice_), all of which were considered to be +concessions of the royal power, and so delegations of the public +authority. As a result of the application of Roman and canon law, there +arose the _appeal_ strictly so called, both in the class of royal and of +seigniorial jurisdictions, the case in the latter instance going finally +before a royal court, from which henceforth there was no appeal. In the +13th century too appeared the theory of crown cases (_cas royaux_), +cases which the lords became incompetent to try and which were reserved +for the royal court. Finally, the _curia regis_ was gradually +transformed into a regular court of justice, the _Parlement_ (q.v.), as +it was already called in the second half of the 13th century. At this +time the king no longer appeared in it regularly, and before each +session (for it was not yet a permanent body) a list of properly +qualified men was drawn up in advance to form the parlement, only those +whose names were on the list being capable of sitting in it. Its main +function had come to be that of a final court of appeal. At the various +sessions, which were regularly held at Paris, appeared the _baillis_ and +seneschals, who were called upon to answer for the cases they had judged +and also for their administration. The accounts were received by members +of the parlement at the Temple, and this was the origin of the Cour or +Chambre des Comptes. + + + Nobles, commons and the Church in the 13th century. + +At the end of this period the nobility became an exclusive class. It +became an established rule that a man had to be noble in order to be +made a knight, and even in order to acquire a fief; but in this latter +respect the king made exceptions in the case of _roturiers_, who were +licensed to take up fiefs, subject to a payment known as the _droits de +franc-fief_. The _roturiers_, or villeins who were not in a state of +thraldom, were already a numerous class not only in the towns but in the +country. The Church maintained her privileges; a few attempts only were +made to restrain the abuse, not the extent, of her jurisdiction. This +jurisdiction was, during the 12th century, to a certain extent +regularized, the bishop nominating a special functionary to hold his +court; this was the _officialis_ (Fr. _official_), whence the name of +_officialité_ later applied in France to the ecclesiastical +jurisdictions. On one point, however, her former rights were diminished. +She preserved the right of freely acquiring personal and real property, +but though she could still acquire feudal tenures she could not keep +them; the customs decided that she must _vider les mains_, that is, +alienate the property again within a year and a day. The reason for this +new rule was that the Church, the ecclesiastical establishment, is a +proprietor who does not die and in principle does not surrender her +property; consequently, the lords had no longer the right of exacting +the transfer duties on those tenures which she acquired. It was +possible, however, to compromise and allow the Church to keep the tenure +on condition of the consent not only of the lord directly concerned, but +of all the higher lords up to the _capitalis dominus_; it goes without +saying that this concession was only obtained by the payment of +pecuniary compensations, the chief of which was the _droit +d'amortissement_, paid to these different lords. In this period the form +of the episcopal elections underwent a change, the electoral college +coming to consist only of the canons composing the chapter of the +cathedral church. But except for the official candidatures, which were +abused by the kings and great lords, the elections were regular; the +Pragmatic Sanction, attributed to Saint Louis, which implies the +contrary, is nowadays considered apocryphal by the best critics. + + + Changes in criminal law. + +Finally, it must be added that during the 13th century criminal law was +profoundly modified. Under the influence of Roman law a system of +arbitrary penalties replaced those laid down by the customs, which had +usually been fixed and cruel. The criminal procedure of the feudal +courts had been based on the right of accusation vested only in the +person wronged and his relations; for this was substituted the +inquisitorial procedure (_processus per inquisitionem_), which had +developed in the canon law at the very end of the 12th century, and was +to become the _procédure à l'extraordinaire_ of the _ancien régime_, +which was conducted in secret and without free defence and debate. Of +this procedure torture came to be an ordinary and regular part. + + + The customs. + +The customs, which at that time contained almost the whole of the law +for a great part of France, were not fixed by being written down. In +that part of France which was subject to customary law (_la France +coutumière_) they were defined when necessary by the verdict of a jury +of practitioners in what was called the _enquête par turbes_; some of +them, however, were, in part at least, authentically recorded in +seigniorial charters, _chartes de ville_ or _chartes de coutume_. Their +rules were also recorded by experts in private works or collections +called _livres coutumiers_, or simply _coutumiers_ (customaries). The +most notable of these are _Les Coutumes de Beauvoisis_ of Philippe de +Beaumanoir, which Montesquieu justly quotes as throwing light on those +times; also the _Très ancienne coutume de Normandie_ and the _Grand +Coutumier de Normandie_; the _Conseil à un ami of Pierre des Fontaines_, +the _Établissements de Saint Louis_; the _Livre de jostice et de plet_. +At the same time the clerks of important judges began to collect in +registers notable decisions; it is in this way that we have preserved to +us the old decisions of the exchequer of Normandy, and the _Olim_ +registers of the parlement of Paris. + +_The Limited Monarchy._--The 14th and 15th centuries were the age of the +limited monarchy. Feudal institutions kept their political importance; +but side by side with them arose others of which the object was the +direct exercise of the royal authority; others also arose from the very +heart of feudalism, but at the same time transformed its laws in order +to adapt them to the new needs of the crown. In this period certain +rules for the succession to the throne were fixed by precedents: the +exclusion of women and of male descendants in the female line, and the +principle that a king could not by an act of will change the succession +of the crown. The old _curia regis_ disappeared and was replaced by the +parlement as to its judicial functions, while to fulfil its deliberative +functions there was formed a new body, the royal council (_conseil du +roi_), an administrative and governing council, which was in no way of a +feudal character. The number of its members was at first small, but they +tended to increase; soon the brevet of _conseiller du roi en ses +conseils_ was given to numerous representatives of the clergy and +nobility, the great officers of the crown becoming members by right. +Side by side with these officials, whose power was then at its height, +there were gradually evolved more subservient ministers who could be +dispensed with at will; the _secrétaires des commandements du roi_ of +the 15th century, who in the 16th century developed into the +_secrétaires d'état_, and were themselves descended from the _clercs du +secret_ and _secrétaires des finances_ of the 14th century. The College +of the Twelve Peers of France had not its full numbers at the end of the +13th century; the six ecclesiastical peerages existed and continued to +exist to the end, together with the archbishopric and bishoprics to +which they were attached, not being suppressed; but several of the great +fiefs to which six lay peerages had been attached had been annexed to +the crown. To fill these vacancies, Philip the Fair raised the duchies +of Brittany and Anjou and the countship of Artois to the rank of +peerages of France. This really amounted to changing the nature of the +institution; for the new peers held their rank merely at the king's +will, though the rank continued to belong to a great barony and to be +handed down with it. Before long peers began to be created when there +were no gaps in the ranks of the College, and there was a constant +increase in the numbers of the lay peers. + + + States general and provincial estates. + +At the beginning of the 14th century appeared the states general (_états +généraux_), which were often convoked, though not at fixed intervals, +throughout the whole of the 14th century and the greater part of the +15th. Their power reached its height at a critical moment of the Hundred +Years' War during the reign of King John. At the same time there arose +side by side with them, and from the same causes, the provincial +estates, which were in miniature for each province what the states +general were for the whole kingdom. Of these provincial assemblies some +were founded in one or other of the great fiefs, being convoked by the +duke or count under the pressure of the same needs which led the king to +convoke the states general; others, in provinces which had already been +annexed to the crown, probably had their origin in the councils summoned +by the _bailli_ or seneschal to aid him in his administration. Later it +became a privilege for a province to have its own assembly; those which +did so were never of right subject to the royal _taille_, and kept, at +least formally, the right of sanctioning, by means of the assembly, the +subsidies which took its place. Hence it became the endeavour of the +crown to suppress these provincial assemblies, which in the 14th century +were to be found everywhere; from the outset of the 15th century they +began to disappear in central France. + + + Royal taxation. + +The most characteristic feature of this period was the institution of +universal taxation by the crown. So far the king's sole revenues were +those which he exacted, in his capacity of feudal lord, wherever another +lord did not intervene between him and the inhabitants, in addition to +the income arising from certain crown rights which he had preserved or +regained. But these revenues, known later as the income of the royal +domain and later still as the _finances ordinaires_, became insufficient +in proportion as the royal power increased; it became a necessity for +the monarch to be able to levy imposts throughout the whole extent of +the provinces annexed to the crown, even upon the subjects of the +different lords. This he could only do by means of the co-operation of +those lords, lay and ecclesiastical, who alone had the right of taxing +their subjects; the co-operation of the privileged towns, which had the +right to tax themselves, was also necessary. It was in order to obtain +this consent that the states general, in most cases, and the provincial +assemblies, in all cases, were convoked. In some cases, however, the +king adopted different methods; for instance, he sometimes utilized the +principle of the feudal aids. In cases where his vassals owed him, as +overlord, a pecuniary aid, he substituted for the sum paid directly by +his vassals a tax levied by his own authority on their subjects. It is +in this way that for thirty years the necessary sums were raised, +without any vote from the states general, to pay the ransom of King +John. But in principle the taxes were in the 14th century sanctioned by +the states general. Whatever form they took, they were given the generic +name of Aids or _auxilia_, and were considered as occasional and +extraordinary subsidies, the king being obliged in principle to "live of +his own" (_vivre de son domaine_). Certain aids, it is true, tended to +become permanent under the reign of Charles VI.; but the taxes subject +to the consent of the states general were at first the sole resource of +Charles VII. In the second half of his reign the two chief taxes became +permanent: in 1435 that of the aids (a tax on the sale of articles of +consumption, especially on wine), with the formal consent of the states +general, and that of the _taille_ in 1439. In the latter case the +consent of the states general was not given; but only the nobility +protested, for at the same time as the royal _taille_ became permanent +the seigniorial _taille_ was suppressed. These imposts were increased, +on the royal authority, by Louis XI. After his death the states general, +which met at Tours in 1484, endeavoured to re-establish the periodical +vote of the tax, and only granted it for two years, reducing it to the +sum which it had reached at the death of Charles VII. But the promise +that they would again be convoked before the expiry of two years was not +kept. These imposts and that of the _gabelle_ were henceforth permanent. +Together with the taxes there was evolved the system of their +administration. Their main outlines were laid down by the states general +in the reign of King John, in 1355 and the following years. For the +administration of the subsidies which they granted, they nominated from +among their own numbers _surintendants généraux_ or _généraux des +finances_, and further, for each diocese or equivalent district, _élus_. +Both had not only the active administration but also judicial rights, +the latter constituting courts of the first instance and the former +courts of final appeal. After 1360 the crown again adopted this +organization, which had before been only temporary; but henceforth +_généraux_ and _élus_ were nominated by the king. The _élus_, or +_officiers des élections_, only existed in districts which were subject +to the royal _taille_; hence the division, so important in old France, +into _pays d'élections_ and _pays d'états_. The _élus_ kept both +administration and jurisdiction; but in the higher stage a +differentiation was made: the _généraux des finances_, who numbered +four, kept the administration, while their jurisdiction as a court of +final appeal was handed over to another body, the _cour des aides_, +which had already been founded at the end of the 14th century. Besides +the four _généraux des finances_, who administered the taxation, there +were four Treasurers of France (_trésoriers de France_), who +administered the royal domain; and these eight officials together formed +in the 15th century a kind of ministry of finance to the monarchy. + + + The army. + +The army also was organized. On the one hand, the military service +attached to the fiefs was transformed for the profit of the king, who +alone had the right of making war: it became the _arrière-ban_, a term +which had formerly applied to the _levée en masse_ of all the +inhabitants in times of national danger. Before the 14th century the +king had only had the power of calling upon his own immediate vassals +for service. Henceforth all possessors of fiefs owed him, whether within +the kingdom or on the frontiers, military service without pay and at +their own expense. This was for long an important resource for the king. +But Charles VII. organized an army on another footing. It comprised the +_francs-archers_ furnished by the parishes, a militia which was only +summoned in case of war, but in time of peace had to practise archery, +and companies of _gendarmerie_ or heavy cavalry, forming a permanent +establishment, which were called _compagnies d'ordonnance_. It was +chiefly to provide for the expense of the first nucleus of a permanent +army that the _taille_ itself had been made permanent. + +The new army led to the institution of the governors of provinces, who +were to command the troops quartered there. At first they were only +appointed for the frontiers and fortified places, but later the kingdom +was divided into _gouvernements généraux_. There were at first twelve of +these, which were called in the middle of the 16th century the _douze +anciens gouvernements_. Although, strictly speaking, they had only +military powers, the governors, always chosen from among the great +lords, became in the provinces the direct representatives of the king +and caused the _baillis_ and seneschals to take a secondary place. + + + The law courts. + +The courts of law continued to develop on the lines already laid down. +The parlement, which had come to be a judicial committee nominated every +year, but always consisting in fact of the same persons, changed in the +course of the 14th century into a body of magistrates who were permanent +but as yet subject to removal. During this period were evolved its +organization and definitive features (see PARLEMENT). The provincial +parlements had arisen after and in imitation of that of Paris, and had +for the most part taken the place of some superior jurisdiction which +had formerly existed in the same district when it had been independent +(like Provence) or had formed one of the great fiefs (like Normandy or +Burgundy). It was during this period also that the parlements acquired +the right of opposing the registration, that is to say, the promulgation +of laws, of revising them, and of making representations +(_remontrances_) to the king when they refused the registration, giving +the reasons for such refusal. The other royal jurisdictions were +completed (see BAILIFF, CHÂTELET). Besides them arose another of great +importance, which was of military origin, but came to include all +citizens under its sway. These were the provosts of the marshals of +France (_prévôts des maréchaux de France_), who were officers of the +_Maréchaussée_ (the gendarmerie of the time); they exercised criminal +jurisdiction without appeal in the case of crimes committed by vagabonds +and fugitives from justice, this class being called their _gibier_ +(game), and of a number of crimes of violence, whatever the rank of the +offender. Further, another class of officers was created in connexion +with the law courts: the "king's men" (_gens du roi_), the _procureurs_ +and _avocats du roi_, who were at first simply those lawyers who +represented the king in the law courts, or pleaded for him when he had +some interest to follow up or to defend. Later they became officers of +the crown. In the case of the _procureurs du roi_ this development took +place in the first half of the 14th century. Their duty was not only to +represent the king in the law courts, whether as plaintiff or defendant, +but also to take care that in each case the law was applied, and to +demand its application. From this time on the _procureurs du roi_ had +full control over matters concerning the public interest, and especially +over public prosecution. In this period, too, appeared what was +afterwards called _justice retenue_, that is to say, the justice which +the king administered, or was supposed to administer, in person. It was +based on the idea that, since all justice and all judicial power reside +in the king, he could not deprive himself of them by delegating their +exercise to his officers and to the feudal lords. Consequently he could, +if he thought fit, take the place of the judges and call up a case +before his own council. He could reverse even the decisions of the +courts of final appeal, and in some cases used this means of appealing +against the decrees of the parlements (_proposition d'erreur, requête +civile, pourvoi en révision_). In these cases the king was supposed to +judge in person; in reality they were examined by the _maîtres des +requêtes_ and submitted to the royal council (_conseil du roi_), at +which the king was always supposed to be present and which had in itself +no power of giving a decision. For this purpose there was soon formed a +special committee of the council, which was called the _conseil privé_ +or _de justice_. At the end of the 15th century, Charles VIII., in order +to relieve the council of some of its functions, created a new final +court, the _grand conseil_, to deal with a number of these cases. But +before long it again became the custom to appeal to the _conseil du +roi_, so that the _grand conseil_ became almost useless. The king +frequently, by means of _lettres de justice_, intervened in the +procedure of the courts, by granting _bénéfices_, by which rules which +were too severe were modified, and faculties or facilities for +overcoming difficulties arising from flaws in contracts or judgments, +cases at that time not covered by the common law. By _lettres de grâce_ +he granted reprieve or pardon in individual cases. The most extreme form +of intervention by the king was made by means of _lettres de cachet_ +(q.v.), which ordered a subject to go without trial into a state prison +or into exile. + + + The Church. + +The condition of the Church changed greatly during this period. The +jurisdiction of the _officialités_ was very much reduced, even over the +clergy. They ceased to be competent to judge actions concerning the +possession of real property, in which the clergy were defendants. In +criminal law the theory of the _cas privilégié_, which appears in the +14th century, enabled the royal judges to take action against and judge +the clergy for all serious crimes, though without the power of +inflicting any penalties but arbitrary fines, the ecclesiastical judge +remaining competent, in accordance with the privileges of clergy, to try +the offender for the same crime as what was technically called a _délit +commun_. The development of jurisprudence gradually removed from the +_officialités_ causes of a purely secular character in which laymen only +were concerned, such as wills and contracts; and in matrimonial cases +their jurisdiction was limited to those in which the _foedus matrimonii_ +was in question. For the acquisition of real property by ecclesiastical +establishments the consent of the king to the amortizement was always +necessary, even in the case of allodial lands; and if it was a case of +feudal tenures the king and the direct overlords alone kept their +rights, the intermediate lords being left out of the question. + + + Papal encroachments. + +As regards the conferring of ecclesiastical benefices, from the 14th +century onwards the papacy encroached more and more upon the rights of +the bishops, in whose gift the inferior benefices generally were, and of +the electors, who usually conferred the superior benefices; at the same +time it exacted from newly appointed incumbents heavy dues, which were +included under the generic name of annates (q.v.). During the Great +Schism of the Western Church, these abuses became more and more crying, +until by a series of edicts, promulgated with the consent and advice of +the parlement and the clergy, the Gallican Church was restored to the +possession of its former liberties, under the royal authority. Thus +France was ready to accept the decrees of reform issued by the council +of Basel (q.v.), which she did, with a few modifications, in the +Pragmatic Sanction of Charles VII., adopted after a solemn assembly of +the clergy and nobles at Bourges and registered by the parlement of +Paris in 1438. It suppressed the annates and most of the means by which +the popes disposed of the inferior benefices: the reservations and the +_gratiae expectativae_. For the choice of bishops and abbots, it +restored election by the chapters and convents. The Pragmatic Sanction, +however, was never recognized by the papacy, nor was it consistently and +strictly applied by the royal power. The transformation of the civil and +criminal law under the influence of Roman and canon law had become more +and more marked. The production of the _coutumiers_, or _livres de +pratiques_, also continued. The chief of them were: in the 14th century, +the _Stylus Vetus Curiae Parlamenti_ of Guillaume de Breuil; the _Très +ancienne coutume de Bretagne_; the _Grand Coutumier de France_, or +_Coutumier de Charles VI._; the _Somme rural_ of Boutillier; in the 15th +century, for Auvergne, the _Practica forensis_ of Masuer. Charles VII., +in an article of the Grand Ordonnance of Montil-les-Tours (1453), +ordered the general customs to be officially recorded under the +supervision of the crown. It was an enormous work, which would almost +have transformed them into written laws; but up to the 16th century +little recording was done, the procedure established by the Ordonnance +for the purpose not being very suitable. + + + Government under the absolute monarchy. + +_The Absolute Monarchy._--From the 16th century to the Revolution was +the period of the absolute monarchy, but it can be further divided into +two periods: that of the establishment of this régime, from 1515 to +about 1673; and that of the _ancien régime_ when definitively +established, from 1673 to 1789. The reigns of Francis I. and Henry II. +clearly laid down the principle of the absolute power of the crown and +applied it effectually, as is plainly seen from the temporary +disappearance of the states general, which were not assembled under +these two reigns. There were merely a few assemblies of notables chosen +by the royal power, the most important of which was that of Cognac, +under Francis I., summoned to advise on the non-fulfilment of the treaty +of Madrid. It is true that in the second half of the 16th century the +states general reappeared. They were summoned in 1560 at Orleans, then +in 1561 at Pontoise, and in 1576 and 1588 at Blois. The League even +convoked one, which was held at Paris in 1593. This represented a +crucial and final struggle. Two points were then at issue: firstly, +whether France was to be Protestant or Catholic; secondly, whether she +was to have a limited or an absolute monarchy. The two problems were not +necessarily bound up with one another. For if the Protestants desired +political liberty, many of the Catholics wished for it too, as is proved +by the writings of the time, and even by the fact that the League +summoned the estates. But the states general of the 16th century, in +spite of their good intentions and the great talents which were at their +service, were dominated by religious passions, which made them powerless +for any practical purpose. They only produced a few great ordinances of +reform, which were not well observed. They were, however, to be called +together yet again, as a result of the disturbances which followed the +death of Henry IV.; but their dissensions and powerlessness were again +strikingly exemplified and they did not reappear until 1789. Other +bodies, however, which the royal power had created, were to carry on the +struggle against it. There were the parlements, the political rivals of +the states general. Thanks to the principle according to which no law +came into effect so long as it had not been registered by them, they +had, as we have seen, won for themselves the right of a preliminary +discussion of those laws which were presented to them, and of refusing +registration, explaining their reasons to the king by means of the +_remontrances_. The royal power saw in this merely a concession from +itself, a consultative power, which ought to yield before the royal +will, when the latter was clearly manifested, either by _lettres de +jussion_ or by the actual words and presence of the king, when he came +in person to procure the registration of a law in a so-called _lit de +justice_. But from the 16th century onwards the members of the +parlements claimed, on the strength of a historical theory, to have +inherited the powers of the ancient assemblies (the Merovingian and +Carolingian _placita_ and the _curia regis_), powers which they, +moreover, greatly exaggerated. The successful assertion of this claim +would have made them at once independent of and necessary to the crown. +During the minority of kings, they had possessed, in fact, special +opportunities for asserting their pretensions, particularly when they +had been called upon to intervene in the organization of the regency. It +is on this account that at the beginning of the reign of Louis XIV. the +parlement of Paris wished to take part in the government, and in 1648, +in concert with the other supreme courts of the capital, temporarily +imposed a sort of charter of liberties. But the first Fronde, of which +the parlement was the centre and soul, led to its downfall, which was +completed when later on Louis XIV. became all-powerful. The ordinance of +1667 on civil procedure, and above all a declaration of 1673, ordered +the parlement to register the laws as soon as it received them and +without any modification. It was only after this registration that they +were allowed to draw up remonstrances, which were henceforth futile. The +nobles, as a body, had also become politically impotent. They had been +sorely tried by the wars of religion, and Richelieu, in his struggles +against the governors of the provinces, had crushed their chief leaders. +The second Fronde was their last effort (see FRONDE). At the same time +the central government underwent changes. The great officers of the +crown disappeared one by one. The office of constable of France was +suppressed by purchase during the first half of the 17th century, and of +those in the first rank only the chancellor survived till the +Revolution. But though his title could only be taken from him by +condemnation on a capital charge, the king was able to deprive him of +his functions by taking from him the custody and use of the seal of +France, which were entrusted to a _garde des sceaux_. Apart from the +latter, the king's real ministers were the secretaries of state, +generally four in number, who were always removable and were not chosen +from among the great nobles. For purposes of internal administration, +the provinces were divided among them, each of them corresponding by +despatches with those which were assigned to him. Any other business +(with the exception of legal affairs, which belonged to the chancellor, +and finance, of which we shall speak later) was divided among them +according to convenience. At the end of the 16th century, however, were +evolved two regular departments, those of war and foreign affairs. Under +Francis I. and Henry II., the chief administration of finance underwent +a change; for the four _généraux des finances_, who had become too +powerful, were substituted the _intendants des finances_, one of whom +soon became a chief minister of finance, with the title _surintendant_. +The _généraux des finances_, like the _trésoriers_ de France, became +provincial officials, each at the head of a _généralité_ (a superior +administrative district for purposes of finance); under Henry II. the +two functions were combined and assigned to the _bureaux des finances_. +The fall of Fouquet led to the suppression of the office of +_surintendant_; but soon Colbert again became practically a minister of +finance, under the name of _contrôleur général des finances_, both title +and office continuing to exist up to the Revolution. + +The _conseil du roi_, the origin of which we have described, was an +important organ of the central government, and for a long time included +among its members a large number of representatives of the nobility and +clergy. Besides the councillors of state (_conseillers d'état_), its +ordinary members, the great officers of the crown and secretaries of +state, princes of the blood and peers of France were members of it by +right. Further, the king was accustomed to grant the brevet of +councillor to a great number of the nobility and clergy, who could be +called upon to sit in the council and give an opinion on matters of +importance. But in the 17th century the council tended to differentiate +its functions, forming three principal sections, one for political, one +for financial, and the third for legal affairs. Under Louis XIV. it took +a definitely professional, administrative and technical character. The +_conseillers à brevet_ were all suppressed in 1673, and the peers of +France ceased to be members of the council. The political council, or +_conseil d'en haut_, had no _ex officio_ members, not even the +chancellor; the secretary of state for foreign affairs, however, +necessarily had entry to it; it also included a small number of persons +chosen by the king and bearing the title of ministers of state +(_ministres d'état_). The other important sections of the conseil du roi +were the _conseil des finances_, organized after the fall of Fouquet, +and the _conseil des dépêches_, in which sat the four secretaries of +state and where everything concerned with internal administration +(except finance) was dealt with, including the legal business connected +with this administration. As to the government and the preparation of +laws, under Louis XIV. and Louis XV., the _conseil du roi_ often passed +into the background, when, as the saying went, a minister who was +projecting some important measure _travaillait seul avec le roi_ (worked +alone with the king), having from the outset gained the king's ear. + + + Provincial administration. + +The chief authority in the provincial administration belonged in the +16th century to the governors of the provinces, though, strictly +speaking, the governor had only military powers in his _gouvernement_; +for, as we have seen, he was the direct representative of the king for +general purposes. But at the end of this century were created the +intendants of the provinces, who, after a period of conflict with the +governors and the parlements, became absolute masters of the +administration in all those provinces which had no provincial estates, +and the instruments of a complete administrative centralization (see +INTENDANT). + + + The towns. + +The towns having a _corps de ville_, that is to say, a municipal +organization, preserved in the 16th century a fairly wide autonomy, and +played an important part in the wars of religion, especially under the +League. But under Louis XIV. their independence rapidly declined. They +were placed under the tutelage of the intendants, whose sanction, or +that of the _conseil du roi_, was necessary for all acts of any +importance. In the closing years of the 17th century, the municipal +officials ceased, even in principle, to be elective. Their functions +ranked as offices which were, like royal offices, saleable and +heritable. The pretext given by the edicts were the intrigues and +dissensions caused by the elections; the real cause was that the +government wanted to sell these offices, which is proved by the fact +that it frequently allowed towns to redeem them and to re-establish the +elections. + + + Sale of offices. + +The sale of royal offices is one of the characteristic features of the +_ancien régime_. It had begun early, and, apparently, with the office of +councillor of the parlement of Paris, when this became permanent, in the +second half of the 14th century. It was first practised by magistrates +who wished to dispose of their office in favour of a successor of their +own choice. The _resignatio in favorem_ of ecclesiastical benefices +served as model, and at first care was taken to conceal the money +transaction between the parties. The crown winked at these resignations +in consideration of a payment in money. But in the 16th century, under +Francis I. at the latest, the crown itself began officially to sell +offices, whether newly created or vacant by the death of their +occupiers, taking a fee from those upon whom they were conferred. Under +Charles IX. the right of resigning _in favorem_ was recognized by law in +the case of royal officials, in return for a payment to the treasury of +a certain proportion of the price. In the case of judicial offices there +was a struggle for at least two centuries between the system of sale and +another, also imitated from canon law, i.e. the election or presentation +of candidates by the legal corporations. The ordinances of the second +half of the 16th century, granted in answer to complaints of the states +general, restored and confirmed the latter system, giving a share in the +presentation to the towns or provincial notables and forbidding sales. +The system of sale, however, triumphed in the end, and, in the case of +judges, had, moreover, a favourable result, assuring to them that +irremovability which Louis XI. had promised in vain; for, under this +system, the king could not reasonably dismiss an official arbitrarily +without refunding the fee which he had paid. On the other hand, it +contributed to the development of the _épices_, or dues paid by +litigants to the judges. The system of sale, and with it irremovability, +was extended to all official functions, even to financial posts. The +process was completed by the recognition of the rights in the sale of +offices as hereditary, i.e. the right of resigning the office on payment +of a fee, either in favour of a competent descendant or of a third +party, passed to the heirs of an official who had died without having +exercised this right himself. It was established under Henry IV. in 1604 +by the system called the _Paulette_, in return for the payment by the +official of an annual fee (_droit annuel_) which was definitely fixed at +a hundredth part of the price of the office. Thus these offices, though +the royal nomination was still required as well as the professional +qualifications required by the law, became heritable property in virtue +of the finance attached to them. This led to the formation of a class of +men who, though bound in many ways to the crown, were actually +independent. Hence the tendency in the 18th century to create new and +important functions under the form, not of offices, but of simple +commissions. + + + Fundamental laws of France. + +In this period of the history of France were evolved and defined the +essential principles of the old public law. There were, in the first +place, the _fundamental laws of the realm_, which were true +constitutional principles, established for the most part not by law but +by custom, and considered as binding in respect of the king himself; so +that, although he was sovereign, he could neither abrogate, nor modify, +nor violate them. There was, however, some discussion as to what rules +actually came under this category, except in the case of two series +about which there was no doubt. These were, on the one hand, those which +dealt with the succession to the crown and forbade the king to change +its order, and those which proclaimed the inalienability of the royal +domain, against which no title by prescription was valid. This last +principle, introduced in the 14th century, had been laid down and +defined by the edict of Moulins in 1566; it admitted only two +exceptions: the formation of appanages (q.v.), and selling +(_engagement_), to meet the necessities of war, with a perpetual option +of redeeming it. + +There was in the second place the theory of the rights, franchises and +liberties of the Gallican Church, formed of elements some of which were +of great antiquity, and based on the conditions which had determined the +relations of the Gallican Church with the crown and papacy during the +Great Schism and under the Pragmatic Sanction of Bourges, and defined at +the end of the 16th and the beginning of the 17th century. This body of +doctrine was defined by the writings of three men especially, Guy +Coquille, Pierre Pithou and Pierre Dupuy, and was solemnly confirmed by +the declaration of the clergy of France, or _Déclaration des quatres +articles_ of 1682, and by the edict which promulgated it. Its substance +was based chiefly on three principles: firstly, that the temporal power +was absolutely independent of the spiritual power; secondly, that the +pope had authority over the clergy of France in temporal matters and +matters of discipline only by the consent of the king; thirdly, that +the king had authority over and could legislate for the Gallican Church +in temporal matters and matters of discipline. The old public law +provided a safeguard against the violation of these rules. This was the +process known as the _appel comme d'abus_, formed of various elements, +some of them very ancient, and definitely established during the 16th +century. It was heard before the parlements, but could, like every other +case, be evoked before the royal council. Its effect was to annul any +act of the ecclesiastical authority due to abuse or contrary to French +law. The clergy were, when necessary, reduced to obedience by means of +arbitrary fines and by the seizure of their temporalities. The Pragmatic +Sanction had been abrogated and replaced by the Concordat of 1515, +concluded between Francis I. and Leo X., which remained in force until +suppressed by the Constituent Assembly. The Concordat, moreover, +preserved many of the enactments of the Pragmatic Sanction, notably +those which protected the collation of the inferior benefices from the +encroachments of the papacy, and which had introduced reforms in certain +points of discipline. But in the case of the superior benefices +(bishoprics and abbeys) election by the chapters was suppressed. The +king of France nominated the candidate, to whom the pope gave canonical +institution. As a matter of fact, the pope had no choice; he had to +institute the nominee of the king, unless he could show his unworthiness +or incapacity, as the result of inquiries regularly conducted in France; +for the pope it was, as the ancient French authors used to say, a case +of compulsory collation. The annates were re-established at the time of +the Concordat, but considerably diminished in comparison with what they +had been before the Pragmatic Sanction. We must add, to complete this +account, that many of the inferior benefices, in France as in the rest +of Christendom, were conferred according to the rules of patronage, the +patron, whether lay or ecclesiastic, presenting a candidate whom the +bishop was bound to appoint, provided he was neither incapable nor +unsuitable. There was some difficulty in getting the Concordat +registered by the parlement of Paris, and the latter even announced its +intention of not taking the Concordat into account in those cases +concerning benefices which might come before it. The crown found an easy +method of making this opposition ineffectual, namely, to transfer to the +Grand Conseil the decision of cases arising out of the application of +the Concordat. + +In the 16th century also, contributions to the public services drawn +from the immense possessions of the clergy were regularized. Since the +second half of the 12th century at least, the kings had in times of +urgent need asked for subsidies from the church, and ever since the +Saladin tithe (_dime saladine_) of Philip Augustus this contribution had +assumed the form of a tithe, taking a tenth part of the revenue of the +benefices for a given period. Tithes of this kind were fairly frequently +granted by the clergy of France, either with the pope's consent or +without (this being a disputed point). After the conclusion of the +Concordat, Leo X. granted the king a tithe (_décime_) under the pretext +of a projected war against the Turks; hitherto concessions of this kind +had been made by the papacy in view of the Crusades or of wars against +heretics. The concession was several times renewed, until, by force of +custom, the levying of these tithes became permanent. But in the middle +of the 16th century the system changed. The crown was heavily in debt, +and its needs had increased. The property of the clergy having been +threatened by the states general of 1560 and 1561, the king proposed to +them to remit the bulk of the tithes and other dues, in return for the +payment by them of a sum equivalent to the proceeds of the taxes which +he had mortgaged. A formal contract to this effect was concluded at +Poissy in 1561 between the king and the clergy of France, represented by +the prelates who were then gathered together for the Colloquy of Poissy +with the Protestants, and some of those who had been sitting at the +states general of Pontoise. The fulfilment of this agreement was, +however, evaded by the king, who diverted part of the funds provided by +the clergy from their proper purpose. In 1580, after a period of ten +years which had been agreed on, a new assembly of the clergy was called +together and, after protesting against this action, renewed the +agreement, which was henceforward always renewed every ten years. Such +was the definitive form of the contribution of the clergy, who also +acquired the right of themselves assessing and levying these taxes on +the holders of benefices. Thus every ten years there was a great +assembly of the clergy, the members of which were elected. There were +two stages in the election, a preliminary one in the dioceses and a +further election in the ecclesiastical provinces, each province sending +four deputies to the general assembly, two of the first rank, that is to +say, chosen from the episcopate, and two of the second rank, which +included all the other clergy. The _dons gratuits_ (benevolences) voted +by the assembly comprised a fixed sum equivalent to the old tithes and +supplementary sums paid on one occasion only, which were sometimes +considerable. The church, on her side, profited by this arrangement in +order to obtain the commutation or redemption of the taxes affecting +ecclesiastics considered as individuals. This settlement only applied to +the "clergy of France," that is to say, to the clergy of those districts +which were united to the crown before the end of the 16th century. The +provinces annexed later, called _pays étrangers_, or _pays conquis_, had +in this matter, as in many others, an arrangement of their own. At last, +under Louis XV. the edict of 1749, _concernant les établissements et +acquisitions des gens de mainmorte_, was completely effective in +subordinating the acquisition of property by ecclesiastical +establishments to the consent and control of the crown, rendering them +incapable of acquiring real property by bequests. + +At the end of the 16th century a wise law had been made which, in spite +of the traces which it bore of past struggles, had established a +reasonable balance among the Christians of France. The edict of Nantes, +in 1598, granted the Protestants full civil rights, liberty of +conscience and public worship in many places, and notably in all the +royal _bailliages_. The Catholics, whose religion was essentially a +state religion, had never accepted this arrangement as final, and at +last, in 1685, under Louis XIV., the edict of Nantes was revoked and the +Protestant pastors expelled from France. Their followers were forbidden +to leave the country, but many succeeded nevertheless in escaping +abroad. The position of those who remained behind was peculiar. Laws +passed in 1715 and 1724 established the legal theory that there were no +longer any Protestants in France, but only _vieux catholiques_ and +_nouveaux convertis_. The result was that henceforth they had no longer +any regular civil status, the registers containing the lists of +Catholics enjoying civil rights being kept by the Catholic clergy. + +The form of government established under Louis XIV. was preserved +without any fundamental modification under Louis XV. After the death of +Louis XIV., however, the regent, under the inspiration of the duc de St +Simon, made trial of a system of which the latter had made a study while +in a close correspondence with the duke of Burgundy. It consisted in +substituting for the authority of the ministers, secretaries of state +and controller-general councils, or governmental bodies, mainly composed +of great lords and prelates. These only lasted for a few years, when a +return was made to the former organization. The parlements had regained +their ancient rights in consequence of the parlement of Paris having, in +1715, set aside the will of Louis XIV. as being contrary to the +fundamental laws of the kingdom, in that it laid down rules for the +composition of the council of regency, and limited the power of the +regent. This newly revived power they exercised freely, and all the more +so since they were the last surviving check on the royal authority. +During this reign there were numerous conflicts between them and the +government, the causes of this being primarily the innumerable incidents +to which the bull _Unigenitus_ gave rise, and the increase of taxation; +proceedings against Jesuits also figure conspicuously in the action of +the parlements. They became at this period the avowed representatives of +the nation; they contested the validity of the registration of laws in +the _lits de justice_, asserting that laws could only be made obligatory +when the registration had been freely endorsed by themselves. Before +the registration of edicts concerning taxation they demanded a statement +of the financial situation and the right of examining the accounts. +Finally, by the theory of the _classes_, which considered the various +parlements of France as parts of one and the same body, they established +among them a political union. These pretensions the crown refused to +recognize. Louis XV. solemnly condemned them in a _lit de justice_ of +December 1770, and in 1771 the chancellor Maupeou took drastic measures +against them. The magistrates of the parlement of Paris were removed, +and a new parlement was constituted, including the members of the _grand +conseil_, which had also been abolished. The _cour des aides_ of Paris, +which had made common cause with the parlement, was also suppressed. +Many of the provincial parlements were reorganized, and a certain number +of useful reforms were carried out in the jurisdiction of the parlement +of Paris; the object of these, however, was in most cases that of +diminishing its importance. These actions, the _coup d'état_ of the +chancellor Maupeou, as they were called, produced an immense sensation. +The repeated conflicts of the reign of Louis XV. had already given rise +to a whole literature of books, pamphlets and tracts in which the rights +of the crown were discussed. At the same time the political philosophy +of the 18th century was disseminating new principles, and especially +those of the supremacy of the people and the differentiation of powers, +the government of England also became known among the French. Thus men's +minds were being prepared for the Revolution. + +The personal government of Louis XVI. from 1774 to 1789 was chiefly +marked by two series of facts. Firstly, there was the partial +application of the principles propounded by the French economists of +this period, the Physiocrats, who had a political doctrine peculiar to +themselves. They were not in favour of political liberty, but attached +on the contrary to the absolute monarchy, of which they did not fear the +abuses because they were convinced that so soon as they should be known, +reason (_évidence_) alone would suffice to make the crown respect the +"natural and essential laws of bodies politic" (_Lois naturelles et +essentielles des sociétés politiques_, the title of a book by Mercier de +La Rivière). On the other hand, they favoured civil and economic +liberty. They wished, in particular, to decentralize the administration +and restore to the landed proprietors the administration and levying of +taxes, which they wished to reduce to a tax on land only. This school +came into power with Turgot, who was appointed controller-general of the +finances, and laid the foundations of many reforms. He actually +accomplished for the moment one very important reform, namely, the +suppression of the trade and craft gilds (_communautés, jurandes et +maîtrises_). This organization, which was common to the whole of Europe +(see GILDS), had taken definitive shape in France in the 13th and 14th +centuries, but had subsequently been much abused. Turgot suppressed the +privileges of the _maîtres_, who alone had been able to work on their +own account, or to open shops and workshops, and thus proclaimed the +freedom of labour, industry and commerce. However, the old organization, +slightly amended, was restored under his successor Necker. It was +Turgot's purpose to organize provincial and other inferior assemblies, +whose chief business was to be the assessment of taxes. Necker applied +this idea, partially and experimentally, by creating a few of these +provincial assemblies in various _généralités_ of the _pays +d'élections_. A general reform on these lines and on a very liberal +basis was proposed by Calonne to the assembly of notables in 1787, and +it was brought into force for all the _pays d'élections_, though not +under such good conditions, by an edict of the same year. Louis XVI. had +inaugurated his reign by the restoration of the parlements; all the +bodies which had been suppressed by Maupeou and all the officials whom +he had dismissed were restored, and all the bodies and officials created +by him were suppressed. But it was not long before the old struggle +between the crown and parlements again broke out. It began by the +conservative opposition offered by the parlement of Paris to Turgot's +reforms. But the real struggle broke out in 1787 over the edicts coming +from the assembly of notables, and particularly over the two new taxes, +the stamp duty and the land tax. The parlement of Paris refused to +register them, asserting that the consent of the taxpayers, as +represented by the states general, was necessary to fresh taxation. The +struggle seemed to have come to an end in September; but in the +following November it again broke out, in spite of the king's promise to +summon the states general. It reached its height in May 1788, when the +king had created a _cour plénière_ distinct from the parlements, the +chief function of which was to register the laws in their stead. A +widespread agitation arose, amounting to actual anarchy, and was only +ended by the recall of Necker to power and the promise to convoke the +states general for 1789. + + + The army. + +_Various Institutions._--The permanent army which, as has been stated +above, was first established under Charles VII., was developed and +organized during the _ancien régime_. The _gendarmerie_ or heavy cavalry +was continuously increased in numbers. On the other hand, the _francs +archers_ fell into disuse after Louis XI.; and, after a fruitless +attempt had been made under Francis I. to establish a national infantry, +the system was adopted for this also of recruiting permanent bodies of +mercenaries by voluntary enlistment. First there were the "old bands" +(_vieilles bandes_), chiefly those of Picardy and Piedmont, and at the +end of the 16th century appeared the first regiments, the number of +which was from time to time increased. There were also in the service +and pay of the king French and foreign regiments, the latter principally +Swiss, Germans and Scots. The system of purchase penetrated also to the +army. Each regiment was the property of a great lord; the captain was, +so to speak, owner of his company, or rather a contractor, who, in +return for the sums paid him by the king, recruited his men and gave +them their uniform, arms and equipment. In the second half of the reign +of Louis XIV. appeared the militia (_milices_). To this force each +parish had to furnish one recruit, who was at first chosen by the +assembly of the inhabitants, later by drawing lots among the bachelors +or widowers without children, who were not exempt. The militia was very +rarely raised from the towns. The purpose for which these men were +employed varied from time to time. Sometimes, as under Louis XIV., they +were formed into special active regiments. Under Louis XV. and Louis +XVI. they were formed into _régiments provinciaux_, which constituted an +organized reserve. But their chief use was during war, when they were +individually incorporated into various regiments to fill up the gaps. + +Under Louis XV., with the duc de Choiseul as minister of war, great and +useful reforms were effected in the army. Choiseul suppressed what he +called the "farming of companies" (_compagnie-ferme_); recruiting became +a function of the state, and voluntary enlistment a contract between the +recruit and the state. Arms, uniform and equipment were furnished by the +king. Choiseul also equalized the numbers of the military units, and his +reforms, together with a few others effected under Louis XVI., produced +the army which fought the first campaigns of the Revolution. + + + System of taxation. + +One of the most distinctive features of the _ancien régime_ was +excessive taxation. The taxes imposed by the king were numerous, and, +moreover, hardly any of them fell on all parts of the kingdom. To this +territorial inequality was added the inequality arising from privileges. +Ecclesiastics, nobles, and many of the crown officials were exempted +from the heaviest imposts. The chief taxes were the _taille_ (q.v.), the +_aides_ and the _gabelle_ (q.v.), or monopoly of salt, the consumption +of which was generally made compulsory up to the amount determined by +regulations. In the 17th and 18th centuries certain important new taxes +were established: from 1695 to 1698 the _capitation_, which was +re-established in 1701 with considerable modifications, and in 1710 the +tax of the _dixième_, which became under Louis XV. the tax of the +_vingtièmes_. These two imposts had been established on the principle of +equality, being designed to affect every subject in proportion to his +income; but so strong was the system of privileges, that as a matter of +fact the chief burden fell upon the roturiers. The income of a roturier +who was not exempt was thus subject in turn to three direct imposts: the +_taille_, the _capitation_ and the _vingtièmes_, and the apportioning or +assessment of these was extremely arbitrary. In addition to indirect +taxation strictly so called, which was very extensive in the 17th and +18th centuries, France under the _ancien régime_ was subject to the +_traites_, or customs, which were not only levied at the frontiers on +foreign trade, but also included many internal custom-houses for trade +between different provinces. Their origin was generally due to +historical reasons; thus, among the _provinces reputées étrangères_ were +those which in the 14th century had refused to pay the aids for the +ransom of King John, also certain provinces which had refused to allow +customs offices to be established on their foreign frontier. Colbert had +tried to abolish these internal duties, but had only succeeded to a +limited extent. + +The indirect taxes, the _traites_ and the revenues of the royal domain +were farmed out by the crown. At first a separate contract had been made +for each impost in each _élection_, but later they were combined into +larger lots, as is shown by the name of one of the customs districts, +_l'enceinte des cinq grosses fermes_. From the reign of Henry IV. on the +levying of each indirect impost was farmed _en bloc_ for the whole +kingdom, a system known as the _fermes générales_; but the real _ferme +générale_, including all the imposts and revenues which were farmed in +the whole of France, was only established under Colbert. The _ferme +générale_ was a powerful company, employing a vast number of men, most +of whom enjoyed various privileges. Besides the royal taxes, seigniorial +imposts survived under the form of tolls and market dues. The lords also +often possessed local monopolies, e.g. the right of the common bakehouse +(_four banal_), which were called the _banalités_. + + + Courts of law. + +The organization of the royal courts of justice underwent but few +modifications during the _ancien régime_. The number of parlements, of +_cours des aides_ and of _cours des comptes_ increased; in the 17th +century the name of _conseil supérieur_ was given to some new bodies +which actually discharged the functions of the parlement, this being the +period of the decline of the parlement. In the 16th century, under Henry +II., had been created _présidiaux_, or courts of final jurisdiction, +intended to avoid numerous appeals in small cases, and above all to +avoid a final appeal to the parlements. Seigniorial courts survived, but +were entirely subordinate to the royal jurisdictions and were badly +officered by ill-paid and ignorant judges, the lords having long ago +lost the right to sit in them in person. Their chief use was to deal +with cases concerning the payment of feudal dues to the lord. Both +lawyers and people would have preferred only two degrees of justice; and +an ordinance of May 1788 realized this desire in the main. It did not +suppress the seigniorial jurisdictions, but made their extinction a +certainty by allowing litigants to ignore them and go straight to the +royal judges. This was, however, reversed on the recall of Necker and +the temporary triumph of the parlements. + + + Ecclesiastical courts. + +The ecclesiastical jurisdictions survived to the end, but with +diminished scope. Their competency had been considerably reduced by the +Ordinance of Villers Cotterets of 1539, and by an edict of 1693. But a +series of ingenious legal theories had been principally efficacious in +gradually depriving them of most of the cases which had hitherto come +under them. In the 18th century the privilege of clergy did not prevent +civil suits in which the clergy were defendants from being almost always +taken before secular tribunals, and ever since the first half of the +17th century, for all grave offences, or _cas privilégiés_, the royal +judge could pronounce a sentence of corporal punishment on a guilty +cleric without this necessitating his previous degradation. The inquiry +into the case was, it is true, conducted jointly by the royal and the +ecclesiastical judge, but each of them pronounced his sentence +independently. All cases concerning benefices came before the royal +judges. Finally, the _officialités_ had no longer as a rule any +jurisdiction over laymen, even in the matter of marriage, except in +questions of betrothals, and sometimes in cases of opposition to +marriages. The parish priests, however, continued to enter declarations +of baptisms, marriages and burials in registers kept according to the +civil laws. + + + The "customs." + +The general customs of the _pays coutumiers_ were almost all officially +recorded in the 16th century, definite procedure for this purpose having +been adopted at the end of the 15th century. Drafts were prepared by the +officials of the royal courts in the chief town of the district in which +the particular customs were valid, and were then submitted to the +government. The king then appointed commissioners to visit the district +and promulgate the customs on the spot. For the purpose of this +_publication_ the lords, lay and ecclesiastical, of the district, with +representatives of the towns and of various bodies of the inhabitants, +were summoned for a given day to the chief town. In this assembly each +article was read, discussed and put to the vote. Those which were +approved by the majority were thereupon decreed (_décrétés_) by the +commissioners in the king's name; those which gave rise to difficulties +were put aside for the parlement to settle when it registered the +_coutume_. The _coutumes_ in this form became practically written law; +henceforward their text could only be modified by a formal revision +carried out according to the same procedure as the first version. +Throughout the 16th century a fair number of _coutumes_ were thus +revised (_reformées_), with the express object of profiting by the +observations and criticisms on the first text which had appeared in +published commentaries and notes, the most important of which were those +of Charles Dumoulin. In the 16th century there had been a revival of the +study of Roman law, thanks to the historical school, among the most +illustrious representatives of which were Jacques Cujas, Hugues Doneau +and Jacques Godefroy; but this study had only slight influence on +practical jurisprudence. Certain institutions, however, such as +contracts and obligations, were regulated throughout the whole of France +by the principles of Roman law. + +Legislation by _ordonnances, édits, déclarations_ or _lettres patentes_, +emanating from the king, became more and more frequent; but the +character of the _grandes ordonnances_, which were of a far-reaching and +comprehensive nature, underwent a change during this period. In the +14th, 15th and 16th centuries they had been mainly _ordonnances de +réformation_ (i.e. revising previous laws), which were most frequently +drawn up after a sitting of the states general, in accordance with the +suggestions submitted by the deputies. The last of this type was the +ordinance of 1629, promulgated after the states general of 1614 and the +assemblies of notables which had followed it. In the 17th and 18th +centuries they became essentially _codifications_, comprising a +systematic and detailed statement of the whole branch of law. There are +two of these series of codifying ordinances: the first under Louis XIV., +inspired by Colbert and carried out under his direction. The chief +ordinances of this group are that of 1667 on civil procedure (code of +civil procedure); that of 1670 on the examination of criminal cases +(code of penal procedure); that of 1673 on the commerce of merchants, +and that of 1681 on the regulation of shipping, which form between them +a complete code of commerce by land and sea. The ordinance of 1670 +determined the formalities of that secret and written criminal +procedure, as opposed to the hearing of both parties in a suit, which +formerly obtained in France; it even increased its severity, continuing +the employment of torture, binding the accused by oath to speak the +truth, and refusing them counsel save in exceptional cases. The second +series of codifications was made under Louis XV., through the action of +the chancellor d'Aguesseau. Its chief result was the regulation, by the +ordinances of 1731, 1735 and 1747, of deeds of gift between living +persons, wills, and property left in trust. Under Louis XVI. some +mitigation was made of the criminal law, notably the abolition of +torture. + + + Land tenure. + +The feudal régime, in spite of the survival of seigniorial courts and +tolls, was no longer of any political importance; but it still furnished +the common form of real property. The fief, although it still implied +homage from the vassal, no longer involved any service on his part +(excepting that of the _arrière-ban_ due to the king); but when a fief +changed hands the lord still exacted his _profits_. Tenures held by +_roturiers_, in addition to some similar rights of transfer, were +generally subject to periodical and fixed contributions for the profit +of the lord. This system was still further complicated by tenures which +were simply real and not feudal, e.g. that by payment of ground rent, +which were superadded to the others, and had become all the heavier +since, in the 18th century, royal rights of transfer had been added to +the feudal rights. The inhabitants of the country districts were longing +for the liberation of real property. + + + Serfdom. + + The three estates. + +Serfdom had disappeared from most of the provinces of the kingdom; among +all the _coutumes_ which were officially codified, not more than ten or +so still recognized this institution. This had been brought about +especially by the agency of the custom by which serfs had been +transformed into _roturiers_. An edict of Louis XVI. of 1779 abolished +serfdom on crown lands, and mitigated the condition of the serfs who +still existed on the domains of individual lords. The nobility still +remained a privileged class, exempt from certain taxes. Certain offices +were restricted to the nobility; according to an edict of Louis XVI. +(1781) it was even necessary to be a noble in order to become an officer +in the army. In fact, the royal favours were reserved for the nobility. +Certain rules of civil and criminal procedure also distinguished nobles +from _roturiers_. The acquisition of fiefs had ceased to bring nobility +with it, but the latter was derived from three sources: birth, _lettres +d'anoblissement_ granted by the king and appointment to certain offices. +In the 17th and 18th centuries the peers of France can be reckoned among +the nobility, forming indeed its highest grade, though the rank of peer +was still attached to a fief, which was handed down with it; on the eve +of the Revolution there were thirty-eight lay peers. The rest of the +nation, apart from the ecclesiastics, consisted of the _roturiers_, who +were not subject to the disabilities of the serfs, but had not the +privileges of the nobility. Hence the three orders (estates) of the +kingdom: the clergy, the nobility and the _tiers état_ (third estate). +An edict of Louis XVI. had made a regular civil status possible to the +Protestants, and had thrown open offices and professions to them, though +not entirely; but the exercise of their religion was still forbidden. + +_The Revolution._--With the Revolution France entered the ranks of +constitutional countries, in which the liberty of men is guaranteed by +fixed and definite laws; from this time on, she has had always (except +in the interval between two revolutions) a written constitution, which +could not be touched by the ordinary legislative power. The first +constitution was that of 1791; the states general of 1789, transformed +by their own will, backed by public opinion, into the Constituent +Assembly, drew it up on their own authority. But their work did not stop +there. They abolished the whole of the old public law of France and part +of the criminal law, or rather, transformed it in accordance with the +principles laid down by the political philosophy of the 18th century. +The principles which were then proclaimed are still, on most points, the +foundation of modern French law. The development resulting from this +extraordinary impetus can be divided into two quite distinct phases: the +first, from 1789 to the _coup d'état_ of the 18th Brumaire in the year +VIII., was the continuation of the impulse of the Revolution; the second +includes the Consulate and the first Empire, and was, as it were, the +marriage or fusion of the institutions arising from the Revolution with +those of the _ancien régime_. + + + The Constitutions of the Revolution. + +On the whole, the constitutional law of the Revolution is a remarkably +united whole, if we consider only the two constitutions which were +effectively applied during this first phase, that of the 3rd of +September 1791, and that of the 5th Fructidor in the year III. It is +true that between them occurred the ultra-democratic constitution of the +24th of June 1793, the first voted by the Convention; but although this +was ratified by the popular vote, to which it had been directly +submitted, in accordance with a principle proclaimed by the Convention +and kept in force under the Consulate and the Empire, it was never +carried into effect. It was first suspended by the establishment of the +revolutionary government strictly so called, and after Thermidor, under +the pretext of completing it, the Convention put it aside and made a new +one, being taught by experience. As long as it existed it was the +sovereign assembly of the Convention itself which really exercised the +executive power, governing chiefly by means of its great committees. + +The constitution of 1791 was without doubt monarchical, in so far as it +preserved royalty. The constitution of the year III. was, on the +contrary, republican. The horror of monarchy was still so strong at that +time that an executive college was created, a Directory of five members, +one of whom retired every year; they were elected by a complicated and +curious procedure, in which each of the two legislative councils played +a distinct part. But this difference, though apparently essential, was +not in reality very profound; this is proved, for example, by the fact +that the Directory had distinctly more extensive powers than those +conferred on Louis XVI. by the Constituent Assembly. On almost all +points of importance the two constitutions were similar. They were both +preceded by a statement of principles, a "Declaration of the Rights of +Man and of the Citizen." They were both based on two principles which +they construed alike: the sovereignty of the people and the separation +of powers. Both of them (with the exception of what has been said with +regard to the ratification of constitutions after 1793) recognized only +representative government. From the principle of the sovereignty of the +people they had not deduced universal suffrage; though, short of this, +they had extended the suffrage as far as possible. According to the +constitution of 1791, in addition to the conditions of age and +residence, an elector was bound to pay a direct contribution equivalent +to three days' work; the constitution of the year III. recognized the +payment of any direct contribution as sufficient; it even conferred on +every citizen the right of having himself enrolled, without any other +qualification than a payment equivalent to three days' work, and thus to +become an elector. Further, neither of the two constitutions admitted of +a direct suffrage; the elections were carried out in two stages, and +only those who paid at a higher rating could be chosen as electors for +the second stage. The executive power, which was in the case of both +constitutions clearly separated from the legislative, could not initiate +legislation. The Directory had no veto; Louis XVI. had with difficulty +obtained a merely suspensive veto, which was overridden in the event of +three legislatures successively voting against it. The right of +dissolution was possessed by neither the king nor the Directory. Neither +the king's ministers nor those of the Directory could be members of the +legislative body, nor could they even be chosen from among its ranks. +The ministers of Louis XVI. had, however, thanks to an unfortunate +inspiration of the Constituent Assembly of 1791, the right of entry to, +and, to a certain extent, of speaking in the Legislative Assembly; the +constitution of the year III. showed greater wisdom in not bringing them +in any way into contact with the legislative power. The greatest and +most notable difference between the two constitutions was that that of +1791 established a single chamber which was entirely renewed every two +years; that of the year III., on the contrary, profiting by the lessons +of the past, established two chambers, one-third of the members of which +were renewed every year. Moreover, the two chambers, the Council of Five +Hundred and the Council of Ancients, were appointed by the same +electors, and almost the only difference between their members was that +of age. + + + Abolition of the "ancien régime." + +The Revolution entirely abolished the _ancien régime_, and in the first +instance whatever remained of feudalism. The Constituent Assembly, in +the course of its immense work of settlement, wished to draw +distinctions, abolishing absolutely, without indemnity, all rights which +had amounted in the beginning to a usurpation and could not be +justified, e.g. serfdom and seigniorial courts of justice. On the other +hand, it declared subject to redemption such feudal charges as had been +the subject of contract or of a concession of lands. But as it was +almost impossible to discover the exact origin of various feudal +rights, the Assembly had proceeded to do this by means of certain legal +assumptions which sometimes admitted of a proof to the contrary. It +carefully regulated the conditions and rate of repurchase, and forbade +the creation in the future of any perpetual charge which could not be +redeemed: a principle that has remained permanent in French law. This +was a rational and equitable solution; but in a period of such violent +excitement it could not be maintained. The Legislative Assembly declared +the abolishment without indemnity of all feudal rights for which the +original deed of concession could not be produced; and to produce this +was, of course, in most cases impossible. Finally, the Convention +entirely abolished all feudal rights, and commanded that the old deeds +should be destroyed; it maintained on the contrary, though subject to +redemption, those tenures and charges which were solely connected with +landed property and not feudal. + +With feudalism had been abolished serfdom. Further, the Constituent +Assembly suppressed nobility; it even forbade any one to assume and bear +the titles, emblems and arms of nobility. Thus was established the +equality of citizens before the law. The Assembly also proclaimed the +liberty of labour and industry, and suppressed the corporations of +artisans and workmen, the _jurandes_ and _maîtrises_, as Turgot had +done. But, in order to maintain this liberty of the individual, it +forbade all associations between workers, or employers, fearing that +such contracts would again lead to the formation of corporations similar +to the old ones. It even forbade and declared punishable, as being +contrary to the declaration of the rights of man and the citizen, +combinations or strikes, or an agreement between workmen or employers to +refuse to work or to give work except on given conditions. Such, for a +long time, was French legislation on this point. + + + Administrative reorganization. + +The Constituent Assembly gave to France a new administrative division, +that into departments, districts, cantons and communes; and this +division, which was intended to make the old provincial distinctions +disappear, had to serve all purposes, the department being the unit for +all public services. This settlement was definitive, with the exception +of certain modifications in detail, and exists to the present day. But +there was a peculiar administrative organism depending on this +arrangement. The constitution of 1791, it is true, made the king the +titulary head of the executive power; but the internal administration of +the kingdom was not actually in his hands. It was deputed, under his +orders, to bodies elected in each department, district and commune. The +municipal bodies were directly elected by citizens duly qualified; other +bodies were chosen by the method of double election. Each body consisted +of two parts: a council, for deliberative purposes, and a _bureau_ or +_directoire_ chosen by the council from among its numbers to form the +executive. These were the only instruments for the general +administration and for that of the direct taxes. The king could, it is +true, annul the illegal acts of these bodies, but not dismiss their +members; he could merely suspend them from exercising their functions, +but the matter then went before the Legislative Assembly, which could +maintain or remit the suspension as it thought fit. The king had not a +single agent chosen by himself for general administrative purposes. This +was a reaction, though a very exaggerated one, against the excessive +centralization of the _ancien régime_, and resulted in an absolute +administrative anarchy. The organization of the revolutionary government +partly restored the central authority; the councils of the departments +were suppressed; the Committee of Public Safety and the "representatives +of the people on mission" were able to remove and replace the members of +the elected bodies; and also, by an ingenious arrangement, national +agents were established in the districts. The constitution of the year +III. continued in this course, simplifying the organization established +by the Constituent Assembly, while maintaining its principle. The +department had an administration of five members, elected as in the +past, but having executive as well as deliberative functions. The +district was suppressed. The communes retained only a municipal agent +elected by themselves, and the actual municipal body, the importance of +which was considerably increased, was removed to the canton, and +consisted of the municipal agents from each commune, and a president +elected by the duly qualified citizens of the canton. The Directory was +represented in each departmental and communal administration by a +commissary appointed and removable by itself, and could dismiss the +members of these administrations. + + + Judicial system. + +The Constituent Assembly decided on the complete reorganization of the +judicial organization. This was accomplished on a very simple plan, +which realized that ideal of the two degrees of justice which, as we +have noticed, was that of France under the _ancien régime_. In the lower +degrees it created in each canton a justice of the peace (_juge de +paix_), the idea and name of which were borrowed from England, but which +differed very much from the English justice of the peace. He judged, +both with and without appeal, civil cases of small importance; and, in +cases which did not come within his competency, it was his duty to try +to reconcile the parties. In each district was established a civil court +composed of five judges. This completed the judicial organization, +except for the court of cassation, which had functions peculiar to +itself, never judging the facts of the case but only the application of +the law. For cases coming under the district court, the Assembly had not +thought fit to abolish the guarantee of the appeal in cases involving +sums above a certain figure. But by a curious arrangement the district +tribunals could hear appeals from one another. With regard to penal +prosecutions, there was in each department a criminal court which judged +crimes with the assistance of a jury; it consisted of judges borrowed +from district courts, and had its own president and public prosecutor. +Correctional tribunals, composed of _juges de paix_, dealt with +misdemeanours. The Assembly preserved the commercial courts, or consular +jurisdictions, of the _ancien régime_. There was a court of cassation, +the purpose of which was to preserve the unity of jurisprudence in +France; it dealt with matters of law and not of fact, considering +appeals based on the violation of law, whether in point of matter or of +form, and if such violation were proved, sending the matter before +another tribunal of the same rank for re-trial. All judges were elected +for a term of years; the _juges de paix_ by the primary assembly of the +canton, the district judges by the electoral assembly consisting of the +electors of the second degree for the district, the members of the court +of cassation by the electors of the departments, who were divided for +the purpose into two series, which voted alternately. The Constituent +Assembly did, it is true, require professional guarantees, by proof of a +more or less extended exercise of the profession of lawyer from all +judges except the _juges de paix_. But the system was really the same as +that of the administrative organization. The king only appointed the +_commissaires du roi_ attached to the district courts, criminal +tribunals and the court of cassation; but the appointment once made +could not be revoked by him. These commissaries fulfilled one of the +functions of the old _ministère public_, their duty being to demand the +application of laws. The Convention did not change this general +organization; but it suppressed the professional guarantees required in +the case of candidates for a judgeship, so that henceforth all citizens +were eligible; and it also caused new elections to take place. Moreover, +the Convention, either directly or by means of one of its committees, +not infrequently removed and replaced judges without further election. +The constitution of the year III. preserved this system, but introduced +one considerable modification. It suppressed the district courts, and in +their place created in each department a civil tribunal consisting of +twenty judges. The idea was a happy one, for it gave the courts more +importance, and therefore more weight and dignity. But this reform, +beneficial as it would be nowadays, was at the time premature, in view +of the backward condition of means of communication. + + + The army. + +The Constituent Assembly suppressed the militia and maintained the +standing army, according to the old type, the numbers of which were +henceforth to be fixed every year by the Legislative Assembly. The army +was to be recruited by voluntary enlistment, careful rules for which +were drawn up; the only change was in the system of appointment to +ranks; promotion went chiefly by seniority, and in the lower ranks a +system of nomination by equals or inferiors was organized. The Assembly +proclaimed, however, the principle of compulsory and personal service, +but under a particular form, that of the National Guard, to which all +qualified citizens belonged, and in which almost all ranks were +conferred by election. Its chief purpose was to maintain order at home; +but it could be called upon to furnish detachments for defence against +foreign invasion. This was an institution which, with many successive +modifications, and after various long periods of inactivity followed by +a revival, lasted more than three-quarters of a century, and was not +suppressed till 1871. For purposes of war the Convention, in addition to +voluntary enlistments and the resources furnished by the National +Guards, and setting aside the forced levy of 200,000 men in 1793, +decided on the expedient of calling upon the communes to furnish men, a +course which revived the principle of the old militia. But the Directory +drew up an important military law, that of the 6th Fructidor of the year +VI., which established compulsory military service for all, under the +form of conscription strictly so called. Frenchmen aged from 20 to 25 +(_défenseurs conscrits_) were divided into five classes, each including +the men born in the same year, and were liable until they were 25 years +old to be called up for active service, the whole period of service not +exceeding four years. No class was called upon until the younger classes +had been exhausted, and the sending of substitutes was forbidden. This +law, with a few later modifications, provided for the French armies up +to the end of the Empire. + + + Taxation. + +The Constituent Assembly abolished nearly all the taxes of the _ancien +régime_. Almost the only taxes preserved were the stamp duty and that on +the registration of acts (the old _contrôle_ and _centième denier_), and +these were completely reorganized; the customs were maintained only at +the frontiers for foreign trade. In the establishment of new taxes the +Assembly was influenced by two sentiments: the hatred which had been +inspired by the former arbitrary taxation, and the influence of the +school of the Physiocrats. Consequently it did away with indirect +taxation on objects of consumption, and made the principal direct tax +the tax on land. Next in importance were the _contribution personnelle +et mobilière_ and the _patentes_. The essential elements of the former +were a sort of capitation-tax equivalent to three days' work, which was +the distinctive and definite sign of a qualified citizen, and a tax on +personal income, calculated according to the rent paid. The _patentes_ +were paid by traders, and were also based on the amount of rent. These +taxes, though considerably modified later, are still essentially the +basis of the French system of direct taxation. The Constituent Assembly +had on principle repudiated the tax on the gross income, much favoured +under the _ancien régime_, which everybody had felt to be arbitrary and +oppressive. The system of public contributions under the Convention was +arbitrary and revolutionary, but the councils of the Directory, side by +side with certain bad laws devised to tide over temporary crises, made +some excellent laws on the subject of taxation. They resumed the +regulation of the land tax, improving and partly altering it, and also +dealt with the _contribution personnelle et mobilière_, the _patentes_, +and the stamp and registration duties. It was at this time, too, that +the door and window tax, which still exists, was provisionally +established; there was also a partial reappearance of indirect taxation, +in particular the _octrois_ of the towns, which had been suppressed by +the Constituent Assembly. + + + Religious liberty. + +The Constituent Assembly gave the Protestants liberty of worship and +full rights; it also gave Jews the status of citizen, which they had not +had under the _ancien régime_, together with political rights. With +regard to the Catholic Church, the Assembly placed at the disposal of +the nation the property of the clergy, which had already, in the course +of the 18th century, been regarded by most political writers as a +national possession; at the same time it provided for salaries for the +members of the clergy and pensions for those who had been monks. It +abolished tithes and the religious orders, and forbade the re-formation +of the latter in the future. The ecclesiastical districts were next +reorganized, the department being always taken as the chief unit, and a +new church was organized by the civil constitution of the clergy, the +bishops being elected by the electoral assembly of the department (the +usual electors), and the curés by the electoral assembly of the +district. This was an unfortunate piece of legislation, inspired partly +by the old Gallican spirit, partly by the theories on civil religion of +J.J. Rousseau and his school, and, together with the civic oath imposed +on the clergy, it was a source of endless troubles. The constitutional +church established in this way was, however, abolished as a state +institution by the Convention. By laws of the years III. and IV. the +Convention and the Directory, in proclaiming the liberty of worship, +declared that the Republic neither endowed nor recognized any form of +worship. Buildings formerly consecrated to worship, which had not been +alienated, were again placed at the disposal of worshippers for this +purpose, but under conditions which were hard for them to accept. + + + Civil law. + + Criminal law. + +The Assemblies of the Revolution, besides the laws which, by abolishing +feudalism, altered the character of real property, passed many others +concerning civil law. The most important are those of 1792, passed by +the Legislative Assembly, which organized the registers of the _état +civil_ kept by the municipalities, and laid down rules for marriage as a +purely civil contract. Divorce was admitted to a practically unlimited +extent; it was possible not only for causes determined by law, and by +mutual consent, but also for incompatibility of temper and character +proved, by either husband or wife, to be of a persistent nature. Next +came the laws of the Convention as to inheritance, imposing perfect +equality among the natural heirs and endeavouring to ensure the division +of properties. Illegitimate children were considered by these laws as on +the same level with legitimate children. The Convention and the councils +of the Directory also made excellent laws on the administration of +_hypothèques_, and worked at the preparation of a Civil Code (see CODE +NAPOLÉON). In criminal law their work was still more important. In 1791 +the Constituent Assembly gave France her first penal code. It was +inspired by humanitarian ideas, still admitting capital punishment, +though accompanied by no cruelty in the execution; but none of the +remaining punishments was for life. Long imprisonment with hard labour +was introduced. Finally, as a reaction against the former system of +arbitrary penalties, there came a system of fixed penalties determined, +both as to its assessment and its nature, for each offence, which the +judge could not modify. The Constituent Assembly also reformed the +procedure of criminal trials, taking English law as model. It introduced +the jury, with the double form of _jury d'accusation_ and _jury de +jugement_. Before the judges procedure was always public and oral. The +prosecution was left in principle to the parties concerned, plaintiffs +or _dénonciateurs civiques_, and the preliminary investigation was +handed over to two magistrates; one was the _juge de paix_, as in +English procedure at this period, and the other a magistrate chosen from +the district court and called the _directeur du jury_. The Convention, +before separating, passed the _Code des délits et des peines_ of the 3rd +Brumaire in the year IV. This piece of work, which was due to Merlin de +Douai, was intended to deal with criminal procedure and penal law; but +only the first part could be completed. It was the procedure established +by the Constituent Assembly, but further organized and improved. + +_The Consulate and the Empire._--The constitutional law of the Consulate +and the Empire is to be found in a series of documents called later the +_Constitutions de l'Empire_, the constitution promulgated during the +Hundred Days being consequently given the name of _Acte additionnel aux +Constitutions de l'Empire_. These documents consist of (1) the +Constitution of the 22nd Frimaire of the year VIII., the work of Sieyès +and Bonaparte, the text on which the others were based; (2) the +_senatus consulte_ of the 16th Thermidor in the year X., establishing +the consulate for life; and (3) the _senatus consulte_ of the 28th +Floréal in the year XII., which created the Empire. These constitutional +acts, which were all, whether in their full text or in principle, +submitted to the popular vote by means of a _plébiscite_, had all the +same object: to assure absolute power to Napoleon, while preserving the +forms and appearance of liberty. Popular suffrage was maintained, and +even became universal; but, since the system was that of suffrage in +many stages, which, moreover, varied very much, the citizens in effect +merely nominated the candidates, and it was the Senate, playing the part +of _grand électeur_ which Sieyès had dreamed of as his own, which chose +from among them the members of the various so-called elected bodies, +even those of the political assemblies. According to the constitution of +the year VIII., the first consul (to whom had been added two colleagues, +the second and third consuls, who did not disappear until the Empire) +possessed the executive power in the widest sense of the word, and he +alone could initiate legislation. There were three representative +assemblies in existence, elected as we have seen; but one of them, the +Corps Législatif, passed laws without discussing them, and without the +power of amending the suggestions of the government. The Tribunate, on +the contrary, discussed them, but its vote was not necessary for the +passing of the law. The Senate was the guardian and preserver of the +constitution; in addition to its role of _grand électeur_, its chief +function was to annul laws and acts submitted to it by the Tribunate as +being unconstitutional. This original organization was naturally +modified during the course of the Consulate and the Empire; not only did +the emperor obtain the right of directly nominating senators, and the +princes of the imperial family, and grant dignitaries of the Empire that +of entering the Senate by right; but a whole body, the Tribunate, which +was the only one which could preserve some independence, disappeared, +without resort having been had to a plebiscite; it was modified and +weakened by _senatus consulte_ of the year X., and was suppressed in +1807 by a mere _senatus consulte_. The importance of another body, on +the contrary, the _conseil d'état_, which had been formed on the +improved type of the ancient _conseil du roi_, and consisted of members +appointed by Napoleon and carefully chosen, continually increased. It +was this body which really prepared and discussed the laws; and it was +its members who advocated them before the Corps Législatif, to which the +Tribunate also sent orators to speak on its behalf. The ministers, who +had no relation with the legislative power, were merely the agents of +the head of the state, freely chosen by himself. Napoleon, however, +found these powers insufficient, and arrogated to himself others, a fact +which the Senate did not forget when it proclaimed his downfall. Thus he +frequently declared war upon his own authority, in spite of the +provisions to the contrary made by the constitution of the year VIII.; +and similarly, under the form of _décrets_, made what were really laws. +They were afterwards called _décrets-lois_, and those that were not +indissolubly associated with the political régime of the Empire, and +survived it, were subsequently declared valid by the court of cassation, +on the ground that they had not been submitted to the Senate as +unconstitutional, as had been provided by the constitution of the year +VIII. + + + Administrative changes under Consulate and Empire. + +This period saw the rise of a whole new series of great organic laws. +For administrative organization, the most important was that of the 28th +Pluviôse in the year VIII. It established as chief authority for each +department a prefect, and side by side with him a _conseil général_ for +deliberative purposes; for each _arrondissement_ (corresponding to the +old _district_) a sub-prefect (_sous-préfet_) and a _conseil +d'arrondissement_; and for each _commune_, a mayor and a municipal +council. But all these officials, both the members of the councils and +the individual agents, were appointed by the head of the state or by the +prefect, so that centralization was restored more completely than ever. +Together with the prefect there was also established a _conseil de +préfecture_, having administrative functions, and generally acting as a +court of the first instance in disputes and litigation arising out of +the acts of the administration; for the Constituent Assembly had removed +such cases from the jurisdiction of the civil tribunals, and referred +them to the administrative bodies themselves. The final appeal in these +disputes was to the _conseil d'état_, which was supreme judge in these +matters. In 1807 was created another great administrative jurisdiction, +the _cour des comptes_, after the pattern of that which had existed +under the _ancien régime_. + + + Judicial changes. + +Judicial organization had also been fundamentally altered. The system of +election was preserved for a time in the case of the _juges de paix_ and +the members of the court of cassation, but finally disappeared there, +even where it had already been no more than a form. The magistrates were +in principle appointed for life, but under the Empire a device was found +for evading the rule of irremovability. For the judgment of civil cases +there was a court of first instance in every arrondissement, and above +these a certain number of courts of appeal, each of which had within its +province several departments. The separate criminal tribunals were +abolished in 1809 by the _Code d'Instruction Criminelle_, and the +magistrates forming the _cour d'assises_, which judged crimes with the +aid of a jury, were drawn from the courts of appeal and from the civil +tribunals. The _jury d'accusation_ was also abolished by the _Code +d'Instruction Criminelle_, and the right of pronouncing the indictment +was transferred to a chamber of the court of appeal. The correctional +tribunals were amalgamated with the civil tribunals of the first +instance. The _tribunal de cassation_, which took under the Empire the +name of _cour de cassation_, consisted of magistrates appointed for +life, and still kept its powers. The _ministère public_ (consisting of +imperial _avocats_ and _procureurs_) was restored in practically the +same form as under the _ancien régime_. + + + Taxation. + +The former system of taxation was preserved in principle, but with one +considerable addition: Napoleon re-established indirect taxation on +articles of consumption, which had been abolished by the Constituent +Assembly; the chief of these were the duties on liquor (_droits réunis_, +or excise) and the monopoly of tobacco. + + + The Concordat. + +The Concordat concluded by Napoleon with the papacy on the 26th Messidor +of the year IX. re-established the Catholic religion in France as the +form of worship recognized and endowed by the state. It was in principle +drawn up on the lines of that of 1516, and assured to the head of the +French state in his dealings with the papacy the same prerogatives as +had formerly been enjoyed by the kings; the chief of these was that he +appointed the bishops, who afterwards had to ask the pope for canonical +institution. The territorial distribution of dioceses was preserved +practically as it had been left by the civil constitution of the clergy. +The state guaranteed the payment of salaries to bishops and curés; and +the pope agreed to renounce all claims referring to the appropriation of +the goods of the clergy made by the Constituent Assembly. Later on, a +decree restored to the _fabriques_ (vestries) such of their former +possessions as had not been alienated, and the churches which had not +been alienated were restored for the purposes of worship. The law of the +18th Germinal in the year X., ratifying the Concordat, reasserted, under +the name of _articles organiques du culte catholique_, all the main +principles contained in the old doctrine of the liberties of the +Gallican Church. The Concordat did not include the restoration of the +religious orders and congregations; Napoleon sanctioned by decrees only +a few establishments of this kind. + + + The university. + +One important creation of the Empire was the university. The _ancien +régime_ had had its universities for purposes of instruction and for the +conferring of degrees; it had also, though without any definite +organization, such secondary schools as the towns admitted within their +walls, and the primary schools of the parishes. The Revolution +suppressed the universities and the teaching congregations. The +constitution of the year III. proclaimed the liberty of instruction and +commanded that public schools, both elementary and secondary, should be +established. Under the Directory there was in each department an _école +centrale_, in which all branches of human knowledge were taught. +Napoleon, developing ideas which had been started in the second half of +the 18th century, founded by laws and decrees of 1806, 1808 and 1811 the +Université de France, which provided and organized higher, secondary and +primary education; this was to be the monopoly of the state, carried on +by its _facultés_, _lycées_ and primary schools. No private educational +establishment could be opened without the authorization of the state. + + + The Codes. + +But chief among the documents dating from this period are the Codes, +which still give laws to France. These are the Civil Code of 1804, the +_Code de Procédure Civile_ of 1806, the _Code de Commerce_ of 1807, the +_Code d'Instruction Criminelle_ of 1809, and the _Code Pénal_ of 1810. +These monumental works, in the elaboration of which the _conseil d'état_ +took the chief part, contributed, to a greater or less extent, towards +the fusion of the old law of France with the laws of the Revolution. It +was in the case of the _Code Civil_ that this task presented the +greatest difficulty (see CODE NAPOLÉON). The _Code de Commerce_ was +scarcely more than a revised and emended edition of the _ordonnances_ of +1673 and 1681; while the _Code de Procédure Civile_ borrowed its chief +elements from the _ordonnance_ of 1667. In the case of the _Code +d'Instruction Criminelle_ a distinctly new departure was made; the +procedure introduced by the Revolution into courts where judgment was +given remained public and oral, with full liberty of defence; the +preliminary procedure, however, before the examining court (_juge +d'instruction_ or _chambre des mises en accusation_) was borrowed from +the _ordonnance_ of 1670; it was the procedure of the old law, without +its cruelty, but secret and written, and generally not in the presence +of both parties. The _Code Pénal_ maintained the principles of the +Revolution, but increased the penalties. It substituted for the system +of fixed penalties, in cases of temporary punishment, a maximum and a +minimum, between the limits of which judges could assess the amount. +Even in the case of misdemeanours, it admitted the system of extenuating +circumstances, which allowed them still further to decrease and alter +the penalty in so far as the offence was mitigated by such +circumstances. (See further under NAPOLEON I.) + + + Constitutional monarchy. + +_The Restored Monarchy._--The Restoration and the Monarchy of July, +though separated by a revolution, form one period in the history of +French institutions, a period in which the same régime was continued and +developed. This was the constitutional monarchy, with a parliamentary +body consisting of two chambers, a system imitated from England. The +same constitution was preserved under these two monarchies--the charter +granted by Louis XVIII. in 1814. The revolution of 1830 took place in +defence of the charter which Charles X. had violated by the +_ordonnances_ of July, so that this charter was naturally preserved +under the "July Monarchy." It was merely revised by the Chamber of +Deputies, which had been one of the movers of the revolution, and by +what remained of the House of Peers. In order to give the constitution +the appearance of originating in the will of the people, the preface, +which made it appear to be a favour granted by the king, was destroyed. +The two chambers acquired the initiative in legislation, which had not +been recognized as theirs under the Restoration, but from this time on +belonged to them equally with the king. The sittings of the House of +Peers were henceforth held in public; but this chamber underwent another +and more fundamental transformation. The peers were nominated by the +king, with no limit of numbers, and according to the charter of 1814 +their appointment could be either for life or hereditary; but, in +execution of an ordinance of Louis XVIII., during the Restoration they +were always appointed under the latter condition. Under the July +Monarchy their tenure of office was for life, and the king had to choose +them from among twenty-two classes of notables fixed by law. The +franchise for the election of the Chamber of Deputies had been limited +by a system of money qualifications; but while, under the Restoration, +it had been necessary, in order to be an elector, to pay three hundred +francs in direct taxation, this sum was reduced in 1831 to two hundred +francs, while in certain cases even a smaller amount sufficed. In order +to be elected as a deputy it was necessary, according to the charter of +1814, to pay a thousand francs in direct taxation, and according to that +of 1830 five hundred francs. From 1817 onwards there was direct +suffrage, the electors directly electing the deputies. The idea of those +who had framed the charter of 1814 had been to give the chief influence +to the great landed proprietors, though the means adopted to this end +were not adequate: in 1830 the chief aim had been to give a +preponderating influence to the middle and lower middle classes, and +this had met with greater success. The House of Peers, under the name of +_cour des pairs_, had also the function of judging attempts and plots +against the security of the state, and it had frequently to exercise +this function both under the Restoration and the July Monarchy. + +This was a period of parliamentary government; that is, of government by +a cabinet, resting on the responsibility of the ministers to the Chamber +of Deputies. The only interruption was that caused by the resistance of +Charles X. at the end of his reign, which led to the revolution of July. +Parliamentary government was practised regularly and in an enlightened +spirit under the Restoration, although the Chamber had not then all the +powers which it has since acquired. It is noteworthy that during this +period the right of the House of Peers to force a ministry to resign by +a hostile vote was not recognized. By the creation of a certain number +of new peers, a _fournée de pairs_, as it was then called, the majority +in this House could be changed when necessary. But the government of the +Restoration had to deal with two extreme parties of a very opposite +nature: the _Ultras_, who wished to restore as far as possible the +_ancien régime_, to whom were due the acts of the _chambre introuvable_ +of 1816, and later the laws of the ministry of Villèle, especially the +law of sacrilege and that voting compensation to the dispossessed +nobles, known as the _milliard des émigrés_; and on the other hand the +_Liberals_, including the Bonapartists and Republicans, who were +attached to the principles of the Revolution. In order to prevent either +of these parties from predominating in the chamber, the government made +a free use of its power of dissolution. It further employed two means to +check the progress of the Liberals; firstly, there were various +alterations successively made in the electoral law, and the press laws, +frequently restrictive in their effect, which introduced the censorship +and a preliminary authorization in the case of periodical publications, +and gave the correctional tribunals jurisdiction in cases of press +offences. The best electoral law was that of 1817, and the best press +laws were those of 1819; but these were not of long duration. Under the +July Monarchy parliamentary government, although its machinery was +further perfected, was not so brilliant. The majorities in the Chamber +of Deputies were often uncertain, so much so, that more than once the +right of dissolution was exercised in order to try by new elections to +arrive at an undivided and certain majority. King Louis Philippe, though +sober-minded, wished to exercise a personal influence on the policy of +the cabinet, so that there were then two schools, represented +respectively by Thiers and Guizot, one of which held the theory that +"the king reigns but does not govern"; while the other maintained that +he might exercise a personal influence, provided that he could rely on a +ministry supported by a majority of the Chamber of Deputies. But the +weak point in the July Monarchy was above all the question of the +franchise. A powerful movement of opinion set in towards demanding an +extension, some wishing for universal suffrage, but the majority +proposing what was called the _adjonction des capacités_, that is to +say, that to the number of qualified electors should be added those +citizens who, by virtue of their professions, capacity or acquirements, +were inscribed after them on the general list for juries. But the +government obstinately refused all electoral reform, and held to the law +of 1831. It also refused parliamentary reform, by which was meant a rule +which would have made most public offices incompatible with the position +of deputy, the Chamber of Deputies being at that time full of +officials. The press, thanks to the Charter, was perfectly free, without +either censorship or preliminary authorization, and press offences were +judged by a jury. + + + The system of the Empire retained. + +In another respect also the Restoration and the July Monarchy were at +one, the second continuing the spirit of the first, viz. in maintaining +in principle the civil, legal and administrative institutions of the +Empire. The preface to the charter of 1814 sanctioned and guaranteed +most of the legal rights won by the Revolution; even the alienation of +national property was confirmed. It was said, it is true, that the old +nobility regained their titles, and that the nobility of the Empire kept +those which Napoleon had given them; but these were merely titles and +nothing more; there was no privileged nobility, and the equality of +citizens before the law was maintained. Judicial and administrative +organization, the system of taxation, military organization, the +relations of church and state, remained the same, and the university +also continued to exist. The government did, it is true, negotiate a new +Concordat with the papacy in 1817, but did not dare even to submit it to +the chambers. The most important reform was that of the law concerning +recruiting for the army. The charter of 1814 had promised the abolition +of conscription, in the form in which it had been created by the law of +the year VI. The law of the 10th of March 1818 actually established a +new system. The contingent voted by the chambers for annual +incorporation into the standing army was divided up among all the +cantons; and, in order to furnish it, lots were drawn among all the men +of a certain class, that is to say, among the young Frenchmen who +arrived at their majority that year. Those who were not chosen by lot +were definitely set free from military service. The sending of +substitutes, a custom which had been permitted by Napoleon, was +recognized. This was the type of all the laws on recruiting in France, +of which there were a good number in succession up to 1867. On other +points they vary, in particular as to the duration of service, which was +six years, and later eight years, under the Restoration; but the system +remained the same. + +The Restoration produced a code, the _Code forestier_ of 1827, for the +regulation of forests (_eaux et forêts_). In 1816 a law had abolished +divorce, making marriage indissoluble, as it had been in the old law. +But the best laws of this period were those on finance. Now, for the +first time, was introduced the practice of drawing up regular budgets, +voted before the year to which they applied, and divided since 1819 into +the budget of expenditure and budget of receipts. + +Together with other institutions of the Empire, the Restoration had +preserved the exaggerated system of administrative centralization +established in the year VIII.; and proposals for its relaxation +submitted to the chambers had come to nothing. It was only under the +July Monarchy that it was relaxed. The municipal law of the 21st of +March 1831 made the municipal councils elective, and extended widely the +right of voting in the elections for them; the _maires_ and their +assistants continued to be appointed by the government, but had to be +chosen from among the members of the municipal councils. The law of the +22nd of June 1833 made the general councils of the departments also +elective, and brought the _adjonction des capacités_ into effect for +their election. The powers of these bodies were enlarged in 1838, and +they gained the right of electing their president. In 1833 was granted +another liberty, that of primary education; but in spite of violent +protestations, coming especially from the Catholics, secondary and +higher education continued to be a monopoly of the state. Many organic +laws were promulgated, one concerning the National Guard, which was +reorganized in order to adapt it to the system of citizen +qualifications; one in 1832 on the recruiting of the army, fixing the +period of service at seven years; and another in 1834 securing the +status of officers. A law of the 11th of June 1842 established the great +railway lines. In 1832 the _Code Pénal_ and _Code d'Instruction +Criminelle_ were revised, with the object of lightening penalties; the +system of extenuating circumstances, as recognized by a jury, was +extended to the judgment of all crimes. There was also a revision of +Book III. of the _Code de Commerce_, treating of bankruptcy. Finally, +from this period date the laws of the 3rd of May 1841, on expropriation +for purposes of public utility, and of the 30th of June 1838, on the +treatment of the insane, which is still in force. Judicial organization +remained as it was, but the amount of the sum up to which civil +tribunals of the first instance could judge without appeal was raised +from 1000 francs to 1500, and the competency of the _juges de paix_ was +widened. + +_The Second Republic and the Second Empire._--From the point of view of +constitutional law, the Second Republic and the Second Empire were each +in a certain sense a return to the past. The former revived the +tradition of the Assemblies of the Revolution; the latter was obviously +and avowedly an imitation of the Consulate and the First Empire. + + + Republican constitution of 1848. + +The provisional government set up by the revolution of the 24th of +February 1848 proclaimed universal suffrage, and by this means was +elected a Constituent Assembly, which sat till May 1849, and, after +first organizing various forms of another provisional government, passed +the Republican constitution of the 4th of November 1848. This +constitution, which was preceded by a preface recalling the Declarations +of Rights of the Revolution, gave the legislative power to a single +permanent assembly, elected by direct universal suffrage, and entirely +renewed every three years. The executive authority, with very extensive +powers, was given to a president of the Republic, also elected by the +universal and direct suffrage of the French citizens. The constitution +was not very clear upon the point of whether it adopted parliamentary +government in the strict sense, or whether the president, who was +declared responsible, was free to choose his ministers and to retain or +dismiss them at his own pleasure. This gave rise to an almost permanent +dispute between the president, who claimed to have his own political +opinions and to direct the government, and the Assembly, which wished to +carry on the traditions of cabinet government and to make the ministers +fully responsible to itself. Consequently, in January 1851, a solemn +debate was held, which ended in the affirmation of the responsibility of +ministers to the Assembly. On the other hand, the president, though very +properly given great power by the constitution, was not immediately +eligible for re-election on giving up his office. Now Louis Napoleon, +who was elected president on the 10th of December 1848 by a huge +majority, wished to be re-elected. Various propositions were submitted +to the Assembly in July 1851 with a view to modifying the constitution; +but they could not succeed, as the number of votes demanded by the +constitution for the convocation of a Constituent Assembly was not +reached. Moreover, the Legislative Assembly elected in May 1849 was very +different from the Constituent Assembly of 1848. The latter was animated +by that spirit of harmony and, in the main, of adhesion to the Republic +which had followed on the February Revolution. The new assembly, on the +contrary, was composed for the most part of representatives of the old +parties, and had monarchist aspirations. By the unfortunate law of the +31st of May 1850 it even tried by a subterfuge to restrict the universal +suffrage guaranteed by the constitution. It suspended the right of +holding meetings, but, on the whole, respected the liberty of the press. +It was especially impelled to these measures by the growing fear of +socialism. The result was the _coup d'état_ of the 2nd of December 1851. +A detail of some constitutional importance is to be noticed in this +period. The _conseil d'état_, which had remained under the Restoration +and the July Monarchy an administrative council and the supreme arbiter +in administrative trials, acquired new importance under the Second +Republic. The ordinary _conseillers d'état_ (_en service ordinaire_) +were elected by the Legislative Assembly, and consultation with the +_conseil d'état_ was often insisted on by the constitution or by law. +This was the means of obtaining a certain modifying power as a +substitute for the second chamber, which had not met with popular +approval. During its short existence the Second Republic produced many +important laws. It abolished the penalty of death for political crimes, +and suppressed negro slavery in the colonies. The election of +_conseillers généraux_ was thrown open to universal suffrage, and the +municipal councils were allowed to elect the _maires_ and their +colleagues. The law of the 15th of March 1850 established the liberty of +secondary education, but it conferred certain privileges on the Catholic +clergy, a clear sign of the spirit of social conservatism which was the +leading motive for its enactment. Certain humanitarian laws were passed, +applying to the working classes. + + + Constitution of Jan. 14, 1852. + + Restoration of the Empire. + + The empire libéral. + +With the _coup d'état_ of the 2nd of December 1851 began a new era of +constitutional plebiscites and disguised absolutism. The proclamations +of Napoleon on the 2nd of December contained a criticism of +parliamentary government, and formulated the wish to restore to France +the constitutional institutions of the Consulate and the Empire, just as +she had preserved their civil, administrative and military institutions. +Napoleon asked the people for the powers necessary to draw up a +constitution on these principles; the plebiscite issued in a vast +majority of votes in his favour, and the constitution of the 14th of +January 1852 was the result. It bore a strong resemblance to the +constitution of the First Empire after 1807. The executive power was +conferred on Louis Napoleon for ten years, with the title of president +of the Republic and very extended powers. Two assemblies were created. +The conservative Senate, composed of _ex officio_ members (cardinals, +marshals of France and admirals) and life members appointed by the head +of the state, was charged with the task of seeing that the laws were +constitutional, of opposing the promulgation of unconstitutional laws, +and of receiving the petitions of citizens; it had also the duty of +providing everything not already provided but necessary for the proper +working of the constitution. The second assembly was the _Corps +Législatif_, elected by direct universal suffrage for six years, which +passed the laws, the government having the initiative in legislation. +This body was not altogether a _corps des muets_, as in the year VIII., +but its powers were very limited; thus the general session assured to it +by the constitution was only for three months, and it could only discuss +and put to the vote amendments approved by the _conseil d'état_; the +ministers did not in any way come into contact with it and could not be +members of it, being responsible only to the head of the state, and only +the Senate having the right of accusing them before a high court of +justice. The _conseil d'état_ was composed in the same way and had the +same authority as it had possessed from the year VIII. to 1814; and it +was the members of it who supported projected laws before the Corps +Législatif. To this was added a Draconian press legislation; not only +were press offences, many of which were mere expressions of opinion, +judged not by a jury but by the correctional tribunals; but further, +political papers could not be founded without an authorization, and were +subject to a regular administrative discipline; they could be warned, +suspended or suppressed without a trial, by a simple act of the +administration. The constitution of January 1852 was still Republican in +name, though less so than that of the year VIII. The period +corresponding with the Consulate was also shorter in the case of Louis +Napoleon. The year 1852 had not come to an end before a _senatus +consulte_, that of the 10th of November, ratified by a plebiscite, +re-established the imperial rank in favour of Napoleon III.; it also +conferred on him certain new powers, especially with reference to the +budget and foreign treaties; thus various cracks, which experience had +revealed in the original structure of the Empire, were filled up. This +period was called that of the _empire autoritaire_. Further features of +it were the free appointment of the _maires_ by the emperor, the oath of +fidelity to him imposed on all officials, and the legal organization of +official candidatures for the elections. Two measures marked the highest +point reached by this system: the _loi de sureté générale_ of the 27th +of February 1858, which allowed the government to intern in France or +Algeria, or to exile certain French citizens, without a trial. The other +was the _senatus consulte_ of the 17th of February 1858, which made the +validity of candidatures for the Corps Législatif subject to a +preliminary oath of fidelity on the part of the candidate. But for +various causes, which cannot be examined here, a series of measures was +soon to be initiated which were gradually to lead back again to +political liberty, and definitively to found what has been called the +_empire libéral_. One by one the different rules and proceedings of +parliamentary government as it had existed in France regained their +force. The first step was the decree of the 24th of November 1860, which +re-established for each ordinary session the address voted by the +chambers in response to the speech from the throne. In 1867 this +movement took a more decisive form. It led to a new constitution, that +of the 21st of May 1870, which was again ratified by popular suffrage. +While maintaining the Empire and the imperial dynasty, it organized +parliamentary government practically in the form in which it had +operated under the July Monarchy, with two legislative chambers, the +Senate and the Corps Législatif, the consent of both of which was +necessary for legislation, and which, together with the emperor, had the +initiative in this matter. The laws of the 11th of May 1868 and the 6th +of June 1868 restored to a certain extent the liberty of the press and +of holding meetings, though without abolishing offences of opinion, or +again bringing press offences under the jurisdiction of a jury. Laws of +the 22nd and 23rd of July 1870 gave the _conseils généraux_, whose +powers had been somewhat widened, the right of electing their +presidents, and provided that the _maires_ and their colleagues should +be chosen from among the members of the municipal councils. + + + Economic and social reforms under the Second Empire. + + Commercial treaties. + +The legislation of the Second Empire led to a considerable number of +reforms. Its chief aim was the development of commerce, industry and +agriculture, and generally the material prosperity of the country. The +Empire, though restricting liberty in political matters, increased it in +economic matters. Such were the decrees and laws of 1852 and 1853 +relating to land-banks (_établissements de crédit foncier_) and that of +1857 on trade-marks, those of 1863 and 1867 on commercial companies, +that of 1858 on general stores (_magasins généraux_) and warrants, that +of 1856 on drainage, that of 1865 on the _associations syndicales de +propriétaires_, that of 1866 on the mercantile marine. The law of the +14th of June 1865 introduced into France the institution, borrowed from +England, of cheques. But of still greater importance for economic +development than all these laws were the treaties concluded by the +emperor with foreign powers, in order to introduce, as far as possible, +free exchange of commodities; the chief of these, which was the model of +all the others, was that concluded with Great Britain on the 23rd of +January 1860. Moreover, the law of the 25th of May 1864 admitted for the +first time the right of strikes and lock-outs among workmen or +employers, annulling articles 414 and following of the _Code Pénal_, +which had so far made them a penal offence, even when not accompanied by +fraudulent practices, threats or violence, tending to hinder the liberty +of labour. The superannuation fund (_caisse des retraites pour la +vieillesse_), supported by voluntary payments from those participating +in it, which had been created by the law of the 18th of June 1850, was +reorganized and perfected, and a law of the 11th of July 1868 +established, with the guarantee of the state, two funds for voluntary +insurance, one in case of death, the other against accidents occurring +in industrial or agricultural employment. A decree of 1863 established +in principle the freedom of bakeries, and another in 1864 that of +theatrical management. + + + Reforms in the criminal law. + + Civil legislation. + + Taxation and army. + +Criminal law was the subject of important legislation. Two codes were +promulgated on special points, the codes of military justice for the +land forces (1857) and for the naval forces (1858). But the common law +was also largely remodelled. A law of the 10th of June 1858, it is true, +created certain new crimes, with a view to protecting the members of the +imperial family, and that of the 17th of July 1856 increased the powers +and independence of the _juges d'instruction_; but, on the other hand, +useful improvements were introduced by laws of 1856 and 1865, and +notably with regard to precautionary detention and provisional release +with or without bail. A law of the 20th of May 1863 organized a simple +and rapid procedure, copied from that followed in England before the +police courts, for summary jurisdiction. A law of 1868 permitted the +revision of criminal trials after the death of the condemned person. But +the most far-reaching reforms took place in 1854, namely, the abolition +of the total loss of civil rights which formerly accompanied +condemnation to imprisonment for life, and the law of the 30th of May on +penal servitude (_travaux forcés_) which substituted transportation to +the colonies for the system of continental convict prisons. Finally, in +1863, there was a revision of the _Code Pénal_, which, in the process of +lightening penalties, made a certain number of crimes into +misdemeanours, and in consequence transferred the judgment of them from +the assize courts to the correctional tribunals. In civil legislation +may be noted the law of the 23rd of March 1855 on hypothecs (see CODE +NAPOLÉON); that of the 22nd of July 1857, which abolished seizure of the +person (_contrainte par corps_) for civil and commercial debts; and +finally, the law of the 14th of July 1866, on literary copyright. The +system of taxation was hardly modified at all, except for the +establishment of a tax on the income arising from investments (shares +and bonds of companies) in 1857, and the tax on carriages (1862). On the +1st of February 1868 was promulgated an important military law, which, +however, passed the Corps Législatif with some difficulty. It asserted +the principle of universal compulsory military service, at least, in +time of war. It preserved, however, the system of drawing lots to +determine the annual contingent to be incorporated into the standing +army; the term of service was fixed at five years, and it was still +permissible to send a substitute. But able-bodied men who were not +included in the annual contingent formed a reserve force called the +_garde nationale mobile_, each department organizing its own section. +These _gardes mobiles_, though they were not effectively organized or +exercised under the Empire, took part in the war of 1870-71. + + + Definitive establishment of the Republic. + +_The Third Republic._--The Third Republic had at first a provisional +government, unanimously acclaimed by the people of Paris. It was +accepted by France, exercised full powers, and sustained by no means +ingloriously a desperate struggle against the enemy; a certain number of +its _décrets-lois_ are still in force. After the capitulation of Paris, +a National Assembly was elected to treat with Germany. It was elected in +accordance with the electoral law of 1849, which had been revived with a +few modifications, and it met at Bordeaux to the number of 753 members +on the 13th of February 1871. It was a sovereign assembly, since France +had no longer a constitution, and for this very reason it claimed from +the outset constituent powers; the Republican party at the time, +however, contested this claim, the majority in the assembly being +frankly monarchist, though divided as to the choice of a monarch. But +for some time the National Assembly either could not or would not +exercise this power, and up to 1875 affairs remained in a provisional +state, legalized and regulated this time by the Assembly. This was an +application, though unconscious, of a form of government which M. Grévy +had proposed to the Constituent Assembly in 1848. There was a single +assembly, with one man elected by it as head of the executive power (the +first to be elected was M. Thiers, who received the title of president +of the Republic in August 1871), who was responsible to the Assembly and +governed with the help of ministers chosen by himself, who were also +responsible to it. Thiers fell on the 24th of May 1873. His place was +taken by Marshal MacMahon, on whom the Assembly later conferred, in +November 1873, the position of president of the Republic for seven +years, when the refusal of the comte de Chambord to accept the tricolour +in place of the white flag of the Bourbons had made any attempt to +restore the monarchy impossible. Henceforth the definitive adoption of +the Republican form of government became inevitable, and the opinion of +the country began to turn in this direction, as was shown by the +elections of deputies which took place to fill up the gaps occurring in +the Assembly. The Assembly, however, shrank from the inevitable +solution, and when a discussion was begun in January 1875 on the +projected constitutional laws prepared by the _commission des trente_, +the only proposals made by the latter were for a more complete +organization of the powers of one man, Marshal MacMahon. But on the 30th +of January 1875 was adopted, by 353 votes to 352, an amendment by M. +Wallon which provided for the election of an indefinite succession of +presidents of the Republic; this amounted to a definitive recognition of +the Republic. In this connexion it has often been said that the Republic +was established by a majority of one. This is not an accurate statement, +for it was only the case on the first reading of the law; the majority +on the second and third readings increased until it became considerable. +There was a strong movement in the direction of a reconciliation between +the parties; and there had been a _rapprochement_ between the +Republicans and the Right Centre. At the end of February were passed and +promulgated two constitutional laws, that of the 25th of February 1875, +on the organization of the public powers, and that of the 24th of +February 1875, on the organization of the senate. In the middle of the +year they were supplemented by a third, that of the 16th of July 1875, +on the relations between the public powers. + + + The French Constitution. + +Thus was built up the actual constitution of France. It differs +fundamentally, both in form and contents, from previous constitutions. +As to its form, instead of a single methodical text divided into an +uninterrupted series of articles, it consisted of three distinct laws. +As to matter, it is obviously a work of an essentially practical nature, +the result of compromise and reciprocal concessions. It does not lay +down any theoretical principles, and its provisions, which were arrived +at with difficulty, confine themselves strictly to what is necessary to +ensure the proper operation of the governmental machinery. The result is +a compromise between Republican principles and the rules of +constitutional and parliamentary monarchy. On this account it has been +accused, though unjustly, of being too monarchical. Its duration, by far +the longest of any French constitution since 1791, is a sign of its +value and vitality. It is in fact a product of history, and not of +imagination. Its composition is as follows. The legislative power was +given to two elective chambers, having equal powers, the vote of both of +which is necessary for legislation, and both having the right of +initiating and amending laws. The constitution assures them an ordinary +session of five months, which opens by right on the second Tuesday in +January. One house, the Chamber of Deputies, is elected by direct +universal suffrage and is entirely renewed every four years; the other, +the Senate, consists of 300 members, divided by the law of the 27th of +February 1875 into two categories; 75 of the senators were elected for +life and irremovable, and the first of them were elected by the National +Assembly, but afterwards it was the Senate itself which held elections +to fill up vacancies. The 225 remaining senators were elected by the +departments and by certain colonies, among which they were apportioned +in proportion to the population; they are elected for nine years, a +third of the house being renewed every three years. The electoral +college in each department which nominated them included the deputies, +the members of the general council of the department and of the councils +of the arrondissements, and one delegate elected by each municipal +council, whatever the importance of the commune. This was practically a +system of election in two and, partly, three degrees, but with this +distinguishing feature, that the electors of the second degree had not +been chosen purely with a view to this election, but chiefly for the +exercise of other functions. The most important elements in this +electoral college were the delegates from the municipal councils, and by +giving one delegate to each, to Paris just as to the smallest commune in +France, the National Assembly intended to counterbalance the power of +numbers, which governed the elections for the Chamber of Deputies, and, +at the same time, to give a preponderance to the country districts. The +75 irremovable senators were another precaution against the danger from +violent waves of public opinion. The executive power was entrusted to a +president, elected for seven years (as Marshal MacMahon had been in +1873), by the Chamber and the Senate, combined into a single body under +the name of National Assembly. He is always eligible for re-election, +and is irresponsible except in case of high treason. His powers are of +the widest, including the initiative in legislation jointly with the two +chambers, the appointment to all civil and military offices, the +disposition, and, if he wish it, the leadership of the armed forces, the +right of pardon, the right of negotiating treaties with foreign powers, +and, in principle, of ratifying them on his own authority, the consent +of the two chambers being required only in certain cases defined by the +constitution. The nomination of _conseillers d'état_ for ordinary +service, whom the National Assembly had made elective, as in 1848, and +elected itself, was restored to the president of the Republic, together +with the right of dismissing them. But these powers he can only exercise +through the medium of a ministry, politically and jointly responsible to +the chambers, and forming a council, over which the president usually +presides. + +The French Republic is essentially a parliamentary republic. The right +of dissolving the Chamber of Deputies before the expiration of its term +of office belongs to the president, but in order to do so he must have, +besides a ministry which will take the responsibility for it, the +preliminary sanction of the Senate. The Senate is at the same time a +high court of justice, which can judge the president of the Republic and +ministers accused of crimes committed by them in the exercise of their +functions; in these two cases the prosecution is instituted by the +Chamber of Deputies. The Senate can also be called upon to judge any +person accused of an attempt upon the safety of the state, who is then +seized by a decree of the president of the Republic, drawn up in the +council of ministers. Possible revision of the constitution is provided +for very simply: it has to be proposed as a law, and for its acceptance +a resolution passed by each chamber separately, by an absolute majority, +is necessary. The revision is then carried out by the Senate and the +Chamber of Deputies to form a National Assembly. There have been two +revisions since 1875. The first time, in 1879, it was simply a question +of transferring the seat of the government and of the chambers back to +Paris from Versailles, where it had been fixed by one of the +constitutional laws. The second time, in 1884, more fundamental +modifications were required. The most important point was to change the +composition and election of the Senate. With a view to this, the new +constitutional law of the 14th of August 1884 abolished the +constitutional character of a certain number of articles of the law of +the 24th of February 1875, thus making it possible to modify them by an +ordinary law. This took place in the same year; the 75 senators for life +were suppressed for the future by a process of extinction, and their +seats divided among the most populous departments. Further, in the +electoral college which elects the senators, there was allotted to the +municipal councils a number of delegates proportionate to the number of +members of the councils, which depends on the importance of the commune. +The law of the 14th of August 1884 also modified the constitution in +another important respect. The law of the 25th of February 1875 had +admitted the possibility not only of a partial, but even of a total +revision, which could affect and even change the form of the state. The +law of the 14th of August 1884, however, declared that no proposition +for a revision could be accepted which aimed at changing the republican +form of government. The composition of the Chamber of Deputies was not +fixed by the constitution, and consequently admitted more easily of +variation. Since 1871 the mode of election has oscillated between the +_scrutin de liste_ for the departments and the _scrutin uninominal_ for +the arrondissements. The organic law of the 30th of November 1875 had +established the latter system; in 1885 the _scrutin de liste_ was +established by law, but in 1889 the _scrutin d'arrondissement_ was +restored; and in this same year, on account of the ambitions of General +Boulanger and the suggestion which was made for a sort of plebiscite in +his favour, was passed the law on plural candidatures, which forbids +anyone to become a candidate for the Chamber of Deputies in more than +one district at a time. + + + Working of the constitution. + +The system established by the constitution of 1875 has worked +excellently in some of its departments; for instance, the mode of +electing the president of the Republic. Between 1875 and 1906 there were +seven elections, sometimes under tragic or very difficult conditions; +the election has always taken place without delay or obstruction, and +the choice has been of the best. The high court of justice, which has +twice been called into requisition, in 1889 and in 1899-1900, has acted +as an efficient check, in spite of the difficulties confronting such a +tribunal when feeling runs high. Parliamentary government in the form +set up by the constitution, besides the criticism to which this system +is open in all countries where it is established, even in England, met +with special difficulties in France. In the first place, the useful but +rather secondary rôle assigned to the president of the Republic has by +no means satisfied all those who have occupied this high office. Two +presidents have resigned on the ground that their powers were +insufficient. Another, even after re-election, had to withdraw in face +of the opposition of the two chambers, being no longer able to obtain a +parliamentary ministry. It is difficult, however, to accept the theory +of an eminent American political writer, Mr John W. Burgess,[1] that in +order to attain to a position of stable equilibrium, the French Republic +ought to adopt the presidential system of the United States. In France +this sharp division between the two powers has never been observed +except in those periods when the representative assemblies were +powerless, under the First and Second Empires. It is true that the +apparent multiplicity of parties and their lack of discipline, together +with the French procedure of _interpellations_ and the orders of the day +by which they are concluded, make the formation of homogeneous and +lasting cabinets difficult; but since the end of the 19th century there +has been great progress in this respect. Another difficulty arose in +1896. The Senate, appealing to the letter of the constitution and +relying on its elective character, claimed the right of forcing a +ministry to resign by its vote, in the same way as the Chamber of +Deputies. The Senate was victorious in the struggle, and forced the +ministry presided over by M. Léon Bourgeois to resign; but the precedent +is not decisive, for in order to gain its ends the Senate had recourse +to the means of refusing to sanction the taxes, declining to consider +the proposals for the supplies necessary for the Madagascar expedition +so long as the ministry which it was attacking was in existence. The +weakest point in the French parliamentary organism is perhaps the right +of dissolution. It is difficult of application, for the reason that the +president must obtain the preliminary consent of the Senate before +exercising it; moreover, this valuable right has been discredited by its +abuse by Marshal MacMahon in the campaign of the 16th of May 1877, on +which occasion he exercised his right of dissolution against a chamber, +the moderate but decidedly republican majority in which he was +re-elected by the country. + + + Reforms under the Third Republic. + + The religious congregations. + + Education. + + Separation of church and state. + +The legislative reforms carried out under the Third Republic are very +numerous. As to public law, it is only possible to mention here those of +a really organic character, chief among which are those which safeguard +and regulate the exercise of the liberties of the individual. The law of +the 30th of June 1881, modified in 1901, established the right of +holding meetings. Public meetings, whether for ordinary or electoral +purposes, may be held without preliminary authorization; the law of 1881 +prescribed a declaration made by a certain number of citizens enjoying +full civil and political rights, which is now remitted. The only really +restrictive provision is that which does not allow them to be held in +the public highway, but only in an enclosed space. But this is made +necessary by the customs of France. The law of the 21st of July 1881 on +the press is one of the most liberal in the world. By it all offences +committed by any kind of publication are submitted to a jury; the +punishment for the mere expression of obnoxious opinions is abolished, +the only punishment being for slander, libel, defamation, inciting to +crime, and in certain cases the publication of false news. The law of +the 1st of July 1901 established in France the right of forming +associations. It recognizes the legality of all associations strictly so +called, the objects of which are not contrary to law or to public order +or morality. On condition of a simple declaration to the administrative +authority, it grants them a civil status in a wide sense of the term. +Religious congregations, on the contrary, which are not authorized by a +law, are forbidden by this law. This was not a new principle, but the +traditional rule in France both before and after the Revolution, except +that under certain governments authorization by decree had sufficed. As +a matter of fact the unauthorized congregations had been tolerated for a +long time, although on various occasions, and especially in 1881, their +partial dissolution had been proclaimed by decrees. The law of 1901 +dissolved them all, and made it an offence to belong to such a +congregation. The members of unauthorized congregations, and later, in +1904, even those of the authorized congregations, were disqualified from +teaching in any kind of establishment. The liberty of primary education +was confirmed and reorganized by the law of the 30th of October 1886, +which simply deprived the clergy of the privileges granted them by the +law of 1850, though the latter remains in force with regard to the +liberty of secondary education. A law passed by the National Assembly +(July 12, 1875) established the liberty of higher education. It even +went beyond this, for it granted to students in private _facultés_ who +aspired to state degrees the right of being examined before a board +composed partly of private and partly of state professors. The law of +the 18th of March 1880 abolished this privilege. Another law, that of +the 22nd of March 1882, made primary education obligatory, though +allowing parents to send their children either to private schools or to +those of the state; the law of the 16th of June 1881 established secular +(_laïque_) education in the case of the latter. The Third Republic also +organized secondary education for girls in lycées or special colleges +(_collèges de fille_). Finally, a law of the 10th of July 1896 dealing +with higher education and the faculties of the state reorganized the +universities, which form distinct bodies, enjoying a fairly wide +autonomy. A law of the 19th of December 1905, abrogating that of the +18th Germinal in the year X., which had sanctioned the Concordat, +proclaimed the separation of the church from the state. It is based on +the principle of the secular state (_état laïque_) which recognizes no +form of religion, though respecting the right of every citizen to +worship according to his beliefs, and it aimed at organizing +associations of citizens, the object of which was to collect the funds +and acquire the property necessary for the maintenance of worship, under +the form of _associations cultuelles_, differing in certain respects +from the associations sanctioned by the law of the 1st of July 1901, but +having a wider scope. It also handed over to these regularly formed +associations the property of the ecclesiastical establishments formerly +in existence, while taking precautions to ensure their proper +application, and allowed the associations the free use of the churches +and places of worship belonging to the state, the departments or the +communes. If no _association cultuelle_ was founded in a parish, the +property of the former _fabrique_ should devolve to the commune. But +this law was condemned by the papacy, as contrary to the church +hierarchy; and almost nowhere were _associations cultuelles_ formed, +except by Protestants and Jews, who complied with the law. After many +incidents, but no church having been closed, a new law of the 2nd of +January 1907 was enacted. It permits the public exercise of any cult, by +means of ordinary associations regulated by the law of the 1st of July +1901, and even of public meetings summoned by individuals. Failing all +associations, either _cultuelles_ or others, churches, with their +ornaments and furniture, are left to the disposition of the faithful and +ministers, for the purpose of exercising the cult; and, on certain +conditions, the long use of them can be granted as a free gift to +ministers of the cult. + + + Administrative changes. + +Among the organic laws concerning administrative affairs there are two +of primary importance; that of the 10th of August 1871, on the +_conseils généraux_, considerably increased the powers and independence +of these elective bodies, which have become important deliberative +assemblies, their sessions being held in public. The law of 1871 created +a new administrative organ for the departments, the _commission +départmentale_, elected by the council-general of the department from +among its own members and associated with the administration of the +prefect. The other law is the municipal law of the 5th of April 1884, +which effected a widespread decentralization; the _maires_ and their +_adjoints_ are elected by the municipal council. + + + Reorganization of the army. + +The war of 1870-71 necessarily led to a modification of the military +organization. The law of the 25th of July 1872 established the principle +of compulsory service for all, first in the standing army, the period of +service in which was fixed at five years, then in the reserve, and +finally in the territorial army. But the application of this principle +was by no means absolute, only holding good in time of war. Each annual +class was divided into two parts, by means of drawing lots, and in time +of peace one of these parts had only a year of service with the active +army. The previous exemptions, based either on the position of supporter +of the family (as in the case of the son of a widow or aged father, &c.) +or on equivalent services rendered to the state (as in the case of young +ecclesiastics or members of the teaching profession), were preserved, +but only held good for service in the active army in times of peace. +Finally, the system of conditional engagement for a year allowed young +men, for the purposes of study or apprenticeship to their profession, +only to serve a year with the active army in time of peace. By this +means it was sought to combine the advantages of an army of veterans +with those of a numerous and truly national army. But the conditional +volunteering (_volontariat conditionnel_) for a year was open to too +great a number of people, and so brought the system into discredit. As +those who profited by it had to be clothed and maintained at their own +expense, and the sum which they had to furnish for this purpose was +generally fixed at 1500 francs, it came to be considered the privilege +of those who could pay this sum. A new law of the 15th of July 1889 +lessened the difference between the two terms which it attempted to +reconcile. It reduced the term of service in the active army to three +years, and the exemptions, which were still preserved, merely reduced +the period to a year in times of peace. The same reduction was also +granted to those who were really pursuing important scientific, +technical or professional studies; the system was so strict on this +point that the number of those who profited by those exemptions did not +amount to 2000 in a year. This was a compromise between two opposing +principles; the democratic principle of equality, being the stronger, +was bound to triumph. The law of the 21st of March 1905 reduced the term +of service in the active army to two years, but made it equal for all, +admitting of no exemption, but only certain facilities as to the age at +which it had to be accomplished. + + + Justice and taxation. + +In 1883 the judicial _personnel_ was reorganized and reduced in number. +With the exception of a few modifications the main lines of judicial +organization remained the same. In 1879 the conseil d'état was also +reorganized. The whole fabric of administrative jurisdiction was +carefully organized, and almost entirely separated from the active +administration. + +The system of taxation has remained essentially unaltered; we may +notice, however, the laws of 1897, 1898 and 1900, which abolished or +lessened the duties on so called _hygienic_ drinks (wine, beer, cider), +and the financial law of 1901, which rearranged and increased the +transfer fees, and established a system of progressive taxation in the +case of succession dues. + + + Labour legislation. + +The labour laws, which generally partook of the nature both of public +and of private law, are a sign of our times. Under the Third Republic +they have been numerous, the most notable being: the law of the 21st of +March 1884 on professional syndicates, which introduced the liberty of +association in matters of this kind before it became part of the common +law (see TRADE UNIONS); the law of the 9th of April 1898 on the +liability for accidents incurred during work, and those which have +completed it; that of the 22nd of December 1892 on conciliation and +arbitration in the case of collective disputes between employers and +workmen; that of the 29th of June 1893 on the hygiene and safeguarding +of workers in industrial establishments, and the laws which regulate the +work of children and women in factories; finally, that of the 15th of +July 1893 on free medical attendance (see LABOUR LEGISLATION). + + + Criminal law. + +As to criminal law, there have been more than fifty enactments, mostly +involving important modifications, due to more scientific ideas of +punishment, so that we may say that it has been almost entirely recast +since the establishment of the Third Republic. The separate system +applied in cases of preventive detention and imprisonment for short +periods; liberation before the expiry of the term of sentence, subject +to the condition that no fresh offence shall be committed within a given +time; transportation to the colonies of habitual offenders; the +remission of the penalty in the case of first offenders, and the lapsing +of the penalty when a certain time has gone by without a fresh +condemnation; greater facilities for the rehabilitation of condemned +persons, which now became simply a matter for the courts, and occurred +as a matter of course at the end of a certain time; such were the chief +results of this legislation. Finally, the law of the 8th of December +1897 completely altered the form of the preliminary examination before +the _juge d'instruction_, which had been the weakest point in the French +criminal procedure, though it was still held in private; the new law +made this examination really a hearing of both sides, and made the +appearance of counsel for the defence practically compulsory. + +As to private law, both civil and commercial, we could enumerate between +1871 and 1906 more than a hundred laws which have modified it, sometimes +profoundly, and have for the most part done very useful work without +attracting much attention. They are generally examined and drawn up by +commissions of competent men, and pass both chambers almost without +discussion. There have, however, been a few which aroused public +interest and even deep feeling. Firstly, there was the law of the 27th +of July 1884, and those which completed it; this law re-established +divorce, which had been abolished since 1816, but only permitted it for +certain definite causes determined by law. On the other hand, the law of +the 6th of February 1893 increased the liberty and independence of a +woman who was simply judicially separated, in order to encourage +separation, as opposed to divorce, when the conditions allowed it. The +law of the 25th of March 1896 on the succession of illegitimate +children, who were recognized by the parents, treated them not in the +same way as legitimate children, but gave them the title of heirs in the +succession of their father and mother, together with much greater rights +than they had possessed under the _Code Civil_. The law of the 24th of +July 1899, on the protection of children who are ill-treated or morally +neglected, also modified some of the provisions of the law as applied to +the family, with a view to greater justice and humanity. Finally, on the +occasion of the centenary of the _Code Civil_ (see CODE NAPOLÉON), a +commission, composed of members of the chambers, magistrates, professors +of law, lawyers, political writers, and even novelists and dramatic +authors, was given the task of revising the whole structure of the code. + + See generally Adhémar Esmein, _Cours élémentaire d'histoire du droit + français_ (6th ed., 1906); J. Brissand, _Cours d'histoire générale du + droit français public et privé_ (1904); Ernest Glasson, _Histoire du + droit et des institutions en France_ (1887-1904); Paul Viollet, + _Histoire des institutions politiques et administratives de la France_ + (3rd ed., 1903); Fustel de Coulanges, _Histoire des institutions + politiques de l'ancienne France_; Jacques Flach, _Les Origines de + l'ancienne France_ (1875-1889); Achille Luchaire, _Histoire des + institutions monarchiques de la France sous les premiers Capétiens_ + (2nd ed., 1900); Hippolyte Taine, _Les Origines de la France + contemporaine_ (1878-1894); Adhémar Esmein, _Eléments de droit + constitutionnel français et comparé_ (4th ed., 1906); Léon Duguit et + Henry Monnier, _Les Constitutions et les principales lois politiques + de la France depuis 1789_ (1898). (J. P. E.) + + +FOOTNOTE: + + [1] _Political Science and Comparative Constitutional Law_ (Boston, + 1896). + + + + +FRANCESCHI, JEAN BAPTISTE, BARON (1766-1813), French general, was born +at Bastia on the 5th of December 1766 and entered the French service in +1793. He took part in the operations in Corsica in the following year, +and received a wound at the siege of San Fiorenzo. After this he left +the island and was appointed a field officer in the French Army of +Italy, with which he served from 1795 to 1799. He served as a general +officer in the campaign of Marengo, in the Naples campaign of 1805-1806, +and in the Peninsular War from 1807 to 1809. He was created a baron by +Napoleon. He commanded a Neapolitan brigade in the Russian War of 1812, +and after the retreat from Moscow took refuge, with the remnant of his +command, in Danzig, where in the course of the siege of 1813 he died on +the 19th of March. + +Two other generals of brigade in Napoleon's wars bore the name of +Franceschi, and the three have often been mistaken for each other. The +first was born at Lyons, JEAN BAPTISTE MARIE FRANCESCHI-DELONNE +(1767-1810), who served throughout the Revolutionary campaign on the +Rhine, took part in the campaign of Zürich in 1799, and distinguished +himself very greatly by his escape from, and subsequent return to, +Genoa, when in 1800 Masséna was closely besieged in that city. He became +a cavalry colonel in 1803, was promoted general of brigade on the field +of Austerlitz, and served in southern Italy and in Spain on the staff of +King Joseph Bonaparte. During the Peninsular War he won great +distinction as a cavalry general, and in 1810 Napoleon made him a baron. +At this time he was a prisoner in the hands of the Spaniards, into whose +hands he had fallen while bearing important despatches during the +campaign of Talavera. He was harshly treated by his captors, and died at +Carthagena on the 23rd of October 1810. The second was FRANÇOIS +FRANCESCHI-LOSIO (1770-1810), born at Milan, who entered the French +Revolutionary army in 1795. He served through the Italian campaign of +1796-97, and subsequently, like Franceschi-Delonne, with Masséna at +Zürich and at Genoa, and at the headquarters of King Joseph in Italy and +Spain. He was killed in a duel by the Neapolitan colonel Filangieri in +1810. + + + + +FRANCESCHI, PIERO (or PIETRO) DE' (c. 1416-1492), Italian painter of the +Umbrian school. This master is generally named Piero della Francesca +(Peter, son of Frances), the tradition being that his father, a +woollen-draper named Benedetto, had died before his birth. This is not +correct, for the mother's name was Romana, and the father continued +living during many years of Piero's career. The painter is also named +Piero Borghese, from his birthplace, Borgo San Sepolcro, in Umbria. The +true family name was, as above stated, Franceschi, and the family still +exists under the name of Martini-Franceschi. + +Piero first received a scientific education, and became an adept in +mathematics and geometry. This early bent of mind and course of study +influenced to a large extent his development as a painter. He had more +science than either Paolo Uccello or Mantegna, both of them his +contemporaries, the former older and the latter younger. Skilful in +linear perspective, he fixed rectangular planes in perfect order and +measured them, and thus got his figures in true proportional height. He +preceded and excelled Domenico Ghirlandajo in projecting shadows, and +rendered with considerable truth atmosphere, the harmony of colours, and +the relief of objects. He was naturally therefore excellent in +architectural painting, and, in point of technique, he advanced the +practice of oil-colouring in Italy. + +The earliest trace that we find of Piero as a painter is in 1439, when +he was an apprentice of Domenico Veneziano, and assisted him in painting +the chapel of S. Egidio, in S. Maria Novella of Florence. Towards 1450 +he is said to have been with the same artist in Loreto; nothing of his, +however, can now be identified in that locality. In 1451 he was by +himself, painting in Rimini, where a fresco still remains. Prior to this +he had executed some extensive frescoes in the Vatican; but these were +destroyed when Raphael undertook on the same walls the "Liberation of St +Peter" and other paintings. His most extensive extant series of frescoes +is in the choir of S. Francesco in Arezzo,--the "History of the Cross," +beginning with legendary subjects of the death and burial of Adam, and +going on to the entry of Heraclius into Jerusalem after the overthrow of +Chosroes. This series is, in relation to its period, remarkable for +effect, movement, and mastery of the nude. The subject of the "Vision of +Constantine" is particularly vigorous in chiaroscuro; and a preparatory +design of the same composition was so highly effective that it used to +be ascribed to Giorgione, and might even (according to one authority) +have passed for the handiwork of Correggio or of Rembrandt. A noted +fresco in Borgo San Sepolcro, the "Resurrection," may be later than this +series; it is preserved in the Palazzo de' Conservatori. An important +painting of the "Flagellation of Christ," in the cathedral of Urbino, is +later still, probably towards 1470. Piero appears to have been much in +his native town of Borgo San Sepolcro from about 1445, and more +especially after 1454, when he finished the series in Arezzo. He grew +rich there, and there he died, and in October 1492 was buried. + + Two statements made by Vasari regarding "Piero della Francesca" are + open to much controversy. He says that Piero became blind at the age + of sixty, which cannot be true, as he continued painting some years + later; but scepticism need perhaps hardly go to the extent of + inferring that he was never blind at all. Vasari also says that Fra + Luca Pacioli, a disciple of Piero in scientific matters, defrauded his + memory by appropriating his researches without acknowledgment. This is + hard upon the friar, who constantly shows a great reverence for his + master in the sciences. One of Pacioli's books was published in 1509, + and speaks of Piero as still living. Hence it has been propounded that + Piero lived to the patriarchal age of ninety-four or upwards; but, as + it is now stated that he was buried in 1492, we must infer that there + is some mistake in relation to Pacioli's remark--perhaps the date of + writing was several years earlier than that of publication. Piero was + known to have left a manuscript of his own on perspective; this + remained undiscovered for a long time, but eventually was found by E. + Harzen in the Ambrosian library of Milan, ascribed to some + supposititious "Pietro, Pittore di Bruges." The treatise shows a + knowledge of perspective as dependent on the point of distance. + + In the National Gallery, London, are three paintings attributed to + Piero de' Franceschi. Another work, a profile of Isotta da Rimini, may + safely be rejected. The "Baptism of Christ," which used to be the + altar-piece of the Priory of the Baptist in Borgo San Sepolcro, is an + important example; and still more so the "Nativity," with the Virgin + kneeling, and five angels singing to musical instruments. This is a + very interesting and characteristic specimen, and has indeed been + praised somewhat beyond its deservings on aesthetic grounds. + + Piero's earlier style was energetic but unrefined, and to the last he + lacked selectness of form and feature. The types of his visages are + peculiar, and the costumes (as especially in the Arezzo series) + singular. He used to work assiduously from clay models swathed in real + drapery. Luca Signorelli was his pupil, and probably to some extent + Perugino; and his own influence, furthered by that of Signorelli, was + potent over all Italy. Belonging as he does to the Umbrian school, he + united with that style something of the Sienese and more of the + Florentine mode. + + Besides Vasari and Crowe & Cavalcaselle, the work by W.G. Waters, + _Piero della Francesca_ (1899) should be consulted. (W. M. R.) + + + + +FRANCESCHINI, BALDASSARE (1611-1689), Italian painter of the Tuscan +school, named, from Volterra the place of his birth, Il Volterrano, or +(to distinguish him from Ricciarelli) Il Volterrano Giuniore, was the +son of a sculptor in alabaster. At a very early age he learned from +Cosimo Daddi some of the elements of art, and he started as an assistant +to his father. This employment being evidently below the level of his +talents, the marquises Inghirami placed him, at the age of sixteen, +under the Florentine painter Matteo Rosselli. In the ensuing year he had +advanced sufficiently to execute in Volterra some frescoes, skilful in +foreshortening, followed by other frescoes for the Medici family in the +Valle della Petraia. In 1652 the marchese Filippo Niccolini, being +minded to employ Franceschini upon the frescoes for the cupola and +back-wall of his chapel in S. Croce, Florence, despatched him to various +parts of Italy to perfect his style. The painter, in a tour which lasted +some months, took more especially to the qualities distinctive of the +schools of Parma and Bologna, and in a measure to those of Pietro da +Cortona, whose acquaintance he made in Rome. He then undertook the +paintings commissioned by Niccolini, which constitute his most noted +performance, the design being good, and the method masterly. +Franceschini ranks higher in fresco than in oil painting. His works in +the latter mode were not unfrequently left unfinished, although numerous +specimens remain, the cabinet pictures being marked by much +sprightliness of invention. Among his best oil paintings of large scale +is the "St John the Evangelist" in the church of S. Chiara at Volterra. +One of his latest works was the fresco of the cupola of the Annunziata, +Florence, which occupied him for two years towards 1683, a production of +much labour and energy. Franceschini died of apoplexy at Volterra on the +6th of January 1689. He is reckoned among those painters of the decline +of art to whom the general name of "machinist" is applied. + +He is not to be confounded with another Franceschini of the same class, +and of rather later date, also of no small eminence in his time--the +Cavaliere Marcantonio Franceschini (1648-1729), who was a Bolognese. + + + + +FRANCHE-COMTÉ, a province of France from 1674 to the Revolution. It was +bounded on the E. by Switzerland, on the S. by Bresse and Bugey, on the +N. by Lorraine, and on the W. by the duchy of Burgundy and by Bassigny, +embracing to the E. of the Jura the valley of the Saône and most of that +of the Doubs. Under the Romans it corresponded to _Maxima Sequanorum_, +and after having formed part of the kingdom of Burgundy was in the early +part of the middle ages split up into the four countships of Portois, +Varais, Amons and Escuens. In the 10th century these four countships +were united to form a whole, which came to be called the countship of +Burgundy, and belonged at that time to the family of the counts of +Mâcon. + +The limits of the countship were definitely settled under Otto William, +son of Albert or Adalbert, king of Italy (+1027), who on the death of +his father-in-law, Henry (1002), tried to seize the duchy of Burgundy, +but without success. The countship, which formed a fief dependent on the +kingdom of Burgundy, passed to Renaud I., the second son of Otto +William. When the kingdom of Burgundy was joined to the Germanic empire, +he refused to pay homage to the emperor Henry III., whose suzerainty +over him never existed except in theory. William I., surnamed the Great +or Headstrong (1059-1087), still further added to the power of his house +by marrying Etiennette, heiress of the count of Vienne, and by acquiring +from his cousin Guy, when the latter became a monk at Cluny, the +countship of Mâcon. One of his sons, Guy, became pope, under the name of +Calixtus II. His grandson, Renaud III. (1097-1148), in his turn refused +to pay homage to the emperor Lothair, who retaliated by confiscating his +dominions and giving them to Conrad of Zähringen. Renaud, however, +succeeded in maintaining until his death his possession of the +countships of Burgundy, Vienne and Mâcon. He left as sole heiress a +daughter, Beatrix, whom his brother William III. imprisoned, in order to +make an attempt on her inheritance; she was set free, however, by the +emperor Frederick Barbarossa, who married her in 1156. + +On the death of Beatrix (1185) the countship of Burgundy passed to Otto +I. (1190-1200), the youngest but one of her sons, who had to dispute its +possession with Stephen, count of Auxonne, the grandson of William III. +Beatrix, the daughter and heiress of Otto I. (1200-1231), married Otto, +duke of Meran (+1234), under whose government the inhabitants of +Besançon, which had been since the time of Frederick Barbarossa an +imperial city, formed themselves definitely into a _commune_. Alix, +daughter of Beatrix and of Otto of Meran, and heiress to the countship +of Burgundy, married Hugh of Chalon, son of John the Ancient or the Wise +(d. 1248), and a descendant of William III. and consequently of William +the Headstrong, thus bringing the countship back into the family of its +former lords. His son Otto IV. (1279-1303) engaged in war against the +bishop of Basel, and the German king Rudolph I., who supported the +latter, entered Franche-Comté and besieged Besançon, but without success +(1289). Otto, in fulfilment of the treaties of Ervennes and Vincennes +(1291-1295) gave Jeanne, his daughter by Mahaut of Artois, in marriage +to Philip, count of Poitiers, son of Philip the Fair. The latter took +over the administration of the countship in spite of strong opposition +from the nobles of the country, but their leader, John of Chalon-Arlay, +was compelled to make his submission. Another of Otto's daughters +married Charles IV., the Handsome, and both princesses, together with +their sister-in-law Margaret of Burgundy, were concerned in the +celebrated trial of the Tour de Nesle. Jeanne, however, continued to +govern her countship when Philip her husband became king of France +(Philip V., "the Long"). Jeanne, their daughter and heiress, married Odo +IV., duke of Burgundy (1330-1347), and her sister Margaret became the +wife of Louis II., count of Flanders. The countship returned to Margaret +at the death of Odo IV., who was succeeded in his duchy by his grandson +Philip of Rouvre. + +The marriage of Philip the Bold with Margaret, daughter of Louis of +Mâle, caused Franche-Comté to pass to the princes of the ducal house of +Burgundy, who kept it up till the death of Charles the Bold (1477). On +his death Louis XI. laid claim to the government of the countship as +well as of the duchy, as trustee for the property of the princess Mary, +who was closely related to him and destined to marry the dauphin (later +Charles VIII.). French garrisons occupied the principal towns, and the +lord of Craon was appointed governor of the country. In consequence of +his severity there was a general rising, and at the same time Mary +married Maximilian, archduke of Austria, to whom her father had formerly +betrothed her (Aug. 1477). The French were expelled from the fortified +towns and Craon beaten by the people of Dôle. Charles of Amboise, who +took his place, reconquered the province, and even Besançon submitted to +the authority of the king of France, who promised to respect its +privileges. + +On the death of Louis XI. (1483), the estates of Franche-Comté +recognized as sovereign his son Charles, who was betrothed to the little +Margaret of Burgundy, daughter of Maximilian and Mary (d. 1482), but +when Charles VIII. refused Margaret's hand in order to marry Anne of +Brittany there was a fresh rising, and the French were again driven out. +The treaty of Senlis (23rd May 1483) put an end to the struggle: Charles +abandoned all his pretensions, and Maximilian was thus left in +possession of Franche-Comté, the sovereignty of which he handed on to +his son Philip and ultimately to the crown of Spain. He had, however, +constituted his daughter Margaret sovereign-governess of Franche-Comté +for life, and under the administration of this princess (who died in +1530), as under the rule of Charles V., the country enjoyed comparative +independence, paying a "_don gratuit_" of 200,000 livres every three +years, and being actually governed by the parliament of Dôle, and by +governors chosen from the nobility of the country. It was Franche-Comté +which furnished Philip II. of Spain with one of his best counsellors, +Cardinal Perrenot de Granvella. + +In the 16th century the country was disturbed by the preaching of +Protestant doctrines, which gained adherents especially in the district +of Montbéliard, and later by the wars between France and Spain. In 1595 +the armies of Henry IV. levied contributions on Besançon and other +towns; but the people of Franche-Comté succeeded in obtaining special +terms of neutrality in order to shelter themselves from injury from +either of the parties in the war, and enjoyed a period of calm under the +government of the infanta Isabella Clara Eugénie and the archduke Albert +(1599-1621). But the country suffered greatly from the ravages of the +Thirty Years' War, from the presence of the army of the Condés, which +besieged Dôle, from the devastation of the troops of Gallas, and later +of those of Bernard of Saxe-Weimar. The peace of Westphalia (1648) +confirmed Spain in the possession of Franche-Comté. In 1668 the French +again entered it, and the conquest, of which the foundations had been +laid by the intrigues of the abbot of Watteville and the French party +constituted by him, was easily accomplished by Condé and Luxemburg, +Louis XIV. directing the army in Franche-Comté for some time in person. +None the less, the country was restored to Spain at the peace of +Aix-la-Chapelle (1668), but in 1674 Louis headed another expedition +there. Besançon capitulated after a siege of twenty-seven days, and Dôle +and Salins also fell into the hands of the invaders. + +In 1678 the treaty of Nijmwegen gave Franche-Comté to France (the +principality of Montbéliard remaining in the possession of the house of +Württemberg, which had acquired it by marriage), and it was in +celebration of this conquest that the Arc de Triomphe of the Portes +Saint Denis and Saint Martin at Paris was erected. Franche-Comté became +a military government (_gouvernement_). The estates ceased to meet, and +the old "_don gratuit_" was replaced by a tax which became increasingly +heavy. Louis made Besançon, which Vauban fortified, into the capital of +the province, and transferred to it the parliament and the university, +the seat of which had hitherto been Dôle. For purposes of +administration, the county was divided among the four great _bailliages_ +of Besançon, Dôle, Amont (chief town Vesoul) and Aval (chief town +Salins). At the Revolution were formed from it the departments of Jura, +Doubs and Haute-Saône. + + See Dunod, _Histoire des Sequanois; Hist. du comté de Bourgogne_ + (Dijon, 1735-1740); E. Clerc, _Essai sur l'histoire de la + Franche-Comté_ (2nd ed., Besançon, 1870). (R. Po.) + + + + +FRANCHISE (from O. Fr. _franchise_, freedom, _franc_, free), in English +law, a royal privilege or branch of the crown's prerogative subsisting +in the hands of a subject. A franchise is an incorporeal hereditament, +and arises either from royal grants or from prescription which +presupposes a grant. Such franchises are bodies corporate, the right to +hold a fair, market, ferry, free fishery, &c. The term is also applied +to the right of voting at elections and the qualifications upon which +that right is based (see REGISTRATION; REPRESENTATION; VOTE). In the +United States the term is especially applied to the right or powers of +partial appropriation of public property by exclusive use, or to a +privilege of a public nature conferred on a corporation created for the +purpose. + + + + +FRANCIA (c. 1450-1517), a Bolognese painter, whose real name was +Francesco Raibolini, his father being Marco di Giacomo Raibolini, a +carpenter, descended from an old and creditable family, was born at +Bologna about 1450. He was apprenticed to a goldsmith currently named +Francia, and from him probably he got the nickname whereby he is +generally known; he moreover studied design under Marco Zoppo. The youth +was thus originally a goldsmith, and also an engraver of dies and +niellos, and in these arts he became extremely eminent. He was +particularly famed for his dies for medals; he rose to be mint-master at +Bologna, and retained that office till the end of his life. A famous +medal of Pope Julius II. as liberator of Bologna is ascribed to his +hand, but not with certainty. As a type-founder he made for Aldus +Manutius the first italic type. + +At a mature age--having first, it appears, become acquainted with +Mantegna--he turned his attention to painting. His earliest known +picture is dated 1494 (not 1490, as ordinarily stated). It shows so much +mastery that one is compelled to believe that Raibolini must before then +have practised painting for some few years. This work is now in the +Bologna gallery,--the "Virgin enthroned, with Augustine and five other +saints." It is an oil picture, and was originally painted for the church +of S. Maria della Misericordia, at the desire of the Bentivoglio family, +the rulers of Bologna. The same patrons employed him upon frescoes in +their own palace; one of "Judith and Holophernes" is especially noted, +its style recalling that of Mantegna. Francia probably studied likewise +the works of Perugino; and he became a friend and ardent admirer of +Raphael, to whom he addressed an enthusiastic sonnet. Raphael cordially +responded to the Bolognese master's admiration, and said, in a letter +dated in 1508, that few painters or none had produced Madonnas more +beautiful, more devout, or better portrayed than those of Francia. If we +may trust Vasari--but it is difficult to suppose that he was entirely +correct--the exceeding value which Francia set on Raphael's art brought +him to his grave. Raphael had consigned to Francia his famous picture of +"St Cecilia," destined for the church of S. Giovanni in Monte, Bologna; +and Francia, on inspecting it, took so much to heart his own +inferiority, at the advanced age of about sixty-six, to the youthful +Umbrian, that he sickened and shortly expired on the 6th of January +1517. A contemporary record, after attesting his pre-eminence as a +goldsmith, jeweller and painter, states that he was "most handsome in +person and highly eloquent." + +Distanced though he may have been by Raphael, Francia is rightly +regarded as the greatest painter of the earlier Bolognese school, and +hardly to be surpassed as representing the art termed "antico-moderno," +or of the "quattrocento." It has been well observed that his style is a +medium between that of Perugino and that of Giovanni Bellini; he has +somewhat more of spontaneous naturalism than the former, and of abstract +dignity in feature and form than the latter. The magnificent portrait in +the Louvre of a young man in black, of brooding thoughtfulness and +saddened profundity of mood, would alone suffice to place Francia among +the very great masters, if it could with confidence be attributed to his +hand, but in all probability its real author was Franciabigio; it had +erewhile passed under the name of Raphael, of Giorgione, or of Sebastian +del Piombo. The National Gallery, London, contains two remarkably fine +specimens of Francia, once combined together as principal picture and +lunette,--the "Virgin" and "Child and St Anna" enthroned, surrounded by +saints, and (in the lunette) the "Pietà," or lamentation of angels over +the dead Saviour. They come from the Buonvisi chapel in the church of S. +Frediano, Lucca, and were among the master's latest paintings. Other +leading works are--in Munich, the "Virgin" sinking on her knees in +adoration of the Divine Infant, who is lying in a garden within a rose +trellis; in the Borghese gallery, Rome, a Peter Martyr; in Bologna, the +frescoes in the church of St Cecilia, illustrating the life of the +saint, all of them from the design of Raibolini, but not all executed by +himself. His landscape backgrounds are of uncommon excellence. Francia +had more than 200 scholars. Marcantonio Raimondi, the famous engraver, +is the most renowned of them; next to him Amico Aspertini, and Francia's +own son Giacomo, and his cousin Julio. Lorenzo Costa was much associated +with Francia in pictorial work. + + Among the authorities as to the life and work of Francia may be + mentioned J.A. Calvi, _Memorie della vita di Francesco Raibolini_ + (1812), and especially G.C. Williamson, _Francia_ (1900). + (W. M. R.) + + + + +FRANCIA, JOSÉ GASPAR RODRIGUEZ (c. 1757-1840), dictator of Paraguay, was +born probably about 1757. According to one account he was of French +descent; but the truth seems to be that his father, Garcia Rodriguez +Francia, was a native of S. Paulo in Brazil, and came to Paraguay to +take charge of a plantation of black tobacco for the government. He +studied theology at the college of Cordova de Tucuman, and is said to +have been for some time a professor in that faculty; but he afterwards +turned his attention to the law, and practised in Asuncion. Having +attained a high reputation at once for ability and integrity, he was +selected for various important offices. On the declaration of Paraguayan +independence in 1811, he was appointed secretary to the national junta, +and exercised an influence on affairs greatly out of proportion to his +nominal position. When the congress or junta of 1813 changed the +constitution and established a duumvirate, Dr Francia and the Gaucho +general Yegres were elected to the office. In 1814 he secured his own +election as dictator for three years, and at the end of that period he +obtained the dictatorship for life. In the accounts which have been +published of his administration we find a strange mixture of capacity +and caprice, of far-sighted wisdom and reckless infatuation, strenuous +endeavours after a high ideal and flagrant violations of the simplest +principles of justice. He put a stop to the foreign commerce of the +country, but carefully fostered its internal industries; was disposed to +be hospitable to strangers from other lands, and kept them prisoners for +years; lived a life of republican simplicity, and punished with +Dionysian severity the slightest want of respect. As time went on he +appears to have grown more arbitrary and despotic. Deeply imbued with +the principles of the French Revolution, he was a stern antagonist of +the church. He abolished the Inquisition, suppressed the college of +theology, did away with the tithes, and inflicted endless indignities on +the priests. He discouraged marriage both by precept and example, and +left behind him several illegitimate children. For the extravagances of +his later years the plea of insanity has been put forward. On the 20th +of September 1840 he was seized with a fit and died. + + The first and fullest account of Dr Francia was given to the world by + two Swiss surgeons, Rengger and Longchamp, whom he had detained from + 1819 to 1825--_Essai historique sur la révolution de Paraguay et la + gouvernement dictatorial du docteur Francia_ (Paris, 1827). Their work + was almost immediately translated into English under the title of _The + Reign of Doctor Joseph G.R. De Francia in Paraguay_ (1827). About + eleven years after there appeared at London _Letters on Paraguay_, by + J.P. and W.P. Robertson, two young Scotsmen whose hopes of commercial + success had been rudely destroyed by the dictator's interference. The + account which they gave of his character and government was of the + most unfavourable description, and they rehearsed and emphasized their + accusations in _Francia's Reign of Terror_ (1839) and _Letters on + South America_ (3 vols., 1843). From the very pages of his detractors + Thomas Carlyle succeeded in extracting materials for a brilliant + defence of the dictator "as a man or sovereign of iron energy and + industry, of great and severe labour." It appeared in the _Foreign + Quarterly Review_ for 1843, and is reprinted in his _Critical and + Miscellaneous Essays_. Sir Richard F. Burton gives a graphic sketch of + Francia's life and a favourable notice of his character in his + _Letters from the Battlefields of Paraguay_ (1870), while C.A. + Washburn takes up a hostile position in his _History of Paraguay_ + (1871). + + + + +FRANCIABIGIO (1482-1525), Florentine painter. The name of this artist is +generally given as Mercantonio Franciabigio; it appears, however, that +his only real ascertained name was Francesco di Cristofano; and that he +was currently termed Francia Bigio, the two appellatives being distinct. +He was born in Florence, and studied under Albertinelli for some months. +In 1505 he formed the acquaintance of Andrea del Sarto; and after a +while the two painters set up a shop in common in the Piazza del Grano. +Franciabigio paid much attention to anatomy and perspective, and to the +proportions of his figures, though these are often too squat and puffy +in form. He had a large stock of artistic knowledge, and was at first +noted for diligence. As years went on, and he received frequent +commissions for all sorts of public painting for festive occasions, his +diligence merged in something which may rather be called workmanly +offhandedness. He was particularly proficient in fresco, and Vasari even +says that he surpassed all his contemporaries in this method--a judgment +which modern connoisseurship does not accept. In the court of the +Servites (or cloister of the Annunziata) in Florence he painted in 1513 +the "Marriage of the Virgin," as a portion of a series wherein Andrea +del Sarto was chiefly concerned. The friars having uncovered this work +before it was quite finished, Franciabigio was so incensed that, seizing +a mason's hammer, he struck at the head of the Virgin, and some other +heads; and the fresco, which would otherwise be his masterpiece in that +method, remains thus mutilated. At the Scalzo, in another series of +frescoes on which Andrea was likewise employed, he executed in 1518-1519 +the "Departure of John the Baptist for the Desert," and the "Meeting of +the Baptist with Jesus"; and, at the Medici palace at Poggio a Caiano, +in 1521, the "Triumph of Cicero." Various works which have been ascribed +to Raphael are now known or reasonably deemed to be by Franciabigio. +Such are the "Madonna del Pozzo," in the Uffizi Gallery; the half figure +of a "Young Man," in the Louvre (see also FRANCIA); and the famous +picture in the Fuller-Maitland collection, a "Young Man with a Letter." +These two works show a close analogy in style to another in the Pitti +gallery, avowedly by Franciabigio, a "Youth at a Window," and to some +others which bear this painter's recognized monogram. The series of +portraits, taken collectively, placed beyond dispute the eminent and +idiosyncratic genius of the master. Two other works of his, of some +celebrity, are the "Calumny of Apelles," in the Pitti, and the "Bath of +Bathsheba" (painted in 1523), in the Dresden gallery. + + + + +FRANCIS (Lat. _Franciscus_, Ital. _Francesco_, Span. _Francisco_, Fr. +_François_, Ger. _Franz_), a masculine proper name meaning "Frenchman." +As a Christian name it originated with St Francis of Assisi, whose +baptismal name was Giovanni, but who was called Francesco by his father +on returning from a journey in France. The saint's fame made the name +exceedingly popular from his day onwards. + + + + +FRANCIS I. (1708-1765), Roman emperor and grand duke of Tuscany, second +son of Leopold Joseph, duke of Lorraine, and his wife Elizabeth +Charlotte, daughter of Philip, duke of Orleans, was born on the 8th of +December 1708. He was connected with the Habsburgs through his +grandmother Eleanore, daughter of the emperor Ferdinand III., and wife +of Charles Leopold of Lorraine. The emperor Charles VI. favoured the +family, who, besides being his cousins, had served the house of Austria +with distinction. He had designed to marry his daughter Maria Theresa to +Clement, the elder brother of Francis. On the death of Clement he +adopted the younger brother as her husband. Francis was brought up at +Vienna with Maria Theresa on the understanding that they were to be +married, and a real affection arose between them. At the age of fifteen, +when he was brought to Vienna, he was established in the Silesian duchy +of Teschen, which had been mediatized and granted to his father by the +emperor in 1722. He succeeded his father as duke of Lorraine in 1729, +but the emperor, at the end of the Polish War of Succession, desiring to +compensate his candidate Stanislaus Leszczynski for the loss of his +crown in 1735, persuaded Francis to exchange Lorraine for the reversion +of the grand duchy of Tuscany. On the 12th of February 1736 he was +married to Maria Theresa, and they went for a short time to Florence, +when he succeeded to the grand duchy in 1737 on the death of John +Gaston, the last of the ruling house of Medici. His wife secured his +election to the Empire on the 13th of September 1745, in succession to +Charles VII., and she made him co-regent of her hereditary dominions. +Francis was well content to leave the reality of power to his able wife. +He had a natural fund of good sense and some business capacity, and was +a useful assistant to Maria Theresa in the laborious task of governing +the complicated Austrian dominions, but his functions appear to have +been of a purely secretarial character. He died suddenly in his carriage +while returning from the opera at Innsbruck on the 18th of August 1765. + + See A. von Arneth, _Geschichte Maria Theresias_ (Vienna, 1863-1879). + + + + +FRANCIS II. (1768-1835), the last Roman emperor, and, as Francis I., +first emperor of Austria, was the son of Leopold II., grand-duke of +Tuscany, afterwards emperor, and of his wife Maria Louisa, daughter of +Charles III. of Spain. He was born at Florence on the 12th of February +1768. In 1784 he was brought to Vienna to complete his education under +the eye of his uncle the emperor Joseph II., who was childless. Joseph +was repelled by the frigid and retiring character of his nephew, and is +said to have treated him with an impatient contempt which confirmed his +natural timidity; but after the marriage of Francis to Elizabeth of +Württemberg (1788) their relations improved. At the close of his uncle's +reign he saw some service in the ill-conducted war with Turkey, and kept +a careful diary of his experiences. The death of his wife in childbirth +on the 18th of February 1790 was followed by the death of his uncle on +the 20th; and Francis acted as regent with Prince Kaunitz until his +father came from Florence. On the 19th of September he married his first +cousin Maria Theresa, daughter of Ferdinand, king of Naples, by whom he +was the father of his successor Ferdinand I., of Maria Louisa, wife of +Napoleon, and of the archduke Francis, father of the emperor Francis +Joseph. After her death (1807) he married Maria Ludovica Beatrix of Este +(1808), and when she died he made a fourth marriage with Carolina +Augusta of Bavaria (1816). + +He succeeded to the Austrian dominions and the empire on the death of +his father on the 1st of March 1792. The position was a trying one for a +young prince twenty-four years of age. The dominions of the house of +Austria, widely scattered in the Low Countries, Germany and Italy, were +exposed to the attacks of the French revolutionary governments and of +Napoleon. He was dragged into all the coalitions against France, and in +the early days of his reign he had to guard against the ambition of +Prussia, and the aggressions of Russia in Poland and Turkey. For long +he had no adviser save such diplomatists as Prince Kaunitz and Thugut, +who had been trained in the old Austrian diplomacy. His own best quality +was an invincible patience supported by reliance on the loyalty of his +subjects, and a sense of his duty to the state. (For the general events +of this reign till 1815 see EUROPE, AUSTRIA, NAPOLEON, FRENCH +REVOLUTIONARY WARS, &c.) The emperor's firmness averted what would have +been an irreparable loss of position. Seeing that the Empire was in the +last stage of dissolution, and that, even were it to survive, it would +pass from the house of Habsburg to that of Bonaparte, he in 1804 assumed +the title of hereditary emperor of Austria. The object of this prudent +measure was double. In the first place, he guarded against the danger +that his house should sink to a lower rank than the Russian or the +French. In the second place, he gave some semblance of unity to his +complex dominions in Germany, Bohemia, Hungary and Italy, by providing a +common title for the supreme ruler. His action was justified when, in +1806, the establishment of the Confederation of the Rhine forced him to +abdicate the empty title of Holy Roman emperor. + +In 1805 he made an important change in the working of his +administration. He had hitherto been assisted by a cabinet minister who +was in direct relation with all the "chanceries" and boards which formed +the executive government, and who acted as the channel of communication +between them and the emperor, and was in fact a prime minister. In 1805 +Napoleon insisted on the removal of Count Colloredo, who held the post. +From that time forward the emperor Francis acted as his own prime +minister, superintending every detail of his administration. In foreign +affairs after 1809 he reposed full confidence in Prince Metternich. But +Metternich himself declared at the close of his life that he had +sometimes held Europe in the palm of his hand, but never Austria. +Francis was sole master, and is entitled to whatever praise is due to +his government. It follows that he must bear the blame for its errors. +The history of the Austrian empire under his rule and since his death +bears testimony to both his merits and his limitations. His indomitable +patience and loyalty to his inherited task enabled him to triumph over +Napoleon. By consenting to the marriage of his daughter, Marie Louise, +to Napoleon in 1810, he gained a respite which he turned to good +account. By following the guidance of Metternich in foreign affairs he +was able to intervene with decisive effect in 1813. The settlement of +Europe in 1815 left Austria stronger and more compact than she had been +in 1792, and that this was the case was largely due to the emperor. + +During the twenty years which preceded his death in 1835, Francis +continued to oppose the revolutionary spirit. He had none of the +mystical tendencies of the tsar Alexander I., and only adhered to the +half fantastic Holy Alliance of 1815 out of pure politeness. But he was +wholly in sympathy with the policy of "repression" which came, in +popular view, to be identified with the Holy Alliance; and though +Metternich was primarily responsible for the part played by Austria in +the "policing" of Europe, Francis cannot but be held personally +responsible for the cruel and impolitic severities, associated +especially with the sinister name of the fortress prison of the +Spielberg, which made so many martyrs to freedom. It is not surprising +that Francis was denounced by Liberals throughout Europe as a tyrant and +an obscurantist. But though at home, as abroad, he met all suggestions +of innovation by a steady refusal to depart from old ways, he was always +popular among the mass of his subjects, who called him "our good Kaiser +Franz." In truth, if in the spirit of the traditional _Landesvater_ he +chastised his disobedient children mercilessly, he was essentially a +well-meaning ruler who forwarded the material and moral good of his +subjects according to his lights. But he held that, by the will of God, +the whole sovereign authority resided in his person, and could not be +shared with others without a dereliction of duty on his part and +disastrous consequences; and his capital error as a ruler of Austria was +that he persisted in maintaining a system of administration which +depended upon the indefatigable industry of a single man, and was +entirely outgrown by the modern development of his subjects. Before his +death, government in Austria was almost choked, and it broke down under +a successor who had not his capacity for work. Like his ancestor Philip +II. of Spain, Francis carried caution, and a disposition to sleep upon +every possible proposal, to a great length. He died on the 2nd of March +1835. + + See Baron J.A. Helfert, _Kaiser Franz und die österreichischen + Befreiungs-Kriege_ (Vienna, 1867). Ample bibliographies will be found + in Krones von Marchland's _Grundriss der österreichischen Geschichte_ + (Berlin, 1882). + + + + +FRANCIS I. (1494-1547), king of France, son of Charles of Valois, count +of Angoulême, and Louise of Savoy, was born at Cognac on the 12th of +September 1494. The count of Angoulême, who was the great-grandson of +King Charles V., died in 1496, and Louise watched over her son with +passionate tenderness. On the accession of Louis XII. in 1498, Francis +became heir-presumptive. Louis invested him with the duchy of Valois, +and gave him as tutor Marshal de Gié, and, after Gié's disgrace in 1503, +the sieur de Boisy, Artus Gouffier. François de Rochefort, abbot of St +Mesmin, instructed Francis and his sister Marguerite in Latin and +history; Louise herself taught them Italian and Spanish; and the library +of the château at Amboise was well stocked with romances of the Round +Table, which exalted the lad's imagination. Francis showed an even +greater love for violent exercises, such as hunting, which was his +ruling passion, and tennis, and for tournaments, masquerades and +amusements of all kinds. His earliest gallantries are described by his +sister in the 25th and 42nd stories of the _Heptameron_. In 1507 Francis +was betrothed to Claude, the daughter of Louis XII., and in 1508 he came +to court. In 1512 he gained his first military experience in Guienne, +and in the following year he commanded the army of Picardy. He married +Claude on the 18th of May 1514, and succeeded Louis XII. on the 1st of +January 1515. Of noble bearing, and, in spite of a very long and large +nose, extremely handsome, he was a sturdy and valiant knight, affable, +courteous, a brilliant talker and a facile poet. He had a sprightly wit, +some delicacy of feeling, and some generous impulses which made him +amiable. These brilliant qualities, however, were all on the surface. At +bottom the man was frivolous, profoundly selfish, unstable, and utterly +incapable of consistency or application. The ambassadors remarked his +negligence, and his ministers complained of it. Hunting, tennis, jewelry +and his gallantry were the chief preoccupations of his life. + +His character was at once authoritative and weak. He was determined to +be master and to decide everything himself, but he allowed himself to be +dominated and easily persuaded. Favourites, too, without governing +entirely for him, played an important part in his reign. His capricious +humour elevated and deposed them with the same disconcerting suddenness. +In the early years of his reign the conduct of affairs was chiefly in +the hands of Louise of Savoy, Chancellor Antoine Duprat, Secretary +Florimond Robertet, and the two Gouffiers, Boisy and Bonnivet. The royal +favour then elevated Anne de Montmorency and Philippe de Chabot, and in +the last years of the reign Marshal d'Annebaud and Cardinal de Tournon. +Women too had always a great influence over Francis--his sister, +Marguerite d'Angoulême, and his mistresses. Whatever the number of +these, he had only two titular mistresses--at the beginning of the reign +Françoise de Châteaubriant, and from about 1526 to his death Anne de +Pisseleu, whom he created duchesse d'Étampes and who entirely dominated +him. It has not been proved that he was the lover of Diane de Poitiers, +nor does the story of "La belle Ferronnière" appear to rest on any +historical foundation.[1] + +Circumstances alone gave a homogeneous character to the foreign policy +of Francis. The struggle against the emperor Charles V. filled the +greater part of the reign. In reality, the policy of Francis, save for +some flashes of sagacity, was irresolute and vacillating. Attracted at +first by Italy, dreaming of fair feats of prowess, he led the triumphal +Marignano expedition, which gained him reputation as a knightly king and +as the most powerful prince in Europe. In 1519, in spite of wise +counsels, he stood candidate for the imperial crown. The election of +Charles V. caused an inevitable rivalry between the two monarchs which +accentuated still further the light and chivalrous temper of the king +and the cold and politic character of the emperor. Francis's personal +intervention in this struggle was seldom happy. He did not succeed in +gaining the support of Henry VIII. of England at the interview of the +Field of the Cloth of Gold in 1520; his want of tact goaded the +Constable de Bourbon to extreme measures in 1522-1523; and in the +Italian campaign of 1525 he proved himself a mediocre, vacillating and +foolhardy leader, and by his blundering led the army to the disaster of +Pavia (the 25th of February 1525), where, however, he fought with great +bravery. "Of all things," he wrote to his mother after the defeat, +"nothing remains to me but honour and life, which is safe"--the +authentic version of the legendary phrase "All is lost save honour." He +strove to play the part of royal captive heroically, but the prison life +galled him. He fell ill at Madrid and was on the point of death. For a +moment he thought of abdicating rather than of ceding Burgundy. But this +was too great a demand upon his fortitude, and he finally yielded and +signed the treaty of Madrid, after having drawn up a secret protest. +After Madrid he wavered unceasingly between two courses, either that of +continuing hostilities, or the policy favoured by Montmorency of peace +and understanding with the emperor. At times he had the sagacity to +recognize the utility of alliances, as was shown by those he concluded +with the Porte and with the Protestant princes of Germany. But he could +never pledge himself frankly in one sense or the other, and this +vacillation prevented him from attaining any decisive results. At his +death, however, France was in possession of Savoy and Piedmont. + +In his religious policy Francis showed the same instability. Drawn +between various influences, that of Marguerite d'Angoulême, the du +Bellays, and the duchesse d'Étampes, who was in favour of the +Reformation or at least of toleration, and the contrary influence of the +uncompromising Catholics, Duprat, and then Montmorency and de Tournon, +he gave pledges successively to both parties. In the first years of the +reign, following the counsels of Marguerite, he protected Jacques +Lefèvre of Etaples and Louis de Berquin, and showed some favour to the +new doctrines. But the violence of the Reformers threw him into the arms +of the opposite party. The affair of the Placards in 1534 irritated him +beyond measure, and determined him to adopt a policy of severity. From +that time, in spite of occasional indulgences shown to the Reformers, +due to his desire to conciliate the Protestant powers, Francis gave a +free hand to the party of repression, of which the most active and most +pitiless member was Cardinal de Tournon; and the end of the reign was +sullied by the massacre of the Waldenses (1545). + +Francis introduced new methods into government. In his reign the +monarchical authority became more imperious and more absolute. His was +the government "_du bon plaisir_." By the unusual development he gave to +the court he converted the nobility into a brilliant household of +dependants. The Concordat brought the clergy into subjection, and +enabled him to distribute benefices at his pleasure among the most +docile of his courtiers. He governed in the midst of a group of +favourites, who formed the _conseil des affaires_. The states-general +did not meet, and the remonstrances of the parlement were scarcely +tolerated. By centralizing the financial administration by the creation +of the _Trésor de l'Épargne_, and by developing the military +establishments, Francis still further strengthened the royal power. His +government had the vices of his foreign policy. It was uncertain, +irregular and disorderly. The finances were squandered in gratifying the +king's unbridled prodigality, and the treasury was drained by his +luxurious habits, by the innumerable gifts and pensions he distributed +among his mistresses and courtiers, by his war expenses and by his +magnificent buildings. His government, too, weighed heavily upon the +people, and the king was less popular than is sometimes imagined. + +Francis owes the greater measure of his glory to the artists and men of +letters who vied in celebrating his praises. He was pre-eminently the +king of the Renaissance. Of a quick and cultivated intelligence, he had +a sincere love of letters and art. He holds a high place in the history +of humanism by the foundation of the Collège de France; he did not found +an actual college, but after much hesitation instituted in 1530, at the +instance of Guillaume Budé (Budaeus), _Lecteurs royaux_, who in spite of +the opposition of the Sorbonne were granted full liberty to teach +Hebrew, Greek, Latin, mathematics, &c. The humanists Budé, Jacques Colin +and Pierre Duchâtel were the king's intimates, and Clément Marot was his +favourite poet. Francis sent to Italy for artists and for works of art, +but he protected his own countrymen also. Here, too, he showed his +customary indecision, wavering between the two schools. At his court he +installed Benvenuto Cellini, Francesco Primaticcio and Rosso del Rosso, +but in the buildings at Chambord, St Germain, Villers-Cotterets and +Fontainebleau the French tradition triumphed over the Italian. + +Francis died on the 31st of March 1547, of a disease of the urinary +ducts according to some accounts, of syphilis according to others. By +his first wife Claude (d. 1524) he had three sons and four daughters: +Louise, who died in infancy; Charlotte, who died at the age of eight; +Francis (d. 1536); Henry, who came to the throne as Henry II.; +Madeleine, who became queen of Scotland; Charles (d. 1545); and +Margaret, duchess of Savoy. In 1530 he married Eleanor, the sister of +the emperor Charles V. + + AUTHORITIES.--For the official acts of the reign, the _Catalogue des + actes de François I^er_, published by the Académie des Sciences + morales et politiques (Paris, 1887-1907), is a valuable guide. The + _Bibliothèque Nationale_, the _National Archives_, &c., contain a mass + of unpublished documents. Of the published documents, see N. Camuzat, + _Meslanges historiques_ ... (Troyes, 1619); G. Ribier, _Lettres et + mémoires d'estat_ (Paris, 1666); _Letters de Marguerite d'Angoulême_, + ed. by F. Genin (Paris, 1841 and 1842); the _Correspondence of + Castillon and Marillac_ (ed. by Kaulek, Paris, 1885), of _Odet de + Selve_ (ed. by Lefèvre-Pontalis, Paris, 1888), and of _Guillaume + Pellicier_ (ed. by Tausserat-Radel, Paris, 1900); _Captivité du roi + François I^er_, and _Poésies de François I^er_ (both ed. by + Champollion-Figeac, Paris, 1847, of doubtful authenticity); _Relations + des ambassadeurs vénitiens_, &c. Of the memoirs and chronicles, see + the journal of Louise of Savoy in S. Guichenon's _Histoire de la + maison de Savoie_, vol. iv. (ed. of 1778-1780); _Journal de Jean + Barillon_, ed. by de Vaissière (Paris, 1897-1899); _Journal d'un + bourgeois de Paris_, ed. by Lalanne (Paris, 1854); _Cronique du roy + François I^er_, ed. by Guiffrey (Paris, 1868); and the memoirs of + Fleuranges, Montluc, Tavannes, Vieilleville, Brantôme and especially + Martin du Bellay (coll. Michaud and Poujoulat). Of the innumerable + secondary authorities, see especially Paulin Paris, _Études sur le + règne de François I^er_ (Paris, 1885), in which the apologetic + tendency is excessive; and H. Lemonnier in vol. v. (Paris, 1903-1904) + of E. Lavisse's _Histoire de France_, which gives a list of the + principal secondary authorities. There is a more complete + bibliographical study by V.L. Bourrilly in the _Revue d'histoire + moderne et contemporaine_, vol. iv. (1902-1903). The printed sources + have been catalogued by H. Hauser, _Les Sources de l'histoire de + France, XVI^e siècle_, tome ii. (Paris, 1907). (J. I.) + + +FOOTNOTE: + + [1]On this point see Paulin Paris, _Études sur le règne de François + I^er_. + + + + +FRANCIS II. (1544-1560), king of France, eldest son of Henry II. and of +Catherine de' Medici, was born at Fontainebleau on the 19th of January +1544. He married the famous Mary Stuart, daughter of James V. of +Scotland, on the 25th of April 1558, and ascended the French throne on +the 10th of July 1559. During his short reign the young king, a sickly +youth and of feeble understanding, was the mere tool of his uncles +Francis, duke of Guise, and Charles, cardinal of Lorraine, into whose +hands he virtually delivered the reins of government. The exclusiveness +with which they were favoured, and their high-handed proceedings, +awakened the resentment of the princes of the blood, Anthony king of +Navarre and Louis prince of Condé, who gave their countenance to a +conspiracy (conspiracy of Amboise) with the Protestants against the +house of Guise. It was, however, discovered shortly before the time +fixed for its execution in March 1560, and an ambush having been +prepared, most of the conspirators were either killed or taken +prisoners. Its leadership and organization had been entrusted to Godfrey +de Barri, lord of la Renaudie (d. 1560); and the prince of Condé, who +was not present, disavowed all connexion with the plot. The duke of +Guise was now named lieutenant-general of the kingdom, but his Catholic +leanings were somewhat held in check by the chancellor Michel de +l'Hôpital, through whose mediation the edict of Romorantin, providing +that all cases of heresy should be decided by the bishops, was passed in +May 1560, in opposition to a proposal to introduce the Inquisition. At a +meeting of the states-general held at Orleans in the December following, +the prince of Condé, after being arrested, was condemned to death, and +extreme measures were being enacted against the Huguenots; but the +deliberations of the Assembly were broken off, and the prince was saved +from execution, by the king's somewhat sudden death, on the 5th of the +month, from an abscess in the ear. + + PRINCIPAL AUTHORITIES.--"Lettres de Catherine de Médicis," edited by + Hector de la Ferrière (1880 seq.), and "Négociations ... relatives au + règne de François II," edited by Louis Paris (1841), both in the + _Collection de documents inédits sur l'histoire de France_; notice of + Francis, duke of Guise, in the _Nouvelle Collection des mémoires pour + servir à l'histoire de France_, edited by J.F. Michaud and J.J.F. + Poujoulat, series i. vol. vi. (1836 seq.); _Mémoires de Condé servant + d'éclaircissement ... à l'histoire de M. de Thou_, vols. i and ii. + (1743); Pierre de la Place, _Commentaires de l'estat de la religion et + de la république sous les rois Henri II, François II, Charles IX_ + (1565); and Louis Régnier de la Planche, _Histoire de l'estat de + France ... sous ... François II (Panthéon littéraire_, new edition, + 1884). See also Ernest Lavisse, _Histoire de France_ (vol. vi. by J.H. + Mariéjol, 1904), which contains a bibliography. + + + + +FRANCIS I. (1777-1830), king of the Two Sicilies, was the son of +Ferdinand IV. (I.) and Maria Carolina of Austria. He married Clementina, +daughter of the emperor Leopold II. of Austria, in 1796, and at her +death Isabella, daughter of Charles IV. of Spain. After the Bourbon +family fled from Naples to Sicily in 1806, and Lord William Bentinck, +the British resident, had established a constitution and deprived +Ferdinand IV. of all power, Francis was appointed regent (1812). On the +fall of Napoleon his father returned to Naples and suppressed the +Sicilian constitution and autonomy, incorporating his two kingdoms into +that of the Two Sicilies (1816); Francis then assumed the revived title +of duke of Calabria. While still heir-apparent he professed liberal +ideas, and on the outbreak of the revolution of 1820 he accepted the +regency apparently in a friendly spirit towards the new constitution. +But he was playing a double game and proved to be the accomplice of his +father's treachery. On succeeding to the throne in 1825 he cast aside +the mask of liberalism and showed himself as reactionary as his father. +He took little part in the government, which he left in the hands of +favourites and police officials, and lived with his mistresses, +surrounded by soldiers, ever in dread of assassination. During his reign +the only revolutionary movement was the outbreak on the Cilento (1828), +savagely repressed by the marquis Delcarretto, an ex-Liberal turned +reactionary. + + See Nisco, _Il Reame di Napoli sotto Francesco I_ (Naples, 1893). + + + + +FRANCIS II. (1836-1894), king of the Two Sicilies, son of Ferdinand II. +and Maria Cristina of Savoy, was the last of the Bourbon kings of +Naples. His education had been much neglected and he proved a man of +weak character, greatly influenced by his stepmother Maria Theresa of +Austria, by the priests, and by the _Camarilla_, or reactionary court +set. He ascended the throne on the death of his father (22nd of May +1859). As prime minister he at once appointed Carlo Filangieri, who, +realizing the importance of the Franco-Piedmontese victories in +Lombardy, advised Francis to accept the alliance with Piedmont proposed +by Cavour. On the 7th of June a part of the Swiss Guard mutinied, and +while the king mollified them by promising to redress their grievances, +General Nunziante collected other troops, who surrounded the mutineers +and shot them down. The incident resulted in the disbanding of the whole +Swiss Guard, the strongest bulwark of the dynasty. Cavour again proposed +an alliance to divide the papal states between Piedmont and Naples, the +province of Rome excepted, but Francis rejected an idea which to him +savoured of sacrilege. Filangieri strongly advocated a constitution as +the only measure which might save the dynasty, and on the king's refusal +he resigned. Meanwhile the revolutionary parties were conspiring for the +overthrow of the Bourbons in Calabria and Sicily, and Garibaldi was +preparing for a raid in the south. A conspiracy in Sicily was discovered +and the plotters punished with brutal severity, but Rosalino Pilo and +Francesco Crispi had organized the movement, and when Garibaldi landed +at Marsala (May 1860) he conquered the island with astonishing ease. +These events at last frightened Francis into granting a constitution, +but its promulgation was followed by disorders in Naples and the +resignation of ministers, and Liborio Romano became head of the +government. The disintegration of the army and navy proceeded apace, and +Cavour sent a Piedmontese squadron carrying troops on board to watch +events. Garibaldi, who had crossed the straits of Messina, was advancing +northwards and was everywhere received by the people as a liberator. +Francis, after long hesitations and even an appeal to Garibaldi himself, +left Naples (6th of September) with his wife Maria Sophia, the court, +the diplomatic corps (the French and English ministers excepted), and +went by sea to Gaeta, where a large part of the army was concentrated. +The next day Garibaldi entered Naples, was enthusiastically welcomed, +and formed a provisional government. King Victor Emmanuel had decided on +the invasion of the papal states, and after occupying Romagna and the +Marche entered the Neapolitan kingdom. Garibaldi's troops defeated the +Neapolitan royalists on the Volturno (1st and 2nd of October), while the +Piedmontese captured Capua. Only Gaeta, Messina, and Civitella del +Tronto still held out, and the siege of the former by the Piedmontese +began on the 6th of November 1860. Both Francis and Maria Sophia behaved +with great coolness and courage, and even when the French fleet, whose +presence had hitherto prevented an attack by sea, was withdrawn, they +still resisted; it was not until the 12th of February 1861 that the +fortress capitulated. Thus the kingdom of Naples was incorporated in +that of Italy, and the royal pair from that time forth led a wandering +life in Austria, France and Bavaria. Francis died on the 27th of +December 1894 at Arco in Tirol. His widow survived him. + +Francis II. was weak-minded, stupid and vacillating, but, although his +short reign was stained with some cruel massacres and persecutions, he +was less of a tyrant than his father. The courage and dignity he +displayed during his reverses inspired pity and respect. But the fact +that he protected brigandage in his former dominions and countenanced +the most abominable crimes in the name of legitimism greatly diminished +the sympathy which was felt for the fallen monarch. + + BIBLIOGRAPHY.--R. de Cesare, _La Fine d'un regno_, vol. ii. (Città di + Castello, 1900) gives a detailed account of the reign of Francis II., + while H.R. Whitehouse's _Collapse of the Kingdom of Naples_ (New York, + 1899) may be recommended to English readers; Nisco's _Francesco II_ + (Naples, 1887) should also be consulted. See under NAPLES; GARIBALDI; + BIXIO; CAVOUR; ITALY; FILANGIERI; &c. (L. V.*) + + + + +FRANCIS IV. (1779-1846) duke of Modena, was the son of the archduke +Ferdinand, Austrian governor of Lombardy, who acquired the duchy of +Modena through his wife Marie Beatrice, heiress of the house of Este as +well as of many fiefs of the Malaspina, Pio da Carpi, Pico della +Mirandola, Cibò, and other families. At the time of the French invasion +(1796) Francis was sent to Vienna to be educated, and in 1809 was +appointed governor of Galicia. Later he went to Sardinia, where the +exiled King Victor Emmanuel I. and his wife Maria Theresa were living in +retirement. The latter arranged a marriage between her daughter Marie +Beatrice and Francis, and a secret family compact was made whereby if +the king and his two brothers died without male issue, the Salic law +would be changed so that Francis should succeed to the kingdom instead +of Charles Albert of Carignano (N. Bianchi, _Storia della diplomazia +europea in Italia_, i. 42-43). On the fall of Napoleon in 1814 Francis +received the duchy of Modena, including Massa-Carrara and Lunigiana; his +mother's advice was "to be above the law ... never to forgive the +Republicans of 1796, nor to listen to the complaints of his subjects, +whom nothing satisfies; the poorer they are the quieter they are" +(Silingardi, "Ciro Menotti," in _Rivista europea_, Florence, 1880). + +The duke was well received at Modena; inordinately ambitious, +strong-willed, immensely rich, avaricious but not unintelligent, he soon +proved one of the most reactionary despots in Italy. He still hoped to +acquire either Piedmont or some other part of northern Italy, and he was +in touch with the Sanfedisti and the Concistoro, reactionary Catholic +associations opposed to the Carbonari, but not always friendly to +Austria. Against the Carbonari and other Liberals he issued the severest +edicts, and although there was no revolt at Modena in 1821 as in +Piedmont and Naples, he immediately instituted judicial proceedings +against the supposed conspirators. Some 350 persons were arrested and +tortured, 56 being condemned to death (only a few of them were executed) +and 237 to imprisonment; a large number, however, escaped, including +Antonio Panizzi (afterwards director of the British Museum). The +ferocious police official Besini who conducted the trials was afterwards +murdered. The duke actually proposed to Prince Metternich, the Austrian +chancellor, an agreement whereby the various Italian rulers were to +arrest every Liberal in the country on a certain day, but the project +fell through owing to opposition from the courts of Florence and Rome. +At the congress of Verona Metternich made another attempt to secure the +Piedmontese succession for Francis, but without success. The duke became +ever more despotic; Modena swarmed with spies and informers, education +was hampered, feudalism strengthened; for the duke hoped to consolidate +his power by means of the nobility, and the least expression of +liberalism, or even failure to denounce a Carbonaro, involved arrest and +imprisonment. But strange to say, in 1830 we find Francis actually +coquetting with revolution. Having lost all hope of acquiring the +Piedmontese throne, he entered into negotiations with the French +Orleanist party with a view to obtaining its support in his plans for +extending his dominions. He was thus brought into touch with Ciro +Menotti (1798-1831) and the Modenese Liberals; what the nature of the +connexion was is still obscure, but it was certainly short-lived and +merely served to betray the Carbonari. As soon as Francis learned that a +conspiracy was on foot to gain possession of the town, he had Menotti +and several other conspirators arrested on the night of the 3rd of +February 1831, and sent the famous message to the governor of Reggio: +"The conspirators are in my hands; send me the hangman" (there is some +doubt as to the authenticity of the actual words). But the revolt broke +out in other parts of the duchy and in Romagna, and Francis retired to +Mantua with Menotti. A provisional government was formed at Modena which +proclaimed that "Italy is one," but the duke returned a few weeks later +with Austrian troops, and resistance was easily quelled. Then the +political trials began; Menotti and two others were executed, and +hundreds condemned to imprisonment. The population was now officially +divided into four classes, viz. "very loyal, loyal, less loyal, and +disloyal," and the reaction became worse than ever, the duke interfering +in the minutest details of administration, such as hospitals, schools, +and roads. New methods of procedure were introduced to deal with +political trials, but the ministerial cabal by which the country was +administered intrigued and squabbled to such an extent that it had to be +dismissed. + +On the 20th of February 1846 Francis died. Although he had many domestic +virtues and charming manners, was charitable in times of famine, and was +certainly the ablest of the Italian despots, Liberalism was in his eyes +the most heinous of crimes, and his reign is one long record of +barbarous persecution. (L. V.*) + + + + +FRANCIS V. (1819-1875), duke of Modena, son of Francis IV., succeeded +his father in 1846. Although less cruel and also less intelligent than +his father, he had an equally high opinion of his own authority. His +reign began with disturbances at Fivizzano and Pontremoli, which Tuscany +surrendered to him according to treaty but against the wishes of the +inhabitants (1847), and at Massa and Carrara, where the troops shot down +the people. Feeling his position insecure, the duke asked for and +obtained an Austrian garrison, but on the outbreak of revolution +throughout Italy and at Vienna in 1848, further disorders occurred in +the duchy, and on the 20th of March he fled with his family to Mantua. A +provisional government was formed, and volunteers were raised who fought +with the Piedmontese against Austria. But after the Piedmontese defeat +Francis returned to Modena, with Austrian assistance, in August and +conferred many appointments on Austrian officers. Like his father, he +interfered in the minutest details of administration, and instituted +proceedings against all who were suspected of Liberalism. Not content +with the severity of his judges, he overrode their sentences in favour +of harsher punishments. The disturbances at Carrara were ruthlessly +suppressed, and the prisons filled with politicals. In 1859 numbers of +young Modenese fled across the frontier to join the Piedmontese army, as +war with Austria seemed imminent; and after the Austrian defeat at +Magenta the duke left Modena to lead his army in person against the +Piedmontese, taking with him the contents of the state treasury and many +valuable books, pictures, coins, tapestries and furniture from the +palace. The events of 1859-1860 made his return impossible; and after a +short spell of provisional government the duchy was united to Italy. He +retired to Austria, and died at Munich in November 1875. + + BIBLIOGRAPHY.--N. Bianchi, _I Ducati Estensi_ (Turin, 1852); Galvani, + _Memorie di S.A.R. Francesco IV_ (Modena, 1847); _Documenti + riguardanti il governo degli Austro-Estensi in Modena_ (Modena, 1860); + C. Tivaroni, _L'Italia durante il dominio austriaco_, i. 606-653 + (Turin, 1892), and _L'Italia degli Italiani_, i. 114-125 (Turin, + 1895); Silingardi, "Ciro Menotti," in the _Rivista europea_ (Florence, + 1880); F.A. Gualterio, _Gli ultimi rivolgimenti italiani_ (Florence, + 1850); Bayard de Volo, _Vita di Francesco V_ (4 vols., Modena, + 1878-1885). (L. V.*) + + + + +FRANCIS OF ASSISI, ST. (1181 or 1182-1226), founder of the Franciscans +(q.v.), was born in 1181 or 1182 at Assisi, one of the independent +municipal towns of Umbria. He came from the upper middle class, his +father, named Pietro Bernardone, being one of the larger merchants of +the city. Bernardone's commercial enterprises made him travel abroad, +and it was from the fact that the father was in France at the time of +his son's birth that the latter was called Francesco. His education +appears to have been of the slightest, even for those days. It is +difficult to decide whether words of the early biographers imply that +his youth was not free from irregularities; in any case, he was the +recognized leader of the young men of the town in their revels; he was, +however, always conspicuous for his charity to the poor. When he was +twenty (1201) the neighbouring and rival city of Perugia attempted to +restore by force of arms the nobles who had been expelled from Assisi by +the burghers and the populace, and Francis took part in the battle +fought in the plain that lies between the two cities; the men of Assisi +were defeated and Francis was among the prisoners. He spent a year in +prison at Perugia, and when peace was made at the end of 1202 he +returned to Assisi and recommenced his old life. + +Soon a serious and prolonged illness fell upon him, during which he +entered into himself and became dissatisfied with his way of life. On +his recovery he set out on a military expedition, but at the end of the +first day's march he fell ill, and had to stay at Spoleto and return to +Assisi. This disappointment brought on again the spiritual crisis he had +experienced in his illness, and for a considerable time the conflict +went on within him. One day he gave a banquet to his friends, and after +it they sallied forth with torches, singing through the streets, Francis +being crowned with garlands as the king of the revellers; after a time +they missed him, and on retracing their steps they found him in a trance +or reverie, a permanently altered man. He devoted himself to solitude, +prayer and the service of the poor, and before long went on a pilgrimage +to Rome. Finding the usual crowd of beggars before St Peter's, he +exchanged his clothes with one of them, and experienced an overpowering +joy in spending the day begging among the rest. The determining episode +of his life followed soon after his return to Assisi; as he was riding +he met a leper who begged an alms; Francis had always had a special +horror of lepers, and turning his face he rode on; but immediately an +heroic act of self-conquest was wrought in him; returning he alighted, +gave the leper all the money he had about him, and kissed his hand. From +that day he gave himself up to the service of the lepers and the +hospitals. To the confusion of his father and brothers he went about +dressed in rags, so that his old companions pelted him with mud. Things +soon came to a climax with his father: in consequence of his profuse +alms to the poor and to the restoration of the ruined church of St +Damian, his father feared his property would be dissipated, so he took +Francis before the bishop of Assisi to have him legally disinherited; +but without waiting for the documents to be drawn up, Francis cast off +his clothes and gave them back to his father, declaring that now he had +better reason to say "Our Father which art in heaven," and having +received a cloak from the bishop, he went off into the woods of Mount +Subasio singing a French song; some brigands accosted him and he told +them he was the herald of the great king (1206). + +The next three years he spent in the neighbourhood of Assisi in abject +poverty and want, ministering to the lepers and the outcasts of society. +It was now that he began to frequent the ruined little chapel of St Mary +of the Angels, known as the Portiuncula, where much of his time was +passed in prayer. One day while Mass was being said therein, the words +of the Gospel came to Francis as a call: "Everywhere on your road preach +and say--The kingdom of God is at hand. Cure the sick, raise the dead, +cleanse the lepers, drive out devils. Freely have you received, freely +give. Carry neither gold nor silver nor money in your girdles, nor bag, +nor two coats, nor sandals, nor staff, for the workman is worthy of his +hire" (Matt. x. 7-10). He at once felt that this was his vocation, and +the next day, layman as he was, he went up to Assisi and began to preach +to the poor (1209). Disciples joined him, and when they were twelve in +number Francis said: "Let us go to our Mother, the holy Roman Church, +and tell the pope what the Lord has begun to do through us, and carry it +out with his sanction." They obtained the sanction of Innocent III., and +returning to Assisi they gave themselves up to their life of apostolic +preaching and work among the poor. + +The character and development of the order are traced in the article +FRANCISCANS; here the story of Francis's own life and the portrayal of +his personality will be attempted. To delineate in a few words the +character of the Poverello of Assisi is indeed a difficult task. There +is such a many-sided richness, such a tenderness, such a poetry, such an +originality, such a distinction revealed by the innumerable anecdotes in +the memoirs of his disciples, that his personality is brought home to us +as one of the most lovable and one of the strongest of men. It is +probably true to say that no one has ever set himself so seriously to +imitate the life of Christ and to carry out so literally Christ's work +in Christ's own way. This was the secret of his love of poverty as +manifested in the following beautiful prayer which he addressed to our +Lord: "Poverty was in the crib and like a faithful squire she kept +herself armed in the great combat Thou didst wage for our redemption. +During Thy passion she alone did not forsake Thee. Mary Thy Mother +stopped at the foot of the Cross, but poverty mounted it with Thee and +clasped Thee in her embrace unto the end; and when Thou wast dying of +thirst, as a watchful spouse she prepared for Thee the gall. Thou didst +expire in the ardour of her embraces, nor did she leave Thee when dead, +O Lord Jesus, for she allowed not Thy body to rest elsewhere than in a +borrowed grave. O poorest Jesus, the grace I beg of Thee is to bestow on +me the treasure of the highest poverty. Grant that the distinctive mark +of our Order may be never to possess anything as its own under the sun +for the glory of Thy name, and to have no other patrimony than begging" +(in the _Legenda 3 Soc._). This enthusiastic love of poverty is +certainly the keynote of St Francis's spirit; and so one of his +disciples in an allegorical poem (translated into English as _The Lady +of Poverty_ by Montgomery Carmichael, 1901), and Giotto in one of the +frescoes at Assisi, celebrated the "holy nuptials of Francis with Lady +Poverty." + +Another striking feature of Francis's character was his constant +joyousness; it was a precept in his rule, and one that he enforced +strictly, that his friars should be always rejoicing in the Lord. He +retained through life his early love of song, and during his last +illness he passed much of his time in singing. His love of nature, +animate and inanimate, was very keen and manifested itself in ways that +appear somewhat naïve. His preaching to the birds is a favourite +representation of St Francis in art. All creatures he called his +"brothers" or "sisters"--the chief example is the poem of the "Praises +of the Creatures," wherein "brother Sun," "sister Moon," "brother Wind," +and "sister Water" are called on to praise God. In his last illness he +was cauterized, and on seeing the burning iron he addressed "brother +Fire," reminding him how he had always loved him and asking him to deal +kindly with him. It would be an anachronism to think of Francis as a +philanthropist or a "social worker" or a revivalist preacher, though he +fulfilled the best functions of all these. Before everything he was an +ascetic and a mystic--an ascetic who, though gentle to others, wore out +his body by self-denial, so much so that when he came to die he begged +pardon of "brother Ass the body" for having unduly ill treated it: a +mystic irradiated with the love of God, endowed in an extraordinary +degree with the spirit of prayer, and pouring forth his heart by the +hour in the tenderest affections to God and our Lord. St Francis was a +deacon but not a priest. + +From the return of Francis and his eleven companions from Rome to Assisi +in 1209 or 1210, their work prospered in a wonderful manner. The effect +of their preaching, and their example and their work among the poor, +made itself felt throughout Umbria and brought about a great religious +revival. Great numbers came to join the new order which responded so +admirably to the needs of the time. In 1212 Francis invested St Clara +(q.v.) with the Franciscan habit, and so instituted the "Second Order," +that of the nuns. As the friars became more and more numerous their +missionary labours extended wider and wider, spreading first over Italy, +and then to other countries. Francis himself set out, probably in 1212, +for the Holy Land to preach the Gospel to the Saracens, but he was +shipwrecked and had to return. A year or two later he went into Spain to +preach to the Moors, but had again to return without accomplishing his +object (1215 probably). After another period of preaching in Italy and +watching over the development of the order, Francis once again set out +for the East (1219). This time he was successful; he made his way to +Egypt, where the crusaders were besieging Damietta, got himself taken +prisoner and was led before the sultan, to whom he openly preached the +Gospel. The sultan sent him back to the Christian camp, and he passed on +to the Holy Land. Here he remained until September 1220. During his +absence were manifested the beginnings of the troubles in the order that +were to attain to such magnitude after his death. The circumstances +under which, at an extraordinary general chapter convoked by him shortly +after his return, he resigned the office of minister-general (September +1220) are explained in the article FRANCISCANS: here, as illustrating +the spirit of the man, it is in place to cite the words in which his +abdication was couched: "Lord, I give Thee back this family which Thou +didst entrust to me. Thou knowest, most sweet Jesus, that I have no more +the power and the qualities to continue to take care of it. I entrust +it, therefore, to the ministers. Let them be responsible before Thee at +the Day of Judgment, if any brother by their negligence, or their bad +example, or by a too severe punishment, shall go astray." These words +seem to contain the mere truth: Francis's peculiar religious genius was +probably not adapted for the government of an enormous society spread +over the world, as the Friars Minor had now become. + +The chief works of the next years were the revision and final redaction +of the Rule and the formation or organization of the "Third Order" or +"Brothers and Sisters of Penance," a vast confraternity of lay men and +women who tried to carry out, without withdrawing from the world, the +fundamental principles of Franciscan life (see TERTIARIES). + +If for no other reason than the prominent place they hold in art, it +would not be right to pass by the Stigmata without a special mention. +The story is well known; two years before his death Francis went up +Mount Alverno in the Apennines with some of his disciples, and after +forty days of fasting and prayer and contemplation, on the morning of +the 14th of September 1224 (to use Sabatier's words), "he had a vision: +in the warm rays of the rising sun he discerned suddenly a strange +figure. A seraph with wings extended flew towards him from the horizon +and inundated him with pleasure unutterable. At the centre of the vision +appeared a cross, and the seraph was nailed to it. When the vision +disappeared Francis felt sharp pains mingling with the delights of the +first moment. Disturbed to the centre of his being he anxiously sought +the meaning of it all, and then he saw on his body the Stigmata of the +Crucified." The early authorities represent the Stigmata not as bleeding +wounds, the holes as it were of the nails, but as fleshy excrescences +resembling in form and colour the nails, the head on the palm of the +hand, and on the back as it were a nail hammered down. In the first +edition of the _Vie_, Sabatier rejected the Stigmata; but he changed his +mind, and in the later editions he accepts their objective reality as an +historically established fact; in an appendix he collects the evidence: +there exists what is according to all probability an autograph of Br. +Leo, the saint's favourite disciple and companion on Mount Alverno at +the time, which describes the circumstances of the stigmatization; Elias +of Cortona (q.v.), the acting superior, wrote on the day after his death +a circular letter wherein he uses language clearly implying that he had +himself seen the Stigmata, and there is a considerable amount of +contemporary authentic second hand evidence. On the strength of this +body of evidence Sabatier rejects all theories of fraud or +hallucination, whatever may be the explanation of the phenomena. + +Francis was so exhausted by the sojourn on Mount Alverno that he had to +be carried back to Assisi. The remaining months of his life were passed +in great bodily weakness and suffering, and he became almost blind. +However, he worked on with his wonted cheerfulness and joyousness. At +last, on the 3rd of October 1226, he died in the Portiuncula at the age +of forty-five. Two years later he was canonized by Gregory IX., whom, as +Cardinal Hugolino of Ostia, he had chosen to be the protector of his +order. + +The works of St Francis consist of the Rule (in two redactions), the +Testament, spiritual admonitions, canticles and a few letters. They were +first edited by Wadding in 1623. Two critical editions were published in +1904, one by the Franciscans of Quaracchi near Florence, the other (in a +longer and a shorter form) by Professor H. Boehmer of Bonn. Sabatier and +Goetz (see below) have investigated the authenticity of the several +works; and the four lists, while exhibiting slight variations, are in +substantial accord. Besides the works, properly so called, there is a +considerable amount of traditional matter--anecdotes, sayings, +sermons--preserved in the biographies and in the _Fioretti_;[1] a great +deal of this matter is no doubt substantially authentic, but it is not +possible to subject it to any critical sifting. + + _Note on Sources._--The sources for the life of St Francis and early + Franciscan history are very numerous, and an immense literature has + grown up around them. Any attempt to indicate even a selection of this + literature would here be impossible and also futile; for the discovery + of new documents has by no means ceased, and the criticism of the + materials is still in full progress, nor can it be said that final + results have yet emerged from the discussion. Students will find the + chief materials in the following collections: _Archiv für Litteratur + und Kirchengeschichte des Mittelalters_ (ed. by Ehrle and Denifle, + 1885, &c.); publications of the Franciscans of Quaracchi (list to be + obtained from Herder, Freiburg im Breisgau); and the two series edited + by Paul Sabatier, _Collection d'études et de documents sur l'histoire + religieuse et littéraire du moyen âge_ (5 vols. published up to 1906) + and _Opuscules de critique historique_ (12 fascicules): the easiest + and most consecutive way of following the controversy is by the aid of + the "Bulletin Hagiographique" in _Analecta Bollandiana_. Relatively + popular accounts of the most important sources are supplied in the + introductory chapters of Sabatier's _Vie de S. François_ and _Speculum + perfectionis_, and Lempp's _Frère Élie de Cortone_. + + Concerning the life of St Francis and the beginnings of the order, the + chief documents that come under discussion are: the two _Lives_ by + Thomas of Celano (1228 and 1248 respectively; Eng. trans. with + introduction by A.G. Ferrers Howell, 1908), of which the only critical + edition is that of Friar Ed. d'Alençon (1906); the so-called _Legenda + trium sociorum_; the _Speculum perfectionis_, discovered by Paul + Sabatier and edited in 1898 (Eng. trans. by Sebastian Evans, _Mirror + of Perfection_, 1899). Sabatier's theory as to the nature of these + documents was, in brief, that the _Speculum perfectionis_ was the + first of all the Lives of the saint, written in 1227 by Br. Leo, his + favourite and most intimate disciple, and that the _Legenda 3 Soc._ is + what it claims to be--the handiwork of Leo and the two other most + intimate companions of Francis, compiled in 1246; these are the most + authentic and the only true accounts, Thomas of Celano's Lives being + written precisely in opposition to them, in the interests of the + majority of the order that favoured mitigations of the Rule especially + in regard to poverty. For ten years the domain of Franciscan origins + was explored and discussed by a number of scholars; and then the whole + ground was reviewed by Professor W. Goetz of Munich in a study + entitled _Die Quellen zur Geschichte des hl. Franz von Assisi_ (1904). + His conclusions are substantially the same as those of Père van + Ortroy, the Bollandist, and Friar Lemmens, an Observant Franciscan, + and are the direct contrary of Sabatier's: the _Legenda 3 Soc._ is a + forgery; the _Speculum perfectionis_ is a compilation made in the 14th + century, also in large measure a forgery, but containing an element + (not to be precisely determined) derived from Br. Leo; on the other + hand, Thomas of Celano's two Lives are free from the "tendencies" + ascribed to them by Sabatier, and that of 1248 was written with the + collaboration of Leo and the other companions; thus the best sources + of information are those portions of the _Speculum_ that can with + certainty be carried back to Br. Leo, and the Lives by Thomas of + Celano, especially the second _Life_. Goetz's criticism of the + documents is characterized by exceeding carefulness and sobriety. Of + course he does not suppose that his conclusions are in all respects + final; but his investigations show that the time has not yet come when + a biography of St Francis could be produced answering to the demands + of modern historical criticism. The official life of St Francis is St + Bonaventura's _Legenda_, published in a convenient form by the + Franciscans of Quaracchi (1898); Goetz's estimate of it (op. cit.) is + much more favourable than Sabatier's. + + Paul Sabatier's fascinating and in many ways sympathetic _Vie de S. + François_ (1894; 33rd ed., 1906; Eng. trans, by L.S. Houghton, 1901) + will probably for a long time to come be accepted by the ordinary + reader as a substantially correct portrait of St Francis; and yet + Goetz declares that the most competent and independent critics have + without any exception pronounced that Sabatier has depicted St Francis + a great deal too much from the standpoint of modern religiosity, and + has exaggerated his attitude in face of the church (op. cit. p. 5). In + articles in the _Hist. Vierteljahrsschrift_ (1902, 1903) Goetz has + shown that Sabatier's presentation of St Francis's relations with the + ecclesiastical authority in general, and with Cardinal Hugolino + (Gregory IX.) in particular, is largely based on misconception; that + the development of the order was not forced on Francis against his + will; and that the differences in the order did not during Francis's + lifetime attain to such a magnitude as to cause him during his last + years the suffering depicted by Sabatier. This from a Protestant + historian like Goetz is most valuable criticism. In truth Sabatier's + St Francis is an anachronism--a man at heart, a modern pietistic + French Protestant of the most liberal type, with a veneer of 13th + century Catholicism. + + Of lives of St Francis in English may be mentioned those by Mrs + Oliphant (2nd ed., 1871) and by Canon Knox Little (1897). For general + information and references to the literature of the subject, see Otto + Zöckler, _Askese und Mönchtum_ (1897), ii. 470-493, and his article in + Herzog's _Realencyklopädie_ (ed. 3), "Franz von Assisi" (1899); also + Max Heimbucher, _Orden und Kongregationen_ (1896), i. § 38. The + chapter on St Francis in Emile Gebhart's _Italie mystique_ (ed. 3, + 1899) is very remarkable; indeed, though this writer is as little + ecclesiastically-minded as Sabatier himself, his general picture of + the state of religion in Italy at the time is far truer; here also + Sabatier has given way to the usual temptation of biographers to exalt + their hero by depreciating everybody else. (E. C. B.) + + +FOOTNOTE: + + [1] _The Little Flowers of St Francis._ + + + + +FRANCIS OF MAYRONE [FRANCISCUS DE MAYRONIS] (d. 1325), scholastic +philosopher, was born at Mayrone in Provence. He entered the Franciscan +order and subsequently went to Paris, where he was a pupil of Duns +Scotus. At the Sorbonne he acquired a great reputation for ability in +discussion, and was known as the _Doctor Illuminatus_ and _Magister +Acutus_. He became a professor of philosophy, and took part in the +discussions on the nature of Universals. Following Duns Scotus, he +adopted the Platonic theory of ideas, and denied that Aristotle had made +any contribution to metaphysical speculation. It is a curious commentary +on the theories of Duns Scotus that one pupil, Francis, should have +taken this course, while another pupil, Occam, should have used his +arguments in a diametrically opposite direction and ended in extreme +Nominalism. + + His works were collected and published at Venice in 1520 under the + title _Praeclarissima ac multum subtilia scripta Illuminati Doctoris + Francisci de Mayronis, &c._ + + + + +FRANCIS OF PAOLA (or PAULA), ST, founder of the Minims, a religious +order in the Catholic Church, was born of humble parentage at Paola in +Calabria in 1416, or according to the Bollandists 1438. As a boy he +entered a Franciscan friary, but left it and went to live as a hermit in +a cave on the seashore near Paola. Soon disciples joined him, and with +the bishop's approval he built a church and monastery. At first they +called themselves "Hermits of St Francis"; but the object they proposed +to themselves was to go beyond even the strict Franciscans in fasts and +bodily austerities of all kinds, in poverty and in humility; and +therefore, as the Franciscans were the Minors (_minores_, less), the new +order took the name of Minims (_minimi_, least). By 1474 a number of +houses had been established in southern Italy and Sicily, and the order +was recognized and approved by the pope. In 1482 Louis XI. of France, +being on his deathbed and hearing the reports of the holiness of +Francis, sent to ask him to come and attend him, and at the pope's +command he travelled to Paris. On this occasion Philip de Comines in his +_Memoirs_ says: "I never saw any man living so holily, nor out of whose +mouth the Holy Ghost did more manifestly speak." He remained with Louis +till his death, and Louis' successor, Charles VIII., held him in such +high esteem that he kept him in Paris, and enabled him to found various +houses of his order in France; in Spain and Germany, too, houses were +founded during Francis's lifetime. He never left France, and died in +1507 in the monastery of his order at Plessis-les-Tours. + +The Rule was so strict that the popes long hesitated to confirm it in +its entirety; not until 1506 was it finally sanctioned. The most special +feature is an additional vow to keep a perpetual Lent of the strictest +kind, not only flesh meat but fish and all animal products--eggs, milk, +butter, cheese, dripping--being forbidden, so that the diet was confined +to bread, vegetables, fruit and oil, and water was the only drink. Thus +in matter of diet the Minims surpassed in austerity all orders in the +West, and probably all permanently organized orders in the East. The +strongly ascetical spirit of the Minims manifested itself in the title +borne by the superiors of the houses--not abbot (father), or prior, or +guardian, or minister, or rector, but corrector; and the general +superior is the corrector general. Notwithstanding its extreme severity +the order prospered. At the death of the founder it had five +provinces--Italy, France, Tours, Germany, Spain. Later there were as +many as 450 monasteries, and some missions in India. There never was a +Minim house in England or Ireland. It ranks as one of the Mendicant +orders. In 1909 there were some twenty monasteries, mostly in Sicily, +but one in Rome (S. Andrea delle Fratte), and one in Naples, in +Marseilles and in Cracow. There have been Minim nuns (only one convent +has survived, till recently at Marseilles) and Minim Tertiaries, in +imitation of the Franciscan Tertiaries. The habit of the Minims is +black. + + See Helyot, _Hist. des ordres religieux_ (1714), vii. c. 56; Max + Heimbucher, _Orden und Kongregationen_ (1896), i. § 52; the article + "Franz von Paula" in Wetzer und Welte, _Kirchenlexicon_ (ed. 2), and + in Herzog, _Realencyklopädie_ (ed. 3); Catholic _Dictionary_, art. + "Minims." (E. C. B.) + + + + +FRANCIS (FRANÇOIS) OF SALES, ST (1567-1622), bishop of Geneva and doctor +of the Church (1877), was born at the castle of Sales, near Annecy, +Savoy. His father, also François, comte de Sales, but better known as M. +de Boisy, a nobleman and soldier, had been employed in various affairs +of state, but in 1560, at the age of thirty-eight, settled down on his +ancestral estates and married Françoise de Sionnay, a Savoyard like +himself, and an heiress. St Francis, the first child of this union, was +born in August 1567 when his mother was in her fifteenth year. M. de +Boisy was renowned for his experience and sound judgment, and both +parents were distinguished by piety, love of peace, charity to the poor, +qualities which early showed themselves in their eldest son. + +He received his education first at La Roche, in the Arve valley, then at +the college of Annecy, founded by Eustace Chappius, ambassador in England +of Charles V., in 1549. At the age of thirteen or fourteen he went to the +Jesuit College of Clermont at Paris, where he stayed till the summer of +1588, and where he laid the foundations of his profound knowledge, while +perfecting himself in the exercises of a young nobleman and practising a +life of exemplary virtue. At this time also he developed an ardent love +of France, a country which was politically in antagonism with his own, +though so closely linked to it geographically, socially and by language. +At the end of 1588 he went to Padua, to take his degree in canon and +civil law, a necessary prelude in Savoy at that time to distinction in a +civil career. His heart, however, especially from the date of his +receiving the tonsure (1578), was already turned towards the Church, and +he gave his attention even more to theology, under the great masters +Antonio Possevino, S.J., and Gesualdo, afterwards general of the Friars +Minor, than to his legal course. "At Padua," he said to a friend, "I +studied law to please my father, and theology to please myself." In that +licentious university Francis found the greatest difficulty in resisting +attacks on his virtue, and once at least had to draw his sword to defend +his personal safety against a band of ruffians. The gentleness for which +he was already renowned was not that of a weak, but of a strong +character. He returned to Savoy in 1592, and, while seeking the occasion +to overcome his father's resistance to his resolution of embracing the +ecclesiastical profession, took the diploma of advocate to the senate. +Meantime, without his knowledge, his friends procured for him the post of +provost of the chapter of Geneva, an honour which reconciled M. de Boisy +to the sacrifice of more ambitious hopes. After a year of zealous work as +preacher and director he was sent by the bishop, Claude de Granier, to +try and win back the province of Chablais, which had embraced Calvinism +when usurped by Bern in 1535, and had retained it even after its +restitution to Savoy in 1564. At first the people refused to listen to +him, for he was represented to them as an instrument of Satan, and all +who had dealings with him were threatened with the vengeance of the +consistory. He therefore wrote out his message on sheets which were +passed from hand to hand, and these, with the spectacle of his virtues +and disinterestedness, soon produced a strong effect. The sheets just +spoken of still exist in the Chigi library at Rome, and were published, +though with many alterations, in 1672, under the title of _Les +Controverses_. This must be considered the first work of St Francis. + +The re-erection of a wayside cross in Annemasse, at the gates of Geneva, +amid an enormous concourse of converts, an event which closed the three +years of his apostolate, led to the composition of the _Défense ... de +la Croix_, published in 1600. An illness brought on by toil and +privation forced him to leave his work to others for nearly a year, but +in August 1598 he returned to his field of labour, and in October of +that year practically the whole country was Catholic again. Up to that +time preaching and conference had been the only weapons employed. The +stories of the use of soldiers to produce simulated conversions are +incorrect.[1] Possibly the lamentable events of the campaigns of 1589 in +Gex and Chablais have been applied to the period 1594-1598. In October +of this last year, however, the duke of Savoy, who came then to assist +in person at the great religious feasts which celebrated the return of +the country to unity of faith, expatriated such of the leading men as +obstinately refused even to listen to the Catholic arguments. He also +forbade Calvinist ministers to reside in the Chablais, and substituted +Catholic for Huguenot officials. St Francis concurred in these measures, +and, three years later, even requested that those who, as he said, +"follow their heresy, rather as a party than a religion," should be +ordered either to conform or to leave their country, with leave to sell +their goods. His conduct, judged not by a modern standard, but by the +ideas of his age, will be found compatible with the highest Christian +charity, as that of the duke with sound political prudence. At this time +he was nominated to the pope as coadjutor of Geneva,[2] and after a +visit to Rome he assisted Bishop de Granier in the administration of the +newly converted countries and of the diocese at large. + +In 1602 he made his second visit to the French capital, when his +transcendent qualities brought him into the closest relations with the +court of Henry IV., and made him the spiritual father of that circle of +select souls who centred round Madame Acarie. Among the celebrated +personages who became his life friends from this time were Pierre de +Bérulle, founder of the French Oratorians, Guillaume Duval, the scholar, +and the duc de Bellegarde, the latter a special favourite of the king, +who begged to be allowed to share the Saint's friendship. At this time +also his gift as a preacher became fully recognized, and de Sanzéa, +afterwards bishop of Bethlehem, records that Duval exhorted all his +students of the Sorbonne to listen to him and to imitate this, "the true +and excellent method of preaching." His principles are expressed in the +admirable letter to André Frémyot of October 1604. + +De Granier died in September 1602, and the new bishop entered on the +administration of his vast diocese, which, as a contemporary says, "he +found brick and left marble." His first efforts were directed to +securing a virtuous and well-instructed clergy, with its consequence of +a people worthy of their pastors. All his time was spent in preaching, +confessing, visiting the sick, relieving the poor. His zeal was not +confined to his diocese. In concert with Jeanne Françoise Frémyot +(1572-1641), widow of the baron de Chantal, whose acquaintance he made +while preaching through Lent at Dijon in 1604, he founded the order of +the Visitation, in favour of "strong souls with weak bodies," as he +said, deterred from entering the orders already existing, by their +inability to undertake severe corporal austerities. The institution +rapidly spread, counting twenty houses before his death and eighty +before that of St Jeanne. The care of his diocese and of his new +foundation were not enough for his ardent charity, and in 1609 he +published his famous _Introduction to a Devout Life_, a work which was +at once translated into the chief European languages and of which he +himself published five editions. In 1616 appeared his _Treatise on the +Love of God_, which teaches that perfection of the spiritual life to +which the former work is meant to be the "Introduction." + +The important Lents of 1617 and 1618 at Grenoble were a prelude to a +still more important apostolate in Paris, "the theatre of the world," as +St Vincent de Paul calls it. This third visit to the great city lasted +from the autumn of 1618 to that of 1619; the direct object of it was to +assist in negotiating the marriage of the prince of Piedmont with +Chrétienne of France, but nearly all his time was spent in preaching and +works of mercy, spiritual or corporal. He was regarded as a living +saint. St Vincent scarcely left him, and has given the most +extraordinary testimonies (as yet unpublished) of his heroic virtues. +Mère Angélique Arnaud, who at this time put herself under his direction +and wished to join the Order of the Visitation, attracted by its +humility and sweetness, may be named as the most interesting of his +innumerable penitents of this period. He returned to Savoy, and after +three years more of unwearying labour died at Lyons on the 28th of +December 1622. A universal outburst of veneration followed; indeed his +cult had already begun, and after an episcopal inquiry the pontifical +commission in view of his beatification was instituted by decree of the +21st of July 1626, a celerity unique in the annals of the Congregation +of Rites. The depositions of witnesses were returned to Rome in 1632, +but meantime the forms of the Roman chancery had been changed by Urban +VIII., and the advocates could not at once continue their work. +Eventually a new commission was issued in 1656, and on its report, into +which were inserted nineteen of the former depositions, the "servant of +God" was beatified in 1661. The canonization took place in 1665. + + Besides the works which we have named, there were published + posthumously his _Entretiens_, i.e. a selection of the lectures given + to the Visitation, reported by the sisters who heard them, some of his + sermons, a large number of his letters, various short treatises of + devotion. The first edition of his united or so-called "Complete" + works was published at Toulouse in 1637. Others followed in 1641, + 1647, 1652, 1663, 1669, 1685. The _Lettres_ and _Opuscules_ were + republished in 1768. + + The only modern editions of the complete works which it is worth while + to name are those of Blaise (1821), Virès (1856-1858), Migne (1861), + and the critical edition published by the Visitation of Annecy, of + which the 14th volume appeared in 1905. + + The biography of St Francis de Sales was written immediately after his + death by the celebrated P. de La Rivière and Dom John de St François + (Goulu), as well as by two other authors of less importance. The + saint's nephew and successor, Charles Auguste de Sales, brought out a + more extended life, Latin and French, in 1635. The lives of Giarda + (1650), Maupas du Tour (1657) and Cotolendi (1687) add little to + Charles Auguste. Marsollier's longer life, in two volumes (1700), is + quite untrustworthy; still more so that by Loyau d'Amboise (1833), + which is rather a romance than a biography. The lives by Hamon (1856) + and Pérennès (1860), without adding much to preceding biographies, are + serious and edifying. A complete life, founded on the lately + discovered process of 1626 and the new letters, was being prepared by + the author of the present article at the time of his death. With the + Lives must be mentioned the _Esprit du B.F. de Sales_ by Camus, bishop + of Belley, who, amid innumerable errors, gives various interesting + traits and sayings of his saintly friend. Among the very numerous + modern studies may be named an essay by Leigh Hunt entitled "The + Gentleman Saint" (_The Seer_, pt. ii. No. 41); a remarkable _causerie_ + by Sainte-Beuve (_Lundis_, 3rd Jan. 1853); _Le Réveil du sentiment + religieux en France au XVII^e siècle_, by Strowski (Paris, 1898); + _Four Essays on S. F. de S._ and _Three Essays on S. F. de S. as + Preacher_, by Canon H.B. Mackey. (H. B. M.) + + +FOOTNOTES: + + [1] This, at least, is the account given by Catholic authorities. + Less favourable is the view taken by non-Catholic historians, which + seems in some measure to be confirmed by St Francis himself. + According to this, Duke Charles Emmanuel of Savoy, who succeeded his + more tolerant father in 1580, was determined to reduce the Chablais + to the Catholic religion, by peaceful means if possible, by force if + necessary. After two years of preaching Francis wrote to the duke + (_Oeuvres compl._ ii. p. 551): "During 27 months I have scattered the + seed of the Word of God in this miserable land; shall I say among + thorns or on stony ground? Certainly, save for the conversion of the + seigneur d'Avully and the advocate Poncet, I have little to boast + of." In the winter of 1596-1597 Francis was at Turin, and at his + suggestion the duke decided on a regular plan for the coercion of the + refractory Protestants. This plan anticipated that employed later by + Louis XIV. against the Huguenots in France. The Calvinist ministers + were expelled; Protestant books were confiscated and destroyed; the + acts of Protestant lawyers and officials were declared invalid. The + country was flooded with Jesuits and friars, whose arguments were + reinforced by quartering troops, veterans of the Indian wars in + Mexico, on the refractory inhabitants. Those whose stubborn + persistence in error survived all these inducements to repent were + sent into exile. See the article "Franz von Sales" by J. Ehni in + Herzog-Hauck, _Realencyklopädie_ (3rd ed., Leipzig, 1899). + (W. A. P.) + + [2] With the title of Nicopolis _in partibus_.--ED. + + + + +FRANCIS, SIR PHILIP (1740-1818), English politician and pamphleteer, the +supposed author of the _Letters of Junius_, and the chief antagonist of +Warren Hastings, was born in Dublin on the 22nd of October 1740. He was +the only son of Dr Philip Francis (c. 1708-1773), a man of some literary +celebrity in his time, known by his translations of Horace, Aeschines +and Demosthenes. He received the rudiments of an excellent education at +a free school in Dublin, and afterwards spent a year or two (1751-1752) +under his father's roof at Skeyton rectory, Norfolk, and elsewhere, and +for a short time he had Gibbon as a fellow-pupil. In March 1753 he +entered St Paul's school, London, where he remained for three years and +a half, becoming a proficient classical scholar. In 1756, immediately on +his leaving school, he was appointed to a junior clerkship in the +secretary of state's office by Henry Fox (afterwards Lord Holland), with +whose family Dr Francis was at that time on intimate terms; and this +post he retained under the succeeding administration. In 1758 he was +employed as secretary to General Bligh in the expedition against +Cherbourg; and in the same capacity he accompanied the earl of Kinnoul +on his special embassy to the court of Portugal in 1760. + +In 1761 he became personally known to Pitt, who, recognizing his ability +and discretion, once and again made use of his services as private +amanuensis. In 1762 he was appointed to a principal clerkship in the war +office, where he formed an intimate friendship with Christopher D'Oyly, +the secretary of state's deputy, whose dismissal from office in 1772 was +hotly resented by "Junius"; and in the same year he married Miss +Macrabie, the daughter of a retired London merchant. His official duties +brought him into direct relations with many who were well versed in the +politics of the time. In 1763 the great constitutional questions arising +out of the arrest of Wilkes began to be sharply canvassed. It was +natural that Francis, who from a very early age had been in the habit of +writing occasionally to the newspapers, should be eager to take an +active part in the discussion, though his position as a government +official made it necessary that his intervention should be carefully +disguised. He is known to have written to the _Public Ledger_ and +_Public Advertiser_, as an advocate of the popular cause, on many +occasions about and after the year 1763; he frequently attended debates +in both Houses of Parliament, especially when American questions were +being discussed; and between 1769 and 1771 he is also known to have been +favourable to the scheme for the overthrow of the Grafton government and +afterwards of that of Lord North, and for persuading or forcing Lord +Chatham into power. In January 1769 the first of the _Letters of Junius_ +appeared, and the series was continued till January 21, 1772. They had +been preceded by others under various signatures such as, "Candor," +"Father of Candor," "Anti-Sejanus," "Lucius," "Nemesis," which have all +been attributed, some of them certainly in error, to one and the same +hand. The authorship of the _Letters of Junius_ has been assigned to +Francis on a variety of grounds (see JUNIUS). + +In March 1772 Francis finally left the war office, and in July of the +same year he left England for a tour through France, Germany and Italy, +which lasted until the following December. On his return he was +contemplating emigration to New England, when in June 1773 Lord North, +on the recommendation of Lord Barrington, appointed him a member of the +newly constituted supreme council of Bengal at a salary of £10,000 per +annum. Along with his colleagues Monson and Clavering he reached +Calcutta in October 1774, and a long struggle with Warren Hastings, the +governor-general, immediately began. These three, actuated probably by +petty personal motives, combined to form a majority of the council in +harassing opposition to the governor-general's policy; and they even +accused him of corruption, mainly on the evidence of Nuncomar. The death +of Monson in 1776, and of Clavering in the following year, made Hastings +again supreme in the council. But a dispute with Francis, more than +usually embittered, led in August 1780 to a minute being delivered to +the council board by Hastings, in which he stated that "he judged of the +public conduct of Mr Francis by his experience of his private, which he +had found to be void of truth and honour." A duel was the consequence, +in which Francis received a dangerous wound (see HASTINGS, WARREN). +Though his recovery was rapid and complete, he did not choose to prolong +his stay abroad. He arrived in England in October 1781, and was received +with little favour. + +Little is known of the nature of his occupations during the next two +years, except that he was untiring in his efforts to procure first the +recall, and afterwards the impeachment of his hitherto triumphant +adversary. In 1783 Fox produced his India Bill, which led to the +overthrow of the coalition government. In 1784 Francis was returned by +the borough of Yarmouth, Isle of Wight; and although he took an +opportunity to disclaim every feeling of personal animosity towards +Hastings, this did not prevent him, on the return of the latter in 1785, +from doing all in his power to bring forward and support the charges +which ultimately led to the impeachment resolutions of 1787. Although +excluded by a majority of the House from the list of the managers of +that impeachment, Francis was none the less its most energetic promoter, +supplying his friends Burke and Sheridan with all the materials for +their eloquent orations and burning invectives. At the general election +of 1790 he was returned member for Bletchingley. He sympathized warmly +and actively with the French revolutionary doctrines, expostulating with +Burke on his vehement denunciation of the same. In 1793 he supported +Grey's motion for a return to the old constitutional system of +representation, and so earned the title to be regarded as one of the +earliest promoters of the cause of parliamentary reform; and he was one +of the founders of the "Society of the Friends of the People." The +acquittal of Hastings in April 1795 disappointed Francis of the +governor-generalship, and in 1798 he had to submit to the additional +mortification of a defeat in the general election. He was once more +successful, however, in 1802, when he sat for Appleby, and it seemed as +if the great ambitions of his life were about to be realized when the +Whig party came into power in 1806. His disappointment was great when +the governor-generalship was, owing to party exigencies, conferred on +Sir Gilbert Elliot (Lord Minto); he declined, it is said, soon +afterwards the government of the Cape, but accepted a K.C.B. Though +re-elected for Appleby in 1806, he failed to secure a seat in the +following year; and the remainder of his life was spent in comparative +privacy. + +Among the later productions of his pen were, besides the _Plan of a +Reform in the Election of the House of Commons_, pamphlets entitled +_Proceedings in the House of Commons on the Slave Trade_ (1796), +_Reflections on the Abundance of Paper in Circulation and the Scarcity +of Specie_ (1810), _Historical Questions Exhibited_ (1818), and a +_Letter to Earl Grey on the Policy of Great Britain and the Allies +towards Norway_ (1814). His first wife, by whom he had six children, +died in 1806, and in 1814 he married his second wife, Emma Watkins, who +long survived him, and who left voluminous manuscripts relating to his +biography. Francis died on the 23rd of December 1818. In his domestic +relations he was exemplary, and he lived on terms of mutual affection +with a wide circle of friends. He was, however, full of vindictiveness, +dissimulation and treachery, and there can be little doubt that in his +historic conflict with Warren Hastings unworthy personal motives played +a leading part. + + BIBLIOGRAPHY.--For the evidence identifying Francis with Junius see + the article Junius, and the authorities there cited. See also _Memoirs + of Sir Philip Francis, with Correspondence and Journals_, by Joseph + Parkes and Herman Merivale (2 vols., London, 1867); _The Francis + Letters_, edited by Beata Francis and Eliza Keary (2 vols., London, + 1901); Sir J.F. Stephen, _The Story of Nuncomar and the Impeachment of + Sir E. Impey_ (2 vols., London, 1885); Lord Macaulay's _Essay_ on + "Warren Hastings"; G.B. Malleson, _Life of Warren Hastings_ (London, + 1894); G.W. Forrest, _The Administration of Warren Hastings, + 1772-1785_ (Calcutta, 1892); Sir Leslie Stephen's article on Francis + in _Dict. of Nat. Biog._ vol. xx. + + + + +FRANCIS JOSEPH I. (1830- ), emperor of Austria, king of Bohemia, and +apostolic king of Hungary, was the eldest son of the archduke Francis +Charles, second son of the reigning emperor Francis I., being born on +the 18th of August 1830. His mother, the archduchess Sophia, was +daughter of Maximilian I., king of Bavaria. She was a woman of great +ability and strong character, and during the years which followed the +death of the emperor Francis was probably the most influential personage +at the Austrian court; for the emperor Ferdinand, who succeeded in 1835, +was physically and mentally incapable of performing the duties of his +office; as he was childless, Francis Joseph was in the direct line of +succession. During the disturbances of 1848, Francis Joseph spent some +time in Italy, where, under Radetzky, at the battle of St Lucia, he had +his first experience of warfare. At the end of that year, after the +rising of Vienna and capture of the city by Windischgrätz, it was +clearly desirable that there should be a more vigorous ruler at the head +of the empire, and Ferdinand, now that the young archduke was of age, +was able to carry out the abdication which he and his wife had long +desired. All the preparations were made with the utmost secrecy; on the +2nd of December 1848, in the archiepiscopal palace at Olmütz, whither +the court had fled from Vienna, the emperor abdicated. His brother +resigned his rights of succession to his son, and Francis Joseph was +proclaimed emperor. Ferdinand retired to Prague, where he died in 1875. + +The history of the Dual Monarchy during his reign is told under the +heading of AUSTRIA-HUNGARY, and here it is only necessary to deal with +its personal aspects. The young emperor was during the first years of +his reign completely in the hands of Prince Felix Schwarzenberg, to +whom, with Windischgrätz and Radetzky, he owed it that Austria had +emerged from the revolution apparently stronger than it had been before. +The first task was to reduce Hungary to obedience, for the Magyars +refused to acknowledge the validity of the abdication in so far as it +concerned Hungary, on the ground that such an act would only be valid +with the consent of the Hungarian parliament. A further motive for their +attitude was that Francis Joseph, unlike his predecessor, had not taken +the oath to observe the Hungarian constitution, which it was the avowed +object of Schwarzenberg to overthrow. In the war which followed the +emperor himself took part, but it was not brought to a successful +conclusion till the help of the Russians had been called in. Hungary, +deprived of her ancient constitution, became an integral part of the +Austrian empire. The new reign began, therefore, under sinister omens, +with the suppression of liberty in Italy, Hungary and Germany. In 1853 a +Hungarian named Lebenyi attempted to assassinate the emperor, and +succeeded in inflicting a serious wound with a knife. With the death of +Schwarzenberg in 1852 the personal government of the emperor really +began, and with it that long series of experiments of which Austria has +been the subject. Generally it may be said that throughout his long +reign Francis Joseph remained the real ruler of his dominions; he not +only kept in his hands the appointment and dismissal of his ministers, +but himself directed their policy, and owing to the great knowledge of +affairs, the unremitting diligence and clearness of apprehension, to +which all who transacted business with him have borne testimony, he was +able to keep a very real control even of the details of government. + +The recognition of the separate status of Hungary, and the restoration +of the Magyar constitution in 1866, necessarily made some change in his +position, and so far as concerns Hungary he fully accepted the doctrine +that ministers are responsible to parliament. In the other half of the +monarchy (the so-called Cisleithan) this was not possible, and the +authority and influence of the emperor were even increased by the +contrast with the weaknesses and failures of the parliamentary system. +The most noticeable features in his reign were the repeated and sudden +changes of policy, which, while they arose from the extreme difficulty +of finding any system by which the Habsburg monarchy could be governed, +were due also to the personal idiosyncrasies of the emperor. First we +have the attempt at the autocratic centralization of the whole monarchy +under Bach; the personal influence of the emperor is seen in the +conclusion of the Concordat with Rome, by which in 1855 the work of +Joseph II. was undone and the power of the papacy for a while restored. +The foreign policy of this period brought about the complete isolation +of Austria, and the "ingratitude" towards Russia, as shown during the +period of the Crimean War, which has become proverbial, caused a +permanent estrangement between the two great Eastern empires and the +imperial families. The system led inevitably to bankruptcy and ruin; the +war of 1859, by bringing it to an end, saved the monarchy. After the +first defeat Francis Joseph hastened to Italy; he commanded in person at +Solferino, and by a meeting with Napoleon arranged the terms of the +peace of Villafranca. The next six years, both in home and foreign +policy, were marked by great vacillation. In order to meet the universal +discontent and the financial difficulties constitutional government was +introduced; a parliament was established in which all races of the +empire were represented, and in place of centralized despotism was +established Liberal centralization under Schmerling and the German +Liberals. But the Magyars refused to send representatives to the central +parliament; the Slavs, resenting the Germanizing policy of the +government, withdrew; and the emperor had really withdrawn his +confidence from Schmerling long before the constitution was suspended in +1865 as a first step to a reconciliation with Hungary. In the +complicated German affairs the emperor in vain sought for a minister on +whose knowledge and advice he could depend. He was guided in turn by the +inconsistent advice of Schmerling, Rechberg, Mensdorff, not to mention +more obscure counsellors, and it is not surprising that Austria was +repeatedly outmatched and outwitted by Prussia. In 1863, at the +_Fürstentag_ in Frankfort, the emperor made an attempt by his personal +influence to solve the German question. He invited all the German +sovereigns to meet him in conference, and laid before them a plan for +the reconstruction of the confederation. The momentary effect was +immense; for some of the halo of the Holy Empire still clung round the +head of the house of Habsburg, and Francis Joseph was welcomed to the +ancient free city with enthusiasm. In spite of this, however, and of the +skill with which he presided over the debates, the conference came to +nothing owing to the refusal of the king of Prussia to attend. + +The German question was settled definitively by the battle of Königgrätz +in 1866; and the emperor Francis Joseph, with characteristic Habsburg +opportunism, was quick to accommodate himself to the new circumstances. +Above all, he recognized the necessity for reconciling the Magyars to +the monarchy; for it was their discontent that had mainly contributed to +the collapse of the Austrian power. He had already, in 1859, as the +result of a visit to Budapest, made certain modifications in the Bach +system by way of concession to Magyar sentiment, and in 1861 he had had +an interview with Deák, during which, though unconvinced by that +statesman's arguments, he had at least assured himself of his loyalty. +He now made Beust, Bismarck's Saxon antagonist, the head of his +government, as the result of whose negotiations with Deák the +Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867 was agreed upon. A law was passed by +the Hungarian diet regularizing the abdication of Ferdinand; at the +beginning of June Francis Joseph signed the inaugural diploma and took +the oath in Magyar to observe the constitution; on the 8th he was +solemnly crowned king of Hungary. The traditional coronation gift of +100,000 florins he assigned to the widows and orphans of those who had +fallen in the war against Austria in 1849. + +Once having accepted the principle of constitutional government, the +emperor-king adhered to it loyally, in spite of the discouragement +caused by party struggles embittered by racial antagonisms. If in the +Cisleithan half of the monarchy parliamentary government broke down, +this was through no fault of the emperor, who worked hard to find a +_modus vivendi_ between the factions, and did not shrink from +introducing manhood suffrage in the attempt to establish a stable +parliamentary system. This expedient, indeed, probably also conveyed a +veiled threat to the Magyar chauvinists, who, discontented with the +restrictions placed upon Hungarian independence under the Compromise, +were agitating for the complete separation of Austria and Hungary under +a personal union only; for universal suffrage in Hungary would mean the +subordination of the Magyar minority to the hitherto subject races. For +nearly forty years after the acceptance of the Compromise the attitude +of the emperor-king towards the Magyar constitution had been +scrupulously correct. The agitation for the completely separate +organization of the Hungarian army, and for the substitution of Magyar +for German in words of command in Hungarian regiments, broke down the +patience of the emperor, tenacious of his prerogative as supreme "war +lord" of the common army. A Hungarian deputation which came to Vienna in +September 1905 to urge the Magyar claims was received ungraciously by +the emperor, who did not offer his hand to the members, addressed them +in German, and referred them brusquely to the chancellor, Count +Goluchowski. This incident caused a considerable sensation, and was the +prelude to a long crisis in Hungarian affairs, during which the +emperor-king, while quick to repair the unfortunate impression produced +by his momentary pique, held inflexibly to his resolve in the matter of +the common army. + +In his relations with the Slavs the emperor displayed the same +conciliatory disposition as in the case of the Magyars; but though he +more than once held out hopes that he would be crowned at Prague as king +of Bohemia, the project was always abandoned. In this, indeed, as in +other cases, it may be said that the emperor was guided less by any +abstract principles than by a common-sense appreciation of the needs and +possibilities of the moment. Whatever his natural prejudices or natural +resentments, he never allowed these to influence his policy. The German +empire and the Italian kingdom had been built up out of the ruins of +immemorial Habsburg ambitions; yet he refused to be drawn into an +alliance with France in 1869 and 1870, and became the mainstay of the +Triple Alliance of Austria-Hungary, Germany and Italy. His reputation as +a consistent moderating influence in European policy and one of the +chief guarantors of European peace was indeed rudely shaken in October +1908, the year in which he celebrated his sixty years' jubilee as +emperor, by the issue of the imperial recript annexing Bosnia and +Herzegovina to the Habsburg dominions, in violation of the terms of the +treaty of Berlin. But his opportunism was again justified by the result. +Europe lost an ideal; but Austria gained two provinces. + +In his private life the emperor was the victim of terrible +catastrophes--his wife, his brother and his only son having been +destroyed by sudden and violent deaths. He married in 1854 Elizabeth, +daughter of Maximilian Joseph, duke of Bavaria, who belonged to the +younger and non-royal branch of the house of Wittelsbach. The empress, +who shared the remarkable beauty common to all her family, took little +part in the public life of Austria. After the first years of married +life she was seldom seen in Vienna, and spent much of her time in +travelling. She built a castle of great beauty and magnificence, called +the Achilleion, in the island of Corfu, where she often o resided. In +1867 she accompanied the emperor to Budapest, and took much interest in +the reconciliation with the Magyars. She became a good Hungarian +scholar, and spent much time in Hungary. An admirable horsewoman, in +later years she repeatedly visited England and Irland for the hunting +season. In 1897 she was assassinated at Geneva by an Italian anarchist; +previous attempts had been made on her and on her husband during a visit +to Trieste. + +There was one son of the marriage, the crown prince Rudolph (1857-1889). +A man of much ability and promise, he was a good linguist, and showed +great interest in natural history. He published two works, _Fifteen Days +on the Danube_ and _A Journey in the East_, and also promoted +illustrated work giving a full description of the whole Austro-Hungarian +monarchy; he personally shared the labours of the editorial work. In +1881 he merried Stéphanie, daughter of the king of the Belgians. On 30th +January 1889 he commited suicide at Mayerling, a country house near +Vienna. He left one daughter, Elizabeth, who was betrothed to Count +Alfred Windischgrätz in 1901. In 1900 his widow, the crown princess +Stéphanie, married Count Lonyay; by this she sacrificed her rank and +position within the Austrian monarchy. Besides the crown prince the +empress gave birth to three daughters, of whom two survive: Gisela (born +1857), who married a son of the prince regent of Bavaria; and Marie +Valerie (born 1868), who married the archduke Franz Salvator of Tuscany. + + See J. Emmer. _Kaisser Franz Joseph_ (2 vols., Vienna, 1898); J. + Schnitzer, _Franz Joseph I. und seine Zeit_ (2 vols., _ib._, 1899); + _Viribis unitis. Das Buch vom Kaiser_, with introduction by J.A. v. + Halfert, ed. M. Herzig (_ib._, 1898); R. Rostok, _Die Regierungszeit + des K. u. K. Franz Joseph I._ (3rd ed. _ib._, 1903). + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th +Edition, Volume 10, Slice 8, by Various + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ENCYC. 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padding-right: 7em; text-align: left; vertical-align: top;} + + </style> + </head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, +Volume 10, Slice 8, by Various + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 10, Slice 8 + "France" to "Francis Joseph I." + +Author: Various + +Release Date: May 25, 2011 [EBook #36226] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ENCYC. BRITANNICA, VOL 10 SL 8 *** + + + + +Produced by Marius Masi, Don Kretz and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +</pre> + + + +<table border="0" cellpadding="10" style="background-color: #dcdcdc; color: #696969; " summary="Transcriber's note"> +<tr> +<td style="width:25%; vertical-align:top"> +Transcriber’s note: +</td> +<td class="norm"> +A few typographical errors have been corrected. They +appear in the text <span class="correction" title="explanation will pop up">like this</span>, and the +explanation will appear when the mouse pointer is moved over the marked +passage.<br /><br /> +<a name="artlinks">Links to other EB articles:</a> Links to articles residing in other EB volumes will +be made available when the respective volumes are introduced online. +</td> +</tr> +</table> +<div style="padding-top: 3em; "> </div> + +<h2>THE ENCYCLOPÆDIA BRITANNICA</h2> + +<h2>A DICTIONARY OF ARTS, SCIENCES, LITERATURE AND GENERAL INFORMATION</h2> + +<h3>ELEVENTH EDITION</h3> +<div style="padding-top: 3em; "> </div> + +<hr class="full" /> +<h3>VOLUME X SLICE VIII<br /><br /> +France to Francis Joseph I.</h3> +<hr class="full" /> +<div style="padding-top: 3em; "> </div> + +<p class="center1" style="font-size: 150%; font-family: 'verdana';">Articles in This Slice</p> +<table class="reg" style="width: 90%; font-size: 90%; border: gray 2px solid;" cellspacing="8" summary="Contents"> + +<tr><td class="tcl"><a href="#ar1">FRANCE</a> (part)</td> <td class="tcl"><a href="#ar13">FRANCIS I.</a> (king of France)</td></tr> +<tr><td class="tcl"><a href="#ar2">FRANCESCHI, JEAN BAPTISTE</a></td> <td class="tcl"><a href="#ar14">FRANCIS II.</a> (king of France)</td></tr> +<tr><td class="tcl"><a href="#ar3">FRANCESCHI, PIERO DE’</a></td> <td class="tcl"><a href="#ar15">FRANCIS I.</a> (king of Sicily)</td></tr> +<tr><td class="tcl"><a href="#ar4">FRANCESCHINI, BALDASSARE</a></td> <td class="tcl"><a href="#ar16">FRANCIS II.</a> (king of Sicily)</td></tr> +<tr><td class="tcl"><a href="#ar5">FRANCHE-COMTÉ</a></td> <td class="tcl"><a href="#ar17">FRANCIS IV.</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tcl"><a href="#ar6">FRANCHISE</a></td> <td class="tcl"><a href="#ar18">FRANCIS V.</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tcl"><a href="#ar7">FRANCIA</a></td> <td class="tcl"><a href="#ar19">FRANCIS OF ASSISI, ST</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tcl"><a href="#ar8">FRANCIA, JOSÉ GASPAR RODRIGUEZ</a></td> <td class="tcl"><a href="#ar20">FRANCIS OF MAYRONE</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tcl"><a href="#ar9">FRANCIABIGIO</a></td> <td class="tcl"><a href="#ar21">FRANCIS OF PAOLA, ST</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tcl"><a href="#ar10">FRANCIS</a></td> <td class="tcl"><a href="#ar22">FRANCIS OF SALES, ST</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tcl"><a href="#ar11">FRANCIS I.</a> (Roman emperor)</td> <td class="tcl"><a href="#ar23">FRANCIS, SIR PHILIP</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tcl"><a href="#ar12">FRANCIS II.</a> (Roman emperor)</td> <td class="tcl"><a href="#ar24">FRANCIS JOSEPH I.</a></td></tr> + +</table> + +<hr class="art" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page894" id="page894"></a>894</span></p> +<p><span class="bold">FRANCE<a name="ar1" id="ar1"></a></span> (<i>Continued from volume 10 slice 7.</i>)</p> + +<p class="pt2 center sc">Exterior Policy 1870-1909</p> + +<p>The Franco-German War marks a turning-point in the history +of the exterior policy of France as distinct as does the fall of the +ancient monarchy or the end of the Napoleonic epoch. +With the disappearance of the Second Empire, by +<span class="sidenote">The new epoch.</span> +its own fault, on the field of Sedan in September 1870, +followed in the early months of 1871 by the proclamation +of the German empire at Versailles and the annexation of +Alsace and Lorraine under the treaty of peace of Frankfort, +France descended from its primacy among the nations of continental +Europe, which it had gradually acquired in the half-century +subsequent to Waterloo. It was the design of Bismarck +that united Germany, which had been finally established under +his direction by the war of 1870, should take the place hitherto +occupied by France in Europe. The situation of France in 1871 +in no wise resembled that after the French defeat of 1815, +when the First Empire, issue of the Revolution, had been upset +by a coalition of the European monarchies which brought back +and supported on his restored throne the legitimate heir to the +French crown. In 1871 the Republic was founded in isolation. +France was without allies, and outside its frontiers the form of +its executive government was a matter of interest only to its +German conquerors. Bismarck desired that France should +remain isolated in Europe and divided at home. He thought +that the Republican form of government would best serve these +ends. The revolutionary tradition of France would, under a +Republic, keep aloof the monarchies of Europe, whereas, in the +words of the German ambassador at Paris, Prince Hohenlohe, +a “monarchy would strengthen France and place her in a better +position to make alliances and would threaten our alliances.” +At the same time Bismarck counted on governmental instability +under a Republic to bring about domestic disorganization which +would so disintegrate the French nation as to render it unformidable +as a foe and ineffective as an ally. The Franco-German +War thus produced a situation unprecedented in the mutual +relations of two great European powers. From that situation +resulted all the exterior policy of France, for a whole generation, +colonial as well as foreign.</p> + +<p>In 1875 Germany saw France in possession of a constitution +which gave promise of durability if not of permanence. German +opinion had already been perturbed by the facility and speed +with which France had paid off the colossal war indemnity +exacted by the conqueror, thus giving proof of the inexhaustible +resources of the country and of its powers of recuperation. The +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page895" id="page895"></a>895</span> +successful reorganization of the French army under the military +law of 1872 caused further alarm when there appeared to be +some possibility of the withdrawal of Russia from the Dreikaiserbund, +which had set the seal on Germany’s triumph and France’s +abasement in Europe. It seemed, therefore, as though it +might be expedient for Germany to make a sudden aggression +upon France before that country was adequately prepared for +war, in order to crush the nation irreparably and to remove it +from among the great powers of Europe.</p> + +<p>The constitution of the Third Republic was voted by the +National Assembly on the 25th of February 1875. The new +constitution had to be completed by electoral laws and other +complementary provisions, so it could not become effective +until the following year, after the first elections of the newly +founded Senate and Chamber of Deputies. M. Buffet was then +charged by the president of the republic, Marshal MacMahon, +to form a provisional ministry in which the duc Decazes, who +had been foreign minister since 1873, was retained at the Quai +d’Orsay. The cabinet met for the first time on the 11th of March, +and ten days later the National Assembly adjourned for a long +recess.</p> + +<p>It was during that interval that occurred the incident known +as “The Scare of 1875.” The Kulturkampf had left Prince +Bismarck in a state of nervous irritation. In all +directions he was on the look out for traces of Ultramontane +<span class="sidenote">The crisis of 1875.</span> +intrigue. The clericals in France after the +fall of Thiers had behaved with great indiscretion in their desire +to see the temporal power of the pope revived. But when the +reactionaries had placed MacMahon at the head of the state, +their divisions and their political ineptitude had shown that +the government of France would soon pass from their hands, +and of this the voting of the Republican constitution by +a monarchical assembly was the visible proof. Nevertheless +Bismarck, influenced by the presence at Berlin of a French +ambassador, M. de Gontaut-Biron, whom he regarded as an +Ultramontane agent, seems to have thought otherwise. A +military party at Berlin affected alarm at a law passed by the +French Assembly on the 12th of March, which continued a +provision increasing from three to four the battalions of each +infantry regiment, and certain journals, supposed to be inspired +by Bismarck, argued that as the French were preparing, it +might be well to anticipate their designs before they were +ready. Europe was scared by an article on the 6th of May in +<i>The Times</i>, professing to reveal the designs of Bismarck, from +its Paris correspondent, Blowitz, who was in relations with +the French foreign minister, the duc Decazes, and with Prince +Hohenlohe, German ambassador to France, both being prudent +diplomatists, and, though Catholics, opposed to Ultramontane +pretensions. Europe was astounded at the revelation and +alarmed at the alleged imminence of war. In England the +Disraeli ministry addressed the governments of Russia, Austria +and Italy, with a view to restraining Germany from its aggressive +designs, and Queen Victoria wrote to the German emperor to +plead the cause of peace. It is probable that there was no need +either for this intervention or for the panic which had produced +it. We know now that the old emperor William was steadfastly +opposed to a fresh war, while his son, the crown prince Frederick, +who then seemed likely soon to succeed him for a long reign, +was also determined that peace should be maintained. The +scare had, however, a most important result, in sowing the seeds +of the subsequent Franco-Russian alliance. Notwithstanding +that the tsar Alexander II. was on terms of affectionate intimacy +with his uncle, the emperor William, he gave a personal assurance +to General Le Flô, French ambassador at St Petersburg, that +France should have the “moral support” of Russia in the case +of an aggression on the part of Germany. It is possible that the +danger of war was exaggerated by the French foreign minister +and his ambassador at Berlin, as is the opinion of certain French +historians, who think that M. de Gontaut-Biron, as an old +royalist, was only too glad to see the Republic under the protection, +as it were, of the most reactionary monarchy of Europe. +At the same time Bismarck’s denials of having acted with +terrorizing intent cannot be accepted. He was more sincere when +he criticized the ostentation with which the Russian Chancellor, +Prince Gortchakoff, had claimed for his master the character +of the defender of France and the obstacle to German +ambitions. It was in memory of this that, in 1878 at the +congress of Berlin, Bismarck did his best to impair the +advantages which Russia had obtained under the treaty of San +Stefano.</p> + +<p>The events which led to that congress put into abeyance the +prospect of a serious understanding between France and Russia. +The insurrection in Herzegovina in July 1875 reopened +the Eastern question, and in the Orient the interests +<span class="sidenote">Congress of Berlin.</span> +of France and Russia had been for many years conflicting, +as witness the controversy concerning the Holy +Places, which was one of the causes of the Crimean War. France +had from the reign of Louis XIV. claimed the exclusive right +of protecting Roman Catholic interests in the East. This claim +was supported not only by the monarchists, for the most part +friendly to Russia in other respects, who directed the foreign +policy of the Third Republic until the Russo-Turkish War of +1877, but by the Republicans, who were coming into perpetual +power at the time of the congress of Berlin—the ablest of the +anti-clericals, Gambetta, declaring in this connexion that +“anti-clericalism was not an article of exportation.” The +defeat of the monarchists at the elections of 1877, after the +“Seize Mai,” and the departure from office of the duc Decazes, +whose policy had tended to prepare the way for an alliance with +the tsar, changed the attitude of French diplomacy towards +Russia. M. Waddington, the first Republican minister for foreign +affairs, was not a Russophil, while Gambetta was ardently +anti-Russian, and he, though not a minister, was exercising that +preponderant influence in French politics which he retained +until 1882, the last year of his life. Many Republicans considered +that the monarchists, whom they had turned out, favoured the +support of Russia not only as a defence against Germany, which +was not likely to be effective so long as a friendly uncle and +nephew were reigning at Berlin and at St Petersburg respectively, +but also as a possible means of facilitating a monarchical restoration +in France. Consequently at the congress of Berlin M. +Waddington and the other French delegates maintained a very +independent attitude towards Russia. They supported the +resolutions which aimed at diminishing the advantages obtained +by Russia in the war, they affirmed the rights of France over +the Holy Places, and they opposed the anti-Semitic views of +the Russian representatives. The result of the congress of Berlin +seemed therefore to draw France and Russia farther apart, +especially as Gambetta and the Republicans now in power were +more disposed towards an understanding with England. The +contrary, however, happened. The treaty of Berlin, which took +the place of the treaty of San Stefano, was the ruin of Russian +hopes. It was attributed to the support given by Bismarck +to the anti-Russian policy of England and Austria at the +congress, the German chancellor having previously discouraged +the project of an alliance between Russia and Germany. The +consequence was that the tsar withdrew from the Dreikaiserbund, +and Germany, finding the support of Austria inadequate for its +purposes, sought an understanding with Italy. Hence arose +the Triple Alliance of 1882, which was the work of Bismarck, +who thus became eventually the author of the Franco-Russian +alliance, which was rather a sedative for the nervous temperament +of the French than a remedy necessary for their protection. +The twofold aim of the Triplice was the development of the +Bismarckian policy of the continued isolation of France and of +the maintenance of the situation in Europe acquired by the +German empire in 1871. The most obvious alliance for Germany +was that with Russia, but it was clear that it could be obtained +only at the price of Russia having a free hand to satisfy its +ambitions in the East. This not only would have irritated +England against Germany, but also Austria, and so might have +brought about a Franco-Austrian alliance, and a day of reckoning +for Germany for the combined rancours of two nations, left +by 1866 and 1871. It was thus that Germany allied itself first +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page896" id="page896"></a>896</span> +with Austria and then with Italy, leaving Russia eventually +to unite with France.</p> + +<p>As the congress of Berlin took in review the general situation +of the Turkish empire, it was natural that the French delegates +should formulate the position of France in Egypt. +Thus the powers of Europe accepted the maintenance +<span class="sidenote">Egyptian question.</span> +of the <i>condominium</i> in Egypt, financial and administrative, +of England and France. Egypt, nominally a province of +the Turkish empire, had been invested with a large degree of +autonomy, guaranteed by an agreement made in 1840 and 1841 +between the Porte and the then five great powers, though some +opposition was made to France being a party to this compact. +By degrees Austria, Prussia and Russia (as well as Italy when it +attained the rank of a great power) had left the international +control of Egypt to France and England by reason of the preponderance +of the interests of those two powers on the Nile.</p> + +<p>In 1875 the interests of England in Egypt, which had hitherto +been considered inferior to those of France, gained a superiority +owing to the purchase by the British government of the shares +of the khedive Ismail in the Suez Canal. Whatever rivalry there +may have been between England and France, they had to present +a united front to the pretensions of Ismail, whose prodigalities +made him impatient of the control which they exercised over his +finances. This led to his deposition and exile. The control was +re-established by his successor Tewfik on the 4th of September +1879. The revival ensued of a so-called national party, which +Ismail for his own purposes had encouraged in its movement +hostile to foreign domination. In September 1881 took place +the rising led by Arabi, by whose action an assembly of notables +was convoked for the purpose of deposing the government +authorized by the European powers. The fear lest the sultan +should intervene gave an appearance of harmony to the policy +of England and France, whose interests were too great to permit +of any such interference. At the end of 1879 the first Freycinet +cabinet had succeeded that of M. Waddington and had in turn +been succeeded in September 1880 by the first Ferry cabinet. +In the latter the foreign minister was M. Barthélemy Saint-Hilaire, +an aged philosopher who had first taken part in politics +when he helped to dethrone Charles X. in 1830. In September +1881 he categorically invited the British government to join +France in a military intervention to oppose any interference +which the Porte might attempt, and the two powers each sent +a war-ship to Alexandria. On the 14th of November Gambetta +formed his <i>grand ministère</i>, in which he was foreign minister. +Though it lasted less than eleven weeks, important measures +were taken by it, as Arabi had become under-secretary for war at +Cairo, and was receiving secret encouragement from the sultan. +On the 7th of January 1882, at the instance of Gambetta, a +joint note was presented by the British and French consuls to +the khedive, to the effect that their governments were resolved +to maintain the <i>status quo</i>, Gambetta having designed this as a +consecration of the Anglo-French alliance in the East. Thereupon +the Porte protested, by a circular addressed to the powers, +against this infringement of its suzerainty in Egypt. Meanwhile, +the assembly of notables claimed the right of voting the taxes +and administering the finances of the country, and Gambetta, +considering this as an attempt to emancipate Egypt from the +financial control of Europe, moved the British government to +join with France in protesting against any interference on the +part of the notables in the budget. But when Lord Granville +accepted this proposal Gambetta had fallen, on the 26th of +January, being succeeded by M. de Freycinet, who for the second +time became president of the council and foreign minister. +Gambetta fell nominally on a scheme of partial revision of the +constitution. It included the re-establishment of <i>scrutin de liste</i>, +a method of voting to which many Republicans were hostile, so +this gave his enemies in his own party their opportunity. He +thus fell the victim of republican jealousy, nearly half the Republicans +in the chamber voting against him in the fatal division. +The subsequent debates of 1882 show that many of Gambetta’s +adversaries were also opposed to his policy of uniting with +England on the Egyptian question. Henceforth the interior +affairs of Egypt have little to do with the subject we are treating; +but some of the incidents in France which led to the English +occupation of Egypt ought to be mentioned. M. de Freycinet +was opposed to any armed intervention by France; but in the +face of the feeling in the country in favour of maintaining the +traditional influence of France in Egypt, his declarations of +policy were vague. On the 23rd of February 1882 he said that +he would assure the non-exclusive preponderance in Egypt of +France and England by means of an understanding with Europe, +and on the 11th of May that he wished to retain for France its +peculiar position of privileged influence. England and France +sent to Alexandria a combined squadron, which did not prevent +a massacre of Europeans there on the 11th of June, the khedive +being now in the hands of the military party under Arabi. On +the 11th of July the English fleet bombarded Alexandria, the +French ships in anticipation of that action having departed the +previous day. On the 18th of July the Chamber debated the +supplementary vote for the fleet in the Mediterranean, M. de +Freycinet declaring that France would take no active part in +Egypt except as the mandatory of the European powers. This +was the occasion for the last great speech of Gambetta in parliament. +In it he earnestly urged close co-operation with England, +which he predicted would otherwise become the mistress of +Egypt, and in his concluding sentences he uttered the famous +“<i>Ne rompez jamais l’alliance anglaise.</i>” A further vote, proposed +in consequence of Arabi’s open rebellion, was abandoned, +as M. de Freycinet announced that the European powers declined +to give France and England a collective mandate to intervene +in their name. In the Senate on the 25th of July M. Scherer, +better known as a philosopher than as a politician, who had +Gambetta’s confidence, read a report on the supplementary votes +which severely criticized the timidity and vacillation of the +government in Egyptian policy. Four days later in the Chamber +M. de Freycinet proposed an understanding with England limited +to the protection of the Suez Canal. Attacked by M. Clémenceau +on the impossibility of separating the question of the canal +from the general Egyptian question, the ministry was defeated +by a huge majority, and M. de Freycinet fell, having achieved +the distinction of being the chief instrument in removing Egypt +from the sphere of French interest.</p> + +<p>Some of the Republicans whose votes turned out M. de Freycinet +wanted Jules Ferry to take his place, as he was considered +to be a strong man in foreign policy, and Gambetta, for this +reason, was willing to see his personal enemy at the head of public +affairs. But this was prevented by M. Clémenceau and the +extreme Left, and the new ministry was formed by M. Duclerc, +an old senator whose previous official experience had been under +the Second Republic. On its taking office on the 7th of August, +the ministerial declaration announced that its policy would be in +conformity with the vote which, by refusing supplies for the +occupation of the Suez Canal, had overthrown M. de Freycinet. +The declaration characterized this vote as “a measure of reserve +and of prudence but not as an abdication.” Nevertheless the +action of the Chamber—which was due to the hostility to +Gambetta of rival leaders, who had little mutual affection, +including MM. de Freycinet, Jules Ferry, Clémenceau and the +president of the Republic, M. Grévy, rather than to a desire to +abandon Egypt—did result in the abdication of France. After +England single-handed had subdued the rebellion and restored +the authority of the khedive, the latter signed a decree on the +11th of January 1883 abolishing the joint control of England +and France. Henceforth Egypt continued to be a frequent topic +of debate in the Chambers; the interests of France in respect +of the Egyptian finances, the judicial system and other institutions +formed the subject of diplomatic correspondence, as did +the irritating question of the eventual evacuation of Egypt by +England. But though it caused constant friction between the +two countries up to the Anglo-French convention of the 8th of +April 1904, there was no longer a French active policy with regard +to Egypt. The lost predominance of France in that country +did, however, quicken French activity in other regions of northern +Africa.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page897" id="page897"></a>897</span></p> + +<p>The idea that the Mediterranean might become a French lake +has, in different senses, been a preoccupation for France and for +its rivals in Europe ever since Algeria became a French +province by a series of fortuitous incidents—an insult +<span class="sidenote">Algerian policy.</span> +offered by the dey to a French consul, his refusal to +make reparation, and the occasion it afforded of diverting public +attention in France from interior affairs after the Revolution +of 1830. The French policy of preponderance in Egypt had only +for a secondary aim the domination of the Mediterranean. +The French tradition in Egypt was a relic of Napoleon’s vain +scheme to become emperor of the Orient even before he had made +himself emperor of the West. It was because Egypt was the +highway to India that under Napoleon III. the French had constructed +the Suez Canal, and for the same reason England could +never permit them to become masters of the Nile delta. But +the possessors of Algeria could extend their coast-line of North +Africa without seriously menacing the power which held Gibraltar +and Malta. It was Italy which objected to a French occupation +of Tunis. Algeria has never been officially a French “colony.” +It is in many respects administered as an integral portion of +French territory, the governor-general, as agent of the central +power, exercising wide jurisdiction. Although the Europeans +in Algeria are less than a seventh of the population, and +although the French are actually a minority of the European +inhabitants—Spaniards prevailing in the west, Italians and +Maltese in the east—the three departments of Constantine, +Algiers and Oran are administered like three French departments. +Consequently, when disturbances occurred on the borderland +separating Constantine from Tunis, the French were able to say +to Europe that the integrity of their national frontier was threatened +by the proximity of a turbulent neighbour. The history of +the relations between Tunis and France were set forth, from the +French standpoint, in a circular, of which Jules Ferry was said +to be the author, addressed by the foreign minister, M. Barthélemy +Saint-Hilaire on the 9th of May 1881, to the diplomatic agents +of France abroad. The most important point emphasized by +<span class="sidenote">Tunis.</span> +the French minister was the independence of Tunis +from the Porte, a situation which would obviate difficulties +with Turkey such as had always hampered the European +powers in Egypt. In support of this contention a protest made +by the British government in 1830, against the French conquest +of Algiers, was quoted, as in it Lord Aberdeen had declared that +Europe had always treated the Barbary states as independent +powers. On the other hand, there was the incident of the bey +of Tunis having furnished to Turkey a contingent during the +Crimean War, which suggested a recognition of its vassalage +to the Sublime Porte. But in 1864, when the sultan had sent a +fleet to La Goulette to affirm his “rights” in Tunis, the French +ambassador at Constantinople intimated that France declined +to have Turkey for a neighbour in Algeria. France also in 1868 +essayed to obtain control over the finances of the regency; but +England and Italy had also large interests in the country, so an +international financial commission was appointed. In 1871, +when France was disabled after the war, the bey obtained from +Constantinople a firman of investiture, thus recognizing the +suzerainty of the Porte. Certain English writers have reproached +the Foreign Office for its lack of foresight in not taking advantage +of France’s disablement by establishing England as the preponderant +power in Tunis. The fact that five-sixths of the commerce +of Tunis is now with France and Algeria may seem to +justify such regrets. Yet by the light of subsequent events it +seems probable that England would have been diverted from +more profitable undertakings had she been saddled with the +virtual administration and military occupation of a vast territory +which such preponderance would have entailed. The wonder is +that this opportunity was not seized by Italy; for Mazzini and +other workers in the cause of Italian unity, before the Bourbons +had been driven from Naples, had cast eyes on Tunis, lying over +against the coasts of Sicily at a distance of barely 100 m., as a +favourable field for colonization and as the key of the African +Mediterranean. But when Rome became once more the capital +of Italy, Carthage was not fated to fall again under its domination +and the occasion offered by France’s temporary impotence was +neglected. In 1875 when France was rapidly recovering, there +went to Tunis as consul an able Frenchman, M. Roustan, who +became virtual ruler of the regency in spite of the resistance of +the representative of Italy. French action was facilitated by +the attitude of England. On the 26th of July 1878 M. Waddington +wrote to the marquis d’Harcourt, French ambassador in +London, that at the congress of Berlin Lord Salisbury had said to +him—the two delegates being the foreign ministers of their +respective governments—in reply to his protest, on behalf of +France, against the proposed English occupation of Cyprus, +“Do what you think proper in Tunis: England will offer no +opposition.” This was confirmed by Lord Salisbury in a despatch +to Lord Lyons, British ambassador in Paris, on the 8th of August, +and it was followed in October by an intimation made by the +French ambassador at Rome that France intended to exercise +a preponderant influence in Tunis. Italy was not willing to +accept this situation. In January 1881 a tour made by King +Humbert in Sicily, where he received a Tunisian mission, was +taken to signify that Italy had not done with Tunis, and it was +answered in April by a French expedition in the regency sent from +Algeria, on the pretext of punishing the Kroumirs who had been +marauding on the frontier of Constantine. It was on this occasion +that M. Barthélemy Saint-Hilaire issued the circular quoted +above. France nominally was never at war with Tunis; yet the +result of the invasion was that that country became virtually a +French possession, although officially it is only under the protection +of France. The treaty of El Bardo of the 12th of May +1881, confirmed by the decree of the 22nd of April 1882, placed +Tunis under the protectorate of France. The country is +administered under the direction of the French Foreign Office, +in which there is a department of Tunisian affairs. The governor +is called minister resident-general of France, and he also acts +as foreign minister, being assisted by seven French and two +native ministers.</p> + +<p>The annexation of Tunis was important for many reasons. +It was the first successful achievement of France after the +disasters of the Franco-German War, and it was the +first enterprise of serious utility to France undertaken +<span class="sidenote">Extension of African Territory.</span> +beyond its frontiers since the early period of the Second +Empire. It was also important as establishing the +hegemony of France on the southern shores of the Mediterranean. +When M. Jules Cambon became governor-general of Algeria, his +brother M. Paul Cambon having been previously French resident +in Tunis and remaining the vigilant ambassador to a Mediterranean +power, a Parisian wit said that just as Switzerland had its +<i>Lac des quatre</i> Cantons, so France had made of the midland sea +its <i>Lac des deux Cambons</i>. The <i>jeu d’esprit</i> indicated what was +the primary significance to the French of their becoming masters +of the Barbary coast from the boundary of Morocco to that of +Tripoli. Apart from the Mediterranean question, when the +scramble for Africa began and the Hinterland doctrine was +asserted by European powers, the possession of this extended +coast-line resulted in France laying claim to the Sahara and the +western Sudan. Consequently, on the maps, the whole of northwest +Africa, from Tunis to the Congo, is claimed by France with +the exception of the relatively small areas on the coast belonging +to Morocco, Spain, Portugal, Liberia, Germany and England. +On this basis, in point of area, France is the greatest African +power, in spite of British annexations in south and equatorial +Africa, its area being estimated at 3,866,950 sq. m. (including +227,950 in Madagascar) as against 2,101,411 more effectively +possessed by Great Britain. The immensity of its domain on +paper is no doubt a satisfaction to a people which prefers to +pursue its policy of colonial expansion without the aid of emigration. +The acquisition of Tunis by France is also important as +an example of the system of protectorate as applied to colonization. +Open annexation might have more gravely irritated the +powers having interests in the country. England, in spite of +Lord Salisbury’s suggestions to the French foreign minister, +was none too pleased with France’s policy; while Italy, with +its subjects outnumbering all other European settlers in the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page898" id="page898"></a>898</span> +regency, was in a mood to accept a pretext for a quarrel for the +reasons already mentioned. Apart from these considerations +<span class="sidenote">The protectorate system.</span> +the French government favoured a protectorate +because it did not wish to make of Tunis a second +Algeria. While the annexation of the latter had +excellent commercial results for France, it had not +been followed by successful colonization, though it had cost +France 160 millions sterling in the first sixty years after it +became French territory. The French cannot govern at home +or abroad without a centralized system of administration. +The organization of Algeria, as departments of France with their +administrative divisions, was not an example to imitate. In the +beylical government France found, ready-made, a sufficiently +centralized system, such as did not exist in Algeria under native +rule, which could form a basis of administration by French +functionaries under the direction of the Quai d’Orsay. The +result has not been unpleasing to the numerous advocates in +France of protectorates as a means of colonization. According +to M. Paul Leroy-Beaulieu, the most eminent French authority +on colonization, who knows Tunis well, a protectorate is the +most pacific, the most supple, and the least costly method of +colonization in countries where an organized form of native +government exists; it is the system in which the French can most +nearly approach that of English crown colonies. One evil which +it avoids is the so-called representative system, under which +senators and deputies are sent to the French parliament not only +from Algeria as an integral part of France, but from the colonies +of Martinique, Guadeloupe and French India, while Cochin-China, +Guiana and Senegal send deputies alone. These sixteen +deputies and seven senators attach themselves to the various +Moderate, Radical and Socialist groups in parliament, which +have no connexion with the interests of the colonies; and the +consequent introduction of French political controversies into +colonial elections has not been of advantage to the oversea +possessions of France. From this the protectorate system has +spared Tunis, and the paucity of French immigration will continue +to safeguard that country from parliamentary representation. +After twenty years of French rule, of 120,000 European +residents in Tunis, not counting the army, only 22,000 were +French, while nearly 70,000 were Italian. If under a so-called +representative system the Italians had demanded nationalization, +for the purpose of obtaining the franchise, complications might +have arisen which are not to be feared under a protectorate.</p> + +<p>But of all the results of the French annexation of Tunis, the +most important was undoubtedly the Triple Alliance, into +which Italy entered in resentment at having been +deprived of the African territory which seemed marked +<span class="sidenote">The Triple Alliance.</span> +out as its natural field for colonial expansion. The +most manifest cause of Italian hostility towards France +had passed away four years before the annexation of Tunis, +when the reactionaries, who had favoured the restitution of the +temporal power of the pope, fell for ever from power. The +clericalism of the anti-republicans, who favoured a revival +of the fatal policy of the Second Empire whereby France, after +Magenta and Solferino, had by leaving its garrison at St Angelo, +been the last obstacle to Italian unity, was one of the chief +causes of their downfall. For after the war with Germany, the +mutilated land and the vanquished nation had need to avoid +wanton provocations of foreign powers. Henceforth the French +Republic, governed by Republicans, was to be an anti-clerical +force in Europe, sympathizing with the Italian occupation of +Rome. But to make Italy realize that France was no longer +the enemy of complete Italian unity it would have been necessary +that all causes of irritation between the two Latin sister nations +were removed. Such causes of dissension did, however, remain, +arising from economic questions. The maritime relations of +the two chief Mediterranean powers were based on a treaty +of navigation of 1862—when Venice was no party to it being +an Austrian port—which Crispi denounced as a relic of Italian +servility towards Napoleon III. Commercial rivalry was +induced by the industrial development of northern Italy, when +freed from Austrian rule. Moreover, the emigrant propensity +of the Italians flooded certain regions of France with Italian +cheap labour, with the natural result of bitter animosity between +the intruders and the inhabitants of the districts thus invaded. +The annexation of Tunis, coming on the top of these causes +of irritation, exasperated Italy. A new treaty of commerce +was nevertheless signed between the two countries on the 3rd +of November 1881. Unfortunately for its stability, King +Humbert the previous week had gone to Vienna to see the +emperor of Austria. In visiting in his capital the former arch-enemy +of Italian unity, who could never return the courtesy, +Rome being interdicted for Catholic sovereigns by the “prisoner +of the Vatican,” Humbert had only followed the example of his +father Victor Emmanuel, who went both to Berlin and to Vienna +in 1873. But that was when in France the duc de Broglie was +prime minister of a clerical government of which many of the +supporters were clamouring for the restitution of the temporal +power. King Humbert’s visit to Vienna at the moment when +Gambetta, the great anti-clerical champion, was at the height +of his influence was significant for other reasons. Since the +7th of October 1879 Germany and Austria had been united by a +defensive treaty, and though its provisions were not published +until 1888, the two central empires were known to be in the +closest alliance. The king of Italy’s visit to Vienna, where he +was accompanied by his ministers Depretis and Mancini, had +therefore the same significance as though he had gone to Berlin +also. On the 20th of May 1882 was signed the treaty of the +Triple Alliance, which for many years bound Italy to Germany +in its relations with the continental powers. The alliance was +first publicly announced on the 13th of March 1883, in the +Italian Chamber, by Signor Mancini, minister for foreign affairs. +The aim of Italy in joining the combination was alliance with +Germany, the enemy of France. The connexion with Austria +was only tolerated because it secured a union with the powerful +government of Berlin. It effected the complete isolation of +France in Europe. An understanding between the French +Republic and Russia, which alone could alter that situation, was +impracticable, as its only basis seemed to be the possibility of +having a common enemy in Germany or even in England. But +that double eventuality was anticipated by a secret convention +concluded at Skiernewice in September 1884 by the tsar and +the German emperor, in which they guaranteed to one another +a benevolent neutrality in case of hostilities between England +and Russia arising out of the Afghan question.</p> + +<p>It will be convenient here to refer to the relations of France +with Germany and Italy respectively in the years succeeding +the signature of the Triple Alliance. With Germany both +Gambetta, who died ten weeks before the treaty was announced +and who was a strong Russophobe, and his adversary Jules Ferry +were inclined to come to an understanding. But in this they +had not the support of French opinion. In September 1883 +the king of Spain had visited the sovereigns of Austria and +Germany. Alphonso XII., to prove that this journey was not +a sign of hostility to France, came to Paris on his way home +on Michaelmas Day on an official visit to President Grévy. +Unfortunately it was announced that the German emperor had +made the king colonel of a regiment of Uhlans garrisoned at +Strassburg, the anniversary of the taking of which city was being +celebrated by the emperor by the inauguration of a monument +made out of cannon taken from the French, on the very eve of +King Alphonso’s arrival. Violent protests were made in Paris +in the monarchical and in not a few republican journals, +with the result that the king of Spain was hooted by the crowd +as he drove with the president from the station to his embassy, +and again on his way to dine the same night at the Elysée. The +incident was closed by M. Grévy’s apologies and by the retirement +of the minister of war, General Thibaudin, who under pressure +from the extreme Left had declined to meet <i>le roi uhlan</i>. Though +it displayed the bitter hostility of the population towards +Germany, the incident did not aggravate Franco-German +relations. This was due to the policy of the prime minister, +Jules Ferry, who to carry it out made himself foreign minister +in November, in the place of Challemel-Lacour, who resigned.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page899" id="page899"></a>899</span></p> + +<p>Jules Ferry’s idea was that colonial expansion was the surest +means for France to recover its prestige, and that this could +be obtained only by maintaining peaceful relations +with all the powers of Europe. His consequent +<span class="sidenote">Franco-German relations.</span> +unpopularity caused his fall in April 1885, and the next +year a violent change of military policy was marked +by the arrival of General Boulanger at the ministry of +war, where he remained, in the Freycinet and Goblet cabinets, +from January 1886 to the 17th of May 1887. His growing popularity +in France was answered by Bismarck, who asked for +an increased vote for the German army, indicating that he +considered Boulanger the coming dictator for the war of revenge; +so when the Reichstag, on the 14th of January 1887, voted the +supplies for three years, instead of for the seven demanded by the +chancellor, it was dissolved. Bismarck redoubled his efforts in the +press and in diplomacy, vainly attempting to come to an understanding +with Russia and with more success moving the Vatican +to order the German Catholics to support him. He obtained +his vote for seven years in March, and the same month renewed +the Triple Alliance. In April the Schnaebelé incident seemed +nearly to cause war between France and Germany. The commissary-special, +an agent of the ministry of the interior, at +Pagny-sur-Moselle, the last French station on the frontier of the +annexed territory of Lorraine, having stepped across the boundary +to regulate some official matter with the corresponding functionary +on the German side, was arrested. It was said that +Schnaebelé was arrested actually on French soil, and on whichever +side of the line he was standing he had gone to meet the German +official at the request of the latter. Bismarck justified the +outrage in a speech in the Prussian Landtag which suggested +that it was impossible to live at peace with a nation so bellicose +as the French. In France the incident was regarded as a trap +laid by the chancellor to excite French opinion under the aggressive +guidance of Boulanger, and to produce events which would +precipitate a war. The French remained calm, in spite of the +growing popularity of Boulanger. The Goblet ministry resigned +on the 17th of May 1887 after a hostile division on the budget, +and the opportunity was taken to get rid of the minister of war, +who posed as the coming restorer of Alsace and Lorraine to France. +The Boulangist movement soon became anti-Republican, and +the opposition to it of successive ministries improved the official +relations of the French and German governments. The circumstances +attending the fall of President Grévy the same year +strengthened the Boulangist agitation, and Jules Ferry, who +seemed indicated as his successor, was discarded by the Republican +majority in the electoral congress, as a revolution was +threatened in Paris if the choice fell on “the German Ferry.” +Sadi Carnot was consequently elected president of the Republic +on the 3rd of December 1887. Three months later, on the 9th +of March 1888, died the old emperor William who had personified +the conquest of France by Germany. His son, the pacific emperor +Frederick, died too, on the 15th of June, so the accession of +William II., the pupil of Bismarck, at a moment when Boulanger +threatened to become plebiscitary dictator of France, was +ominous for the peace of Europe. But in April 1889 Boulanger +ignominiously fled the country, and in March 1890 Bismarck +fell. France none the less rejected all friendly overtures made +by the young emperor. In February 1891 his mother came to +Paris and was unluckily induced to visit the scenes of German +triumph near the capital—the ruins of St Cloud and the Château +of Versailles where the German empire was proclaimed. The +incident called forth such an explosion of wrath from the French +press that it was clear that France had not forgotten 1871. +By this time, however, France was no longer isolated and at +the mercy of Germany, which by reason of the increase of its +population while that of France had remained almost stationary, +was, under the system of compulsory military service in the +two countries, more than a match for its neighbour in a single-handed +conflict. Even the Triple Alliance ceased to be a terror +for France. An understanding arose between France and +Russia preliminary to the Franco-Russian alliance, which became +the pivot of French exterior relations until the defeat of Russia +in the Japanese war of 1904. So the second renewal of the +Triplice was forthwith answered by a visit of the French squadron +to Kronstadt in July 1891.</p> + +<p>While such were the relations between France and the principal +party to the Triple Alliance, the same period was marked by +bitter dissension between France and Italy. Tunis +had made Italy Gallophobe, but the diplomatic +<span class="sidenote">France and Italy.</span> +relations between the two countries had been courteous +until the death of Depretis in 1887. When Crispi +succeeded him as prime minister, and till 1891 was the director +of the exterior policy of Italy, a change took place. Crispi, +though not the author of the Triple Alliance, entered with +enthusiasm into its spirit of hostility to France. The old Sicilian +revolutionary hastened to pay his respects to Bismarck at Friedrichsruh +in October 1887, the visit being highly approved in +Italy. Before that the French Chamber had, in July 1886, by a +small majority, rejected a new treaty of navigation between +France and Italy, this being followed by the failure to renew +the commercial treaty of 1881. Irritating incidents were of +constant occurrence. In 1888 a conflict between the French +consul at Massowah and the Italians who occupied that Abyssinian +port induced Bismarck to instruct the German ambassador in +Paris to tell M. Goblet, minister for foreign affairs in the Floquet +cabinet, in case he should refer to the matter, that if Italy were +involved thereby in complications it would not stand alone—this +menace being communicated to Crispi by the Italian +ambassador at Berlin and officially printed in a green-book. +But after Bismarck’s fall relations improved a little, and in April +1890 the Italian fleet was sent to Toulon to salute President +Carnot in the name of King Humbert, though this did not +prevent the French government being suspected of having +designs on Tripoli. Italian opinion was again incensed against +France by the action of the French clericals, represented by a +band of Catholic “pilgrims” who went to Rome to offer their +sympathy to the pope in the autumn of 1891, and outraged the +burial-place of Victor Emmanuel by writing in the visitors’ register +kept at the Pantheon the words “<i>Vive le pape.</i>” In August +1893 a fight took place at Aigues Mortes, the medieval walled +city on the salt marshes of the Gulf of Lyons, between French +and Italian workmen, in which seven Italians were killed. But +Crispi had gone out of office early in 1891, and the ministers +who succeeded him were more disposed to prevent a rupture +between Italy and France. Crispi became prime minister again +in December 1893, but this time without the portfolio of foreign +affairs. He placed at the Consulta Baron Blanc, who though a +strong partisan of the Triple Alliance was closely attached to +France, being a native of Savoy, where he spent his yearly +vacations on French soil. That the relations between the two +nations were better was shown by what occurred after the +murder of President Carnot in June 1894. The fact that the +assassin was an Italian might have caused trouble a little earlier; +but the grief of the Italians was so sincere, as shown by popular +demonstrations at Rome, that no anti-Italian violence took +place in France, and in the words of the French ambassador, +M. Billot, Caserio’s crime seemed likely to further an understanding +between the two peoples. The movement was very +slight and made no progress during the short presidency of M. +Casimir-Périer. On the 1st of November 1894 Alexander III. +died, when the Italian press gave proof of the importance attributed +by the Triplice to the Franco-Russian understanding +by expressing a hope that the new tsar would put an end to it. +But on the 10th of June 1895, the foreign minister, M. Hanotaux, +intimated to the French Chamber that the understanding had +become an alliance, and on the 17th the Russian ambassador +in Paris conveyed to M. Félix Faure, who was now president +of the Republic, the collar of St Andrew, while the same day +the French and Russian men-of-war, invited to the opening of +the Kiel Canal, entered German waters together. The union of +France with Russia was no doubt one cause of the cessation of +Italian hostility to France; but others were at work. The inauguration +of the statue of MacMahon at Magenta the same week +as the announcement of the Franco-Russian alliance showed that +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page900" id="page900"></a>900</span> +there was a disposition to revive the old sentiment of fraternity +which had once united France with Italy. More important was +the necessity felt by the Italians of improved commercial relations +with the French. Crispi fell on the 4th of March 1896, +after the news of the disaster to the Italian troops at Adowa, +the war with Abyssinia being a disastrous legacy left by him. +The previous year he had caused the withdrawal from Paris of +the Italian ambassador Signor Ressmann, a friend of France, +transferring thither Count Tornielli, who during his mission +in London had made a speech, after the visit of the Italian fleet +to Toulon, which qualified him to rank as a <i>misogallo</i>. But with +the final disappearance of Crispi the relations of the two Latin +neighbours became more natural. Commerce between them had +diminished, and the business men of both countries, excepting +certain protectionists, felt that the commercial rupture was +mutually prejudicial. Friendly negotiations were initiated on +both sides, and almost the last act of President Félix Faure +before his sudden death—M. Delcassé being then foreign minister—was +to promulgate, on the 2nd of February 1899, a new commercial +arrangement between France and Italy which the +French parliament had adopted. By that time M. Barrère was +ambassador at the Quirinal and was engaged in promoting +cordial relations between Italy and France, of which Count +Tornielli in Paris had already become an ardent advocate. +Italy remained a party to the Triple Alliance, which was renewed +for a third period in 1902. But so changed had its significance +become that in October 1903 the French Republic received for +the first time an official visit from the sovereigns of Italy. +This reconciliation of France and Italy was destined to have most +important results outside the sphere of the Triple Alliance. +The return visit which President Loubet paid to Victor Emmanuel +III. in April 1904, it being the first time that a French chief of the +state had gone to Rome since the pope had lost the temporal +sovereignty, provoked a protest from the Vatican which caused +the rupture of diplomatic relations between France and the Holy +See, followed by the repudiation of the Concordat by an act +passed in France, in 1905, separating the church from the state.</p> + +<p>While the decadence of the Triple Alliance had this important +effect on the domestic affairs of France, its inception had produced +the Franco-Russian alliance, which took France +out of its isolation in Europe, and became the pivot +<span class="sidenote">Russian alliance.</span> +of its exterior policy. It has been noted that in the +years succeeding the Franco-Prussian War the tsar Alexander II. +had shown a disposition to support France against German +aggression, as though to make up for his neutrality during the +war, which was so benevolent for Germany that his uncle +William I. had ascribed to it a large share of the German victory. +The assassination of Alexander II. by revolutionaries in 1881 +made it difficult for the new autocrat to cultivate closer relations +with a Republican government, although the Third Republic, +under the influence of Gambetta, to whom its consolidation was +chiefly due, had repudiated that proselytizing spirit, inherited +from the great Revolution, which had disquieted the monarchies +of Europe in 1848 and had provoked their hostility to the Second +Republic. But the Triple Alliance which was concluded the +year after the murder of the tsar indicated the possible expediency +of an understanding between the two great powers of the West +and the East, in response to the combination of the three central +powers of Europe,—though Bismarck after his fall revealed that +in 1884 a secret treaty was concluded between Germany and +Russia, which was, however, said to have in view a war between +England and Russia. Internal dissension on the subject of +colonial policy in the far East, followed by the fall of Jules +Ferry and the Boulangist agitation were some of the causes +which prevented France from strengthening its position in +Europe by seeking a formal understanding with Russia in the +first part of the reign of Alexander III. But when the Boulangist +movement came to an end, entirely from the incompetency of +its leader, it behoved the government of the Republic to find a +means of satisfying the strong patriotic sentiment revealed in +the nation, which, directed by a capable and daring soldier, +would have swept away the parliamentary republic and established +a military dictatorship in its place. The Franco-Russian +understanding provided that means, and Russia was ready for +it, having become, by the termination in 1890 of the secret +treaty with Germany, not less isolated in Europe than France. +In July 1891, when the French fleet visited Kronstadt the +incident caused such enthusiasm throughout the French nation +that the exiled General Boulanger’s existence would have been +forgotten, except among his dwindling personal followers, had +he not put an end to it by suicide two months later at Brussels. +The Franco-Russian understanding united all parties, not in +love for one another but in the idea that France was thereby +about to resume its place in Europe. The Catholic Royalists +ceased to talk of the restitution of the temporal power of the +pope in their joy at the deference of the government of the +republic for the most autocratic monarchy of Christendom; +the Boulangists, now called Nationalists, hoped that it would +lead to the war of revenge with Germany, and that it might also +be the means of humiliating England, as shown by their resentment +at the visit of the French squadron to Portsmouth on its +way home from Kronstadt. It is, however, extremely improbable +that the understanding and subsequent alliance would have been +effected had the Boulangist movement succeeded. For the last +thing that the Russian government desired was war with Germany. +What it needed and obtained was security against +German aggression on its frontier and financial aid from France; +so a French plebiscitary government, having for its aim the +restitution of Alsace and Lorraine, would have found no support +in Russia. As the German chancellor, Count von Caprivi, said +in the Reichstag on the 27th of November 1891, a few weeks +after a Russian loan had been subscribed in France nearly +eight times over, the naval visit to Kronstadt had not brought +war nearer by one single inch. Nevertheless when in 1893 the +Russian fleet paid a somewhat tardy return visit to Toulon, +where it was reviewed by President Carnot, a party of Russian +officers who came to Paris was received by the population of +the capital, which less than five years before had acclaimed +General Boulanger, with raptures which could not have been +exceeded had they brought back to France the territory lost in +1871. In November 1894, Alexander III. died, and in January +1895, M. Casimir-Périer resigned the presidency of the Republic, +to which he had succeeded only six months before on the assassination +of M. Carnot. So it was left to Nicholas II. and President +Félix Faure to proclaim the existence of a formal alliance between +France and Russia. It appears that in 1891 and 1892, at the +time of the first public manifestations of friendship between +France and Russia, in the words of M. Ribot, secret conventions +were signed by him, being foreign minister, and M. de Freycinet, +president of the council, which secured for France “the support +of Russia for the maintenance of the equilibrium in Europe”; +and on a later occasion the same statesman said that it was after +the visit of the empress Frederick to Paris in 1891 that Alexander +III. made to France certain offers which were accepted. The +word “alliance” was not publicly used by any minister to +connote the relations of France with Russia until the 10th of June +1895, when M. Hanotaux used the term with cautious vagueness +amid the applause of the Chamber of Deputies. Yet not even +when Nicholas II. came to France in October 1896 was the word +“alliance” formally pronounced in any of the official speeches. +But the reception given to the tsar and tsaritsa in Paris, where +no European sovereign had come officially since William of +Germany passed down the Champs Elysées as a conqueror, +was of such a character that none could doubt that this was the +consecration of the alliance. It was at last formally proclaimed +by Nicholas II., on board a French man-of-war, on the occasion +of the visit of the president of the Republic to Russia in August +1897. From that date until the formation of M. Briand’s +cabinet in 1909, nine different ministries succeeded one another +and five ministers of foreign affairs; but they all loyally supported +the Franco-Russian alliance, although its popularity +diminished in France long before the war between Russia and +Japan, which deprived it of its efficacy in Europe. In 1901 +Nicholas II. came again to France and was the guest of President +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page901" id="page901"></a>901</span> +Loubet at Compiègne. His visit excited little enthusiasm +in the nation, which was disposed to attribute it to Russia’s +financial need of France; while the Socialists, now a strong +party which provided the Waldeck-Rousseau ministry with an +important part of its majority in the Chamber, violently attacked +the alliance of the Republic with a reactionary autocracy. +However anomalous that may have been it did not prevent the +whole French nation from welcoming the friendship between +the governments of Russia and of France in its early stages. +Nor can there be any doubt that the popular instinct was right +in according it that welcome. France in its international relations +was strengthened morally by the understanding and by +the alliance, which also served as a check to Germany. But +its association with Russia had not the results hoped for by +the French reactionaries. It encouraged them in their opposition +to the parliamentary Republic during the Dreyfus agitation, +the more so because the Russian autocracy is anti-Semitic. It +also made a Nationalist of one president of the Republic, Félix +Faure, whose head was so turned by his imperial frequentations +that he adopted some of the less admirable practices of princes, +and also seemed ready to assume the bearing of an autocrat. +His sudden death was as great a relief to the parliamentary +Republicans as it was a disappointment to the plebiscitary +party, which anti-Dreyfusism, with its patriotic pretensions, +had again made a formidable force in the land. But the election +of the pacific and constitutional M. Loubet as president of the +Republic at this critical moment in its history counteracted +any reactionary influence which the Russian alliance might have +had in France; so the general effect of the alliance was to +strengthen the Republic and to add to its prestige. The visit +of the tsar to Paris, the first paid by a friendly sovereign since +the Second Empire, impressed a population, proud of its capital, +by an outward sign which seemed to show that the Republic +was not an obstacle to the recognition by the monarchies of +Europe of the place still held by France among the great powers. +Before M. Loubet laid down office the nation, grown more +republican, saw the visit of the tsar followed by those of the +kings of England and of Italy, who might never have been +moved to present their respects to the French Republic had not +Russia shown them the way.</p> + +<p>While the French rejoiced at the Russian alliance chiefly as +a check to the aggressive designs of Germany, they also liked +the association of France with a power regarded as +hostile to England. This traditional feeling was not +<span class="sidenote">Relations with England.</span> +discouraged by one of the chief artificers of the alliance, +Baron Mohrenheim, Russian ambassador in Paris, +who until 1884 had filled the same position in London, where he +had not learned to love England, and who enjoyed in France a +popularity rarely accorded to the diplomatic agent of a foreign +power. An <i>entente cordiale</i> has since been initiated between +England and France. But it is necessary to refer to the less +agreeable relations which existed between the two countries, +as they had some influence on the exterior policy of the Third +Republic. England and France had no causes of friction within +Europe. But in its policy of colonial expansion, during the last +twenty years of the 19th century, France constantly encountered +England all over the globe. The first important enterprise beyond +the seas seriously undertaken by France after the Franco-German +War, was, as we have seen, in Tunis. But even before +that question had been mentioned at the congress of Berlin, +in 1878, France had become involved in an adventure in the Far +East, which in its developments attracted more public attention +at home than the extension of French territory in northern +Africa. Had these pages been written before the end of the +19th century it would have seemed necessary to trace the +operations of France in Indo-China with not less detail than +has been given to the establishment of the protectorate in Tunis. +But French hopes of founding a great empire in the Far East +came to an end with the partial resuscitation of China and the +rise to power of Japan. As we have seen, Jules Ferry’s idea +was that in colonial expansion France would find the best means +of recovering prestige after the defeat of 1870-71 in the years +of recuperation when it was essential to be diverted from European +complications. Jules Ferry was not a friend of Gambetta, in +spite of later republican legends. But the policy of colonial +expansion in Tunis and in Indo-China, associated with Ferry’s +name, was projected by Gambetta to give satisfaction to France +for the necessity, imposed, in his opinion, on the French government, +of taking its lead in foreign affairs from Berlin. How +Jules Ferry developed that system we know now from Bismarck’s +subsequent expressions of regret at Ferry’s fall. He believed +that, had Ferry remained in power, an amicable arrangement +would have been made between France and Germany, a formal +agreement having been almost concluded to the effect that France +should maintain peaceable and friendly relations with Germany, +while Bismarck supported France in Tunis, in Indo-China and +generally in its schemes of oversea colonization. Even though the +friendly attitude of Germany towards those schemes was not +official the contrast was manifest between the benevolent tone +of the German press and that of the English, which was generally +hostile. Jules Ferry took his stand on the position that his +policy was one not of colonial conquest, but of colonial conservation, +that without Tunis, Algeria was insecure, that without +Tongking and Annam, there was danger of losing Cochin-China, +where the French had been in possession since 1861. It was on +the Tongking question that Ferry fell. On the 30th of March +1885, on the news of the defeat of the French troops at Lang-Son, +the Chamber refused to vote the money for carrying on the campaign +by a majority of 306 to 149. Since that day public opinion +in France has made amends to the memory of Jules Ferry. +His patriotic foresight has been extolled. Criticism has not been +spared for the opponents of his policy in parliament of whom +the most conspicuous, M. Clémenceau and M. Ribot, have survived +to take a leading part in public affairs in the 20th century. +The attitude of the Parisian press, which compared Lang-Son +with Sedan and Jules Ferry with Émile Ollivier, has been +generally deplored, as has that of the public which was ready +to offer violence to the fallen minister, and which was still so +hostile to him in 1887 that the congress at Versailles was persuaded +that there would be a revolution in Paris if it elected +“the German Ferry” president of the Republic. Nevertheless +his adversaries in parliament, in the press and in the street have +been justified—not owing to their superior sagacity, but owing +to a series of unexpected events which the most foreseeing +statesmen of the world never anticipated. The Indo-China +dream of Jules Ferry might have led to a magnificent empire in +the East to compensate for that which Dupleix lost and Napoleon +failed to reconquer.</p> + +<p>The Russian alliance, which came at the time when Ferry’s +policy was justified in the eyes of the public, too late for him +to enjoy any credit, gave a new impetus to the French idea +of establishing an empire in the Far East. In the opinion of all +the prophets of Europe the great international struggle in the +near future was to be that of England with Russia for the +possession of India. If Russia won, France might have a share +in the dismembered Indian empire, of which part of the frontier +now marched with that of French Indo-China, since Burma +had become British and Tongking French. Such aspirations were +not formulated in white-books or in parliamentary speeches. +Indeed, the apprehension of difficulty with England limited +French ambition on the Siamese frontier. That did not prevent +dangerous friction arising between England and France on the +question of the Mekong, the river which flows from China almost +due south into the China Sea traversing the whole length of +French Indo-China, and forming part of the eastern boundary +of Upper Burma and Siam. The aim of France was to secure the +whole of the left bank of the Mekong, the highway of commerce +from southern China. The opposition of Siam to this delimitation +was believed by the French to be inspired by England, the +supremacy of France on the Mekong river being prejudicial to +British commerce with China. The inevitable rivalry between +the two powers reached an acute crisis in 1893, the British +ambassador in Paris being Lord Dufferin, who well understood +the question, upper Burma having been annexed to India under +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page902" id="page902"></a>902</span> +his viceroyalty in 1885. The matter was not settled until 1894, +when not only was the French claim to the left bank of the +Mekong allowed, but the neutrality of a 25-kilometre zone on the +Siamese bank was conceded as open to French trade. It is said +that at one moment in July 1893 England and France were more +nearly at war than at any other international crisis under the +Third Republic, not excluding that of Fashoda, though the acute +tension between the governments was unknown to the public.</p> + +<p>The Panama affair had left French public opinion in a nervous +condition. Fantastic charges were brought not only in the +press, but in the chamber of deputies, against newspapers and +politicians of having accepted bribes from the British government. +At the general election in August and September 1893 +M. Clémenceau was pursued into his distant constituency in the +Var by a crowd of Parisian politicians, who brought about his +defeat less by alleging his connexion with the Panama scandal +than by propagating the legend that he was the paid agent of +England. The official republic, which changed its prime minister +three times and its foreign minister twice in 1893, M. Develle +filling that post in the Ribot and Dupuy ministries and M. +Casimir-Périer in his own, repudiated with energy the calumnies +as to the attempted interference of England in French domestic +affairs. But the successive governments were not in a mood to +make concessions in foreign questions, as all France was under +the glamour of the preliminary manifestations of the Russian +alliance. This was seen, a few weeks after the elections, in the +wild enthusiasm with which Paris received Admiral Avelane +and his officers, who had brought the Russian fleet to Toulon to +return the visit of the French fleet to Kronstadt in 1891. The +death of Marshal MacMahon, who had won his first renown in the +Crimea, and his funeral at the Invalides while the Russians were +in Paris, were used to emphasize the fact that the allies before +Sebastopol were no longer friends. The projector of the French +empire in the Far East did not live to see this phase of the seeming +justification of the policy which had cost him place and popularity. +Jules Ferry had died on the 17th of March 1893, only three weeks +after his triumphant rehabilitation in the political world by his +election to the presidency of the Senate, the second post in the +state. The year he died it seemed as though with the active +aid of Russia and the sympathy of Germany the possessions of +France in south-eastern Asia might have indefinitely expanded +into southern China. A few years later the defeat of Russia +by Japan and the rise of the sea-power of the Japanese practically +ended the French empire in Indo-China. What the French +already had at the end of the last century is virtually guaranteed +to them only by the Anglo-Japanese alliance. It is in the irony +of things that these possessions which were a sign of French rivalry +with England should now be secured to France by England’s +friendliness. For it is now recognized by the French that the +defence of Indo-China is impossible.</p> + +<p>Had the French dream been realized of a large expansion of +territory into southern China, the success of the new empire would +have been based on free Chinese labour. This might +have counterbalanced an initial obstacle to all French +<span class="sidenote">African policy.</span> +colonial schemes, more important than those which +arise from international difficulties—the reluctance of the +French to establish themselves as serious colonists in their +oversea possessions. We have noted how Algeria, which is +nearer to Toulon and Marseilles than are Paris and Havre, +has been comparatively neglected by the French, after eighty +years of occupation, in spite of the amenity of its climate and +its soil for European settlers. The new French colonial school +advocates the withdrawal of France from adventures in distant +tropical countries which can be reached only by long sea voyages, +and the concentration of French activity in the northern half +of the African continent. Madagascar is, as we have seen, +counted as Africa in computing the area of French colonial +territory. But it lies entirely outside the scheme of African +colonization, and in spite of the loss of life and money incurred +in its conquest, its retention is not popular with the new school, +although the first claim of France to it was as long ago as the +reign of Louis XIII., when in 1642 a company was founded under +the protection of Richelieu for the colonization of the island. +The French of the 19th and 20th centuries may well be considered +less enterprising in both hemispheres than were their ancestors +of the 17th, and Madagascar, after having been the cause of +much ill-feeling between England and France under the Third +Republic down to the time of its formal annexation, by the +law of the 9th of August 1896, is not now the object of much +interest among French politicians. On the African continent +it is different. When the Republic succeeded to the Second +Empire the French African possessions outside Algiers were +inconsiderable in area. The chief was Senegal, which though +founded as a French station under Louis XIII., was virtually +the creation of Faidherbe under the Second Empire, even in +a greater degree than were Tunis and Tongking of Jules Ferry +under the Third Republic. There was also Gabun, which is +now included in French Congo. Those outposts in the tropics +became the starting-points for the expansion of a French sphere +of influence in north Africa, which by the beginning of the 20th +century made France the nominal possessor of a vast territory +stretching from the equatorial region on the gulf of Guinea to +the Mediterranean. A large portion of it is of no importance, +including the once mysterious Timbuktu and the wilds of the +waterless Sahara desert. But the steps whereby these wide +<span class="sidenote">French and English rivalry.</span> +tracts of wilderness and of valuable territory came to +be marked on the maps in French colours, by international +agreement, are important, as they were +associated with the last serious official dispute between +England and France before the period of <i>entente</i>. M. Hanotaux, +who was foreign minister for the then unprecedented term of +four years, from 1894 to 1898, with one short interval of a few +months, has thrown an instructive light on the feeling with which +French politicians up to the end of the 19th century regarded +England. He declared in 1909, with the high authority of +one who was during years of Anglo-French tension the mouthpiece +of the Republic in its relations with other powers, that +every move in the direction of colonial expansion made by +France disquieted and irritated England. He complained +that when France, under the stimulating guidance of Jules +Ferry, undertook the reconstitution of an oversea domain, +England barred the way—in Egypt, in Tunis, in Madagascar, +in Indo-China, in the Congo, in Oceania. Writing with the +knowledge of an ex-foreign minister, who had enjoyed many +years of retirement to enable him to weigh his words, M. +Hanotaux asserted without any qualification that when he +took office England “had conceived a triple design, to assume +the position of heir to the Portuguese possessions in Africa, +to destroy the independence of the South African republics, +and to remain in perpetuity in Egypt.” We have not to discuss +the truth of those propositions, we have only to note the tendency +of French policy; and in so doing it is useful to remark that the +official belief of the Third Republic in the last period of the +19th century was that England was the enemy of French colonial +expansion all over the globe, and that in the so-called scramble +for Africa English ambition was the chief obstacle to the schemes +of France. M. Hanotaux, with the authority of official knowledge, +indicated that the English project of a railway from the +Cape of Good Hope to Cairo was the provocation which stimulated +the French to essay a similar adventure; though he denied +that the Marchand mission and other similar expeditions about +to be mentioned were conceived with the specific object of +preventing the accomplishment of the British plan. The explorations +of Stanley had demonstrated that access to the Great Lakes +and the Upper Nile could be effected as easily from the west +coast of Africa as from other directions. The French, from their +ancient possession of Gabun, had extended their operations far +to the east, and had by treaties with European powers obtained +the right bank of the Ubanghi, a great affluent of the Congo, +as a frontier between their territory and that of the Congo +Independent State. They thus found themselves, with respect +to Europe, in possession of a region which approached the +valley of the Upper Nile. Between the fall of Jules Ferry +in 1885 and the beginning of the Russian alliance came a period +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page903" id="page903"></a>903</span> +of decreased activity in French colonial expansion. The unpopularity +of the Tongking expedition was one of the causes +of the popularity of General Boulanger, who diverted the French +public from distant enterprises to a contemplation of the German +frontier, and when Boulangism came to an end the Panama +affair took its place in the interest it excited. But the colonial +party in France did not lose sight of the possibility of establishing +<span class="sidenote">Upper Nile exploration.</span> +a position on the Upper Nile. The partition of Africa +seemed to offer an occasion for France to take compensation +for the English occupation of Egypt. In +1892 the Budget Commission, on the proposal of +M. Étienne, deputy for Oran, who had three times been colonial +under secretary, voted 300,000 francs for the despatch of a +mission to explore and report on those regions, which had not +had much attention since the days of Emin. But the project +was not then carried out. Later, parliament voted a sum six +times larger for strengthening the French positions on the Upper +Ubanghi and their means of communication with the coast. +But Colonel Monteil’s expedition, which was the consequence +of this vote, was diverted, and the 1,800,000 francs were spent +at Loango, the southern port of French Congo, and on the Ivory +Coast, the French territory which lies between Liberia and +the British Gold Coast Colony, where a prolonged war ensued +with Samory, a Nigerian chieftain. In September 1894, M. +Delcassé being colonial minister, M. Liotard was appointed +commissioner of the Upper Ubanghi with instructions to extend +French influence in the Bahr-el-Ghazal up to the Nile. In +addition to official missions, numerous expeditions of French +explorers took place in Central Africa during this period, and +negotiations were continually going on between the British +and French governments. Towards the end of 1895 Lord Salisbury, +who had succeeded Lord Kimberley at the foreign office, +informed Baron de Courcel, the French ambassador, that an +expedition to the Upper Nile was projected for the purpose of +putting an end to Mahdism. M. Hanotaux was not at this +moment minister of foreign affairs. He had been succeeded +by M. Berthelot, the eminent chemist, who resigned that office +on the 26th of March 1896, a month before the fall of the Bourgeois +cabinet of which he was a member, in consequence of a +question raised in the chamber on this subject of the English +expedition to the Soudan. According to M. Hanotaux, who +returned to the Quai d’Orsay, in the Méline ministry, on the +29th of April 1896, Lord Salisbury at the end of the previous +year, in announcing the expedition confidentially to M. de +Courcel, had assured him that it would not go beyond Dongola +without a preliminary understanding with France. There must +have been a misunderstanding on this point, as after reaching +Dongola in September 1896 the Anglo-Egyptian army proceeded +up the Nile in the direction of Khartoum. Before M. Hanotaux +<span class="sidenote">Marchand mission.</span> +resumed office the Marchand mission had been formally +planned. On the 24th of February 1896 M. Guieysse, +colonial minister in the Bourgeois ministry, had signed +Captain Marchand’s instructions to the effect that he must +march through the Upper Ubanghi, in order to extend French +influence as far as the Nile, and try to reach that river +before Colonel Colvile, who was leading an expedition from +the East. He was also advised to conciliate the Mahdi if the aim +of the mission could be benefited thereby. M. Liotard was +raised to the rank of governor of the Upper Ubanghi, and in +a despatch to him the new colonial minister, M. André Lebon, +wrote that the Marchand mission was not to be considered a +military enterprise, it being sent out with the intention of +maintaining the political line which for two years M. Liotard +had persistently been following, and of which the establishment +of France in the basin of the Nile ought to be the crowning +reward. Two days later, on the 25th of June 1896, Captain +Marchand embarked for Africa. This is not the place for a +description of his adventures in crossing the continent or when +<span class="sidenote">Fashoda.</span> +he encountered General Kitchener at Fashoda, two +months after his arrival there in July 1898 and a +fortnight after the battle of Omdurman and the capture of +Khartoum. The news was made known to Europe by the +sirdar’s telegrams to the British government in September +announcing the presence of the French mission at Fashoda. +Then ensued a period of acute tension between the French and +English governments, which gave the impression to the public +that war between the two countries was inevitable. But those +who were watching the situation in France on the spot knew +that there was no question of fighting. France was unprepared, +and was also involved in the toils of the Dreyfus affair. Had +the situation been that of a year later, when the French domestic +controversy was ending and the Transvaal War beginning, +England might have been in a very difficult position. General +Kitchener declined to recognize a French occupation of any +part of the Nile valley. A long discussion ensued between the +British and French governments, which was ended by the latter +deciding on the 6th of November 1898 not to maintain the +Marchand mission at Fashoda. Captain Marchand refused to +return to Europe by way of the Nile and Lower Egypt, marching +across Abyssinia to Jibuti in French Somaliland, where he +embarked for France. He was received with well-merited +enthusiasm in Paris. But the most remarkable feature of his +reception was that the ministry became so alarmed lest the +popularity of the hero of Fashoda should be at the expense +of that of the parliamentary republic, that it put an end to the +public acclamations by despatching him secretly from the +capital—a somewhat similar treatment having been accorded to +General Dodds in 1893 on his return to France after conquering +Dahomey. The Marchand mission had little effect on African +questions at issue between France and Great Britain, as a great +<span class="sidenote">Convention of 1898.</span> +settlement had been effected while it was on its way +across the continent. On the 14th of June 1898, the +day before the fall of the Méline ministry, when M. +Hanotaux finally quitted the Quai d’Orsay, a convention +of general delimitation was signed at Paris by that minister +and by the British ambassador, Sir Edmund Monson, which as +regards the respective claims of England and France covered +in its scope the whole of the northern half of Africa from Senegambia +and the Congo to the valley of the Nile. Comparatively +little attention was paid to it amid the exciting events which +followed, so little that M. de Courcel has officially recorded +that three months later, on the eve of the Fashoda incident, +Lord Salisbury declared to him that he was not sufficiently +acquainted with the geography of Africa to express an opinion +on certain questions of delimitation arising out of the success +of the British expedition on the Upper Nile. The convention +of June 1898 was, however, of the highest importance, as it +affirmed the junction into one vast territory of the three chief +African domains of France, Algeria and Tunis, Senegal and the +Niger, Chad and the Congo, thus conceding to France the whole +of the north-western continent with the exception of Morocco, +Liberia and the European colonies on the Atlantic. This +arrangement, which was completed by an additional convention +on the 21st of March 1899, made Morocco a legitimate object +of French ambition.</p> + +<p>The other questions which caused mutual animosity between +England and France in the decline of the 19th century had +nothing whatever to do with their conflicting international +interests. The offensive attitude of the +<span class="sidenote">The entente with England.</span> +English press towards France on account of the +Dreyfus affair was repaid by the French in their +criticism of the Boer War. When those sentimental causes of +mutual irritation had become less acute, the press of the two +countries was moved by certain influences to recognize that it +was in their interest to be on good terms with one another. +The importance of their <span class="correction" title="amended from commerical">commercial</span> relations was brought +into relief as though it were a new fact. At last in 1903 state +visits between the rulers of England and of France took place +in their respective capitals, for the first time since the early days +of the Second Empire, followed by an Anglo-French convention +signed on the 8th of April 1904. By this an arrangement was +come to on outstanding questions of controversy between +England and France in various parts of the world. France +undertook not to interfere with the action of England in Egypt, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page904" id="page904"></a>904</span> +while England made a like undertaking as to French influence +in Morocco. France conceded certain of its fishing rights in +Newfoundland which had been a perpetual source of irritation +between the two countries for nearly two hundred years since +the treaty of Utrecht of 1713. In return England made several +concessions to France in Africa, including that of the Los +Islands off Sierra Leone and some rectifications of frontier on +the Gambia and between the Niger and Lake Chad. Other +points of difference were arranged as to Siam, the New Hebrides +and Madagascar. The convention of 1904 was on the whole +more advantageous for England than for France. The free +hand which England conceded to France in dealing with Morocco +was a somewhat burdensome gift owing to German interference; +but the incidents which arose from the Franco-German conflict +in that country are as yet too recent for any estimate of their +possible consequences.</p> + +<p>One result was the retirement of M. Delcassé from the foreign +office on the 6th of June 1905. He had been foreign minister +for seven years, a consecutive period of rare length, +only once exceeded in England since the creation of +<span class="sidenote">The work of M. Delcassé.</span> +the office, when Castlereagh held it for ten years, +and one of prodigious duration in the history of the +Third Republic. He first went to the Quai d’Orsay in the Brisson +ministry of June 1898, remained there during the Dupuy ministry +of the same year, was reappointed by M. Waldeck-Rousseau +in his cabinet which lasted from June 1899 to June 1902, was +retained in the post by M. Combes till his ministry fell in January +1905, and again by his successor M. Rouvier till his own resignation +in June of that year. M. Delcassé had thus an uninterrupted reign +at the foreign office during a long critical period of transition +both in the interior politics of France and in its exterior relations. +He went to the Quai d’Orsay when the Dreyfus agitation was +most acute, and left it when parliament was absorbed in discussing +the separation of church and state. He saw the Franco-Russian +alliance lose its popularity in the country even before the +Russian defeat by the Japanese in the last days of his ministry. +Although in the course of his official duties at the colonial office +he had been partly responsible for some of the expeditions sent +to Africa for the purpose of checking British influence, he was +fully disposed to pursue a policy which might lead to a friendly +understanding with England. In this he differed from M. +Hanotaux, who was essentially the man of the Franco-Russian +alliance, owing to it much of his prestige, including his election +to the French Academy, and Russia, to which he gave exclusive +allegiance, was then deemed to be primarily the enemy of +England. M. Delcassé on the contrary, from the first, desired to +assist a <i>rapprochement</i> between England and Russia as preliminary +to the arrangement he proposed between England +and France. He was foreign minister when the tsar paid his +second visit to France, but there was no longer the national +unanimity which welcomed him in 1896, M. Delcassé also accompanied +President Loubet to Russia when he returned the tsar’s +second visit in 1902. But exchange of compliments between +France and Russia were no longer to be the sole international +ceremonials within the attributes of the French foreign office; +M. Delcassé was minister when the procession of European +sovereigns headed by the kings of England and of Italy in 1903 +came officially to Paris, and he went with M. Loubet to London +and to Rome on the president’s return visits to those capitals—the +latter being the immediate cause of the rupture of the concordat +with the Vatican, though M. Delcassé was essentially a +concordatory minister. His retirement from the Rouvier +ministry in June 1905 was due to pressure from Germany in +consequence of his opposition to German interference in Morocco. +His resignation took place just a week after the news had arrived +of the destruction of the Russian fleet by the Japanese, which +completed the disablement of the one ally of France. The +impression was current in France that Germany wished to give +the French nation a fright before the understanding with England +had reached an effective stage, and it was actually believed +that the resignation of M. Delcassé averted a declaration of war. +Although that belief revived to some extent the fading enmity +of the French towards the conquerors of Alsace-Lorraine, the +fear which accompanied it moved a considerable section of the +nation to favour an understanding with Germany in preference +to, or even at the expense of, friendly relations with England. +M. Clémenceau, who only late in life came into office, and +attained it at the moment when a better understanding with +England was progressing, had been throughout his long career, +of all French public men in all political groups, the most consistent +friend of England. His presence at the head of affairs +was a guarantee of amicable Anglo-French relations, so far as +they could be protected by statesmanship.</p> + +<p>By reason of the increased duration and stability of ministries, +the personal influence of ministers in directing the foreign policy +of France has in one sense become greater in the 20th century +than in those earlier periods when France had first to recuperate +its strength after the war and then to take its exterior policy +from Germany. Moreover, not only have cabinets lasted longer, +but the foreign minister has often been retained in a succession +of them. Of the thirty years which in 1909 had elapsed since +Marshal MacMahon retired and the republic was governed by +republicans, in the first fifteen years from 1879 to 1894 fourteen +different persons held the office of minister of foreign affairs, +while six sufficed for the fifteen years succeeding the latter date. +One must not, however, exaggerate the effect of this greater +stability in office-holding upon continuity of policy, which was +well maintained even in the days when there was on an average +a new foreign minister every year. Indeed the most marked +breach in the continuity of the foreign policy of France has been +made in that later period of long terms of office, which, with the +repudiation of the Concordat, has seen the withdrawal of the +French protectorate over Roman Catholic missions in the East—though +it is too soon to estimate the result. In another respect +France has under the republic departed a long way from a tradition +of the Quai d’Orsay. It no longer troubles itself on the +subject of nationalities. Napoleon III., who had more French +temperament than French blood in his constitution, was an +idealist on this question, and one of the causes of his own downfall +and the defeat of France was his sympathy in this direction +with German unity. Since Sedan little has been done in France +to further the doctrine of nationalities. A faint echo of it was +heard during the Boer war, but French sympathy with the +struggling Dutch republics of South Africa was based rather on +anti-English sentiment than on any abstract theory.</p> +<div class="author">(J. E. C. B.)</div> + +<div class="condensed"> +<p><span class="sc">Bibliography of French History.</span>—The scientific study of +the history of France only begins with the 16th century. It was +hampered at first by the traditions of the middle ages and by a +servile imitation of antiquity. Paulus Aemilius of Verona (<i>De +rebus gestis Francorum</i>, 1517), who may be called the first of modern +historians, merely applies the oratorical methods of the Latin +historiographers. It is not till the second half of the century that +history emancipates itself; Catholics and Protestants alike turn +to it for arguments in their religious and political controversies. +François Hotman published (1574) his <i>Franco-Gallia</i>; Claude +Fauchet his <i>Antiquités gauloises et françoises</i> (1579); Étienne +Pasquier his <i>Recherches de la France</i> (1611), “the only work of +erudition of the 16th century which one can read through without +being bored.” Amateurs like Petau, A. de Thou, Bongars and +Peiresc collected libraries to which men of learning went to draw +their knowledge of the past; Pierre Pithou, one of the authors of +the <i>Satire Ménippée</i>, published the earliest annals of France (<i>Annales +Francorum</i>, 1588, and <i>Historiae Francorum scriptores coetanei XI.</i>, +1596), Jacques Bongars collected in his <i>Gesta Dei per Francos</i> (1611-1617) +the principal chroniclers of the Crusades. Others made a +study of chronology like J.J. Scaliger (<i>De emendatione temporum</i>, +1583; <i>Thesaurus temporum</i>, 1606), sketched the history of literature, +like François Grudé, sieur of La Croix in Maine (<i>Bibliothèque françoise</i>, +1584), and Antoine du Verdier (<i>Catalogue de tous les auteurs qui ont +écrit ou traduit en français</i>, 1585), or discussed the actual principles of +historical research, like Jean Bodin (<i>Methodus ad facilem historiarum +cognitionem</i>, 1566) and Henri Lancelot Voisin de La Popelinière +(<i>Histoire des histoires</i>, 1599).</p> + +<p>But the writers of history are as yet very inexpert; the <i>Histoire +générale des rois de France</i> of Bernard de Girard, seigneur de Haillan +(1576), the <i>Grandes Annales de France</i> of François de Belleforest +(1579), the <i>Inventaire général de l’histoire de France</i> of Jean de Serres +(1597), the <i>Histoire générale de France depuis Pharamond</i> of Scipion +Dupleix (1621-1645), the <i>Histoire de France</i> (1643-1651) of François +Eudes de Mézeray, and above all his <i>Abrégé chronologique de l’histoire</i> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page905" id="page905"></a>905</span> +<i>de France</i> (1668), are compilations which were eagerly read when they +appeared, but are worthless nowadays. Historical research lacked +method, leaders and trained workers; it found them all in the 17th +century, the golden age of learning which was honoured alike by +laymen, priests and members of the monastic orders, especially the +Benedictines of the congregation of St Maur. The publication of +original documents was carried on with enthusiasm. To André +Duchesne we owe two great collections of chronicles: the <i>Historiae +Normannorum scriptores antiqui</i> (1619) and the <i>Historiae Francorum +scriptores</i>, continued by his son François (5 vols., 1636-1649). +These publications were due to a part only of his prodigious activity; +his papers and manuscripts, preserved in the Bibliothèque Nationale +at Paris, are an inexhaustible mine. Charles du Fresne, seigneur +du Cange, published Villehardouin (1657) and Joinville (1668); +Étienne Baluze, the <i>Capitularia regum Francorum</i> (1674), the <i>Nova +collectio conciliorum</i> (1677), the <i>Vitae paparum Avenionensium</i> +(1693). The clergy were very much aided in their work by their +private libraries and by their co-operation; Père Philippe Labbe +published his <i>Bibliotheca nova manuscriptorum</i> (1657), and began +(1671) his <i>Collection des conciles</i>, which was successfully completed +by his colleague Père Cossart (18 vols.). In 1643 the Jesuit Jean +Bolland brought out vol. i. of the <i>Acta sanctorum</i>, a vast collection +of stories and legends which has not yet been completed beyond the +4th of November. (See <span class="sc"><a href="#artlinks">Bollandists</a></span>.) The Benedictines, for +their part, published the <i>Acta sanctorum ordinis sancti Benedicti</i> +(9 vols., 1668-1701). One of the chief editors of this collection, Dom +Jean Mabillon, published on his own account the Vetera analecta +(4 vols., 1675-1685) and prepared the <i>Annales ordinis sancti Benedicti</i> +(6 vols., 1703-1793). To Dom Thierri Ruinart we owe good editions +of Gregory of Tours and Fredegarius (1699). The learning of the +17th century further inaugurated those specialized studies which are +important aids to history. Mabillon in his <i>De re diplomatica</i> (1681) +creates the science of documents or diplomatics. Adrien de Valois +lays a sound foundation for historical geography by his critical +edition of the <i>Notitia Galliarum</i> (1675). Numismatics finds an enlightened +pioneer in François Leblanc (<i>Traité historique des monnaies +de France</i>, 1690). Du Cange, one of the greatest of the French +scholars who have studied the middle ages, has defined terms +bearing on institutions in his <i>Glossarium mediae et infimae latinitatis</i> +(1678), recast by the Benedictines (1733), with an important supplement +by Dom Carpentier (1768), republished twice during the 19th +century, with additions, by F. Didot (1840-1850), and by L. Favre at +Niort (1883-1888); this work is still indispensable to every student +of medieval history. Finally, great biographical or bibliographical +works were undertaken; the <i>Gallia christiana</i>, which gave a chronological +list of the archbishops, bishops and abbots of the Gauls and +of France, was compiled by two twin brothers, Scévole and Louis +de Sainte-Marthe, and by the two sons of Louis (4 vols., 1656); a +fresh edition, on a better plan, and with great additions, was begun +in 1715 by Denys de Sainte-Marthe, continued throughout the 18th +century by the Benedictines, and finished in the 19th century by +Barthélemy Hauréau (1856-1861).</p> + +<p>As to the nobility, a series of researches and publications, begun +by Pierre d’Hozier (d. 1660) and continued well on into the 19th +century by several of his descendants, developed into the <i>Armorial +général de la France</i>, which was remodelled several times. A similar +work, of a more critical nature, was carried out by Père Anselme +(<i>Histoire généalogique de la maison de France et des grands officiers +de la couronne</i>, 1674) and by Père Ange and Père Simplicien, who +completed the work (3rd ed. in 9 vols., 1726-1733). Critical bibliography +is especially represented by certain Protestants, expelled +from France by the revocation of the Edict of Nantes. Pierre +Bayle, the sceptic, famous for his <i>Dictionnaire critique</i> (1699), +which is in part a refutation of the <i>Dictionnaire historique et géographique</i> +published in 1673 by the Abbé Louis Moréri, was the +first to publish the <i>Nouvelles de la république des lettres</i> (1684-1687), +which was continued by Henri Basnage de Beauval under the title +of <i>Histoire des ouvrages des savants</i> (24 vols.). In imitation of this, +Jean Le Clerc successively edited a <i>Bibliothèque universelle et historique</i> +(1686-1693), a <i>Bibliothèque choisie</i> (1703-1713), and a <i>Bibliothèque +ancienne et moderne</i> (1714-1727). These were the first of our +“periodicals.”</p> + +<p>The 18th century continues the traditions of the 17th. The +Benedictines still for some time hold the first place. Dom Edmond +Martène visited numerous archives (which were then closed) in +France and neighbouring countries, and drew from them the material +for two important collections: <i>Thesaurus novus anecdotorum</i> (9 vols., +1717, in collaboration with Dom Ursin Durand) and <i>Veterum scriptorum +collectio</i> (9 vols., 1724-1733). Dom Bernard de Montfaucon +also travelled in search of illustrated records of antiquity; private +collections, among others the celebrated collection of Gaignières +(now in the Bibliothèque Nationale), provided him with the illustrations +which he published in his <i>Monuments de la monarchie +françoise</i> (5 vols., 1729-1733). The text is in two languages, Latin +and French. Dom Martin Bouquet took up the work begun by the +two Duchesnes, and in 1738 published vol. i. of the Historians of +France (<i>Rerum Gallicarum et Francicarum scriptores</i>), an enormous +collection which was intended to include all the sources of the history +of France, grouped under centuries and reigns. He produced the +first eight volumes himself; his work was continued by several +collaborators, the most active of whom was Dom Michel J. Brial, +and already comprised thirteen volumes when it was interrupted +by the Revolution. In 1733, Antoine Rivet de La Grange produced +vol. i. of the <i>Histoire littéraire de la France</i>, which in 1789 numbered +twelve volumes. While Dom C. François Toustaint and Dom +René Prosper Tassin published a <i>Nouveau Traité de diplomatique</i> +(6 vols., 1750-1765), others were undertaking the <i>Art de vérifier les +dates</i> (1750; new and much enlarged edition in 1770). Still others, +with more or less success, attempted histories of the provinces.</p> + +<p>In the second half of the 18th century, the ardour of the Benedictines +of St Maur diminished, and scientific work passed more and +more into the hands of laymen. The Académie des Inscriptions et +Belles-lettres, founded in 1663 and reorganized in 1701, became its +chief instrument, numbering among its members Denis François +Secousse, who continued the collection of <i>Ordonnances des rois de +France</i>, begun (1723) by J. de Laurière; J.-B. de La Curne de Sainte +Palaye (<i>Mémoires sur l’ancienne chevalerie</i>, 1759-1781; <i>Glossaire de +la langue française depuis son origine jusqu’à la fin de Louis XIV</i>, +printed only in 1875-1882); J.-B. d’Anville (<i>Notice sur l’ancienne +Gaule tirée des monuments</i>, 1760); and L.G. de Bréquigny, the +greatest of them all, who continued the publication of the <i>Ordonnances</i>, +began the <i>Table chronologique des diplômes concernant +l’histoire de France</i> (3 vols., 1769-1783), published the <i>Diplomata, +chartae, ad res Francicas spectantia</i> (1791, with the collaboration of +La Porte du Theil), and directed fruitful researches in the archives in +London, to enrich the <i>Cabinet des chartes</i>, where Henri Bertin (1719-1792), +an enlightened minister of Louis XV., had in 1764 set himself +the task of collecting the documentary sources of the national history. +The example set by the religious orders and the government bore +fruit. The general assembly of the clergy gave orders that its +<i>Procès verbaux</i> (9 vols., 1767-1789) should be printed; some of the +provinces decided to have their history written, and mostly applied +to the Benedictines to have this done. Brittany was treated by +Dom Lobineau (1707) and Dom Morice (1742); the duchy of Burgundy +by Dom Urbain Plancher (1739-1748); Languedoc by Dom +Dominique Vaissète (1730-1749, in collaboration with Dom Claude +de Vic; new ed. 1873-1893); for Paris, its secular history was +treated by Dom Michel Félibien and Dom Lobineau (1725), and its +ecclesiastical history by the abbé Lebeuf (1745-1760; new ed. +1883-1890).</p> + +<p>This ever-increasing stream of new evidence aroused curiosity, +gave rise to pregnant comparisons, developed and sharpened the +critical sense, but further led to a more and more urgent need for +exact information. The Académie des Inscriptions brought out its +<i>Histoire de l’Académie avec les mémoires de littérature tirés de ses +registres</i> (vol. i. 1717; 51 vols. appeared before the Revolution, with +five indexes; <i>vide</i> the <i>Bibliographie</i> of Lasteyrie, vol. iii. pp. 256 et +seq.). Other collections, mostly of the nature of bibliographies, +were the <i>Journal des savants</i> (111 vols., from 1665 to 1792; <i>vide</i> the +<i>Table méthodique</i> by H. Cocheris, 1860); the <i>Journal de Trévoux</i>, or +<i>Mémoires pour l’histoire des sciences et des beaux-arts</i>, edited by +Jesuits (265 vols., 1701-1790); the <i>Mercure de France</i> (977 vols., +from 1724 to 1791). To these must be added the dictionaries and +encyclopaedias: the <i>Dictionnaire de Moréri</i>, the last edition of +which numbers 10 vols. (1759); the <i>Dictionnaire géographique, +historique et politique des Gaules et de la France</i>, by the abbé J.J. +Expilly (6 vols., 1762-1770; unfinished); the <i>Répertoire universel +et raisonné de jurisprudence civile, criminelle, canonique et bénéficiale</i>, +by Guyot (64 vols., 1775-1786; supplement in 17 vols., 1784-1785), +reorganized and continued by Merlin de Douai, who was afterwards +one of the <i>Montagnards</i>, a member of the Directory, and a count +under the Empire.</p> + +<p>The historians did not use to the greatest advantage the treasures +of learning provided for them; they were for the most part superficial, +and dominated by their political or religious prejudices. +Thus works like that of Père Gabriel Daniel (<i>Histoire de France</i>, 3 +vols., 1713), of Président Hénault (<i>Abrégé chronologique</i>, 1744; 25 +editions between 1770 and 1834), of the abbé Paul François Velly +and those who completed his work (<i>Histoire de France</i>, 33 vols., +1765 to 1783), of G.H. Gaillard (<i>Histoire de la rivalité de la France +et de l’Angleterre</i>, 11 vols., 1771-1777), and of L.P. Anquetil (1805), +in spite of the brilliant success with which they met at first, have +fallen into a just oblivion. A separate place must be given to the +works of the theorists and philosophers: <i>Histoire de l’ancien gouvernement +de la France</i>, by the Comte de Boulainvilliers (1727), <i>Histoire +critique de l’établissement de la monarchie françoise dans les deux +Gaules</i>, by the abbé J.B. Dubos (1734); <i>L’Esprit des lois</i>, by the +président de Montesquieu (1748); the <i>Observations sur l’histoire de +France</i>, by the abbé de Mably (1765); the <i>Théorie de la politique de +la monarchie française</i>, by Marie Pauline de Lézardière (1792). These +works have, if nothing else, the merit of provoking reflection.</p> + +<p>At the time of the Revolution this activity was checked. The +religious communities and royal academies were suppressed, and +France violently broke with even her most recent past, which was +considered to belong to the <i>ancien régime</i>. When peace was re-established, +she began the task of making good the damage which +had been done, but a greater effort was now necessary in order to +revive the spirit of the institutions which had been overthrown. +The new state, which was, in spite of all, bound by so many ties +to the former order of things, seconded this effort, and during the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page906" id="page906"></a>906</span> +whole of the 19th century, and even longer, had a strong influence on +historical production. The section of the Institut de France, +which in 1816 assumed the old name of Académie des Inscriptions +et Belles-lettres, began to reissue the two series of the <i>Mémoires</i> +and of the <i>Notices et extraits des manuscrits tirés de la bibliothèque +royale</i> (the first volume had appeared in 1787); began (1844) that +of the <i>Mémoires présentés par divers savants</i> and the <i>Comptes rendus</i> +(subject index 1857-1900, by G. Ledos, 1906); and continued the +<i>Recueil des historiens de France</i>, the plan of which was enlarged by +degrees (<i>Historiens des croisades, obituaires, pouillés, comptes</i>, &c.), +the <i>Ordonnances</i> and the <i>Table chronologique des diplômes</i>. During +the reign of Louis Philippe, the ministry of the interior reorganized +the administration of the archives of the departments, communes +and hospitals, of which the <i>Inventaires sommaires</i> are a mine of +precious information (see the <i>Rapport au ministre</i>, by G. Servois, +1902). In 1834 the ministry of public instruction founded a committee, +which has been called since 1881 the Comité des Travaux +historiques et scientifiques, under the direction of which have been +published: (1) the <i>Collection des documents inédits relatifs à l’histoire +de France</i> (more than 260 vols. have appeared since 1836); (2) the +<i>Catalogue général des manuscrits des bibliothèques de France</i>; (3) +the <i>Dictionnaires topographiques</i> (25 vols. have appeared); and the +<i>Répertoires archéologiques</i> of the French departments (8 vols. between +1861 and 1888); (4) several series of <i>Bulletins</i>, the details of which will +be found in the <i>Bibliographie</i> of Lasteyrie. At the same time were +founded or reorganized, both in Paris and the departments, numerous +societies, devoted sometimes partially and sometimes exclusively to +history and archaeology; the Académie Celtique (1804), which in +1813 became the Société des Antiquaires de France (general index by +M. Prou, 1894); the Société de l’Histoire de France (1834); the +Société de l’École des Chartes (1839); the Société de l’Histoire de Paris +et de l’Île-de-France (1874; four decennial indexes), &c. The details +will be found in the excellent <i>Bibliographie générale des travaux +historiques et archéologiques publiés par les sociétés savantes de France</i>, +which has appeared since 1885 under the direction of Robert de +Lasteyrie.</p> + +<p>Individual scholars also associated themselves with this great +literary movement. Guizot published a <i>Collection de mémoires +relatifs à l’histoire de France</i> (31 vols., 1824-1835); Buchon, a +<i>Collection des chroniques nationales françaises écrites en langue +vulgaire du XIII<span class="sp">e</span> au XVI<span class="sp">e</span> siècle</i> (47 vols., 1824-1829), and a +<i>Choix de chroniques et mémoires sur l’histoire de France</i> (14 vols., +1836-1841); Petitot and Monmerqué, a <i>Collection de mémoires +relatifs à l’histoire de France</i> (131 vols., 1819-1829); Michaud and +Poujoulat, a <i>Nouvelle Collection de mémoires pour servir a l’histoire +de France</i> (32 vols., 1836-1839); Barrière and de Lescure, a <i>Bibliothèque +de mémoires relatifs à l’histoire de France pendant le XVIII<span class="sp">e</span> +siècle</i> (30 vols., 1855-1875); and finally Berville and Barrière, a +<i>Collection des mémoires relatifs à la Révolution Française</i> (55 vols., +1820-1827). The details are to be found in the <i>Sources de l’histoire +de France</i>, by Alfred Franklin (1876). The abbé J.P. Migne in his +<i>Patrologia Latina</i> (221 vols., 1844-1864), re-edited a number cf texts +anterior to the 13th century. Under the second empire, the administration +of the imperial archives at Paris published ten volumes +of documents (<i>Monuments historiques</i>, 1866; <i>Layettes du trésor des +chartes</i>, 1863, which were afterwards continued up to 1270; <i>Actes +du parlement de Paris</i>, 1863-1867), not to mention several volumes +of <i>Inventaires</i>. The administration of the Bibliothèque impériale +had printed the <i>Catalogue général de l’histoire de France</i> (10 vols., +1855-1870; vol. xi., containing the alphabetical index to the names +of the authors, appeared in 1895). Other countries also supplied +a number of useful texts; there is much in the English Rolls series, +in the collection of <i>Chroniques belges</i>, and especially in the <i>Monumenta +Germaniae historica</i>.</p> + +<p>At the same time the scope of history and its auxiliary sciences +becomes more clearly defined; the École des Chartes produces some +excellent palaeographers, as for instance Natalis de Wailly (<i>Éléments +de paléographie</i>, 1838), and L. Delisle (<i>q.v.</i>), who has also left traces of +his profound researches in the most varied departments of medieval +history (<i>Bibliographie des travaux de M. Léopold Delisle</i>, 1902); +Anatole de Barthélemy made a study of coins and medals, Douët +d’Arcq and G. Demay of seals. The works of Alexandre Lenoir +(<i>Musée des monuments français</i>, 1800-1822), of Arcisse de Caumont +(<i>Histoire de l’architecture du moyen âge</i>, 1837; <i>Abécédaire ou rudiment +d’archéologie</i>, 1850), of A. Napoléon Didron (<i>Annales archéologiques</i>, +1844), of Jules Quicherat (<i>Mélanges d’archéologie et d’histoire</i>, published +after his death, 1886), and the dictionaries of Viollet le Duc +(<i>Dictionnaire raisonné de l’architecture française</i>, 1853-1868; <i>Dictionnaire +du mobilier français</i>, 1855) displayed to the best advantage +one of the most brilliant sides of the French intellect, while other +sciences, such as geology, anthropology, the comparative study of +languages, religions and folk-lore, and political economy, continued +to enlarge the horizon of history. The task of writing the general +history of a country became more and more difficult, especially +for one man, but the task was none the less undertaken by several +historians, and by some of eminence. François Guizot treated of +the <i>Histoire de la civilisation en France</i> (1828-1830); Augustin +Thierry after the <i>Récits des temps mérovingiens</i> (1840) published +the <i>Monuments de l’histoire du tiers état</i> (1849-1856), the introduction +to which was expanded into a book (1855); Charles Simonde +de Sismondi produced a mediocre <i>Histoire des français</i> in 31 vols. +(1821-1844), and Henri Martin a <i>Histoire de France</i> in 16 vols. +(1847-1854), now of small use except for the two or three last centuries +of the <i>ancien régime</i>. Finally J. Michelet, in his <i>Histoire +de France</i> (17 vols., 1833-1856) and his <i>Histoire de la Révolution</i> +(7 vols., 1847-1853), aims at reviving the very soul of the nation’s +past.</p> + +<p>After the Franco-German War begins a better organization of +scientific studies, modelled on that of Germany. The École des +Hautes Études, established in 1868, included in its programme the +critical study of the sources, both Latin and French, of the history +of France; and from the <i>séminaire</i> of Gabriel Monod came men of +learning, already prepared by studying at the École des Chartes: +Paul Viollet, who revived the study of the history of French law; +Julien Havet, who revived that of Merovingian diplomatics; Arthur +Giry, who resumed the study of municipal institutions where it +had been left by A. Thierry, prepared the <i>Annales carolingiennes</i> +(written by his pupils, Eckel, Favre, Lauer, Lot, Poupardin), and +brought back into honour the study of diplomatics (<i>Manuel de +diplomatique</i>, 1894); Auguste Molinier, author of the <i>Sources de +l’histoire de France</i> (1902-1904; general index, 1906), &c. Auguste +Longnon introduced at the École des Hautes Études the study of +historical geography (<i>Atlas historique de la France</i>, in course of +publication since 1888). The universities, at last reorganized, +popularized the employment of the new methods. The books of +Fustel de Coulanges and Achille Luchaire on the middle ages, and +those of A. Aulard on the revolution, gave a strong, though well-regulated, +impetus to historical production. The École du Louvre +(1881) increased the value of the museums and placed the history +of art among the studies of higher education, while the Musée +archéologique of St-Germain-en-Laye offered a fruitful field for +research on Gallic and Gallo-Roman antiquities. Rich archives, +hitherto inaccessible, were thrown open to students; at Rome +those of the Vatican (<i>Registres pontificaux</i>, published by students +at the French school of archaeology, since 1884); at Paris, those of +the Foreign Office (<i>Recueil des instructions données aux ambassadeurs +depuis le traité de Westphalie</i>, 16 vols., 1885-1901; besides various +collections of diplomatic papers, inventories, &c.). Those of the +War Office were used by officers who published numerous documents +bearing on the wars of the Revolution and the Empire, and on that of +1870-1871. In 1904 a commission, generously endowed by the +French parlement, was entrusted with the task of publishing the +documents relating to economic and social life of the time of the +Revolution, and four volumes had appeared by 1908. Certain +towns, Paris, Bordeaux, &c., have made it a point of honour to have +their chief historical monuments printed. The work now becomes +more and more specialized. <i>L’Histoire de France</i>, by Ernest Lavisse +(1900, &c.), is the work of fifteen different authors. It is therefore +more than ever necessary that the work should be under sound +direction. The <i>Manuel de bibliographie historique</i> of Ch. V. Langlois +(2nd edition, 1901-1904) is a good guide, as is his <i>Archives de l’histoire +de France</i> (1891, in collaboration with H. Stein).</p> + +<p>Besides the special bibliographies mentioned above, it will be +useful to consult the <i>Bibliothèque historique</i> of Père Jacques Lelong +(1719; new ed. by Fevret de Fontette, 5 vols., 1768-1778); the +<i>Geschichte der historischen Forschung und Kunst</i> of Ludwig Wachler +(2 vols., 1812-1816); the <i>Bibliographie de la France</i>, established +in 1811 (1st series, 1811-1856, 45 vols.; 2nd series, 1 vol. per annum +since 1857); the publications of the Société de Bibliographie (<i>Polybiblion</i>, +from 1868 on, &c.); the <i>Bibliographie de l’histoire de France</i>, +by Gabriel Monod (1888); the <i>Répertoire</i> of the abbé Ulysse Chevalier +(<i>Biobibliographie</i>; new ed. 1903-1907; and <i>Topobibliographie</i>, +1894-1899). Bearing exclusively on the middle ages are the <i>Bibliotheca +historica medii aevi</i> of August Potthast (new ed. 1896) and the +<i>Manuel</i> (<i>Les Sources de l’histoire de France</i>, 1901, &c.) of A. Molinier; +but the latter is to be continued up to modern times, the 16th century +having already been begun by Henri Hausser (1st part, 1906). +Finally, various special reviews, besides teaching historical method +by criticism and by example, try to keep their readers <i>au courant</i> +with literary production; the <i>Revue critique d’histoire et de littérature</i> +(1866 fol.), the <i>Revue des questions historiques</i> (1866 fol.), the <i>Revue +historique</i> (1876 fol.), the <i>Revue d’histoire moderne et contemporaine</i>, +accompanied annually by a valuable <i>Répertoire méthodique</i> (1898 +fol.); the <i>Revue de synthèse historique</i> (1900 fol.), &c.</p> +</div> +<div class="author">(C. B.*)</div> + +<p class="pt2 center sc">French Law and Institutions</p> + +<p><i>Celtic Period.</i>—The remotest times to which history gives us +access with reference to the law and institutions formerly +existing in the country which is now called France are those in +which the dominant race at least was Celtic. On the whole, +our knowledge is small of the law and institutions of these Celts, +or Gauls, whose tribes constituted independent Gaul. For their +reconstruction, modern scholars draw upon two sources; firstly, +there is the information furnished by the classical writers and by +Caesar and Strabo in particular, which is trustworthy but somewhat +scanty; the other source, which is not so pure, consists in +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page907" id="page907"></a>907</span> +the accounts found in those legal works of the middle ages written +in the neo-Celtic dialects, the most important and the greater +number of which belong to Ireland. A reconstruction from them +is always hazardous, however delicate and scientific be the +criticism which is brought to bear on it, as in the case of d’Arbois +de Jubainville, for example. Moreover, in the historical evolution +of French institutions those of the Celts or Gauls are of little +importance. Not one of them can be shown to have survived +in later law. What has survived of the Celtic race is the blood +and temperament, still found in a great many Frenchmen, +certain traits which the ancients remarked in the Gauls being +still recognizable: <i>bellum gerere et argute loqui</i>.</p> + +<p><i>Roman Period.</i>—It was the Roman conquest and rule which +really formed Gaul, for she was Romanized to the point of losing +almost completely that which persists most stubbornly in a +conquered nation, namely, the language; the Breton-speaking +population came to France later, from Britain. The institutions +of Roman Gaul became identical with those of the Roman empire, +provincial and municipal government undergoing the same +evolution as in the other parts of the empire. It was under +Roman supremacy too, as M. d’Arbois de Jubainville has shown, +that the ownership of land became personal and free in Gaul. +The law for the Gallo-Romans was that which was administered +by the <i>conventus</i> of the magistrate; there are only a few peculiarities, +mere Gallicisms, resulting from conventions or usage, +which are pointed out by Roman jurisconsults of the classical +age. The administrative reforms of Diocletian and Constantine +applied to Gaul as to the rest of the empire. Gaul under this +rule consisted of seventeen provinces, divided between two +dioceses, ten in the diocese of the Gauls, under the authority +of the praetorian prefect, who resided at Treves; and the other +seven in the <i>dioecesis septem provinciarum</i>, under the authority +of a <i>vicarius</i>. The Gallo-Romans became Christian with the +other subjects of the empire; the Church extended thither her +powerful organization modelled on the administrative organization, +each <i>civitas</i> having a bishop, just as it had a <i>curia</i> and +municipal magistrates. But, although endowed with privileges +by the Christian emperors, the Church did not yet encroach upon +the civil power. She had the right of acquiring property, of +holding councils, subject to the imperial authority, and of the +free election of bishops. But only the first germs of ecclesiastical +jurisdiction are to be traced. In virtue of the laws, the bishops +were privileged arbitrators, and in the matter of public sins +exercised a disciplinary jurisdiction over the clergy and the +faithful. In the second half of the 4th century, monasteries +appeared in Gaul. After the fall of the Western empire, there was +left to the Gallo-Romans as an expression of its law, which was +also theirs, a written legislation. It consisted of the imperial +constitutions, contained in the Gregorian, Hermogenian and +Theodosian codes (the two former being private compilations, +and the third an official collection), and the writings of the +five jurists (Gaius, Papinian, Paulus, Ulpian and Modestinus), +to which Valentinian III. had in 426 given the force of law.</p> + +<p><i>The Barbarian Invasion.</i>—The invasions and settlements of +the barbarians open a new period. Though there were robbery +and violence in every case, the various barbarian kingdoms +set up in Gaul were established under different conditions. +In those of the Burgundians and Visigoths, the owners of the great +estates, which had been the prevailing form of landed property +in Roman Gaul, suffered partial dispossession, according to a +system the rules regulating which can, in the case of the Burgundians, +be traced almost exactly. It is doubtful whether a +similar process took place in the case of the Frankish settlements, +but their first conquests in the north and east seem to have led +to the extermination or total expulsion of the Gallo-Roman +population. It is impossible to say to what extent, in these +various settlements, the system of collective property prevailing +among the Germanic tribes was adopted. Another important +difference was that, in embracing Christianity, some of the +barbarians became Arians, as in the case of the Visigoths and +Burgundians; others Catholic, as in the case of the Franks. +This was probably the main cause of the absorption of the other +kingdoms into the Frankish monarchy. In each case, however, +the barbarian king appeared as wishing not to overthrow the +Roman administration, but to profit by its continuation. The +kings of the Visigoths and Burgundians were at first actually +representatives of the Western empire, and Clovis himself was +ready to accept from the emperor Anastasius the title of consul; +but these were but empty forms, similar to the fictitious ties +which long existed or still exist between China or Turkey and +certain parts of their former empires, now separated from them +for ever.</p> + +<p>As soon as the Merovingian monarch had made himself master +of Gaul, he set himself to maintain and keep in working order +the administrative machinery of the Romans, save that the +administrative unit was henceforth no longer the <i>provincia</i> but +the <i>civitas</i>, which generally took the name of <i>pagus</i>, and was +placed under the authority of a count, <i>comes</i> or <i>grafio</i> (<i>Graf</i>). +Perhaps this was not entirely an innovation, for it appears that +at the end of the Roman supremacy certain <i>civitates</i> had already +a <i>comes</i>. Further, several <i>pagi</i> could be united under the +authority of a <i>dux</i>. The <i>pagus</i> seems to have generally been +divided into hundreds (<i>centenae</i>).</p> + +<p>But the Roman administrative machinery was too delicate +to be handled by barbarians; it could not survive for long, +but underwent changes and finally disappeared. Thus the +Merovingians tried to levy the same direct taxes as the Romans +had done, the <i>capitatio terrena</i> and the <i>capitatio humana</i>, but +they ceased to be imposts reassessed periodically in accordance +with the total sum fixed as necessary to meet the needs of the +state, and became fixed annual taxes on lands or persons; +finally, they disappeared as general imposts, continuing to +exist only as personal or territorial dues. In the same way the +Roman municipal organization, that of the <i>curiae</i>, survived +for a considerable time under the Merovingians, but was used +only for the registration of written deeds; under the Carolingians +it disappeared, and with it the old senatorial nobility which +had been that of the Empire. The administration of justice +(apart from the king’s tribunal) seems to have been organized +on a system borrowed partly from Roman and partly from +Germanic institutions; it naturally tends to assume popular +forms. Justice is administered by the count (<i>comes</i>) or his +deputy (<i>centenarius</i> or <i>vicarius</i>), but on the verdict of notables +called in the texts <i>boni homines</i> or <i>rachimburgii</i>. This takes +place in an assembly of all the free subjects, called <i>mallus</i>, at +which every free man is bound to attend at least a certain number +of times a year, and in which are promulgated the general acts +emanating from the king. The latter could issue commands +or prohibitions under the name of <i>bannus</i>, the violation of which +entailed a fine of 60 <i>solidi</i>; the king also administered justice +(<i>in palatio</i>), assisted by the officers of his household, his jurisdiction +being unlimited and at the same time undefined. He could +hear all causes, but was not bound to hear any, except, apparently, +accusations of deliberate failure of justice and breach of trust +on the part of the <i>rachimburgii</i>.</p> + +<p>But what proved the great disturbing element in Gallo-Roman +society was the fact that the conquerors, owing to their former +customs and the degree of their civilization, were all warriors, +men whose chief interest was to become practised in the handling +of arms, and whose normal state was that of war. It is true +that under the Roman empire all the men of a <i>civitas</i> were +obliged, in case of necessity, to march against the enemy, and +under the Frankish monarchy the count still called together his +<i>pagenses</i> for this object. But the condition of the barbarian +was very different; he lived essentially for fighting. Hence +those gatherings or annual reviews of the <i>Campus Martius</i>, +which continued so long, in Austrasia at least. They constituted +the chief armed force; for mercenary troops, in spite of the +assertions of some to the contrary, play at this period only a +small part. But this military class, though not an aristocracy +(for among the Franks the royal race alone was noble), was +to a large extent independent, and the king had to attach +these <i>leudes</i> or <i>fideles</i> to himself by gifts and favours. At the +same time the authority of the king gradually underwent a +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page908" id="page908"></a>908</span> +change in character, though he always claimed to be the +successor of the Roman emperor. It gradually assumed that +<span class="sidenote">Character of the Merovingian kingship.</span> +domestic or personal character that, among the +Germans, marked most of the relations between +men. The household of the king gained in political +importance, by reason that the heads of the principal +offices in the palace became at the same time high +public officials. There was, moreover, a body of men more +especially attached to the king, the <i>antrustions</i> (<i>q.v.</i>) and the +commensals (<i>convivae regis</i>) whose <i>weregeld</i> (<i>i.e.</i> the price of a +man’s life in the system of compensation then prevalent) was three +times greater than that of the other subjects of the same race.</p> + +<p>The Frankish monarch had also the power of making laws, +which he exercised after consulting the chief men of the kingdom, +both lay and ecclesiastical, in the <i>placita</i>, which were meetings +differing from the <i>Campus Martius</i> and apparently modelled +principally on the councils of the Church. But throughout the +kingdom in many places the direct authority of the king over +the people ceased to make itself felt. The <i>immunitates</i>, granted +chiefly to the great ecclesiastical properties, limited this authority +in a curious way by forbidding public officials to exercise their +functions in the precinct of land which was <i>immunis</i>. The +judicial and fiscal rights frequently passed to the landowner, +who in any case became of necessity the intermediary between +the supreme power and the people. In regard to this last point, +moreover, the case seems to have been the same with all the +great landowners or <i>potentes</i>, whose territory was called <i>potestas</i>, +and who gained a real authority over those living within it; +later in the middle ages they were called <i>homines potestatis</i> +(<i>hommes de poeste</i>).</p> + +<p>Other principles, arising perhaps less from Germanic custom +strictly speaking than from an inferior level of civilization, also +contributed towards the weakening of the royal power. The +monarch, like his contemporaries, considered the kingdom and +the rights of the king over it to be his property; consequently, +he had the power of dealing with it as if it were a private possession; +it is this which gave rise to the concessions of royal rights +to individuals, and later to the partitions of the kingdom, and +then of the empire, between the sons of the king or emperor, +to the exclusion of the daughters, as in the division of an inheritance +in land. This proved one of the chief weaknesses of the +Merovingian monarchy.</p> + +<p>In order to rule the Gallo-Romans, the barbarians had had +inevitably to ask the help of the Church, which was the representative +of Roman civilization. Further, the Merovingian +monarch and the Catholic Church had come +<span class="sidenote">Position of the Church.</span> +into close alliance in their struggle with the Arians. +The result for the Church had been that she gained new +privileges, but at the same time became to a certain extent +dependent. Under the Merovingians the election of the bishop +<i>a clero et populo</i> is only valid if it obtains the assent (<i>assensus</i>) +of the king, who often directly nominates the prelate. But at +the same time the Church retains her full right of acquiring +property, and has her jurisdiction partially recognized; that is to +say, she not only exercises more freely than ever a disciplinary +jurisdiction, but the bishop, in place of the civil power, administers +civil and criminal justice over the clergy. The councils +had for a long time forbidden the clergy to cite one another before +secular tribunals; they had also, in the 6th century, forbidden +secular judges under pain of excommunication to cite before them +and judge the clergy, without permission of the bishop. A +decree of Clotaire II. (614) acknowledged the validity of these +claims, but not completely; a precise interpretation of the text +is, however, difficult.</p> + +<p>The Merovingian dynasty perished of decay, amid increasing +anarchy. The crown passed, with the approval of the papacy, +to an Austrasian mayor of the palace and his family, +one of those mayors of the palace (<i>i.e.</i> chief officer of +<span class="sidenote">Carolingian period.</span> +the king’s household) who had been the last support +of the preceding dynasty. It was then that there +developed a certain number of institutions, which offered themselves +as useful means of consolidating the political organism, +and were in reality the direct precursors of feudalism. One was +the royal benefice (<i>beneficium</i>), of which, without doubt, the +Church provided both the model and, in the first instance, the +material. The model was the <i>precaria</i>, a form of concession by +which it was customary for the Church to grant the possession +of her lands to free men; this practice she herself had copied +from the five-years leases granted by the Roman exchequer. +Gradually, however, the <i>precaria</i> had become a concession made, +in most cases, free and for life. As regards the material, when +<span class="sidenote">Beginnings of the feudal system.</span> +the Austrasian mayors of the palace (probably Charles +Martel) wished to secure the support of the <i>fideles</i> +by fresh benefits, the royal treasury being exhausted, +they turned to the Church, which was at that time the +greatest landowner, and took lands from her to give to +their warriors. In order to disguise the robbery it was decided—perhaps +as an afterthought—that these lands should be held as +<i>precariae</i> from the Church, or from the monastic houses which +had furnished them. Later, when the royal treasury was +reorganized, the grants of land made by the kings naturally took +a similar form: the <i>beneficium</i>, as a free grant for life. Under the +Merovingians royal grants of land were in principle made in full +ownership, except, as Brunner has shown, that provision was +made for a revocation under certain circumstances. No special +services seem to have been attached to the benefice, whether +granted by the king or by some other person, but, in the second +half of the 9th century at least, the possession of the benefice +is found as the characteristic of the military class and the form +of their pay. This we find clearly set forth in the treatise +<i>de ecclesiis et capellis</i> of Hincmar of Reims. The <i>beneficium</i>, in +obedience to a natural law, soon tended to crystallize into a +perpetual and hereditary right. Another institution akin to the +<i>beneficium</i> was the <i>senioratus</i>; by the <i>commendatio</i>, a form of +solemn contract, probably of Germanic origin, and chiefly +characterized by the placing of the hands between those of the +lord, a man swore absolute fidelity to another man, who became +his <i>senior</i>. It became the generally received idea (as expressed +in the capitularies) that it was natural and normal for every +free man to have a <i>senior</i>. At the same time a benefice was +never granted unless accompanied by the <i>commendatio</i> of the +beneficiary to the grantor. As the most important <i>seniores</i> were +thus bound to the king and received from him their benefices, +he expected through them to command their men; but in reality +the king disappeared little by little in the <i>senior</i>. The king +granted as benefices not only lands, but public functions, such +as those of count or <i>dux</i>, which thus became possessions, held, first +for life, and later as hereditary properties. The Capitulary of +Kiersy-sur-Oise (877), which was formerly considered to have +made fiefs legally and generally hereditary, only proves that it +was already the custom for benefices of this kind, <i>honores</i>, to +pass from the father to one of the sons.</p> + +<p>Charlemagne, while sanctioning these institutions, tried to +arrest the political decomposition. He reorganized the administration +of justice, fixing the respective jurisdictions of the +count and the <i>centenarius</i>, substituting for the <i>rachimburgii</i> +<span class="sidenote">Reforms of Charlemagne.</span> +permanent <i>scabini</i>, chosen by the count in the +presence of the people, and defining the relations of +the count, as the representative of the central authority, with +the <i>advocati</i> or <i>judices</i> of <i>immunitates</i> and <i>potestates</i>. He reorganized +the army, determining the obligations and the military +outfit of free men according to their means. Finally, he established +those regular inspections by the <i>missi dominici</i> which are +the subject of so many of his capitularies. From the <i>De ordine +palatii</i> of Hincmar of Reims, who follows the account of a contemporary +of the great emperor, we learn that he also regularly +established two general assemblies, <i>conventus</i> or <i>placita</i>, in the +year, one in the autumn, the other in the spring, which were +attended by the chief officials, lay and ecclesiastical. It was +here that the capitularies (<i>q.v.</i>) and all important measures were +first drawn up and then promulgated. The revenues of the +Carolingian monarch (which are no longer <span class="correction" title="amended from indentical">identical</span> with the +finances of the state) consisted chiefly in the produce of the +royal lands (<i>villae</i>), which the king and his suite often came and +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page909" id="page909"></a>909</span> +consumed on the spot; and it is known how carefully Charlemagne +regulated the administration of the <i>villae</i>. There were +also the free gifts which the great men were bound, according +<span class="sidenote">Carolingian fiscal system.</span> +to custom, to bring to the <i>conventus</i>, the contributions +of this character from the monasteries practically +amounting to a tax; the regular personal or territorial +dues into which the old taxes had resolved themselves; +the profits arising from the courts (the royal <i>bannus</i>, and the +<i>fredum</i>, or part of the compensation-money which went to the +king); finally, numberless requisitions in kind, a usage which had +without doubt existed continuously since Roman times. The +Church was loaded with honours and had added a fresh prerogative +to her former privileges, namely, the right of levying a +real tax in kind, the <i>tithe</i>. Since the 3rd century she had tried to +exact the payment of tithes from the faithful, interpreting as +applicable to the Christian clergy the texts in the Old Testament +bearing on the Levites; Gallican councils had repeatedly +proclaimed it as an obligation, though, it appears, with little +success. But from the reign of Pippin the Short onwards the +civil law recognized and sanctioned this obligation, and the +capitularies of Charlemagne and Louis the Debonnaire contain +numerous provisions dealing with it. Ecclesiastical jurisdiction +<span class="sidenote">The Church under Charlemagne.</span> +extended farther and farther, but Charlemagne, the +protector of the papacy, maintained firmly his authority +over the Church. He nominated its dignitaries, both +bishops and abbots, who were true ecclesiastical +officials, parallel with the lay officials. In each <i>pagus</i>, +bishop and count owed each other mutual support, and the missi +on the same circuit were ordinarily a count and a bishop. In +the first collection of capitularies, that of Ansegisus, two books +out of four are devoted to ecclesiastical capitularies.</p> + +<p>What, then, was the private and criminal law of this Frankish +monarchy which had come to embrace so many different races? +The men of Roman descent continued under the Roman +law, and the conquerors could not hope to impose their +<span class="sidenote">The law under the Frank monarchy.</span> +customs upon them. The authorized expression of +the Roman law was henceforth to be found in the <i>Lex +romana Wisigothorum</i> or <i>Breviarium Alarici</i>, drawn up by order +of Alaric II. in 506. It is an abridgment of the codes, of that +of Theodosius especially, and of certain of the writings of the +jurists included under the Law of Citations. As to the barbarians, +they had hitherto had nothing but customs, and these customs, +of which the type nearest to the original is to be found in the oldest +text of the <i>Lex Salica</i>, were nothing more than a series of tariffs +of compensations, that is to say, sums of money due to the injured +party or his family in case of crimes committed against individuals, +for which crimes these compensations were the only penalty. +They also introduced a barbarous system of trial, that by compurgation, +<i>i.e.</i> exculpation by the oath of the defendant supported +by a certain number of <i>cojurantes</i>, and that by ordeal, later called +<i>judicium Dei</i>. In each new kingdom the barbarians naturally +kept their own laws, and when these men of different races all +became subject to the Frankish monarchy, there evolved itself +a system (called the <i>personnalité des lois</i>) by which every subject +had, in principle, the right to be tried by the law of the race to +which he belonged by birth (or sometimes for some other reason, +such as emancipation or marriage). When the two adversaries +were of different race, it was the law of the defendant which had +to be applied. The customs of the barbarians had been drawn +up in Latin. Sometimes, as in the case of the first text of the +Salic law, the system on which they were compiled is not exactly +known; but it was generally done under the royal authority. +At this period only these written documents bear the name of +“law” (<i>leges romanorum</i>; <i>leges barbarorum</i>), and at least the +tacit consent of the people seems to have been required for these +collections of laws, in accordance with an axiom laid down in a +later capitulary; <i>lex fit consensu populi et constitutione regis</i>. +It is noteworthy, too, that in the process of being drawn up in +Latin, most of the <i>leges barbarorum</i> were very much Romanized.</p> + +<p>In the midst of this diversity, a certain number of causes +tended to produce a partial unity. The capitularies, which had +in themselves the force of law, when there was no question of +modifying the <i>leges</i>, constituted a legislation which was the same +for all; often they inflicted corporal punishment for grave +offences, which applied to all subjects without distinction. Usage +and individual convenience led to the same result. The Gallo-Romans, +and even the Church itself, to a certain extent, adopted +the methods of trial introduced by the Germans, as was likely +in a country relapsing into barbarism. On the other hand, +written acts became prevalent among the barbarians, and at +the same time they assimilated a certain amount of Roman law; +for these acts continued to be drawn up in Latin, after Roman +models, which were in most cases simply misinterpreted owing +to the general ignorance. The type is preserved for us in those +collections of <i>Formulae</i>, of which complete and scientific editions +have been published by Eugène de Rozière and Carl Zeumer. +During this period, too, the Gallican Church adopted the collection +of councils and decretals, called later the <i>Codex canonum +ecclesiae Gallicanae</i>, which she continued to preserve. This +collection was that of Dionysius Exiguus, which was sent to +Charlemagne in 774 by Pope Adrian I. But in the course of +the 9th century apocryphal collections were also formed in the +Gallican Church: the False Capitularies of Benedictus Levita, +and the False Decretals of Isidorus Mercator (see <span class="sc"><a href="#artlinks">Decretals</a></span>).</p> + +<p>All the subjects of the Frankish monarchy were not of equal +status. There was, strictly speaking, no nobility, both the +Roman and the Germanic nobility having died out; but slavery +continued to exist. The Church, however, was preparing the +transformation of the slave into the serf, by giving force and +validity to their marriages, in cases, at least, when the master +had approved of them, and by forbidding the latter unjustly +to seize the slave’s <i>peculium</i>. But between the free man (<i>ingenuus</i>) +and the slave lay a number of persons of intermediate status; +they possessed legal personality but were subject to incapacities +of various kinds, and had to perform various duties towards +other men. There was, to begin with, the Roman colonist +(<i>colonus</i>), a class as to the origin of which there is still a controversy, +and of which there is no clear mention in the laws before +the 4th century; they and their children after them were +attached perpetually to a certain piece of land, which they were +allowed to cultivate on payment of a rent. There were, further, +the <i>liti</i> (<i>litus</i> or <i>lidus</i>), a similar class of Germanic origin; also +the greater number of the freedmen or descendants of freedmen. +Many free men who had fled to the great landowners for protection +took, by arrangement or by custom, a similar position. +Under the Merovingian régime, and especially under the Carolingians, +the occupation of the land tended to assume the character +of tenure; but free ownership of land continued to exist under +the name of <i>alod</i> (<i>alodis</i>), and there is even evidence for the +existence of this in the form of small properties, held by free +men; the capitularies contain numerous complaints and threats +against the counts, who endeavoured by the abuse of their +power to obtain the surrender of these properties.</p> + +<p><i>Period of Anarchy and the Rise of Feudalism.</i>—The 10th and +11th centuries were a period of profound anarchy, during which +feudalism was free to develop itself and to take definitive +shape. At that time the French people may be +<span class="sidenote">Anarchy and feudal origins.</span> +said to have lived without laws, without even fixed +customs and without government. The legislative +power was no longer exercised, for the last Carolingian capitularies +date from the year 884, and the first laws of the Capetian kings +(if they may be called laws) do not appear till during the 12th +century. During this period the old capitularies and <i>leges</i> fell +into disuse and in their place territorial customs tended to grow +up, their main constituents being furnished by the law of former +times, but which were at the outset ill-defined and strictly +local. As to the government, if the part played by the Church +be excepted, we shall see that it could be nothing but the application +of brute force. In this anarchy, as always happens under +similar conditions, men drew together and formed themselves +into groups for mutual defence. A nucleus was formed which +was to become the new social unit, that is to say, the feudal +group. Of this the centre was a chief, around whom gathered +men capable of bearing arms, who commended themselves to +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page910" id="page910"></a>910</span> +him according to the old form of vassalage, <i>per manus</i>. They +owed him fidelity and assistance, the support of their arms but +not of their purse, save in quite exceptional cases; while he +owed them protection. Some of them lived in his castle or +fortified house, receiving their equipment only and eating at his +table. Others received lands from him, which were, or later +became, fiefs, on which they lived <i>casati</i>. The name fief, <i>feudum</i>, +does not appear, however, till towards the end of this period; +these lands are frequently called <i>beneficia</i> as before; the term +most in use at first, in many parts, is <i>casamentum</i>. The fief, +moreover, was generally held for life and did not become generally +hereditary till the second half of the 11th century. The lands +kept by the chief and those which he granted to his men were +for the most part rented from him, or from them, for a certain +amount in money or in kind. All these conditions had already +existed previously in much the same form; but the new development +is that the chief was no longer, as before, merely an intermediary +between his men and the royal power. The group +had become in effect independent, so organized as to be socially +and politically self-sufficient. It constituted a small army, +led, naturally, by the chief, and composed of his feudatories, +supplemented in case of need by the <i>rustici</i>. It also formed an +assembly in which common interests were discussed, the lord, +according to custom, being bound to consult his feudatories +and they to advise him to the best of their power. It also +formed a court of justice, in which the feudatories gave judgment +under the presidency of their lord; and all of them claimed +to be subject only to the jurisdiction of this tribunal composed +of their peers. Generally they also judged the villeins (<i>villani</i>) +and the serfs dependent on the group, except in cases where +the latter obtained as a favour judges of their own status, which +was, however, at that time a very rare occurrence.</p> + +<p>Under these conditions a nobility was formed, those men +becoming nobles who were able to devote themselves to the +profession of arms and were either chiefs or soldiers in one of the +groups which have just been described. The term designating +a noble, <i>miles</i>, corresponds also to that of knight (Fr. <i>chevalier</i>, +Low Lat. <i>caballerius</i>), for the reason that chivalry, of which the +origins are uncertain, represents essentially the technical skill +and professional duties of this military class. Every noble was +destined on coming of age to become a knight, and the knight +equally as a matter of course received a fief, if he had not one +already by hereditary title. This nobility, moreover, was not +a caste but could be indefinitely recruited by the granting of +fiefs and admission to knighthood (see <span class="sc"><a href="#artlinks">Knighthood and +Chivalry</a></span>).</p> + +<p>The state of anarchy was by now so far advanced that war +became an individual right, and the custom of private war arose. +Every man had in principle the right of making war +to defend his rights or to avenge his wrongs. Later +<span class="sidenote">Private war.</span> +on, doubtless, in the 13th century, this was a privilege +of the noble (<i>gentilhomme</i>); but the texts defining the limits +which the Church endeavoured to set to this abuse, namely, the +Peace of God and the Truce of God, show that this was at the +outset a power possessed by men of all classes. Even a man +who had appeared in a court of law and received judgment +had the choice of refusing to accept the judgment and of +making war instead. Justice, moreover, with its frequent +employment of trial by combat, did not essentially differ from +private war.</p> + +<p>It is unnecessary to go further and to affirm, with certain +historians of our time, for example Guilhermoz and Sée, that +the only free men at that time, besides the clergy, were the nobles, +all the rest being serfs. There are many indications which lead +us to assume, not only in the towns but even in the country +districts, the existence of a class of men of free status who were +not <i>milites</i>, the class later known in the 13th century as <i>vilains</i>, +<i>hommes de poeste</i>, and, later, <i>roturiers</i>. The fact more probably +was that only the nobles and ecclesiastics were exempt from the +exactions of the feudal lords; while from all the others the +seigneurs could at pleasure levy the <i>taille</i> (a direct and arbitrary +tax), and those innumerable rights then called <i>consuetudines</i>. +Free ownership, the <i>allodium</i>, even under the form of small +freeholds, still existed by way of exception in many parts.</p> + +<p>Had, then, the main public authority disappeared? This is +practically the contention of certain writers, who, like M. Sée, +maintain that real property, the possession of a domain, conferred +on the big landed proprietor all rights of taxation, command and +coercion over the inhabitants of his domain, who, according to +this view, were always serfs. But this is an exaggeration of +the thesis upheld by old French authors, who saw in feudalism, +though in a different sense, a confusion of property with +sovereignty. It appears that in this state of political disintegration +each part of the country which had a homogeneous character +tended to form itself into a higher unit. In this unit there arose +a powerful lord, generally a duke, a count, or a viscount, who +sometimes came to be called the <i>capitalis dominus</i>. He was +either a former official of the monarchy, whose function had +become hereditary, or a usurper who had formed himself on this +model. He laid claim to an authority other than that conferred +by the possession of real property. He still claimed to exercise +over the whole of his former district certain rights, which we see +him sometimes surrendering for the benefit of churches or +monasteries. His court of justice was held in the highest honour, +and to it were referred the most important affairs. But in this +district there were generally a number of more or less powerful +lords, who as a rule had as yet no particular feudal title and are +often given the name of <i>principes</i>. Often, but not always, they +had commended themselves to this duke or count by doing +homage.</p> + +<p>On the other hand, the royal power continued to exist, being +recognized by a considerable part of old Gaul, the <i>regnum +Francorum</i>. But under the last of the Carolingians it +had in fact become elective, as is shown by the elections +<span class="sidenote">The royal power.</span> +of Odo and Robert before that of Hugh Capet. The +electors were the chief lords and prelates of the <i>regnum Francorum</i>. +But following a clever policy, each king during his +lifetime took as partner of his kingdom his eldest son and consecrated +and crowned him in advance, so that the first of the +Capetians revived the principle of heredity in favour of the +eldest son, while establishing the hereditary indivisibility of +the kingdom. This custom was recognized at the accession of +Louis the Fat, but the authority of the king was very weak, +being merely a vague allegiance. His only real authority lay +where his own possessions were, or where there had not arisen +a duke, a count, or lord of equal rank with them. He maintained, +however, a general right of administering justice, a <i>curia</i>, the +jurisdiction of which seems to have been universal. It is true +that the parties in a suit had to submit themselves to it voluntarily, +and could accept or reject the judgment given, but this was at +that time the general rule. The king dispensed justice surrounded +by the officers of his household (<i>domestici</i>), who thus formed his +council; but these were not the only ones to assist him, whether +in court or council. Periodically, at the great yearly festivals, +he called together the chief lords and prelates of his kingdom, +thus carrying on the tradition of the Carolingian <i>placita</i> or +<i>conventus</i>; but little by little, with the appropriation of the +<i>honores</i>, the character of the gathering changed; it was no +longer an assembly of officials but of independent lords. This +was now called the <i>curia regis</i>.</p> + +<p>While the power of the State was almost disappearing, that +of the Church, apart from the particular acts of violence of +which she was often the victim, continued to grow. +Her jurisdiction gained ground, since her procedure +<span class="sidenote">The Church.</span> +was reasonable and comparatively scientific (except +that she admitted to a certain extent compurgation by oath +and the <i>judicia Dei</i>, with the exception of trial by combat). +Not only was the privilege of clergy, by which accused clerks +were brought under her jurisdiction, almost absolute, but she +had cognizance of a number of causes in which laymen only were +concerned, marriage and everything nearly or remotely affecting +it, wills, crimes and offences against religion; and even contracts, +when the two parties wished it or when the agreement was made +on oath, came within her competence. Such, then, were the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page911" id="page911"></a>911</span> +ecclesiastical or Christian courts (<i>cours d’église, course de chrétienté</i>). +The Church, moreover, remained in close connexion with the +crown, the king preserving a quasi-ecclesiastical character, +while the royal prerogatives with regard to the election of bishops +were maintained more successfully than the rights of the crown, +though in many of the great fiefs they none the less passed to +the count or the duke. It was at this time too that the Church +tried to break the last ties which still kept her more or less +dependent on the civil power; this was the true import of the +Investiture Contest (see <span class="sc"><a href="#artlinks">Investiture</a></span>, and <span class="sc"><a href="#artlinks">Church History</a></span>), +though this was not very acute in France.</p> + +<p>The period of the true feudal monarchy is embraced by the 12th +and 13th centuries, that is to say, it was at this time that the +crown again assumed real strength and authority; +<span class="sidenote">The feudal monarchy.</span> +but so far it had no organs and instruments save those +which were furnished by feudalism, now organized +under a regular hierarchy, of which the king was the +head, the “sovereign enfeoffer of the kingdom” (<i>souverain +fieffeux du royaume</i>), as he came later on to be called. This new +position of affairs was the result of three great factors: the +revival of Roman Law, the final organization of feudalism +and the rise of the privileged towns. The revival of Roman +law began in France and Italy in the second half +<span class="sidenote">Roman law.</span> +of the 11th century, developing with extraordinary +brilliance in the latter country at the university of +Bologna, which was destined for a long time to dominate Europe. +Roman law spread rapidly in the French schools and universities, +except that of Paris, which was closed to it by the papacy; and +the influence of this study was so great that it transformed +society. On the one hand it contributed largely to the reconstitution +of the royal power, modelling the rights of the king on +those of the Roman emperor. On the other hand it wrought a +no less profound change in private law. From this time dates +the division of old France into the <i>Pays de droit écrit</i>, in which +Roman law, under the form in which it was codified by Justinian, +was received as the ordinary law; and the <i>Pays de coutume</i>, +<span class="sidenote">The customs.</span> +where it played only a secondary part, being +generally valid only as <i>ratio scripta</i> and not as <i>lex +scripta</i>. In this period the customs also took definitive form, +and over and above the local customs properly so called there +were formed customs known as <i>general</i>, which held good through +a whole province or <i>bailliage</i>, and were based on the jurisprudence +of the higher jurisdictions.</p> + +<p>The final organization of feudalism resulted from the struggle +for organization which was proceeding in each district where +the more powerful lords compelled the others to do +them homage and become their vassals; the <i>capitalis dominus</i> +<span class="sidenote">Final organization of feudalism.</span> +had beneath him a whole hierarchy, and was +himself a part of the feudal system of France (see +<span class="sc"><a href="#artlinks">Feudalism</a></span>). Doubtless in the case of lords like the dukes of +Brittany and Burgundy, the king could not actually demand +the strict fulfilment of the feudal obligations; but the principle +was established. The question now arises, did free and absolute +property, the <i>allodium</i>, entirely disappear in this process, and +were all lands held as tenures? It continued to exist, by way +of exception, in most districts, unchanged save in the burden +of proof of ownership, with which, according to the customs, +sometimes the lord and sometimes the holder of the land was held +charged. In one respect, however, namely in the +<span class="sidenote">Feudal character of justice.</span> +administration of justice, the feudal hierarchy had +absolute sway. Towards the end of the 13th century +Beaumanoir clearly laid down this principle: “All +secular jurisdiction in France is held from the king as a fief or +an <i>arrière-fief</i>.” Henceforth it could also be said that “All +justice emanates from the king.” The law concerning fiefs +became settled also from another point of view, the fief becoming +patrimonial; that is to say, not only hereditary, but freely +alienable by the vassal, subject in both cases to certain rights of +transfer due to the lord, which were at first fixed by agreement +and later by custom. The most salient features of feudal +succession were the right of primogeniture and the <span class="correction" title="amended from perference">preference</span> +given to heirs-male; but from the 13th century onwards the +right of primogeniture, which had at first involved the total +exclusion of the younger members of a family, tended to be +modified, except in the case of the chief lords, the eldest son +obtaining the preponderant share or <i>préciput</i>. Non-noble +(<i>roturier</i>) tenancies also became patrimonial in similar circumstances, +except that in their case there was no right of primogeniture +nor any privilege of males. The tenure of serfs did not +become alienable, and only became hereditary by certain +devices.</p> + +<p>Feudal society next saw the rise of a new element within it: +the privileged towns. At this time many towns acquired +privileges, the movement beginning towards the end +of the 11th century; they were sanctioned by a formal +<span class="sidenote">Rise of the privileged towns.</span> +concession from the lord to whom the town was subject, +the concession being embodied in a charter or in +a record of customs (<i>coutume</i>). Some towns won for themselves +true political rights, for instance the right of self-administration, +rights of justice over the inhabitants, the right of not being +taxed except by their own consent, of maintaining an armed +force, and of controlling it themselves. Others only obtained +civil rights, <i>e.g.</i> guarantees against the arbitrary rights of justice +and taxation of the lord or his provost. The chief forms of +municipal organization at this time were the <i>commune jurée</i> of +the north and east, and the <i>consulat</i>, which came from Italy and +penetrated as far as Auvergne and Limousin. The towns with +important privileges formed in feudal society as it were a new +class of lordships; but their lords, that is to say their burgesses, +were inspired by quite a new spirit. The crown courted their +support, taking them under its protection, and championing +the causes in which they were interested (see <span class="sc"><a href="#artlinks">Commune</a></span>). Finally, +it is in this period, under Philip Augustus, that the great fiefs +began to be effectually reannexed to the crown, a process which, +continued by the kings up to the end of the <i>ancien régime</i>, refounded +for their profit the territorial sovereignty of France.</p> + +<p>The crown maintained the machinery of feudalism, the chief +central instruments of which were the great officers of the crown, +the seneschal, butler, constable and chancellor, who +were to become irremovable officials, those at least +<span class="sidenote">Great officers of the crown and peers of France.</span> +who survived. But this period saw the rise of a +special college of dignitaries, that of the Twelve Peers +of France, consisting of six laymen and six ecclesiastics, +which took definitive shape at the beginning of the +13th century. We cannot yet discern with any certainty by +what process it was formed, why those six prelates and those six +great feudatories in particular were selected rather than others +equally eligible. But there is no doubt that we have here a +result of that process of feudal organization mentioned above; +the formation of a similar assembly of twelve peers occurs also +in a certain number of the great fiefs. Besides the part which +they played at the consecration of kings, the peers of France +formed a court in which they judged one another under the +presidency of the king, their overlord, according to feudal custom. +But the <i>cour des pairs</i> in this sense was not separate from the +<i>curia regis</i>, and later from the parlement of Paris, of which the +peers of France were by right members. From this time, too, +dates another important institution, that of the <i>maîtres des +requêtes</i>.</p> + +<p>The legislative power of the crown again began to be exercised +during the 12th century, and in the 13th century had full authority +over all the territories subject to the crown. Beaumanoir +has a very interesting theory on this subject. +<span class="sidenote">Growth of the royal power.</span> +The right of war tends to regain its natural equilibrium, +the royal power following the Church in the endeavour +to check private wars. Hence arose the <i>quarantaine le roi</i>, +due to Philip Augustus or Saint Louis, by which those relatives +of the parties to a quarrel who had not been present at the quarrel +were rendered immune from attack for forty days after it; +and above all the <i>assurements</i> imposed by the king or lord; +on these points too Beaumanoir has an interesting theory. +The rule was, moreover, already in force by which private wars +had to cease during the time that the king was engaged in a +foreign war. But the most appreciable progress took place in the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page912" id="page912"></a>912</span> +administrative and judicial institutions. Under Philip Augustus +arose the royal <i>baillis</i> (see <span class="sc"><a href="#artlinks">Bailiff</a></span>: section <i>Bailli</i>), and seneschals +(<i>q.v.</i>), who were the representatives of the king in the provinces, +and superior judges. At the same time the form of the feudal +courts tended to change, as they began more and more to be +influenced by the Romano-canonical law. Saint Louis had +striven to abolish trial by combat, and the Church had condemned +other forms of ordeal, the <i>purgatio vulgaris</i>. In most parts of +the country the feudal lords began to give place in the courts of +law to the provosts (<i>prévôts</i>) and <i>baillis</i> of the lords or of the +crown, who were the judges, having as their councillors the +<i>avocats</i> (advocates) and <i>procureurs</i> (procurators) of the assize. +The feudal courts, which were founded solely on the relations of +homage and tenure, before which the vassals and tenants as +such appeared, disappeared in part from the 13th century on. +Of the seigniorial jurisdictions there soon remained only the +<i>hautes</i> or <i>basses justices</i> (in the 14th century arose an intermediate +grade, the <i>moyenne justice</i>), all of which were considered to be +concessions of the royal power, and so delegations of the public +authority. As a result of the application of Roman and canon +law, there arose the <i>appeal</i> strictly so called, both in the class of +royal and of seigniorial jurisdictions, the case in the latter instance +going finally before a royal court, from which henceforth there +was no appeal. In the 13th century too appeared the theory +of crown cases (<i>cas royaux</i>), cases which the lords became incompetent +to try and which were reserved for the royal court. +Finally, the <i>curia regis</i> was gradually transformed into a regular +court of justice, the <i>Parlement</i> (<i>q.v.</i>), as it was already called +in the second half of the 13th century. At this time the king +no longer appeared in it regularly, and before each session (for +it was not yet a permanent body) a list of properly qualified men +was drawn up in advance to form the parlement, only those whose +names were on the list being capable of sitting in it. Its main +function had come to be that of a final court of appeal. At the +various sessions, which were regularly held at Paris, appeared +the <i>baillis</i> and seneschals, who were called upon to answer for +the cases they had judged and also for their administration. +The accounts were received by members of the parlement at +the Temple, and this was the origin of the Cour or Chambre des +Comptes.</p> + +<p>At the end of this period the nobility became an exclusive +class. It became an established rule that a man had to be noble +in order to be made a knight, and even in order to +acquire a fief; but in this latter respect the king +<span class="sidenote">Nobles, commons and the Church in the 13th century.</span> +made exceptions in the case of <i>roturiers</i>, who were +licensed to take up fiefs, subject to a payment known +as the <i>droits de franc-fief</i>. The <i>roturiers</i>, or villeins +who were not in a state of thraldom, were already a +numerous class not only in the towns but in the country. +The Church maintained her privileges; a few attempts only +were made to restrain the abuse, not the extent, of her jurisdiction. +This jurisdiction was, during the 12th century, to a certain +extent regularized, the bishop nominating a special functionary +to hold his court; this was the <i>officialis</i> (Fr. <i>official</i>), whence the +name of <i>officialité</i> later applied in France to the ecclesiastical +jurisdictions. On one point, however, her former rights were +diminished. She preserved the right of freely acquiring personal +and real property, but though she could still acquire feudal +tenures she could not keep them; the customs decided that she +must <i>vider les mains</i>, that is, alienate the property again within +a year and a day. The reason for this new rule was that the +Church, the ecclesiastical establishment, is a proprietor who +does not die and in principle does not surrender her property; +consequently, the lords had no longer the right of exacting the +transfer duties on those tenures which she acquired. It was +possible, however, to compromise and allow the Church to keep +the tenure on condition of the consent not only of the lord +directly concerned, but of all the higher lords up to the <i>capitalis +dominus</i>; it goes without saying that this concession was only +obtained by the payment of pecuniary compensations, the chief +of which was the <i>droit d’amortissement</i>, paid to these different +lords. In this period the form of the episcopal elections underwent +a change, the electoral college coming to consist only of the +canons composing the chapter of the cathedral church. But +except for the official candidatures, which were abused by the +kings and great lords, the elections were regular; the Pragmatic +Sanction, attributed to Saint Louis, which implies the contrary, +is nowadays considered apocryphal by the best critics.</p> + +<p>Finally, it must be added that during the 13th century criminal +law was profoundly modified. Under the influence of Roman +law a system of arbitrary penalties replaced those +laid down by the customs, which had usually been +<span class="sidenote">Changes in criminal law.</span> +fixed and cruel. The criminal procedure of the feudal +courts had been based on the right of accusation +vested only in the person wronged and his relations; for this +was substituted the inquisitorial procedure (<i>processus per +inquisitionem</i>), which had developed in the canon law at the very +end of the 12th century, and was to become the <i>procédure à +l’extraordinaire</i> of the <i>ancien régime</i>, which was conducted in +secret and without free defence and debate. Of this procedure +torture came to be an ordinary and regular part.</p> + +<p>The customs, which at that time contained almost the whole +of the law for a great part of France, were not fixed by being +written down. In that part of France which was +subject to customary law (<i>la France coutumière</i>) they +<span class="sidenote">The customs.</span> +were defined when necessary by the verdict of a jury +of practitioners in what was called the <i>enquête par turbes</i>; some +of them, however, were, in part at least, authentically recorded +in seigniorial charters, <i>chartes de ville</i> or <i>chartes de coutume</i>. +Their rules were also recorded by experts in private works or +collections called <i>livres coutumiers</i>, or simply <i>coutumiers</i> +(customaries). The most notable of these are <i>Les Coutumes +de Beauvoisis</i> of Philippe de Beaumanoir, which Montesquieu +justly quotes as throwing light on those times; also the <i>Très +ancienne coutume de Normandie</i> and the <i>Grand Coutumier de +Normandie</i>; the <i>Conseil à un ami of Pierre des Fontaines</i>, the +<i>Établissements de Saint Louis</i>; the <i>Livre de jostice et de plet</i>. +At the same time the clerks of important judges began to collect +in registers notable decisions; it is in this way that we have +preserved to us the old decisions of the exchequer of Normandy, +and the <i>Olim</i> registers of the parlement of Paris.</p> + +<p><i>The Limited Monarchy</i>.—The 14th and 15th centuries were +the age of the limited monarchy. Feudal institutions kept +their political importance; but side by side with them arose +others of which the object was the direct exercise of the royal +authority; others also arose from the very heart of feudalism, +but at the same time transformed its laws in order to adapt them +to the new needs of the crown. In this period certain rules for +the succession to the throne were fixed by precedents: the +exclusion of women and of male descendants in the female +line, and the principle that a king could not by an act of will +change the succession of the crown. The old <i>curia regis</i> disappeared +and was replaced by the parlement as to its judicial +functions, while to fulfil its deliberative functions there was +formed a new body, the royal council (<i>conseil du roi</i>), an administrative +and governing council, which was in no way of a +feudal character. The number of its members was at first small, +but they tended to increase; soon the brevet of <i>conseiller du +roi en ses conseils</i> was given to numerous representatives of the +clergy and nobility, the great officers of the crown becoming +members by right. Side by side with these officials, whose power +was then at its height, there were gradually evolved more +subservient ministers who could be dispensed with at will; +the <i>secrétaires des commandements du roi</i> of the 15th century, +who in the 16th century developed into the <i>secrétaires d’état</i>, +and were themselves descended from the <i>clercs du secret</i> and +<i>secrétaires des finances</i> of the 14th century. The College of the +Twelve Peers of France had not its full numbers at the end of +the 13th century; the six ecclesiastical peerages existed and +continued to exist to the end, together with the archbishopric +and bishoprics to which they were attached, not being suppressed; +but several of the great fiefs to which six lay peerages had been +attached had been annexed to the crown. To fill these vacancies, +Philip the Fair raised the duchies of Brittany and Anjou and +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page913" id="page913"></a>913</span> +the countship of Artois to the rank of peerages of France. This +really amounted to changing the nature of the institution; +for the new peers held their rank merely at the king’s will, +though the rank continued to belong to a great barony and to +be handed down with it. Before long peers began to be created +when there were no gaps in the ranks of the College, and there +was a constant increase in the numbers of the lay peers.</p> + +<p>At the beginning of the 14th century appeared the states +general (<i>états généraux</i>), which were often convoked, though not +at fixed intervals, throughout the whole of the 14th +century and the greater part of the 15th. Their +<span class="sidenote">States general and provincial estates.</span> +power reached its height at a critical moment of the +Hundred Years’ War during the reign of King John. +At the same time there arose side by side with them, +and from the same causes, the provincial estates, which were +in miniature for each province what the states general were for +the whole kingdom. Of these provincial assemblies some were +founded in one or other of the great fiefs, being convoked by the +duke or count under the pressure of the same needs which led +the king to convoke the states general; others, in provinces +which had already been annexed to the crown, probably had +their origin in the councils summoned by the <i>bailli</i> or seneschal to +aid him in his administration. Later it became a privilege for +a province to have its own assembly; those which did so were +never of right subject to the royal <i>taille</i>, and kept, at least +formally, the right of sanctioning, by means of the assembly, the +subsidies which took its place. Hence it became the endeavour +of the crown to suppress these provincial assemblies, which in +the 14th century were to be found everywhere; from the outset +of the 15th century they began to disappear in central France.</p> + +<p>The most characteristic feature of this period was the institution +of universal taxation by the crown. So far the king’s sole +revenues were those which he exacted, in his capacity +of feudal lord, wherever another lord did not intervene +<span class="sidenote">Royal taxation.</span> +between him and the inhabitants, in addition to the income +arising from certain crown rights which he had preserved or +regained. But these revenues, known later as the income of the +royal domain and later still as the <i>finances ordinaires</i>, became +insufficient in proportion as the royal power increased; it +became a necessity for the monarch to be able to levy imposts +throughout the whole extent of the provinces annexed to the +crown, even upon the subjects of the different lords. This he +could only do by means of the co-operation of those lords, lay and +ecclesiastical, who alone had the right of taxing their subjects; +the co-operation of the privileged towns, which had the right to +tax themselves, was also necessary. It was in order to obtain +this consent that the states general, in most cases, and the provincial +assemblies, in all cases, were convoked. In some cases, +however, the king adopted different methods; for instance, +he sometimes utilized the principle of the feudal aids. In cases +where his vassals owed him, as overlord, a pecuniary aid, he +substituted for the sum paid directly by his vassals a tax levied +by his own authority on their subjects. It is in this way that for +thirty years the necessary sums were raised, without any vote +from the states general, to pay the ransom of King John. But +in principle the taxes were in the 14th century sanctioned by +the states general. Whatever form they took, they were given +the generic name of Aids or <i>auxilia</i>, and were considered as +occasional and extraordinary subsidies, the king being obliged +in principle to “live of his own” (<i>vivre de son domaine</i>). Certain +aids, it is true, tended to become permanent under the reign of +Charles VI.; but the taxes subject to the consent of the states +general were at first the sole resource of Charles VII. In the +second half of his reign the two chief taxes became permanent: +in 1435 that of the aids (a tax on the sale of articles of consumption, +especially on wine), with the formal consent of the +states general, and that of the <i>taille</i> in 1439. In the latter case +the consent of the states general was not given; but only the +nobility protested, for at the same time as the royal <i>taille</i> became +permanent the seigniorial <i>taille</i> was suppressed. These imposts +were increased, on the royal authority, by Louis XI. After his +death the states general, which met at Tours in 1484, endeavoured +to re-establish the periodical vote of the tax, and only granted +it for two years, reducing it to the sum which it had reached +at the death of Charles VII. But the promise that they would +again be convoked before the expiry of two years was not kept. +These imposts and that of the <i>gabelle</i> were henceforth permanent. +Together with the taxes there was evolved the system of their +administration. Their main outlines were laid down by the +states general in the reign of King John, in 1355 and the following +years. For the administration of the subsidies which they +granted, they nominated from among their own numbers +<i>surintendants généraux</i> or <i>généraux des finances</i>, and further, +for each diocese or equivalent district, <i>élus</i>. Both had not only +the active administration but also judicial rights, the latter +constituting courts of the first instance and the former courts of +final appeal. After 1360 the crown again adopted this organization, +which had before been only temporary; but henceforth +<i>généraux</i> and <i>élus</i> were nominated by the king. The <i>élus</i>, or +<i>officiers des élections</i>, only existed in districts which were subject +to the royal <i>taille</i>; hence the division, so important in old France, +into <i>pays d’élections</i> and <i>pays d’états</i>. The <i>élus</i> kept both +administration and jurisdiction; but in the higher stage a differentiation +was made: the <i>généraux des finances</i>, who numbered +four, kept the administration, while their jurisdiction as a court +of final appeal was handed over to another body, the <i>cour des +aides</i>, which had already been founded at the end of the 14th +century. Besides the four <i>généraux des finances</i>, who administered +the taxation, there were four Treasurers of France (<i>trésoriers +de France</i>), who administered the royal domain; and these eight +officials together formed in the 15th century a kind of ministry +of finance to the monarchy.</p> + +<p>The army also was organized. On the one hand, the military +service attached to the fiefs was transformed for the profit +of the king, who alone had the right of making war: +it became the <i>arrière-ban</i>, a term which had formerly +<span class="sidenote">The army.</span> +applied to the <i>levée en masse</i> of all the inhabitants in +times of national danger. Before the 14th century the king +had only had the power of calling upon his own immediate vassals +for service. Henceforth all possessors of fiefs owed him, whether +within the kingdom or on the frontiers, military service without +pay and at their own expense. This was for long an important +resource for the king. But Charles VII. organized an army on +another footing. It comprised the <i>francs-archers</i> furnished by +the parishes, a militia which was only summoned in case of war, +but in time of peace had to practise archery, and companies of +<i>gendarmerie</i> or heavy cavalry, forming a permanent establishment, +which were called <i>compagnies d’ordonnance</i>. It was +chiefly to provide for the expense of the first nucleus of a permanent +army that the <i>taille</i> itself had been made permanent.</p> + +<p>The new army led to the institution of the governors of provinces, +who were to command the troops quartered there. At +first they were only appointed for the frontiers and fortified +places, but later the kingdom was divided into <i>gouvernements +généraux</i>. There were at first twelve of these, which were called +in the middle of the 16th century the <i>douze anciens gouvernements</i>. +Although, strictly speaking, they had only military powers, the +governors, always chosen from among the great lords, became +in the provinces the direct representatives of the king and caused +the <i>baillis</i> and seneschals to take a secondary place.</p> + +<p>The courts of law continued to develop on the lines already +laid down. The parlement, which had come to be a judicial +committee nominated every year, but always consisting +in fact of the same persons, changed in the course of the +<span class="sidenote">The law courts.</span> +14th century into a body of magistrates who were +permanent but as yet subject to removal. During this period +were evolved its organization and definitive features (see <span class="sc"><a href="#artlinks">Parlement</a></span>). +The provincial parlements had arisen after and in imitation +of that of Paris, and had for the most part taken the place of +some superior jurisdiction which had formerly existed in the same +district when it had been independent (like Provence) or had +formed one of the great fiefs (like Normandy or Burgundy). +It was during this period also that the parlements acquired the +right of opposing the registration, that is to say, the promulgation +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page914" id="page914"></a>914</span> +of laws, of revising them, and of making representations (<i>remontrances</i>) +to the king when they refused the registration, giving +the reasons for such refusal. The other royal jurisdictions were +completed (see <span class="sc"><a href="#artlinks">Bailiff</a></span>, <span class="sc"><a href="#artlinks">Châtelet</a></span>). Besides them arose another +of great importance, which was of military origin, but came to +include all citizens under its sway. These were the provosts +of the marshals of France (<i>prévôts des maréchaux de France</i>), +who were officers of the <i>Maréchaussée</i> (the gendarmerie of the +time); they exercised criminal jurisdiction without appeal in +the case of crimes committed by vagabonds and fugitives from +justice, this class being called their <i>gibier</i> (game), and of a number +of crimes of violence, whatever the rank of the offender. Further, +another class of officers was created in connexion with the law +courts: the “king’s men” (<i>gens du roi</i>), the <i>procureurs</i> and +<i>avocats du roi</i>, who were at first simply those lawyers who +represented the king in the law courts, or pleaded for him when +he had some interest to follow up or to defend. Later they became +officers of the crown. In the case of the <i>procureurs du roi</i> this +development took place in the first half of the 14th century. +Their duty was not only to represent the king in the law courts, +whether as plaintiff or defendant, but also to take care that in +each case the law was applied, and to demand its application. +From this time on the <i>procureurs du roi</i> had full control over +matters concerning the public interest, and especially over +public prosecution. In this period, too, appeared what was +afterwards called <i>justice retenue</i>, that is to say, the justice which +the king administered, or was supposed to administer, in person. +It was based on the idea that, since all justice and all judicial +power reside in the king, he could not deprive himself of them +by delegating their exercise to his officers and to the feudal +lords. Consequently he could, if he thought fit, take the place +of the judges and call up a case before his own council. He could +reverse even the decisions of the courts of final appeal, and in +some cases used this means of appealing against the decrees of the +parlements (<i>proposition d’erreur, requête civile, pourvoi en révision</i>). +In these cases the king was supposed to judge in person; in +reality they were examined by the <i>maîtres des requêtes</i> and +submitted to the royal council (<i>conseil du roi</i>), at which the king +was always supposed to be present and which had in itself no +power of giving a decision. For this purpose there was soon +formed a special committee of the council, which was called the +<i>conseil privé</i> or <i>de justice</i>. At the end of the 15th century, +Charles VIII., in order to relieve the council of some of its functions, +created a new final court, the <i>grand conseil</i>, to deal with +a number of these cases. But before long it again became the +custom to appeal to the <i>conseil du roi</i>, so that the <i>grand conseil</i> +became almost useless. The king frequently, by means of +<i>lettres de justice</i>, intervened in the procedure of the courts, by +granting <i>bénéfices</i>, by which rules which were too severe were +modified, and faculties or facilities for overcoming difficulties +arising from flaws in contracts or judgments, cases at that time +not covered by the common law. By <i>lettres de grâce</i> he granted +reprieve or pardon in individual cases. The most extreme +form of intervention by the king was made by means of <i>lettres de +cachet</i> (<i>q.v.</i>), which ordered a subject to go without trial into a +state prison or into exile.</p> + +<p>The condition of the Church changed greatly during this period. +The jurisdiction of the <i>officialités</i> was very much reduced, even +over the clergy. They ceased to be competent to +judge actions concerning the possession of real property, +<span class="sidenote">The Church.</span> +in which the clergy were defendants. In criminal +law the theory of the <i>cas privilégié</i>, which appears in the 14th +century, enabled the royal judges to take action against and judge +the clergy for all serious crimes, though without the power of +inflicting any penalties but arbitrary fines, the ecclesiastical +judge remaining competent, in accordance with the privileges of +clergy, to try the offender for the same crime as what was +technically called a <i>délit commun</i>. The development of jurisprudence +gradually removed from the <i>officialités</i> causes of a +purely secular character in which laymen only were concerned, +such as wills and contracts; and in matrimonial cases their +jurisdiction was limited to those in which the <i>foedus matrimonii</i> +was in question. For the acquisition of real property by ecclesiastical +establishments the consent of the king to the amortizement +was always necessary, even in the case of allodial lands; +and if it was a case of feudal tenures the king and the direct +overlords alone kept their rights, the intermediate lords being +left out of the question.</p> + +<p>As regards the conferring of ecclesiastical benefices, from the +14th century onwards the papacy encroached more and more +upon the rights of the bishops, in whose gift the inferior +benefices generally were, and of the electors, who +<span class="sidenote">Papal encroachments.</span> +usually conferred the superior benefices; at the same +time it exacted from newly appointed incumbents +heavy dues, which were included under the generic name of +annates (<i>q.v.</i>). During the Great Schism of the Western Church, +these abuses became more and more crying, until by a series of +edicts, promulgated with the consent and advice of the parlement +and the clergy, the Gallican Church was restored to the possession +of its former liberties, under the royal authority. Thus France +was ready to accept the decrees of reform issued by the council +of Basel (<i>q.v.</i>), which she did, with a few modifications, in the +Pragmatic Sanction of Charles VII., adopted after a solemn +assembly of the clergy and nobles at Bourges and registered +by the parlement of Paris in 1438. It suppressed the annates +and most of the means by which the popes disposed of the inferior +benefices: the reservations and the <i>gratiae expectativae</i>. For +the choice of bishops and abbots, it restored election by the +chapters and convents. The Pragmatic Sanction, however, +was never recognized by the papacy, nor was it consistently and +strictly applied by the royal power. The transformation of the +civil and criminal law under the influence of Roman and canon +law had become more and more marked. The production of the +<i>coutumiers</i>, or <i>livres de pratiques</i>, also continued. The chief of +them were: in the 14th century, the <i>Stylus Vetus Curiae Parlamenti</i> +of Guillaume de Breuil; the <i>Très ancienne coutume de +Bretagne</i>; the <i>Grand Coutumier de France</i>, or <i>Coutumier de +Charles VI.</i>; the <i>Somme rural</i> of Boutillier; in the 15th century, +for Auvergne, the <i>Practica forensis</i> of Masuer. Charles VII., +in an article of the Grand Ordonnance of Montil-les-Tours (1453), +ordered the general customs to be officially recorded under the +supervision of the crown. It was an enormous work, which +would almost have transformed them into written laws; but +up to the 16th century little recording was done, the procedure +established by the Ordonnance for the purpose not being very +suitable.</p> + +<p><i>The Absolute Monarchy</i>.—From the 16th century to the +Revolution was the period of the absolute monarchy, but it +can be further divided into two periods: that of the +establishment of this régime, from 1515 to about +<span class="sidenote">Government under the absolute monarchy.</span> +1673; and that of the <i>ancien régime</i> when definitively +established, from 1673 to 1789. The reigns of Francis +I. and Henry II. clearly laid down the principle of the +absolute power of the crown and applied it effectually, as is +plainly seen from the temporary disappearance of the states +general, which were not assembled under these two reigns. +There were merely a few assemblies of notables chosen by the +royal power, the most important of which was that of Cognac, +under Francis I., summoned to advise on the non-fulfilment +of the treaty of Madrid. It is true that in the second half of +the 16th century the states general reappeared. They were +summoned in 1560 at Orleans, then in 1561 at Pontoise, and in +1576 and 1588 at Blois. The League even convoked one, which +was held at Paris in 1593. This represented a crucial and final +struggle. Two points were then at issue: firstly, whether +France was to be Protestant or Catholic; secondly, whether +she was to have a limited or an absolute monarchy. The two +problems were not necessarily bound up with one another. For +if the Protestants desired political liberty, many of the Catholics +wished for it too, as is proved by the writings of the time, and +even by the fact that the League summoned the estates. But +the states general of the 16th century, in spite of their good intentions +and the great talents which were at their service, were +dominated by religious passions, which made them powerless +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page915" id="page915"></a>915</span> +for any practical purpose. They only produced a few great +ordinances of reform, which were not well observed. They were, +however, to be called together yet again, as a result of the +disturbances which followed the death of Henry IV.; but their +dissensions and powerlessness were again strikingly exemplified +and they did not reappear until 1789. Other bodies, however, +which the royal power had created, were to carry on the struggle +against it. There were the parlements, the political rivals of +the states general. Thanks to the principle according to which +no law came into effect so long as it had not been registered by +them, they had, as we have seen, won for themselves the right +of a preliminary discussion of those laws which were presented +to them, and of refusing registration, explaining their reasons +to the king by means of the <i>remontrances</i>. The royal power saw +in this merely a concession from itself, a consultative power, +which ought to yield before the royal will, when the latter was +clearly manifested, either by <i>lettres de jussion</i> or by the actual +words and presence of the king, when he came in person to procure +the registration of a law in a so-called <i>lit de justice</i>. But from +the 16th century onwards the members of the parlements +claimed, on the strength of a historical theory, to have inherited +the powers of the ancient assemblies (the Merovingian and +Carolingian <i>placita</i> and the <i>curia regis</i>), powers which they, +moreover, greatly exaggerated. The successful assertion of +this claim would have made them at once independent of and +necessary to the crown. During the minority of kings, they had +possessed, in fact, special opportunities for asserting their pretensions, +particularly when they had been called upon to intervene +in the organization of the regency. It is on this account that at +the beginning of the reign of Louis XIV. the parlement of Paris +wished to take part in the government, and in 1648, in concert +with the other supreme courts of the capital, temporarily imposed +a sort of charter of liberties. But the first Fronde, of which +the parlement was the centre and soul, led to its downfall, which +was completed when later on Louis XIV. became all-powerful. +The ordinance of 1667 on civil procedure, and above all a declaration +of 1673, ordered the parlement to register the laws as +soon as it received them and without any modification. It was +only after this registration that they were allowed to draw up +remonstrances, which were henceforth futile. The nobles, as a +body, had also become politically impotent. They had been +sorely tried by the wars of religion, and Richelieu, in his struggles +against the governors of the provinces, had crushed their chief +leaders. The second Fronde was their last effort (see <span class="sc"><a href="#artlinks">Fronde</a></span>). +At the same time the central government underwent changes. +The great officers of the crown disappeared one by one. The +office of constable of France was suppressed by purchase during +the first half of the 17th century, and of those in the first rank +only the chancellor survived till the Revolution. But though +his title could only be taken from him by condemnation on a +capital charge, the king was able to deprive him of his functions +by taking from him the custody and use of the seal of France, +which were entrusted to a <i>garde des sceaux</i>. Apart from the latter, +the king’s real ministers were the secretaries of state, generally +four in number, who were always removable and were not chosen +from among the great nobles. For purposes of internal administration, +the provinces were divided among them, each of them +corresponding by despatches with those which were assigned to +him. Any other business (with the exception of legal affairs, +which belonged to the chancellor, and finance, of which we shall +speak later) was divided among them according to convenience. +At the end of the 16th century, however, were evolved two +regular departments, those of war and foreign affairs. Under +Francis I. and Henry II., the chief administration of finance +underwent a change; for the four <i>généraux des finances</i>, who +had become too powerful, were substituted the <i>intendants des +finances</i>, one of whom soon became a chief minister of finance, +with the title <i>surintendant</i>. The <i>généraux des finances</i>, like the +<i>trésoriers</i> de France, became provincial officials, each at the head +of a <i>généralité</i> (a superior administrative district for purposes +of finance); under Henry II. the two functions were combined +and assigned to the <i>bureaux des finances</i>. The fall of Fouquet +led to the suppression of the office of <i>surintendant</i>; but soon +Colbert again became practically a minister of finance, under the +name of <i>contrôleur général des finances</i>, both title and office +continuing to exist up to the Revolution.</p> + +<p>The <i>conseil du roi</i>, the origin of which we have described, +was an important organ of the central government, and for a +long time included among its members a large number of representatives +of the nobility and clergy. Besides the councillors +of state (<i>conseillers d’état</i>), its ordinary members, the great officers +of the crown and secretaries of state, princes of the blood and +peers of France were members of it by right. Further, the king +was accustomed to grant the brevet of councillor to a great +number of the nobility and clergy, who could be called upon +to sit in the council and give an opinion on matters of importance. +But in the 17th century the council tended to differentiate its +functions, forming three principal sections, one for political, +one for financial, and the third for legal affairs. Under Louis +XIV. it took a definitely professional, administrative and +technical character. The <i>conseillers à brevet</i> were all suppressed +in 1673, and the peers of France ceased to be members of the +council. The political council, or <i>conseil d’en haut</i>, had no <i>ex +officio</i> members, not even the chancellor; the secretary of state +for foreign affairs, however, necessarily had entry to it; it also +included a small number of persons chosen by the king and +bearing the title of ministers of state (<i>ministres d’état</i>). The +other important sections of the conseil du roi were the <i>conseil +des finances</i>, organized after the fall of Fouquet, and the <i>conseil +des dépêches</i>, in which sat the four secretaries of state and where +everything concerned with internal administration (except +finance) was dealt with, including the legal business connected +with this administration. As to the government and the preparation +of laws, under Louis XIV. and Louis XV., the <i>conseil du roi</i> +often passed into the background, when, as the saying went, +a minister who was projecting some important measure <i>travaillait +seul avec le roi</i> (worked alone with the king), having from +the outset gained the king’s ear.</p> + +<p>The chief authority in the provincial administration belonged +in the 16th century to the governors of the provinces, though, +strictly speaking, the governor had only military +powers in his <i>gouvernement</i>; for, as we have seen, he +<span class="sidenote">Provincial administration.</span> +was the direct representative of the king for general +purposes. But at the end of this century were +created the intendants of the provinces, who, after a period +of conflict with the governors and the parlements, became +absolute masters of the administration in all those provinces +which had no provincial estates, and the instruments of a +complete administrative centralization (see <span class="sc"><a href="#artlinks">Intendant</a></span>).</p> + +<p>The towns having a <i>corps de ville</i>, that is to say, a municipal +organization, preserved in the 16th century a fairly wide +autonomy, and played an important part in the wars +of religion, especially under the League. But under +<span class="sidenote">The towns.</span> +Louis XIV. their independence rapidly declined. +They were placed under the tutelage of the intendants, whose +sanction, or that of the <i>conseil du roi</i>, was necessary for all acts +of any importance. In the closing years of the 17th century, +the municipal officials ceased, even in principle, to be elective. +Their functions ranked as offices which were, like royal offices, +saleable and heritable. The pretext given by the edicts were the +intrigues and dissensions caused by the elections; the real +cause was that the government wanted to sell these offices, +which is proved by the fact that it frequently allowed towns +to redeem them and to re-establish the elections.</p> + +<p>The sale of royal offices is one of the characteristic features of +the <i>ancien régime</i>. It had begun early, and, apparently, with +the office of councillor of the parlement of Paris, when +this became permanent, in the second half of the 14th +<span class="sidenote">Sale of offices.</span> +century. It was first practised by magistrates who +wished to dispose of their office in favour of a successor of their +own choice. The <i>resignatio in favorem</i> of ecclesiastical benefices +served as model, and at first care was taken to conceal the +money transaction between the parties. The crown winked +at these resignations in consideration of a payment in money. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page916" id="page916"></a>916</span> +But in the 16th century, under Francis I. at the latest, the crown +itself began officially to sell offices, whether newly created or +vacant by the death of their occupiers, taking a fee from those +upon whom they were conferred. Under Charles IX. the right +of resigning <i>in favorem</i> was recognized by law in the case of +royal officials, in return for a payment to the treasury of a +certain proportion of the price. In the case of judicial offices +there was a struggle for at least two centuries between the system +of sale and another, also imitated from canon law, <i>i.e.</i> the election +or presentation of candidates by the legal corporations. The +ordinances of the second half of the 16th century, granted in +answer to complaints of the states general, restored and confirmed +the latter system, giving a share in the presentation +to the towns or provincial notables and forbidding sales. The +system of sale, however, triumphed in the end, and, in the case +of judges, had, moreover, a favourable result, assuring to them +that irremovability which Louis XI. had promised in vain; for, +under this system, the king could not reasonably dismiss an +official arbitrarily without refunding the fee which he had +paid. On the other hand, it contributed to the development +of the <i>épices</i>, or dues paid by litigants to the judges. The system +of sale, and with it irremovability, was extended to all official +functions, even to financial posts. The process was completed +by the recognition of the rights in the sale of offices as hereditary, +<i>i.e.</i> the right of resigning the office on payment of a fee, either +in favour of a competent descendant or of a third party, passed +to the heirs of an official who had died without having exercised +this right himself. It was established under Henry IV. in 1604 +by the system called the <i>Paulette</i>, in return for the payment +by the official of an annual fee (<i>droit annuel</i>) which was definitely +fixed at a hundredth part of the price of the office. Thus these +offices, though the royal nomination was still required as well +as the professional qualifications required by the law, became +heritable property in virtue of the finance attached to them. +This led to the formation of a class of men who, though bound +in many ways to the crown, were actually independent. Hence +the tendency in the 18th century to create new and important +functions under the form, not of offices, but of simple commissions.</p> + +<p>In this period of the history of France were evolved and defined +the essential principles of the old public law. There were, +in the first place, the <i>fundamental laws of the realm</i>, +which were true constitutional principles, established +<span class="sidenote">Fundamental laws of France.</span> +for the most part not by law but by custom, and +considered as binding in respect of the king himself; +so that, although he was sovereign, he could neither abrogate, +nor modify, nor violate them. There was, however, some discussion +as to what rules actually came under this category, except in +the case of two series about which there was no doubt. These +were, on the one hand, those which dealt with the succession +to the crown and forbade the king to change its order, and those +which proclaimed the inalienability of the royal domain, against +which no title by prescription was valid. This last principle, +introduced in the 14th century, had been laid down and defined +by the edict of Moulins in 1566; it admitted only two exceptions: +the formation of appanages (<i>q.v.</i>), and selling (<i>engagement</i>), to +meet the necessities of war, with a perpetual option of redeeming +it.</p> + +<p>There was in the second place the theory of the rights, franchises +and liberties of the Gallican Church, formed of elements some +of which were of great antiquity, and based on the conditions +which had determined the relations of the Gallican Church +with the crown and papacy during the Great Schism and under +the Pragmatic Sanction of Bourges, and defined at the end of +the 16th and the beginning of the 17th century. This body of +doctrine was defined by the writings of three men especially, +Guy Coquille, Pierre Pithou and Pierre Dupuy, and was solemnly +confirmed by the declaration of the clergy of France, or <i>Déclaration +des quatres articles</i> of 1682, and by the edict which promulgated +it. Its substance was based chiefly on three principles: +firstly, that the temporal power was absolutely independent of +the spiritual power; secondly, that the pope had authority +over the clergy of France in temporal matters and matters of +discipline only by the consent of the king; thirdly, that the +king had authority over and could legislate for the Gallican +Church in temporal matters and matters of discipline. The old +public law provided a safeguard against the violation of these +rules. This was the process known as the <i>appel comme d’abus</i>, +formed of various elements, some of them very ancient, and +definitely established during the 16th century. It was heard +before the parlements, but could, like every other case, be +evoked before the royal council. Its effect was to annul any +act of the ecclesiastical authority due to abuse or contrary to +French law. The clergy were, when necessary, reduced to +obedience by means of arbitrary fines and by the seizure of their +temporalities. The Pragmatic Sanction had been abrogated +and replaced by the Concordat of 1515, concluded between +Francis I. and Leo X., which remained in force until suppressed +by the Constituent Assembly. The Concordat, moreover, +preserved many of the enactments of the Pragmatic Sanction, +notably those which protected the collation of the inferior benefices +from the encroachments of the papacy, and which had introduced +reforms in certain points of discipline. But in the case of the +superior benefices (bishoprics and abbeys) election by the +chapters was suppressed. The king of France nominated the +candidate, to whom the pope gave canonical institution. As a +matter of fact, the pope had no choice; he had to institute the +nominee of the king, unless he could show his unworthiness or +incapacity, as the result of inquiries regularly conducted in +France; for the pope it was, as the ancient French authors +used to say, a case of compulsory collation. The annates were +re-established at the time of the Concordat, but considerably +diminished in comparison with what they had been before the +Pragmatic Sanction. We must add, to complete this account, +that many of the inferior benefices, in France as in the rest of +Christendom, were conferred according to the rules of patronage, +the patron, whether lay or ecclesiastic, presenting a candidate +whom the bishop was bound to appoint, provided he was neither +incapable nor unsuitable. There was some difficulty in getting +the Concordat registered by the parlement of Paris, and the +latter even announced its intention of not taking the Concordat +into account in those cases concerning benefices which might +come before it. The crown found an easy method of making +this opposition ineffectual, namely, to transfer to the Grand +Conseil the decision of cases arising out of the application of the +Concordat.</p> + +<p>In the 16th century also, contributions to the public services +drawn from the immense possessions of the clergy were regularized. +Since the second half of the 12th century at least, the +kings had in times of urgent need asked for subsidies from the +church, and ever since the Saladin tithe (<i>dime saladine</i>) of Philip +Augustus this contribution had assumed the form of a tithe, +taking a tenth part of the revenue of the benefices for a given +period. Tithes of this kind were fairly frequently granted by +the clergy of France, either with the pope’s consent or without +(this being a disputed point). After the conclusion of the +Concordat, Leo X. granted the king a tithe (<i>décime</i>) under the +pretext of a projected war against the Turks; hitherto concessions +of this kind had been made by the papacy in view of +the Crusades or of wars against heretics. The concession was +several times renewed, until, by force of custom, the levying of +these tithes became permanent. But in the middle of the 16th +century the system changed. The crown was heavily in debt, +and its needs had increased. The property of the clergy having +been threatened by the states general of 1560 and 1561, the +king proposed to them to remit the bulk of the tithes and other +dues, in return for the payment by them of a sum equivalent +to the proceeds of the taxes which he had mortgaged. A formal +contract to this effect was concluded at Poissy in 1561 between +the king and the clergy of France, represented by the prelates +who were then gathered together for the Colloquy of Poissy with +the Protestants, and some of those who had been sitting at the +states general of Pontoise. The fulfilment of this agreement was, +however, evaded by the king, who diverted part of the funds +provided by the clergy from their proper purpose. In 1580, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page917" id="page917"></a>917</span> +after a period of ten years which had been agreed on, a new +assembly of the clergy was called together and, after protesting +against this action, renewed the agreement, which was henceforward +always renewed every ten years. Such was the definitive +form of the contribution of the clergy, who also acquired the +right of themselves assessing and levying these taxes on the +holders of benefices. Thus every ten years there was a great +assembly of the clergy, the members of which were elected. +There were two stages in the election, a preliminary one in the +dioceses and a further election in the ecclesiastical provinces, +each province sending four deputies to the general assembly, +two of the first rank, that is to say, chosen from the episcopate, +and two of the second rank, which included all the other clergy. +The <i>dons gratuits</i> (benevolences) voted by the assembly comprised +a fixed sum equivalent to the old tithes and supplementary sums +paid on one occasion only, which were sometimes considerable. +The church, on her side, profited by this arrangement in order +to obtain the commutation or redemption of the taxes affecting +ecclesiastics considered as individuals. This settlement only +applied to the “clergy of France,” that is to say, to the clergy +of those districts which were united to the crown before the end +of the 16th century. The provinces annexed later, called <i>pays +étrangers</i>, or <i>pays conquis</i>, had in this matter, as in many others, +an arrangement of their own. At last, under Louis XV. the +edict of 1749, <i>concernant les établissements et acquisitions des gens +de mainmorte</i>, was completely effective in subordinating the +acquisition of property by ecclesiastical establishments to the +consent and control of the crown, rendering them incapable +of acquiring real property by bequests.</p> + +<p>At the end of the 16th century a wise law had been made which, +in spite of the traces which it bore of past struggles, had established +a reasonable balance among the Christians of France. +The edict of Nantes, in 1598, granted the Protestants full civil +rights, liberty of conscience and public worship in many places, +and notably in all the royal <i>bailliages</i>. The Catholics, whose +religion was essentially a state religion, had never accepted this +arrangement as final, and at last, in 1685, under Louis XIV., +the edict of Nantes was revoked and the Protestant pastors +expelled from France. Their followers were forbidden to leave +the country, but many succeeded nevertheless in escaping abroad. +The position of those who remained behind was peculiar. Laws +passed in 1715 and 1724 established the legal theory that there +were no longer any Protestants in France, but only <i>vieux catholiques</i> +and <i>nouveaux convertis</i>. The result was that henceforth +they had no longer any regular civil status, the registers containing +the lists of Catholics enjoying civil rights being kept by +the Catholic clergy.</p> + +<p>The form of government established under Louis XIV. was +preserved without any fundamental modification under Louis +XV. After the death of Louis XIV., however, the regent, under +the inspiration of the duc de St Simon, made trial of a system of +which the latter had made a study while in a close correspondence +with the duke of Burgundy. It consisted in substituting for the +authority of the ministers, secretaries of state and controller-general +councils, or governmental bodies, mainly composed of +great lords and prelates. These only lasted for a few years, +when a return was made to the former organization. The parlements +had regained their ancient rights in consequence of the +parlement of Paris having, in 1715, set aside the will of Louis +XIV. as being contrary to the fundamental laws of the kingdom, +in that it laid down rules for the composition of the council of +regency, and limited the power of the regent. This newly +revived power they exercised freely, and all the more so since they +were the last surviving check on the royal authority. During this +reign there were numerous conflicts between them and the +government, the causes of this being primarily the innumerable +incidents to which the bull <i>Unigenitus</i> gave rise, and the increase +of taxation; proceedings against Jesuits also figure conspicuously +in the action of the parlements. They became at this period +the avowed representatives of the nation; they contested the +validity of the registration of laws in the <i>lits de justice</i>, asserting +that laws could only be made obligatory when the registration +had been freely endorsed by themselves. Before the registration +of edicts concerning taxation they demanded a statement of the +financial situation and the right of examining the accounts. +Finally, by the theory of the <i>classes</i>, which considered the various +parlements of France as parts of one and the same body, they +established among them a political union. These pretensions +the crown refused to recognize. Louis XV. solemnly condemned +them in a <i>lit de justice</i> of December 1770, and in 1771 the chancellor +Maupeou took drastic measures against them. The +magistrates of the parlement of Paris were removed, and a new +parlement was constituted, including the members of the <i>grand +conseil</i>, which had also been abolished. The <i>cour des aides</i> of +Paris, which had made common cause with the parlement, was +also suppressed. Many of the provincial parlements were reorganized, +and a certain number of useful reforms were carried +out in the jurisdiction of the parlement of Paris; the object of +these, however, was in most cases that of diminishing its importance. +These actions, the <i>coup d’état</i> of the chancellor Maupeou, +as they were called, produced an immense sensation. The +repeated conflicts of the reign of Louis XV. had already given +rise to a whole literature of books, pamphlets and tracts in which +the rights of the crown were discussed. At the same time the +political philosophy of the 18th century was disseminating new +principles, and especially those of the supremacy of the people +and the differentiation of powers, the government of England +also became known among the French. Thus men’s minds were +being prepared for the Revolution.</p> + +<p>The personal government of Louis XVI. from 1774 to 1789 +was chiefly marked by two series of facts. Firstly, there was +the partial application of the principles propounded by the +French economists of this period, the Physiocrats, who had a +political doctrine peculiar to themselves. They were not in +favour of political liberty, but attached on the contrary to the +absolute monarchy, of which they did not fear the abuses +because they were convinced that so soon as they should be +known, reason (<i>évidence</i>) alone would suffice to make the crown +respect the “natural and essential laws of bodies politic” +(<i>Lois naturelles et essentielles des sociétés politiques</i>, the title of a +book by Mercier de La Rivière). On the other hand, they +favoured civil and economic liberty. They wished, in particular, +to decentralize the administration and restore to the landed +proprietors the administration and levying of taxes, which they +wished to reduce to a tax on land only. This school came into +power with Turgot, who was appointed controller-general of +the finances, and laid the foundations of many reforms. He +actually accomplished for the moment one very important +reform, namely, the suppression of the trade and craft gilds +(<i>communautés, jurandes et maîtrises</i>). This organization, which +was common to the whole of Europe (see <span class="sc"><a href="#artlinks">Gilds</a></span>), had taken +definitive shape in France in the 13th and 14th centuries, but +had subsequently been much abused. Turgot suppressed the +privileges of the <i>maîtres</i>, who alone had been able to work on +their own account, or to open shops and workshops, and thus +proclaimed the freedom of labour, industry and commerce. +However, the old organization, slightly amended, was restored +under his successor Necker. It was Turgot’s purpose to organize +provincial and other inferior assemblies, whose chief business +was to be the assessment of taxes. Necker applied this idea, +partially and experimentally, by creating a few of these provincial +assemblies in various <i>généralités</i> of the <i>pays d’élections</i>. A +general reform on these lines and on a very liberal basis was +proposed by Calonne to the assembly of notables in 1787, and +it was brought into force for all the <i>pays d’élections</i>, though not +under such good conditions, by an edict of the same year. +Louis XVI. had inaugurated his reign by the restoration of the +parlements; all the bodies which had been suppressed by +Maupeou and all the officials whom he had dismissed were +restored, and all the bodies and officials created by him were +suppressed. But it was not long before the old struggle between +the crown and parlements again broke out. It began by the +conservative opposition offered by the parlement of Paris to +Turgot’s reforms. But the real struggle broke out in 1787 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page918" id="page918"></a>918</span> +over the edicts coming from the assembly of notables, and +particularly over the two new taxes, the stamp duty and the +land tax. The parlement of Paris refused to register them, +asserting that the consent of the taxpayers, as represented by the +states general, was necessary to fresh taxation. The struggle +seemed to have come to an end in September; but in the +following November it again broke out, in spite of the king’s +promise to summon the states general. It reached its height +in May 1788, when the king had created a <i>cour plénière</i> distinct +from the parlements, the chief function of which was to register +the laws in their stead. A widespread agitation arose, amounting +to actual anarchy, and was only ended by the recall of Necker +to power and the promise to convoke the states general for 1789.</p> + +<p><i>Various Institutions</i>.—The permanent army which, as has +been stated above, was first established under Charles VII., +was developed and organized during the <i>ancien +régime</i>. The <i>gendarmerie</i> or heavy cavalry was +<span class="sidenote">The army.</span> +continuously increased in numbers. On the other hand, the +<i>francs archers</i> fell into disuse after Louis XI.; and, after a +fruitless attempt had been made under Francis I. to establish +a national infantry, the system was adopted for this also of +recruiting permanent bodies of mercenaries by voluntary +enlistment. First there were the “old bands” (<i>vieilles bandes</i>), +chiefly those of Picardy and Piedmont, and at the end of the +16th century appeared the first regiments, the number of which +was from time to time increased. There were also in the service +and pay of the king French and foreign regiments, the latter +principally Swiss, Germans and Scots. The system of purchase +penetrated also to the army. Each regiment was the property +of a great lord; the captain was, so to speak, owner of his +company, or rather a contractor, who, in return for the sums +paid him by the king, recruited his men and gave them their +uniform, arms and equipment. In the second half of the reign +of Louis XIV. appeared the militia (<i>milices</i>). To this force each +parish had to furnish one recruit, who was at first chosen by the +assembly of the inhabitants, later by drawing lots among the +bachelors or widowers without children, who were not exempt. +The militia was very rarely raised from the towns. The purpose +for which these men were employed varied from time to time. +Sometimes, as under Louis XIV., they were formed into special +active regiments. Under Louis XV. and Louis XVI. they were +formed into <i>régiments provinciaux</i>, which constituted an organized +reserve. But their chief use was during war, when they were +individually incorporated into various regiments to fill up the +gaps.</p> + +<p>Under Louis XV., with the duc de Choiseul as minister of +war, great and useful reforms were effected in the army. Choiseul +suppressed what he called the “farming of companies” (<i>compagnie-ferme</i>); +recruiting became a function of the state, and +voluntary enlistment a contract between the recruit and the +state. Arms, uniform and equipment were furnished by the +king. Choiseul also equalized the numbers of the military +units, and his reforms, together with a few others effected under +Louis XVI., produced the army which fought the first campaigns +of the Revolution.</p> + +<p>One of the most distinctive features of the <i>ancien régime</i> +was excessive taxation. The taxes imposed by the king were +numerous, and, moreover, hardly any of them fell on +all parts of the kingdom. To this territorial inequality +<span class="sidenote">System of taxation.</span> +was added the inequality arising from privileges. +Ecclesiastics, nobles, and many of the crown officials were +exempted from the heaviest imposts. The chief taxes were the +<i>taille</i> (<i>q.v.</i>), the <i>aides</i> and the <i>gabelle</i> (<i>q.v.</i>), or monopoly of salt, the +consumption of which was generally made compulsory up to the +amount determined by regulations. In the 17th and 18th +centuries certain important new taxes were established: from +1695 to 1698 the <i>capitation</i>, which was re-established in 1701 +with considerable modifications, and in 1710 the tax of the +<i>dixième</i>, which became under Louis XV. the tax of the <i>vingtièmes</i>. +These two imposts had been established on the principle of +equality, being designed to affect every subject in proportion +to his income; but so strong was the system of privileges, that +as a matter of fact the chief burden fell upon the roturiers. +The income of a roturier who was not exempt was thus subject +in turn to three direct imposts: the <i>taille</i>, the <i>capitation</i> and the +<i>vingtièmes</i>, and the apportioning or assessment of these was +extremely arbitrary. In addition to indirect taxation strictly +so called, which was very extensive in the 17th and 18th centuries, +France under the <i>ancien régime</i> was subject to the <i>traites</i>, or +customs, which were not only levied at the frontiers on foreign +trade, but also included many internal custom-houses for trade +between different provinces. Their origin was generally due to +historical reasons; thus, among the <i>provinces reputées étrangères</i> +were those which in the 14th century had refused to pay the +aids for the ransom of King John, also certain provinces which +had refused to allow customs offices to be established on their +foreign frontier. Colbert had tried to abolish these internal +duties, but had only succeeded to a limited extent.</p> + +<p>The indirect taxes, the <i>traites</i> and the revenues of the royal +domain were farmed out by the crown. At first a separate +contract had been made for each impost in each <i>élection</i>, but +later they were combined into larger lots, as is shown by the +name of one of the customs districts, <i>l’enceinte des cinq grosses +fermes</i>. From the reign of Henry IV. on the levying of each +indirect impost was farmed <i>en bloc</i> for the whole kingdom, a +system known as the <i>fermes générales</i>; but the real <i>ferme générale</i>, +including all the imposts and revenues which were farmed in +the whole of France, was only established under Colbert. The +<i>ferme générale</i> was a powerful company, employing a vast number +of men, most of whom enjoyed various privileges. Besides the +royal taxes, seigniorial imposts survived under the form of tolls +and market dues. The lords also often possessed local monopolies, +<i>e.g.</i> the right of the common bakehouse (<i>four banal</i>), which were +called the <i>banalités</i>.</p> + +<p>The organization of the royal courts of justice underwent but +few modifications during the <i>ancien régime</i>. The number of +parlements, of <i>cours des aides</i> and of <i>cours des comptes</i> +increased; in the 17th century the name of <i>conseil supérieur</i> +<span class="sidenote">Courts of law.</span> +was given to some new bodies which actually +discharged the functions of the parlement, this being the period +of the decline of the parlement. In the 16th century, under +Henry II., had been created <i>présidiaux</i>, or courts of final jurisdiction, +intended to avoid numerous appeals in small cases, and +above all to avoid a final appeal to the parlements. Seigniorial +courts survived, but were entirely subordinate to the royal +jurisdictions and were badly officered by ill-paid and ignorant +judges, the lords having long ago lost the right to sit in them in +person. Their chief use was to deal with cases concerning the +payment of feudal dues to the lord. Both lawyers and people +would have preferred only two degrees of justice; and an +ordinance of May 1788 realized this desire in the main. It did +not suppress the seigniorial jurisdictions, but made their extinction +a certainty by allowing litigants to ignore them and go +straight to the royal judges. This was, however, reversed on the +recall of Necker and the temporary triumph of the parlements.</p> + +<p>The ecclesiastical jurisdictions survived to the end, but with +diminished scope. Their competency had been considerably +reduced by the Ordinance of Villers Cotterets of 1539, +and by an edict of 1693. But a series of ingenious legal +<span class="sidenote">Ecclesiastical courts.</span> +theories had been principally efficacious in gradually +depriving them of most of the cases which had hitherto +come under them. In the 18th century the privilege of clergy did +not prevent civil suits in which the clergy were defendants from +being almost always taken before secular tribunals, and ever since +the first half of the 17th century, for all grave offences, or <i>cas +privilégiés</i>, the royal judge could pronounce a sentence of corporal +punishment on a guilty cleric without this necessitating his +previous degradation. The inquiry into the case was, it is true, +conducted jointly by the royal and the ecclesiastical judge, but +each of them pronounced his sentence independently. All cases +concerning benefices came before the royal judges. Finally, +the <i>officialités</i> had no longer as a rule any jurisdiction over +laymen, even in the matter of marriage, except in questions of +betrothals, and sometimes in cases of opposition to marriages. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page919" id="page919"></a>919</span> +The parish priests, however, continued to enter declarations of +baptisms, marriages and burials in registers kept according to +the civil laws.</p> + +<p>The general customs of the <i>pays coutumiers</i> were almost all +officially recorded in the 16th century, definite procedure for +this purpose having been adopted at the end of the +15th century. Drafts were prepared by the officials +<span class="sidenote">The “customs.”</span> +of the royal courts in the chief town of the district +in which the particular customs were valid, and were then +submitted to the government. The king then appointed commissioners +to visit the district and promulgate the customs on +the spot. For the purpose of this <i>publication</i> the lords, lay and +ecclesiastical, of the district, with representatives of the towns +and of various bodies of the inhabitants, were summoned for a +given day to the chief town. In this assembly each article was +read, discussed and put to the vote. Those which were approved +by the majority were thereupon decreed (<i>décrétés</i>) by the commissioners +in the king’s name; those which gave rise to difficulties +were put aside for the parlement to settle when it registered +the <i>coutume</i>. The <i>coutumes</i> in this form became practically +written law; henceforward their text could only be modified +by a formal revision carried out according to the same procedure +as the first version. Throughout the 16th century a fair number +of <i>coutumes</i> were thus revised (<i>reformées</i>), with the express object +of profiting by the observations and criticisms on the first text +which had appeared in published commentaries and notes, the +most important of which were those of Charles Dumoulin. +In the 16th century there had been a revival of the study of +Roman law, thanks to the historical school, among the most +illustrious representatives of which were Jacques Cujas, Hugues +Doneau and Jacques Godefroy; but this study had only slight +influence on practical jurisprudence. Certain institutions, +however, such as contracts and obligations, were regulated +throughout the whole of France by the principles of Roman law.</p> + +<p>Legislation by <i>ordonnances, édits, déclarations</i> or <i>lettres +patentes</i>, emanating from the king, became more and more +frequent; but the character of the <i>grandes ordonnances</i>, which +were of a far-reaching and comprehensive nature, underwent +a change during this period. In the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries +they had been mainly <i>ordonnances de réformation</i> (<i>i.e.</i> revising +previous laws), which were most frequently drawn up after a +sitting of the states general, in accordance with the suggestions +submitted by the deputies. The last of this type was the +ordinance of 1629, promulgated after the states general of 1614 +and the assemblies of notables which had followed it. In the +17th and 18th centuries they became essentially <i>codifications</i>, +comprising a systematic and detailed statement of the whole +branch of law. There are two of these series of codifying ordinances: +the first under Louis XIV., inspired by Colbert and +carried out under his direction. The chief ordinances of this +group are that of 1667 on civil procedure (code of civil procedure); +that of 1670 on the examination of criminal cases +(code of penal procedure); that of 1673 on the commerce of +merchants, and that of 1681 on the regulation of shipping, which +form between them a complete code of commerce by land and +sea. The ordinance of 1670 determined the formalities of that +secret and written criminal procedure, as opposed to the hearing +of both parties in a suit, which formerly obtained in France; +it even increased its severity, continuing the employment of +torture, binding the accused by oath to speak the truth, and +refusing them counsel save in exceptional cases. The second +series of codifications was made under Louis XV., through the +action of the chancellor d’Aguesseau. Its chief result was the +regulation, by the ordinances of 1731, 1735 and 1747, of deeds +of gift between living persons, wills, and property left in trust. +Under Louis XVI. some mitigation was made of the criminal +law, notably the abolition of torture.</p> + +<p>The feudal régime, in spite of the survival of seigniorial courts +and tolls, was no longer of any political importance; but it still +furnished the common form of real property. The fief, although +it still implied homage from the vassal, no longer involved any +service on his part (excepting that of the <i>arrière-ban</i> due to the +king); but when a fief changed hands the lord still exacted his +<i>profits</i>. Tenures held by <i>roturiers</i>, in addition to some similar +<span class="sidenote">Land tenure.</span> +rights of transfer, were generally subject to periodical +and fixed contributions for the profit of the lord. This +system was still further complicated by tenures which +were simply real and not feudal, <i>e.g.</i> that by payment of +ground rent, which were superadded to the others, and had +become all the heavier since, in the 18th century, royal rights of +transfer had been added to the feudal rights. The inhabitants +of the country districts were longing for the liberation of real +property.</p> + +<p>Serfdom had disappeared from most of the provinces of the +kingdom; among all the <i>coutumes</i> which were officially codified, +not more than ten or so still recognized this institution. +<span class="sidenote">Serfdom.</span> +This had been brought about especially by the agency +of the custom by which serfs had been transformed into <i>roturiers</i>. +An edict of Louis XVI. of 1779 abolished serfdom on crown lands, +and mitigated the condition of the serfs who still existed on +the domains of individual lords. The nobility still remained a +privileged class, exempt from certain taxes. Certain offices +were restricted to the nobility; according to an edict of Louis +XVI. (1781) it was even necessary to be a noble in +<span class="sidenote">The three estates.</span> +order to become an officer in the army. In fact, +the royal favours were reserved for the nobility. +Certain rules of civil and criminal procedure also distinguished +nobles from <i>roturiers</i>. The acquisition of fiefs had ceased to +bring nobility with it, but the latter was derived from three +sources: birth, <i>lettres d’anoblissement</i> granted by the king and +appointment to certain offices. In the 17th and 18th centuries +the peers of France can be reckoned among the nobility, forming +indeed its highest grade, though the rank of peer was still attached +to a fief, which was handed down with it; on the eve of the +Revolution there were thirty-eight lay peers. The rest of the +nation, apart from the ecclesiastics, consisted of the <i>roturiers</i>, +who were not subject to the disabilities of the serfs, but had not +the privileges of the nobility. Hence the three orders (estates) +of the kingdom: the clergy, the nobility and the <i>tiers état</i> (third +estate). An edict of Louis XVI. had made a regular civil status +possible to the Protestants, and had thrown open offices and +professions to them, though not entirely; but the exercise of +their religion was still forbidden.</p> + +<p><i>The Revolution.</i>—With the Revolution France entered the +ranks of constitutional countries, in which the liberty of men is +guaranteed by fixed and definite laws; from this time on, she has +had always (except in the interval between two revolutions) a +written constitution, which could not be touched by the ordinary +legislative power. The first constitution was that of 1791; +the states general of 1789, transformed by their own will, backed +by public opinion, into the Constituent Assembly, drew it up on +their own authority. But their work did not stop there. They +abolished the whole of the old public law of France and part of +the criminal law, or rather, transformed it in accordance with +the principles laid down by the political philosophy of the 18th +century. The principles which were then proclaimed are still, +on most points, the foundation of modern French law. The +development resulting from this extraordinary impetus can be +divided into two quite distinct phases: the first, from 1789 to +the <i>coup d’état</i> of the 18th Brumaire in the year VIII., was the +continuation of the impulse of the Revolution; the second +includes the Consulate and the first Empire, and was, as it were, +the marriage or fusion of the institutions arising from the Revolution +with those of the <i>ancien régime</i>.</p> + +<p>On the whole, the constitutional law of the Revolution is a +remarkably united whole, if we consider only the two constitutions +which were effectively applied during this first phase, +that of the 3rd of September 1791, and that of the +<span class="sidenote">The Constitutions of the Revolution.</span> +5th Fructidor in the year III. It is true that between +them occurred the ultra-democratic constitution of the +24th of June 1793, the first voted by the Convention; +but although this was ratified by the popular vote, to which it +had been directly submitted, in accordance with a principle proclaimed +by the Convention and kept in force under the Consulate +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page920" id="page920"></a>920</span> +and the Empire, it was never carried into effect. It was first +suspended by the establishment of the revolutionary government +strictly so called, and after Thermidor, under the pretext of +completing it, the Convention put it aside and made a new one, +being taught by experience. As long as it existed it was the +sovereign assembly of the Convention itself which really exercised +the executive power, governing chiefly by means of its great +committees.</p> + +<p>The constitution of 1791 was without doubt monarchical, +in so far as it preserved royalty. The constitution of the year +III. was, on the contrary, republican. The horror of monarchy +was still so strong at that time that an executive college was +created, a Directory of five members, one of whom retired every +year; they were elected by a complicated and curious procedure, +in which each of the two legislative councils played a distinct part. +But this difference, though apparently essential, was not in reality +very profound; this is proved, for example, by the fact that the +Directory had distinctly more extensive powers than those conferred +on Louis XVI. by the Constituent Assembly. On almost +all points of importance the two constitutions were similar. +They were both preceded by a statement of principles, a “Declaration +of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen.” They were both +based on two principles which they construed alike: the +sovereignty of the people and the separation of powers. Both +of them (with the exception of what has been said with regard to +the ratification of constitutions after 1793) recognized only representative +government. From the principle of the sovereignty +of the people they had not deduced universal suffrage; though, +short of this, they had extended the suffrage as far as possible. +According to the constitution of 1791, in addition to the conditions +of age and residence, an elector was bound to pay a +direct contribution equivalent to three days’ work; the constitution +of the year III. recognized the payment of any direct +contribution as sufficient; it even conferred on every citizen +the right of having himself enrolled, without any other qualification +than a payment equivalent to three days’ work, and thus +to become an elector. Further, neither of the two constitutions +admitted of a direct suffrage; the elections were carried out in +two stages, and only those who paid at a higher rating could be +chosen as electors for the second stage. The executive power, +which was in the case of both constitutions clearly separated +from the legislative, could not initiate legislation. The Directory +had no veto; Louis XVI. had with difficulty obtained a merely +suspensive veto, which was overridden in the event of three +legislatures successively voting against it. The right of dissolution +was possessed by neither the king nor the Directory. +Neither the king’s ministers nor those of the Directory could be +members of the legislative body, nor could they even be chosen +from among its ranks. The ministers of Louis XVI. had, however, +thanks to an unfortunate inspiration of the Constituent +Assembly of 1791, the right of entry to, and, to a certain extent, +of speaking in the Legislative Assembly; the constitution of the +year III. showed greater wisdom in not bringing them in any way +into contact with the legislative power. The greatest and most +notable difference between the two constitutions was that that +of 1791 established a single chamber which was entirely renewed +every two years; that of the year III., on the contrary, profiting +by the lessons of the past, established two chambers, one-third of +the members of which were renewed every year. Moreover, +the two chambers, the Council of Five Hundred and the Council of +Ancients, were appointed by the same electors, and almost the +only difference between their members was that of age.</p> + +<p>The Revolution entirely abolished the <i>ancien régime</i>, and in +the first instance whatever remained of feudalism. The Constituent +Assembly, in the course of its immense work +of settlement, wished to draw distinctions, abolishing +<span class="sidenote">Abolition of the “ancien régime.”</span> +absolutely, without indemnity, all rights which had +amounted in the beginning to a usurpation and could +not be justified, <i>e.g.</i> serfdom and seigniorial courts of justice. +On the other hand, it declared subject to redemption such feudal +charges as had been the subject of contract or of a concession +of lands. But as it was almost impossible to discover the exact +origin of various feudal rights, the Assembly had proceeded to +do this by means of certain legal assumptions which sometimes +admitted of a proof to the contrary. It carefully regulated the +conditions and rate of repurchase, and forbade the creation in +the future of any perpetual charge which could not be redeemed: +a principle that has remained permanent in French law. This +was a rational and equitable solution; but in a period of such +violent excitement it could not be maintained. The Legislative +Assembly declared the abolishment without indemnity of all +feudal rights for which the original deed of concession could not be +produced; and to produce this was, of course, in most cases +impossible. Finally, the Convention entirely abolished all feudal +rights, and commanded that the old deeds should be destroyed; +it maintained on the contrary, though subject to redemption, +those tenures and charges which were solely connected with +landed property and not feudal.</p> + +<p>With feudalism had been abolished serfdom. Further, the +Constituent Assembly suppressed nobility; it even forbade any +one to assume and bear the titles, emblems and arms of nobility. +Thus was established the equality of citizens before the law. +The Assembly also proclaimed the liberty of labour and industry, +and suppressed the corporations of artisans and workmen, the +<i>jurandes</i> and <i>maîtrises</i>, as Turgot had done. But, in order to +maintain this liberty of the individual, it forbade all associations +between workers, or employers, fearing that such contracts +would again lead to the formation of corporations similar to the +old ones. It even forbade and declared punishable, as being +contrary to the declaration of the rights of man and the citizen, +combinations or strikes, or an agreement between workmen or +employers to refuse to work or to give work except on given +conditions. Such, for a long time, was French legislation on this +point.</p> + +<p>The Constituent Assembly gave to France a new administrative +division, that into departments, districts, cantons and communes; +and this division, which was intended to make the +old provincial distinctions disappear, had to serve all +<span class="sidenote">Administrative reorganization.</span> +purposes, the department being the unit for all public +services. This settlement was definitive, with the +exception of certain modifications in detail, and exists to the +present day. But there was a peculiar administrative organism +depending on this arrangement. The constitution of 1791, +it is true, made the king the titulary head of the executive +power; but the internal administration of the kingdom was not +actually in his hands. It was deputed, under his orders, +to bodies elected in each department, district and commune. +The municipal bodies were directly elected by citizens duly +qualified; other bodies were chosen by the method of double +election. Each body consisted of two parts: a council, for +deliberative purposes, and a <i>bureau</i> or <i>directoire</i> chosen by the +council from among its numbers to form the executive. These +were the only instruments for the general administration and +for that of the direct taxes. The king could, it is true, annul +the illegal acts of these bodies, but not dismiss their members; +he could merely suspend them from exercising their functions, +but the matter then went before the Legislative Assembly, +which could maintain or remit the suspension as it thought fit. +The king had not a single agent chosen by himself for general +administrative purposes. This was a reaction, though a very +exaggerated one, against the excessive centralization of the +<i>ancien régime</i>, and resulted in an absolute administrative anarchy. +The organization of the revolutionary government partly restored +the central authority; the councils of the departments were +suppressed; the Committee of Public Safety and the “representatives +of the people on mission” were able to remove and +replace the members of the elected bodies; and also, by an +ingenious arrangement, national agents were established in +the districts. The constitution of the year III. continued in +this course, simplifying the organization established by the +Constituent Assembly, while maintaining its principle. The +department had an administration of five members, elected as +in the past, but having executive as well as deliberative functions. +The district was suppressed. The communes retained only a +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page921" id="page921"></a>921</span> +municipal agent elected by themselves, and the actual municipal +body, the importance of which was considerably increased, +was removed to the canton, and consisted of the municipal +agents from each commune, and a president elected by the duly +qualified citizens of the canton. The Directory was represented +in each departmental and communal administration by a +commissary appointed and removable by itself, and could dismiss +the members of these administrations.</p> + +<p>The Constituent Assembly decided on the complete reorganization +of the judicial organization. This was accomplished on a +very simple plan, which realized that ideal of the two +degrees of justice which, as we have noticed, was +<span class="sidenote">Judicial system.</span> +that of France under the <i>ancien régime</i>. In the lower +degrees it created in each canton a justice of the peace (<i>juge de +paix</i>), the idea and name of which were borrowed from England, +but which differed very much from the English justice of the +peace. He judged, both with and without appeal, civil cases +of small importance; and, in cases which did not come within +his competency, it was his duty to try to reconcile the parties. +In each district was established a civil court composed of five +judges. This completed the judicial organization, except for +the court of cassation, which had functions peculiar to itself, +never judging the facts of the case but only the application of +the law. For cases coming under the district court, the Assembly +had not thought fit to abolish the guarantee of the appeal in +cases involving sums above a certain figure. But by a curious +arrangement the district tribunals could hear appeals from one +another. With regard to penal prosecutions, there was in each +department a criminal court which judged crimes with the +assistance of a jury; it consisted of judges borrowed from +district courts, and had its own president and public prosecutor. +Correctional tribunals, composed of <i>juges de paix</i>, dealt with +misdemeanours. The Assembly preserved the commercial +courts, or consular jurisdictions, of the <i>ancien régime</i>. There +was a court of cassation, the purpose of which was to preserve +the unity of jurisprudence in France; it dealt with matters +of law and not of fact, considering appeals based on the violation +of law, whether in point of matter or of form, and if such violation +were proved, sending the matter before another tribunal of +the same rank for re-trial. All judges were elected for a term +of years; the <i>juges de paix</i> by the primary assembly of the canton, +the district judges by the electoral assembly consisting of the +electors of the second degree for the district, the members of the +court of cassation by the electors of the departments, who were +divided for the purpose into two series, which voted alternately. +The Constituent Assembly did, it is true, require professional +guarantees, by proof of a more or less extended exercise of +the profession of lawyer from all judges except the <i>juges de paix</i>. +But the system was really the same as that of the administrative +organization. The king only appointed the <i>commissaires du roi</i> +attached to the district courts, criminal tribunals and the court +of cassation; but the appointment once made could not be +revoked by him. These commissaries fulfilled one of the functions +of the old <i>ministère public</i>, their duty being to demand the +application of laws. The Convention did not change this general +organization; but it suppressed the professional guarantees +required in the case of candidates for a judgeship, so that henceforth +all citizens were eligible; and it also caused new elections +to take place. Moreover, the Convention, either directly or by +means of one of its committees, not infrequently removed and +replaced judges without further election. The constitution of +the year III. preserved this system, but introduced one considerable +modification. It suppressed the district courts, and in +their place created in each department a civil tribunal consisting +of twenty judges. The idea was a happy one, for it gave the +courts more importance, and therefore more weight and dignity. +But this reform, beneficial as it would be nowadays, was at the +time premature, in view of the backward condition of means +of communication.</p> + +<p>The Constituent Assembly suppressed the militia and maintained +the standing army, according to the old type, the numbers +of which were henceforth to be fixed every year by the Legislative +Assembly. The army was to be recruited by voluntary +enlistment, careful rules for which were drawn up; the only +<span class="sidenote">The army.</span> +change was in the system of appointment to ranks; +promotion went chiefly by seniority, and in the lower +ranks a system of nomination by equals or inferiors was +organized. The Assembly proclaimed, however, the principle +of compulsory and personal service, but under a particular +form, that of the National Guard, to which all qualified citizens +belonged, and in which almost all ranks were conferred by +election. Its chief purpose was to maintain order at home; +but it could be called upon to furnish detachments for defence +against foreign invasion. This was an institution which, with +many successive modifications, and after various long periods +of inactivity followed by a revival, lasted more than three-quarters +of a century, and was not suppressed till 1871. For +purposes of war the Convention, in addition to voluntary enlistments +and the resources furnished by the National Guards, +and setting aside the forced levy of 200,000 men in 1793, decided +on the expedient of calling upon the communes to furnish men, +a course which revived the principle of the old militia. But the +Directory drew up an important military law, that of the 6th +Fructidor of the year VI., which established compulsory military +service for all, under the form of conscription strictly so called. +Frenchmen aged from 20 to 25 (<i>défenseurs conscrits</i>) were divided +into five classes, each including the men born in the same year, +and were liable until they were 25 years old to be called up for +active service, the whole period of service not exceeding four +years. No class was called upon until the younger classes +had been exhausted, and the sending of substitutes was forbidden. +This law, with a few later modifications, provided for the French +armies up to the end of the Empire.</p> + +<p>The Constituent Assembly abolished nearly all the taxes +of the <i>ancien régime</i>. Almost the only taxes preserved were +the stamp duty and that on the registration of acts +(the old <i>contrôle</i> and <i>centième denier</i>), and these were +<span class="sidenote">Taxation.</span> +completely reorganized; the customs were maintained only at +the frontiers for foreign trade. In the establishment of new +taxes the Assembly was influenced by two sentiments: the +hatred which had been inspired by the former arbitrary taxation, +and the influence of the school of the Physiocrats. Consequently +it did away with indirect taxation on objects of consumption, +and made the principal direct tax the tax on land. Next in +importance were the <i>contribution personnelle et mobilière</i> and the +<i>patentes</i>. The essential elements of the former were a sort of +capitation-tax equivalent to three days’ work, which was the +distinctive and definite sign of a qualified citizen, and a tax on +personal income, calculated according to the rent paid. The +<i>patentes</i> were paid by traders, and were also based on the amount +of rent. These taxes, though considerably modified later, are +still essentially the basis of the French system of direct taxation. +The Constituent Assembly had on principle repudiated the tax +on the gross income, much favoured under the <i>ancien régime</i>, +which everybody had felt to be arbitrary and oppressive. The +system of public contributions under the Convention was +arbitrary and revolutionary, but the councils of the Directory, +side by side with certain bad laws devised to tide over temporary +crises, made some excellent laws on the subject of taxation. +They resumed the regulation of the land tax, improving and +partly altering it, and also dealt with the <i>contribution personnelle +et mobilière</i>, the <i>patentes</i>, and the stamp and registration duties. +It was at this time, too, that the door and window tax, which +still exists, was provisionally established; there was also a +partial reappearance of indirect taxation, in particular the +<i>octrois</i> of the towns, which had been suppressed by the Constituent +Assembly.</p> + +<p>The Constituent Assembly gave the Protestants liberty of +worship and full rights; it also gave Jews the status of citizen, +which they had not had under the <i>ancien régime</i>, +together with political rights. With regard to the +<span class="sidenote">Religious liberty.</span> +Catholic Church, the Assembly placed at the disposal +of the nation the property of the clergy, which had already, +in the course of the 18th century, been regarded by most political +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page922" id="page922"></a>922</span> +writers as a national possession; at the same time it provided +for salaries for the members of the clergy and pensions for those +who had been monks. It abolished tithes and the religious +orders, and forbade the re-formation of the latter in the future. +The ecclesiastical districts were next reorganized, the department +being always taken as the chief unit, and a new church +was organized by the civil constitution of the clergy, the bishops +being elected by the electoral assembly of the department (the +usual electors), and the curés by the electoral assembly of the +district. This was an unfortunate piece of legislation, inspired +partly by the old Gallican spirit, partly by the theories on civil +religion of J.J. Rousseau and his school, and, together with the +civic oath imposed on the clergy, it was a source of endless +troubles. The constitutional church established in this way +was, however, abolished as a state institution by the Convention. +By laws of the years III. and IV. the Convention and the +Directory, in proclaiming the liberty of worship, declared that +the Republic neither endowed nor recognized any form of +worship. Buildings formerly consecrated to worship, which +had not been alienated, were again placed at the disposal of +worshippers for this purpose, but under conditions which were +hard for them to accept.</p> + +<p>The Assemblies of the Revolution, besides the laws which, +by abolishing feudalism, altered the character of real property, +passed many others concerning civil law. The most +important are those of 1792, passed by the Legislative +<span class="sidenote">Civil law.</span> +Assembly, which organized the registers of the <i>état civil</i> kept +by the municipalities, and laid down rules for marriage +as a purely civil contract. Divorce was admitted to a practically +unlimited extent; it was possible not only for causes determined +by law, and by mutual consent, but also for incompatibility +of temper and character proved, by either husband or wife, +to be of a persistent nature. Next came the laws of the Convention +as to inheritance, imposing perfect equality among the +natural heirs and endeavouring to ensure the division of properties. +Illegitimate children were considered by these laws as on the +same level with legitimate children. The Convention and the +councils of the Directory also made excellent laws on the administration +of <i>hypothèques</i>, and worked at the preparation of a +<span class="sidenote">Criminal law.</span> +Civil Code (see <span class="sc"><a href="#artlinks">Code Napoléon</a></span>). In criminal law +their work was still more important. In 1791 the +Constituent Assembly gave France her first penal +code. It was inspired by humanitarian ideas, still admitting +capital punishment, though accompanied by no cruelty in the +execution; but none of the remaining punishments was for +life. Long imprisonment with hard labour was introduced. +Finally, as a reaction against the former system of arbitrary +penalties, there came a system of fixed penalties determined, +both as to its assessment and its nature, for each offence, which +the judge could not modify. The Constituent Assembly also +reformed the procedure of criminal trials, taking English law as +model. It introduced the jury, with the double form of <i>jury +d’accusation</i> and <i>jury de jugement</i>. Before the judges procedure +was always public and oral. The prosecution was left in principle +to the parties concerned, plaintiffs or <i>dénonciateurs civiques</i>, +and the preliminary investigation was handed over to two +magistrates; one was the <i>juge de paix</i>, as in English procedure +at this period, and the other a magistrate chosen from the +district court and called the <i>directeur du jury</i>. The Convention, +before separating, passed the <i>Code des délits et des peines</i> of the +3rd Brumaire in the year IV. This piece of work, which was +due to Merlin de Douai, was intended to deal with criminal +procedure and penal law; but only the first part could be +completed. It was the procedure established by the Constituent +Assembly, but further organized and improved.</p> + +<p><i>The Consulate and the Empire.</i>—The constitutional law of +the Consulate and the Empire is to be found in a series of documents +called later the <i>Constitutions de l’Empire</i>, the constitution +promulgated during the Hundred Days being consequently +given the name of <i>Acte additionnel aux Constitutions de l’Empire</i>. +These documents consist of (1) the Constitution of the 22nd +Frimaire of the year VIII., the work of Sieyès and Bonaparte, +the text on which the others were based; (2) the <i>senatus consulte</i> +of the 16th Thermidor in the year X., establishing the consulate +for life; and (3) the <i>senatus consulte</i> of the 28th Floréal in the +year XII., which created the Empire. These constitutional acts, +which were all, whether in their full text or in principle, submitted +to the popular vote by means of a <i>plébiscite</i>, had all the +same object: to assure absolute power to Napoleon, while +preserving the forms and appearance of liberty. Popular suffrage +was maintained, and even became universal; but, since the +system was that of suffrage in many stages, which, moreover, +varied very much, the citizens in effect merely nominated the +candidates, and it was the Senate, playing the part of <i>grand +électeur</i> which Sieyès had dreamed of as his own, which chose +from among them the members of the various so-called elected +bodies, even those of the political assemblies. According to the +constitution of the year VIII., the first consul (to whom had +been added two colleagues, the second and third consuls, who +did not disappear until the Empire) possessed the executive +power in the widest sense of the word, and he alone could initiate +legislation. There were three representative assemblies in +existence, elected as we have seen; but one of them, the Corps +Législatif, passed laws without discussing them, and without +the power of amending the suggestions of the government. +The Tribunate, on the contrary, discussed them, but its vote +was not necessary for the passing of the law. The Senate was +the guardian and preserver of the constitution; in addition to its +role of <i>grand électeur</i>, its chief function was to annul laws and +acts submitted to it by the Tribunate as being unconstitutional. +This original organization was naturally modified during the +course of the Consulate and the Empire; not only did the +emperor obtain the right of directly nominating senators, and +the princes of the imperial family, and grant dignitaries of the +Empire that of entering the Senate by right; but a whole body, +the Tribunate, which was the only one which could preserve +some independence, disappeared, without resort having been +had to a plebiscite; it was modified and weakened by <i>senatus +consulte</i> of the year X., and was suppressed in 1807 by a mere +<i>senatus consulte</i>. The importance of another body, on the +contrary, the <i>conseil d’état</i>, which had been formed on the +improved type of the ancient <i>conseil du roi</i>, and consisted of +members appointed by Napoleon and carefully chosen, continually +increased. It was this body which really prepared and +discussed the laws; and it was its members who advocated +them before the Corps Législatif, to which the Tribunate also +sent orators to speak on its behalf. The ministers, who had no +relation with the legislative power, were merely the agents +of the head of the state, freely chosen by himself. Napoleon, +however, found these powers insufficient, and arrogated to +himself others, a fact which the Senate did not forget when it +proclaimed his downfall. Thus he frequently declared war upon +his own authority, in spite of the provisions to the contrary +made by the constitution of the year VIII.; and similarly, under +the form of <i>décrets</i>, made what were really laws. They were +afterwards called <i>décrets-lois</i>, and those that were not indissolubly +associated with the political régime of the Empire, and survived +it, were subsequently declared valid by the court of cassation, +on the ground that they had not been submitted to the Senate +as unconstitutional, as had been provided by the constitution +of the year VIII.</p> + +<p>This period saw the rise of a whole new series of great organic +laws. For administrative organization, the most important +was that of the 28th Pluviôse in the year VIII. It +established as chief authority for each department a +<span class="sidenote">Administrative changes under Consulate and Empire.</span> +prefect, and side by side with him a <i>conseil général</i> +for deliberative purposes; for each <i>arrondissement</i> +(corresponding to the old <i>district</i>) a sub-prefect (<i>sous-préfet</i>) +and a <i>conseil d’arrondissement</i>; and for each +<i>commune</i>, a mayor and a municipal council. But all +these officials, both the members of the councils and the individual +agents, were appointed by the head of the state or by the prefect, +so that centralization was restored more completely than ever. +Together with the prefect there was also established a <i>conseil</i> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page923" id="page923"></a>923</span> +<i>de préfecture</i>, having administrative functions, and generally +acting as a court of the first instance in disputes and litigation +arising out of the acts of the administration; for the Constituent +Assembly had removed such cases from the jurisdiction of the +civil tribunals, and referred them to the administrative bodies +themselves. The final appeal in these disputes was to the <i>conseil +d’état</i>, which was supreme judge in these matters. In 1807 +was created another great administrative jurisdiction, the <i>cour +des comptes</i>, after the pattern of that which had existed under +the <i>ancien régime</i>.</p> + +<p>Judicial organization had also been fundamentally altered. +The system of election was preserved for a time in the case of +the <i>juges de paix</i> and the members of the court of +cassation, but finally disappeared there, even where +<span class="sidenote">Judicial changes.</span> +it had already been no more than a form. The +magistrates were in principle appointed for life, but under the +Empire a device was found for evading the rule of irremovability. +For the judgment of civil cases there was a court of first instance +in every arrondissement, and above these a certain number of +courts of appeal, each of which had within its province several +departments. The separate criminal tribunals were abolished +in 1809 by the <i>Code d’Instruction Criminelle</i>, and the magistrates +forming the <i>cour d’assises</i>, which judged crimes with the aid of +a jury, were drawn from the courts of appeal and from the civil +tribunals. The <i>jury d’accusation</i> was also abolished by the +<i>Code d’Instruction Criminelle</i>, and the right of pronouncing the +indictment was transferred to a chamber of the court of appeal. +The correctional tribunals were amalgamated with the civil +tribunals of the first instance. The <i>tribunal de cassation</i>, which +took under the Empire the name of <i>cour de cassation</i>, consisted +of magistrates appointed for life, and still kept its powers. +The <i>ministère public</i> (consisting of imperial <i>avocats</i> and <i>procureurs</i>) +was restored in practically the same form as under the <i>ancien +régime</i>.</p> + +<p>The former system of taxation was preserved in principle, +<span class="sidenote">Taxation.</span> +but with one considerable addition: Napoleon re-established +indirect taxation on articles of consumption, which +had been abolished by the Constituent Assembly; +the chief of these were the duties on liquor (<i>droits réunis</i>, or +excise) and the monopoly of tobacco.</p> + +<p>The Concordat concluded by Napoleon with the papacy on +the 26th Messidor of the year IX. re-established the Catholic +religion in France as the form of worship recognized +and endowed by the state. It was in principle drawn +up on the lines of that of 1516, and assured to the +<span class="sidenote">The Concordat.</span> +head of the French state in his dealings with the papacy the +same prerogatives as had formerly been enjoyed by the kings; +the chief of these was that he appointed the bishops, who afterwards +had to ask the pope for canonical institution. The +territorial distribution of dioceses was preserved practically +as it had been left by the civil constitution of the clergy. The +state guaranteed the payment of salaries to bishops and curés; +and the pope agreed to renounce all claims referring to the +appropriation of the goods of the clergy made by the Constituent +Assembly. Later on, a decree restored to the <i>fabriques</i> (vestries) +such of their former possessions as had not been alienated, +and the churches which had not been alienated were restored +for the purposes of worship. The law of the 18th Germinal +in the year X., ratifying the Concordat, reasserted, under the +name of <i>articles organiques du culte catholique</i>, all the main +principles contained in the old doctrine of the liberties of the +Gallican Church. The Concordat did not include the restoration +of the religious orders and congregations; Napoleon sanctioned +by decrees only a few establishments of this kind.</p> + +<p>One important creation of the Empire was the university. +The <i>ancien régime</i> had had its universities for purposes of instruction +and for the conferring of degrees; it had +also, though without any definite organization, such +<span class="sidenote">The university.</span> +secondary schools as the towns admitted within their +walls, and the primary schools of the parishes. The Revolution +suppressed the universities and the teaching congregations. +The constitution of the year III. proclaimed the liberty of +instruction and commanded that public schools, both elementary +and secondary, should be established. Under the Directory +there was in each department an <i>école centrale</i>, in which all +branches of human knowledge were taught. Napoleon, developing +ideas which had been started in the second half of the 18th +century, founded by laws and decrees of 1806, 1808 and 1811 +the Université de France, which provided and organized higher, +secondary and primary education; this was to be the monopoly +of the state, carried on by its <i>facultés</i>, <i>lycées</i> and primary schools. +No private educational establishment could be opened without +the authorization of the state.</p> + +<p>But chief among the documents dating from this period are +the Codes, which still give laws to France. These are the Civil +Code of 1804, the <i>Code de Procédure Civile</i> of 1806, +the <i>Code de Commerce</i> of 1807, the <i>Code d’Instruction Criminelle</i> +<span class="sidenote">The Codes.</span> +of 1809, and the <i>Code Pénal</i> of 1810. +These monumental works, in the elaboration of which the <i>conseil +d’état</i> took the chief part, contributed, to a greater or less +extent, towards the fusion of the old law of France with the laws +of the Revolution. It was in the case of the <i>Code Civil</i> that this +task presented the greatest difficulty (see <span class="sc"><a href="#artlinks">Code Napoléon</a></span>). +The <i>Code de Commerce</i> was scarcely more than a revised and +emended edition of the <i>ordonnances</i> of 1673 and 1681; while the +<i>Code de Procédure Civile</i> borrowed its chief elements from the +<i>ordonnance</i> of 1667. In the case of the <i>Code d’Instruction +Criminelle</i> a distinctly new departure was made; the procedure +introduced by the Revolution into courts where judgment was +given remained public and oral, with full liberty of defence; +the preliminary procedure, however, before the examining court +(<i>juge d’instruction</i> or <i>chambre des mises en accusation</i>) was +borrowed from the <i>ordonnance</i> of 1670; it was the procedure +of the old law, without its cruelty, but secret and written, and +generally not in the presence of both parties. The <i>Code Pénal</i> +maintained the principles of the Revolution, but increased the +penalties. It substituted for the system of fixed penalties, in +cases of temporary punishment, a maximum and a minimum, +between the limits of which judges could assess the amount. +Even in the case of misdemeanours, it admitted the system of +extenuating circumstances, which allowed them still further to +decrease and alter the penalty in so far as the offence was mitigated +by such circumstances. (See further under <span class="sc"><a href="#artlinks">Napoleon I</a></span>.)</p> + +<p><i>The Restored Monarchy.</i>—The Restoration and the Monarchy +of July, though separated by a revolution, form one period in +the history of French institutions, a period in which +the same régime was continued and developed. This +<span class="sidenote">Constitutional monarchy.</span> +was the constitutional monarchy, with a parliamentary +body consisting of two chambers, a system imitated +from England. The same constitution was preserved under +these two monarchies—the charter granted by Louis XVIII. +in 1814. The revolution of 1830 took place in defence of the +charter which Charles X. had violated by the <i>ordonnances</i> +of July, so that this charter was naturally preserved under the +“July Monarchy.” It was merely revised by the Chamber of +Deputies, which had been one of the movers of the revolution, +and by what remained of the House of Peers. In order to give +the constitution the appearance of originating in the will of the +people, the preface, which made it appear to be a favour granted +by the king, was destroyed. The two chambers acquired the +initiative in legislation, which had not been recognized as theirs +under the Restoration, but from this time on belonged to them +equally with the king. The sittings of the House of Peers were +henceforth held in public; but this chamber underwent another +and more fundamental transformation. The peers were nominated +by the king, with no limit of numbers, and according +to the charter of 1814 their appointment could be either for life +or hereditary; but, in execution of an ordinance of Louis XVIII., +during the Restoration they were always appointed under the +latter condition. Under the July Monarchy their tenure of +office was for life, and the king had to choose them from among +twenty-two classes of notables fixed by law. The franchise +for the election of the Chamber of Deputies had been limited +by a system of money qualifications; but while, under the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page924" id="page924"></a>924</span> +Restoration, it had been necessary, in order to be an elector, +to pay three hundred francs in direct taxation, this sum was +reduced in 1831 to two hundred francs, while in certain cases even +a smaller amount sufficed. In order to be elected as a deputy +it was necessary, according to the charter of 1814, to pay a +thousand francs in direct taxation, and according to that of 1830 +five hundred francs. From 1817 onwards there was direct +suffrage, the electors directly electing the deputies. The idea of +those who had framed the charter of 1814 had been to give the +chief influence to the great landed proprietors, though the means +adopted to this end were not adequate: in 1830 the chief aim +had been to give a preponderating influence to the middle and +lower middle classes, and this had met with greater success. +The House of Peers, under the name of <i>cour des pairs</i>, had also +the function of judging attempts and plots against the security +of the state, and it had frequently to exercise this function both +under the Restoration and the July Monarchy.</p> + +<p>This was a period of parliamentary government; that is, of +government by a cabinet, resting on the responsibility of the +ministers to the Chamber of Deputies. The only interruption +was that caused by the resistance of Charles X. at the end of his +reign, which led to the revolution of July. Parliamentary government +was practised regularly and in an enlightened spirit under +the Restoration, although the Chamber had not then all the +powers which it has since acquired. It is noteworthy that during +this period the right of the House of Peers to force a ministry to +resign by a hostile vote was not recognized. By the creation of a +certain number of new peers, a <i>fournée de pairs</i>, as it was then +called, the majority in this House could be changed when +necessary. But the government of the Restoration had to deal +with two extreme parties of a very opposite nature: the <i>Ultras</i>, +who wished to restore as far as possible the <i>ancien régime</i>, to +whom were due the acts of the <i>chambre introuvable</i> of 1816, and +later the laws of the ministry of Villèle, especially the law of +sacrilege and that voting compensation to the dispossessed +nobles, known as the <i>milliard des émigrés</i>; and on the other +hand the <i>Liberals</i>, including the Bonapartists and Republicans, +who were attached to the principles of the Revolution. In order +to prevent either of these parties from predominating in the +chamber, the government made a free use of its power of dissolution. +It further employed two means to check the progress +of the Liberals; firstly, there were various alterations successively +made in the electoral law, and the press laws, frequently restrictive +in their effect, which introduced the censorship and a preliminary +authorization in the case of periodical publications, and gave +the correctional tribunals jurisdiction in cases of press offences. +The best electoral law was that of 1817, and the best press laws +were those of 1819; but these were not of long duration. Under +the July Monarchy parliamentary government, although its +machinery was further perfected, was not so brilliant. The +majorities in the Chamber of Deputies were often uncertain, so +much so, that more than once the right of dissolution was exercised +in order to try by new elections to arrive at an undivided +and certain majority. King Louis Philippe, though sober-minded, +wished to exercise a personal influence on the policy +of the cabinet, so that there were then two schools, represented +respectively by Thiers and Guizot, one of which held the theory +that “the king reigns but does not govern”; while the other +maintained that he might exercise a personal influence, provided +that he could rely on a ministry supported by a majority of the +Chamber of Deputies. But the weak point in the July Monarchy +was above all the question of the franchise. A powerful movement +of opinion set in towards demanding an extension, some +wishing for universal suffrage, but the majority proposing what +was called the <i>adjonction des capacités</i>, that is to say, that to the +number of qualified electors should be added those citizens who, +by virtue of their professions, capacity or acquirements, were +inscribed after them on the general list for juries. But the +government obstinately refused all electoral reform, and held +to the law of 1831. It also refused parliamentary reform, by +which was meant a rule which would have made most public +offices incompatible with the position of deputy, the Chamber of +Deputies being at that time full of officials. The press, thanks +to the Charter, was perfectly free, without either censorship +or preliminary authorization, and press offences were judged by +a jury.</p> + +<p>In another respect also the Restoration and the July Monarchy +were at one, the second continuing the spirit of the first, viz. +in maintaining in principle the civil, legal and administrative +institutions of the Empire. The preface to +<span class="sidenote">The system of the Empire retained.</span> +the charter of 1814 sanctioned and guaranteed most +of the legal rights won by the Revolution; even the +alienation of national property was confirmed. It +was said, it is true, that the old nobility regained their titles, and +that the nobility of the Empire kept those which Napoleon had +given them; but these were merely titles and nothing more; +there was no privileged nobility, and the equality of citizens +before the law was maintained. Judicial and administrative +organization, the system of taxation, military organization, the +relations of church and state, remained the same, and the university +also continued to exist. The government did, it is true, +negotiate a new Concordat with the papacy in 1817, but did not +dare even to submit it to the chambers. The most important +reform was that of the law concerning recruiting for the army. +The charter of 1814 had promised the abolition of conscription, +in the form in which it had been created by the law of the year +VI. The law of the 10th of March 1818 actually established +a new system. The contingent voted by the chambers for annual +incorporation into the standing army was divided up among all +the cantons; and, in order to furnish it, lots were drawn among +all the men of a certain class, that is to say, among the young +Frenchmen who arrived at their majority that year. Those +who were not chosen by lot were definitely set free from military +service. The sending of substitutes, a custom which had been +permitted by Napoleon, was recognized. This was the type of all +the laws on recruiting in France, of which there were a good +number in succession up to 1867. On other points they vary, in +particular as to the duration of service, which was six years, +and later eight years, under the Restoration; but the system +remained the same.</p> + +<p>The Restoration produced a code, the <i>Code forestier</i> of 1827, +for the regulation of forests (<i>eaux et forêts</i>). In 1816 a law had +abolished divorce, making marriage indissoluble, as it had been +in the old law. But the best laws of this period were those on +finance. Now, for the first time, was introduced the practice of +drawing up regular budgets, voted before the year to which they +applied, and divided since 1819 into the budget of expenditure +and budget of receipts.</p> + +<p>Together with other institutions of the Empire, the Restoration +had preserved the exaggerated system of administrative +centralization established in the year VIII.; and proposals for +its relaxation submitted to the chambers had come to nothing. +It was only under the July Monarchy that it was relaxed. The +municipal law of the 21st of March 1831 made the municipal +councils elective, and extended widely the right of voting in the +elections for them; the <i>maires</i> and their assistants continued +to be appointed by the government, but had to be chosen from +among the members of the municipal councils. The law of the +22nd of June 1833 made the general councils of the departments +also elective, and brought the <i>adjonction des capacités</i> into effect +for their election. The powers of these bodies were enlarged in +1838, and they gained the right of electing their president. +In 1833 was granted another liberty, that of primary education; +but in spite of violent protestations, coming especially from the +Catholics, secondary and higher education continued to be a +monopoly of the state. Many organic laws were promulgated, +one concerning the National Guard, which was reorganized in +order to adapt it to the system of citizen qualifications; one in +1832 on the recruiting of the army, fixing the period of service at +seven years; and another in 1834 securing the status of officers. +A law of the 11th of June 1842 established the great railway +lines. In 1832 the <i>Code Pénal</i> and <i>Code d’Instruction Criminelle</i> +were revised, with the object of lightening penalties; the system +of extenuating circumstances, as recognized by a jury, was +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page925" id="page925"></a>925</span> +extended to the judgment of all crimes. There was also a revision +of Book III. of the <i>Code de Commerce</i>, treating of bankruptcy. +Finally, from this period date the laws of the 3rd of May +1841, on expropriation for purposes of public utility, and of the +30th of June 1838, on the treatment of the insane, which is still +in force. Judicial organization remained as it was, but the +amount of the sum up to which civil tribunals of the first instance +could judge without appeal was raised from 1000 francs to 1500, +and the competency of the <i>juges de paix</i> was widened.</p> + +<p><i>The Second Republic and the Second Empire.</i>—From the point +of view of constitutional law, the Second Republic and the Second +Empire were each in a certain sense a return to the past. The +former revived the tradition of the Assemblies of the Revolution; +the latter was obviously and avowedly an imitation of the Consulate +and the First Empire.</p> + +<p>The provisional government set up by the revolution of the +24th of February 1848 proclaimed universal suffrage, and by +this means was elected a Constituent Assembly, which +sat till May 1849, and, after first organizing various +<span class="sidenote">Republican constitution of 1848.</span> +forms of another provisional government, passed the +Republican constitution of the 4th of November 1848. +This constitution, which was preceded by a preface recalling +the Declarations of Rights of the Revolution, gave the legislative +power to a single permanent assembly, elected by direct universal +suffrage, and entirely renewed every three years. The executive +authority, with very extensive powers, was given to a president +of the Republic, also elected by the universal and direct suffrage +of the French citizens. The constitution was not very clear upon +the point of whether it adopted parliamentary government +in the strict sense, or whether the president, who was declared +responsible, was free to choose his ministers and to retain or +dismiss them at his own pleasure. This gave rise to an almost +permanent dispute between the president, who claimed to have +his own political opinions and to direct the government, and the +Assembly, which wished to carry on the traditions of cabinet +government and to make the ministers fully responsible to itself. +Consequently, in January 1851, a solemn debate was held, which +ended in the affirmation of the responsibility of ministers to the +Assembly. On the other hand, the president, though very +properly given great power by the constitution, was not immediately +eligible for re-election on giving up his office. Now Louis +Napoleon, who was elected president on the 10th of December +1848 by a huge majority, wished to be re-elected. Various +propositions were submitted to the Assembly in July 1851 with +a view to modifying the constitution; but they could not succeed, +as the number of votes demanded by the constitution for the +convocation of a Constituent Assembly was not reached. Moreover, +the Legislative Assembly elected in May 1849 was very +different from the Constituent Assembly of 1848. The latter was +animated by that spirit of harmony and, in the main, of adhesion +to the Republic which had followed on the February Revolution. +The new assembly, on the contrary, was composed for the most +part of representatives of the old parties, and had monarchist +aspirations. By the unfortunate law of the 31st of May 1850 it +even tried by a subterfuge to restrict the universal suffrage +guaranteed by the constitution. It suspended the right of holding +meetings, but, on the whole, respected the liberty of the press. +It was especially impelled to these measures by the growing +fear of socialism. The result was the <i>coup d’état</i> of the 2nd of +December 1851. A detail of some constitutional importance +is to be noticed in this period. The <i>conseil d’état</i>, which had +remained under the Restoration and the July Monarchy an +administrative council and the supreme arbiter in administrative +trials, acquired new importance under the Second Republic. +The ordinary <i>conseillers d’état</i> (<i>en service ordinaire</i>) were elected +by the Legislative Assembly, and consultation with the <i>conseil +d’état</i> was often insisted on by the constitution or by law. This +was the means of obtaining a certain modifying power as a substitute +for the second chamber, which had not met with popular +approval. During its short existence the Second Republic +produced many important laws. It abolished the penalty of +death for political crimes, and suppressed negro slavery in the +colonies. The election of <i>conseillers généraux</i> was thrown open +to universal suffrage, and the municipal councils were allowed +to elect the <i>maires</i> and their colleagues. <span class="correction" title="amended from Thd">The</span> law of the 15th +of March 1850 established the liberty of secondary education, +but it conferred certain privileges on the Catholic clergy, a clear +sign of the spirit of social conservatism which was the leading +motive for its enactment. Certain humanitarian laws were +passed, applying to the working classes.</p> + +<p>With the <i>coup d’état</i> of the 2nd of December 1851 began a new +era of constitutional plebiscites and disguised absolutism. +The proclamations of Napoleon on the 2nd of December +contained a criticism of parliamentary government, +<span class="sidenote">Constitution of Jan. 14, 1852.</span> +and formulated the wish to restore to France the +constitutional institutions of the Consulate and the +Empire, just as she had preserved their civil, administrative +and military institutions. Napoleon asked the people for the +powers necessary to draw up a constitution on these principles; +the plebiscite issued in a vast majority of votes in his favour, +and the constitution of the 14th of January 1852 was the result. +It bore a strong resemblance to the constitution of the First +Empire after 1807. The executive power was conferred on +Louis Napoleon for ten years, with the title of president of the +Republic and very extended powers. Two assemblies were +created. The conservative Senate, composed of <i>ex officio</i> members +(cardinals, marshals of France and admirals) and life members +appointed by the head of the state, was charged with the task +of seeing that the laws were constitutional, of opposing the +promulgation of unconstitutional laws, and of receiving the +petitions of citizens; it had also the duty of providing everything +not already provided but necessary for the proper working of +the constitution. The second assembly was the <i>Corps Législatif</i>, +elected by direct universal suffrage for six years, which passed +the laws, the government having the initiative in legislation. +This body was not altogether a <i>corps des muets</i>, as in the year +VIII., but its powers were very limited; thus the general session +assured to it by the constitution was only for three months, +and it could only discuss and put to the vote amendments +approved by the <i>conseil d’état</i>; the ministers did not in any way +come into contact with it and could not be members of it, being +responsible only to the head of the state, and only the Senate +having the right of accusing them before a high court of justice. +The <i>conseil d’état</i> was composed in the same way and had the +same authority as it had possessed from the year VIII. to 1814; +and it was the members of it who supported projected laws +before the Corps Législatif. To this was added a Draconian +press legislation; not only were press offences, many of which +were mere expressions of opinion, judged not by a jury but by +the correctional tribunals; but further, political papers could +not be founded without an authorization, and were subject to +a regular administrative discipline; they could be warned, +suspended or suppressed without a trial, by a simple act of +the administration. The constitution of January 1852 was +still Republican in name, though less so than that of the year +VIII. The period corresponding with the Consulate was also +shorter in the case of Louis Napoleon. The year 1852 had +not come to an end before a <i>senatus consulte</i>, that of the +10th of November, ratified by a plebiscite, re-established +the imperial rank in favour of Napoleon III.; it also +<span class="sidenote">Restoration of the Empire.</span> +conferred on him certain new powers, especially with +reference to the budget and foreign treaties; thus +various cracks, which experience had revealed in the +original structure of the Empire, were filled up. This +period was called that of the <i>empire autoritaire</i>. Further features +of it were the free appointment of the <i>maires</i> by the emperor, +the oath of fidelity to him imposed on all officials, and the legal +organization of official candidatures for the elections. Two +measures marked the highest point reached by this system: +the <i>loi de sureté générale</i> of the 27th of February 1858, which +allowed the government to intern in France or Algeria, or to +exile certain French citizens, without a trial. The other was +the <i>senatus consulte</i> of the 17th of February 1858, which made +the validity of candidatures for the Corps Législatif subject +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page926" id="page926"></a>926</span> +to a preliminary oath of fidelity on the part of the candidate. +But for various causes, which cannot be examined here, a series +of measures was soon to be initiated which were gradually to +<span class="sidenote">The empire libéral.</span> +lead back again to political liberty, and definitively +to found what has been called the <i>empire libéral</i>. +One by one the different rules and proceedings of +parliamentary government as it had existed in France +regained their force. The first step was the decree of the 24th +of November 1860, which re-established for each ordinary session +the address voted by the chambers in response to the speech +from the throne. In 1867 this movement took a more decisive +form. It led to a new constitution, that of the 21st of May +1870, which was again ratified by popular suffrage. While +maintaining the Empire and the imperial dynasty, it organized +parliamentary government practically in the form in which it +had operated under the July Monarchy, with two legislative +chambers, the Senate and the Corps Législatif, the consent of +both of which was necessary for legislation, and which, together +with the emperor, had the initiative in this matter. The laws +of the 11th of May 1868 and the 6th of June 1868 restored to a +certain extent the liberty of the press and of holding meetings, +though without abolishing offences of opinion, or again bringing +press offences under the jurisdiction of a jury. Laws of the 22nd +and 23rd of July 1870 gave the <i>conseils généraux</i>, whose powers +had been somewhat widened, the right of electing their presidents, +and provided that the <i>maires</i> and their colleagues should be +chosen from among the members of the municipal councils.</p> + +<p>The legislation of the Second Empire led to a considerable +number of reforms. Its chief aim was the development of +<span class="sidenote">Economic and social reforms under the Second Empire.</span> +commerce, industry and agriculture, and generally the +material prosperity of the country. The Empire, +though restricting liberty in political matters, increased +it in economic matters. Such were the decrees and +laws of 1852 and 1853 relating to land-banks (<i>établissements +de crédit foncier</i>) and that of 1857 on trade-marks, +those of 1863 and 1867 on commercial companies, that of 1858 +on general stores (<i>magasins généraux</i>) and warrants, that of +1856 on drainage, that of 1865 on the <i>associations syndicales de +propriétaires</i>, that of 1866 on the mercantile marine. The law +of the 14th of June 1865 introduced into France the institution, +borrowed from England, of cheques. But of still greater importance +for economic development than all these laws were the +<span class="sidenote">Commercial treaties.</span> +treaties concluded by the emperor with foreign powers, +in order to introduce, as far as possible, free exchange +of commodities; the chief of these, which was the +model of all the others, was that concluded with Great +Britain on the 23rd of January 1860. Moreover, the law of +the 25th of May 1864 admitted for the first time the right of +strikes and lock-outs among workmen or employers, annulling +articles 414 and following of the <i>Code Pénal</i>, which had so far +made them a penal offence, even when not accompanied by +fraudulent practices, threats or violence, tending to hinder the +liberty of labour. The superannuation fund (<i>caisse des retraites +pour la vieillesse</i>), supported by voluntary payments from those +participating in it, which had been created by the law of the 18th +of June 1850, was reorganized and perfected, and a law of the +11th of July 1868 established, with the guarantee of the state, +two funds for voluntary insurance, one in case of death, the other +against accidents occurring in industrial or agricultural employment. +A decree of 1863 established in principle the freedom +of bakeries, and another in 1864 that of theatrical management.</p> + +<p>Criminal law was the subject of important legislation. Two +codes were promulgated on special points, the codes of military +justice for the land forces (1857) and for the naval +forces (1858). But the common law was also largely +<span class="sidenote">Reforms in the criminal law.</span> +remodelled. A law of the 10th of June 1858, it is true, +created certain new crimes, with a view to protecting +the members of the imperial family, and that of the 17th of +July 1856 increased the powers and independence of the <i>juges +d’instruction</i>; but, on the other hand, useful improvements +were introduced by laws of 1856 and 1865, and notably with +regard to precautionary detention and provisional release with or +without bail. A law of the 20th of May 1863 organized a simple +and rapid procedure, copied from that followed in England +before the police courts, for summary jurisdiction. A law of +1868 permitted the revision of criminal trials after the death +of the condemned person. But the most far-reaching reforms +took place in 1854, namely, the abolition of the total loss of +civil rights which formerly accompanied condemnation to +imprisonment for life, and the law of the 30th of May on penal +servitude (<i>travaux forcés</i>) which substituted transportation to +the colonies for the system of continental convict prisons. +Finally, in 1863, there was a revision of the <i>Code Pénal</i>, which, +in the process of lightening penalties, made a certain number of +crimes into misdemeanours, and in consequence transferred +<span class="sidenote">Civil legislation.<br /> +Taxation and army.</span> +the judgment of them from the assize courts to the +correctional tribunals. In civil legislation may be +noted the law of the 23rd of March 1855 on hypothecs +(see <span class="sc"><a href="#artlinks">Code Napoléon</a></span>); that of the 22nd of July 1857, +which abolished seizure of the person (<i>contrainte par corps</i>) for +civil and commercial debts; and finally, the law of the 14th +of July 1866, on literary copyright. The system of taxation was +hardly modified at all, except for the establishment +of a tax on the income arising from investments +(shares and bonds of companies) in 1857, and the tax +on carriages (1862). On the 1st of February 1868 +was promulgated an important military law, which, however, +passed the Corps Législatif with some difficulty. It asserted +the principle of universal compulsory military service, at least, +in time of war. It preserved, however, the system of drawing +lots to determine the annual contingent to be incorporated +into the standing army; the term of service was fixed at five +years, and it was still permissible to send a substitute. But +able-bodied men who were not included in the annual contingent +formed a reserve force called the <i>garde nationale mobile</i>, each +department organizing its own section. These <i>gardes mobiles</i>, +though they were not effectively organized or exercised under the +Empire, took part in the war of 1870-71.</p> + +<p><i>The Third Republic.</i>—The Third Republic had at first a +provisional government, unanimously acclaimed by the people +of Paris. It was accepted by France, exercised full powers, +and sustained by no means ingloriously a desperate struggle +against the enemy; a certain number of its <i>décrets-lois</i> are still +in force. After the capitulation of Paris, a National Assembly +was elected to treat with Germany. It was elected in accordance +with the electoral law of 1849, which had been revived with a +few modifications, and it met at Bordeaux to the number of +753 members on the 13th of February 1871. It was a sovereign +assembly, since France had no longer a constitution, and for +this very reason it claimed from the outset constituent powers; +the Republican party at the time, however, contested this claim, +the majority in the assembly being frankly monarchist, though +divided as to the choice of a monarch. But for some time the +National Assembly either could not or would not exercise this +power, and up to 1875 affairs remained in a provisional state, +legalized and regulated this time by the Assembly. This was an +application, though unconscious, of a form of government which +M. Grévy had proposed to the Constituent Assembly in 1848. +There was a single assembly, with one man elected by it as head +of the executive power (the first to be elected was M. Thiers, +who received the title of president of the Republic in August +1871), who was responsible to the Assembly and governed with +the help of ministers chosen by himself, who were also responsible +to it. Thiers fell on the 24th of May 1873. His place was taken +by Marshal MacMahon, on whom the Assembly later conferred, in +November 1873, the position of president of the Republic for +seven years, when the refusal of the comte de Chambord to +accept the tricolour in place of the white flag of the Bourbons +had made any attempt to restore the monarchy impossible. +Henceforth the definitive adoption of the Republican form of +government became inevitable, and the opinion of the country +began to turn in this direction, as was shown by the elections +of deputies which took place to fill up the gaps occurring in the +Assembly. The Assembly, however, shrank from the inevitable +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page927" id="page927"></a>927</span> +solution, and when a discussion was begun in January 1875 on +the projected constitutional laws prepared by the <i>commission +des trente</i>, the only proposals made by the latter were for a more +complete organization of the powers of one man, Marshal +MacMahon. But on the 30th of January 1875 was adopted, +by 353 votes to 352, an amendment by M. Wallon which provided +for the election of an indefinite succession of presidents of the +<span class="sidenote">Definitive establishment of the Republic.</span> +Republic; this amounted to a definitive recognition +of the Republic. In this connexion it has often been +said that the Republic was established by a majority +of one. This is not an accurate statement, for it was +only the case on the first reading of the law; the +majority on the second and third readings increased until it +became considerable. There was a strong movement in the +direction of a reconciliation between the parties; and there had +been a <i>rapprochement</i> between the Republicans and the Right +Centre. At the end of February were passed and promulgated +two constitutional laws, that of the 25th of February 1875, on +the organization of the public powers, and that of the 24th of +February 1875, on the organization of the senate. In the middle +of the year they were supplemented by a third, that of the 16th +of July 1875, on the relations between the public powers.</p> + +<p>Thus was built up the actual constitution of France. It +differs fundamentally, both in form and contents, from previous +constitutions. As to its form, instead of a single +methodical text divided into an uninterrupted series of +<span class="sidenote">The French Constitution.</span> +articles, it consisted of three distinct laws. As to +matter, it is obviously a work of an essentially practical +nature, the result of compromise and reciprocal concessions. +It does not lay down any theoretical principles, and its provisions, +which were arrived at with difficulty, confine themselves strictly +to what is necessary to ensure the proper operation of the +governmental machinery. The result is a compromise between +Republican principles and the rules of constitutional and parliamentary +monarchy. On this account it has been accused, though +unjustly, of being too monarchical. Its duration, by far the +longest of any French constitution since 1791, is a sign of its +value and vitality. It is in fact a product of history, and not +of imagination. Its composition is as follows. The legislative +power was given to two elective chambers, having equal powers, +the vote of both of which is necessary for legislation, and both +having the right of initiating and amending laws. The constitution +assures them an ordinary session of five months, which +opens by right on the second Tuesday in January. One house, +the Chamber of Deputies, is elected by direct universal suffrage +and is entirely renewed every four years; the other, the Senate, +consists of 300 members, divided by the law of the 27th of +February 1875 into two categories; 75 of the senators were +elected for life and irremovable, and the first of them were elected +by the National Assembly, but afterwards it was the Senate +itself which held elections to fill up vacancies. The 225 remaining +senators were elected by the departments and by certain colonies, +among which they were apportioned in proportion to the population; +they are elected for nine years, a third of the house being +renewed every three years. The electoral college in each department +which nominated them included the deputies, the members +of the general council of the department and of the councils +of the arrondissements, and one delegate elected by each municipal +council, whatever the importance of the commune. This was +practically a system of election in two and, partly, three degrees, +but with this distinguishing feature, that the electors of the +second degree had not been chosen purely with a view to this +election, but chiefly for the exercise of other functions. The +most important elements in this electoral college were the +delegates from the municipal councils, and by giving one delegate +to each, to Paris just as to the smallest commune in France, the +National Assembly intended to counterbalance the power of +numbers, which governed the elections for the Chamber of +Deputies, and, at the same time, to give a preponderance to the +country districts. The 75 irremovable senators were another +precaution against the danger from violent waves of public +opinion. The executive power was entrusted to a president, +elected for seven years (as Marshal MacMahon had been in 1873), +by the Chamber and the Senate, combined into a single body +under the name of National Assembly. He is always eligible +for re-election, and is irresponsible except in case of high treason. +His powers are of the widest, including the initiative in legislation +jointly with the two chambers, the appointment to all civil and +military offices, the disposition, and, if he wish it, the leadership +of the armed forces, the right of pardon, the right of negotiating +treaties with foreign powers, and, in principle, of ratifying them +on his own authority, the consent of the two chambers being +required only in certain cases defined by the constitution. The +nomination of <i>conseillers d’état</i> for ordinary service, whom the +National Assembly had made elective, as in 1848, and elected +itself, was restored to the president of the Republic, together +with the right of dismissing them. But these powers he can +only exercise through the medium of a ministry, politically and +jointly responsible to the chambers, and forming a council, +over which the president usually presides.</p> + +<p>The French Republic is essentially a parliamentary republic. +The right of dissolving the Chamber of Deputies before the +expiration of its term of office belongs to the president, but in +order to do so he must have, besides a ministry which will take +the responsibility for it, the preliminary sanction of the Senate. +The Senate is at the same time a high court of justice, which can +judge the president of the Republic and ministers accused of +crimes committed by them in the exercise of their functions; +in these two cases the prosecution is instituted by the Chamber +of Deputies. The Senate can also be called upon to judge any +person accused of an attempt upon the safety of the state, who +is then seized by a decree of the president of the Republic, +drawn up in the council of ministers. Possible revision of the +constitution is provided for very simply: it has to be proposed +as a law, and for its acceptance a resolution passed by each +chamber separately, by an absolute majority, is necessary. +The revision is then carried out by the Senate and the Chamber of +Deputies to form a National Assembly. There have been two +revisions since 1875. The first time, in 1879, it was simply a +question of transferring the seat of the government and of the +chambers back to Paris from Versailles, where it had been fixed +by one of the constitutional laws. The second time, in 1884, +more fundamental modifications were required. The most +important point was to change the composition and election +of the Senate. With a view to this, the new constitutional law +of the 14th of August 1884 abolished the constitutional character +of a certain number of articles of the law of the 24th of February +1875, thus making it possible to modify them by an ordinary +law. This took place in the same year; the 75 senators for life +were suppressed for the future by a process of extinction, and +their seats divided among the most populous departments. +Further, in the electoral college which elects the senators, there +was allotted to the municipal councils a number of delegates +proportionate to the number of members of the councils, which +depends on the importance of the commune. The law of the +14th of August 1884 also modified the constitution in another +important respect. The law of the 25th of February 1875 had +admitted the possibility not only of a partial, but even of a total +revision, which could affect and even change the form of the +state. The law of the 14th of August 1884, however, declared +that no proposition for a revision could be accepted which +aimed at changing the republican form of government. The +composition of the Chamber of Deputies was not fixed by the +constitution, and consequently admitted more easily of variation. +Since 1871 the mode of election has oscillated between the <i>scrutin +de liste</i> for the departments and the <i>scrutin uninominal</i> for the +arrondissements. The organic law of the 30th of November 1875 +had established the latter system; in 1885 the <i>scrutin de liste</i> +was established by law, but in 1889 the <i>scrutin d’arrondissement</i> +was restored; and in this same year, on account of the ambitions +of General Boulanger and the suggestion which was made for a +sort of plebiscite in his favour, was passed the law on plural +candidatures, which forbids anyone to become a candidate for +the Chamber of Deputies in more than one district at a time.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page928" id="page928"></a>928</span></p> + +<p>The system established by the constitution of 1875 has worked +excellently in some of its departments; for instance, the mode of +electing the president of the Republic. Between 1875 +and 1906 there were seven elections, sometimes under +<span class="sidenote">Working of the constitution.</span> +tragic or very difficult conditions; the election has +always taken place without delay or obstruction, +and the choice has been of the best. The high court of justice, +which has twice been called into requisition, in 1889 and in +1899-1900, has acted as an efficient check, in spite of the difficulties +confronting such a tribunal when feeling runs high. +Parliamentary government in the form set up by the constitution, +besides the criticism to which this system is open in all countries +where it is established, even in England, met with special +difficulties in France. In the first place, the useful but rather +secondary rôle assigned to the president of the Republic has by +no means satisfied all those who have occupied this high office. +Two presidents have resigned on the ground that their powers +were insufficient. Another, even after re-election, had to +withdraw in face of the opposition of the two chambers, being +no longer able to obtain a parliamentary ministry. It is difficult, +however, to accept the theory of an eminent American political +writer, Mr John W. Burgess,<a name="fa1a" id="fa1a" href="#ft1a"><span class="sp">1</span></a> that in order to attain to a position +of stable equilibrium, the French Republic ought to adopt the +presidential system of the United States. In France this sharp +division between the two powers has never been observed except +in those periods when the representative assemblies were powerless, +under the First and Second Empires. It is true that the +apparent multiplicity of parties and their lack of discipline, +together with the French procedure of <i>interpellations</i> and the +orders of the day by which they are concluded, make the formation +of homogeneous and lasting cabinets difficult; but since +the end of the 19th century there has been great progress in this +respect. Another difficulty arose in 1896. The Senate, appealing +to the letter of the constitution and relying on its elective character, +claimed the right of forcing a ministry to resign by its vote, +in the same way as the Chamber of Deputies. The Senate was +victorious in the struggle, and forced the ministry presided over +by M. Léon Bourgeois to resign; but the precedent is not +decisive, for in order to gain its ends the Senate had recourse to +the means of refusing to sanction the taxes, declining to consider +the proposals for the supplies necessary for the Madagascar +expedition so long as the ministry which it was attacking was +in existence. The weakest point in the French parliamentary +organism is perhaps the right of dissolution. It is difficult of +application, for the reason that the president must obtain the +preliminary consent of the Senate before exercising it; moreover, +this valuable right has been discredited by its abuse by +Marshal MacMahon in the campaign of the 16th of May 1877, +on which occasion he exercised his right of dissolution against +a chamber, the moderate but decidedly republican majority in +which <span class="correction" title="added he">he</span> was re-elected by the country.</p> + +<p>The legislative reforms carried out under the Third Republic +are very numerous. As to public law, it is only possible to +mention here those of a really organic character, +chief among which are those which safeguard and +<span class="sidenote">Reforms under the Third Republic.</span> +regulate the exercise of the liberties of the individual. +The law of the 30th of June 1881, modified in 1901, +established the right of holding meetings. Public meetings, +whether for ordinary or electoral purposes, may be held without +preliminary authorization; the law of 1881 prescribed a declaration +made by a certain number of citizens enjoying full civil +and political rights, which is now remitted. The only really +restrictive provision is that which does not allow them to be +held in the public highway, but only in an enclosed space. But +this is made necessary by the customs of France. The law of the +21st of July 1881 on the press is one of the most liberal in the +world. By it all offences committed by any kind of publication +are submitted to a jury; the punishment for the mere expression +of obnoxious opinions is abolished, the only punishment being +for slander, libel, defamation, inciting to crime, and in certain +cases the publication of false news. The law of the 1st of July +1901 established in France the right of forming associations. +It recognizes the legality of all associations strictly so called, +the objects of which are not contrary to law or to public order +or morality. On condition of a simple declaration to the administrative +authority, it grants them a civil status in a wide sense +of the term. Religious congregations, on the contrary, which +<span class="sidenote">The religious congregations.</span> +are not authorized by a law, are forbidden by this law. +This was not a new principle, but the traditional rule +in France both before and after the Revolution, +except that under certain governments authorization +by decree had sufficed. As a matter of fact the unauthorized +congregations had been tolerated for a long time, although on +various occasions, and especially in 1881, their partial dissolution +had been proclaimed by decrees. The law of 1901 dissolved +them all, and made it an offence to belong to such a congregation. +The members of unauthorized congregations, and later, in 1904, +even those of the authorized congregations, were disqualified +from teaching in any kind of establishment. The liberty of +primary education was confirmed and reorganized by the law +of the 30th of October 1886, which simply deprived the clergy +of the privileges granted them by the law of 1850, though the +latter remains in force with regard to the liberty of secondary +education. A law passed by the National Assembly (July 12, +1875) established the liberty of higher education. It even went +<span class="sidenote">Education.</span> +beyond this, for it granted to students in private +<i>facultés</i> who aspired to state degrees the right of being +examined before a board composed partly of private and partly +of state professors. The law of the 18th of March 1880 abolished +this privilege. Another law, that of the 22nd of March 1882, +made primary education obligatory, though allowing parents to +send their children either to private schools or to those of the +state; the law of the 16th of June 1881 established secular +(<i>laïque</i>) education in the case of the latter. The Third Republic +also organized secondary education for girls in lycées or special +colleges (<i>collèges de fille</i>). Finally, a law of the 10th of July +1896 dealing with higher education and the faculties of the state +reorganized the universities, which form distinct bodies, enjoying +a fairly wide autonomy. A law of the 19th of December 1905, +abrogating that of the 18th Germinal in the year X., which +<span class="sidenote">Separation of church and state.</span> +had sanctioned the Concordat, proclaimed the separation +of the church from the state. It is based on the +principle of the secular state (<i>état laïque</i>) which recognizes +no form of religion, though respecting the right +of every citizen to worship according to his beliefs, and it aimed +at organizing associations of citizens, the object of which was to +collect the funds and acquire the property necessary for the +maintenance of worship, under the form of <i>associations cultuelles</i>, +differing in certain respects from the associations sanctioned +by the law of the 1st of July 1901, but having a wider scope. It +also handed over to these regularly formed associations the property +of the ecclesiastical establishments formerly in existence, +while taking precautions to ensure their proper application, +and allowed the associations the free use of the churches and +places of worship belonging to the state, the departments or the +communes. If no <i>association cultuelle</i> was founded in a parish, +the property of the former <i>fabrique</i> should devolve to the commune. +But this law was condemned by the papacy, as contrary +to the church hierarchy; and almost nowhere were <i>associations +cultuelles</i> formed, except by Protestants and Jews, who complied +with the law. After many incidents, but no church having been +closed, a new law of the 2nd of January 1907 was enacted. +It permits the public exercise of any cult, by means of ordinary +associations regulated by the law of the 1st of July 1901, and even +of public meetings summoned by individuals. Failing all associations, +either <i>cultuelles</i> or others, churches, with their ornaments +and furniture, are left to the disposition of the faithful and +ministers, for the purpose of exercising the cult; and, on certain +conditions, the long use of them can be granted as a free gift to +ministers of the cult.</p> + +<p>Among the organic laws concerning administrative affairs +there are two of primary importance; that of the 10th of +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page929" id="page929"></a>929</span> +August 1871, on the <i>conseils généraux</i>, considerably increased +the powers and independence of these elective bodies, +<span class="sidenote">Administrative changes.</span> +which have become important deliberative assemblies, +their sessions being held in public. The law of 1871 +created a new administrative organ for the departments, +the <i>commission départmentale</i>, elected by the council-general +of the department from among its own members and +associated with the administration of the prefect. The other law +is the municipal law of the 5th of April 1884, which effected a +widespread decentralization; the <i>maires</i> and their <i>adjoints</i> are +elected by the municipal council.</p> + +<p>The war of 1870-71 necessarily led to a modification of the +military organization. The law of the 25th of July 1872 established +the principle of compulsory service for all, first in +the standing army, the period of service in which was +<span class="sidenote">Reorganization of the army.</span> +fixed at five years, then in the reserve, and finally in +the territorial army. But the application of this principle +was by no means absolute, only holding good in time of war. +Each annual class was divided into two parts, by means of drawing +lots, and in time of peace one of these parts had only a year of +service with the active army. The previous exemptions, based +either on the position of supporter of the family (as in the case of +the son of a widow or aged father, &c.) or on equivalent services +rendered to the state (as in the case of young ecclesiastics or +members of the teaching profession), were preserved, but only +held good for service in the active army in times of peace. +Finally, the system of conditional engagement for a year allowed +young men, for the purposes of study or apprenticeship to their +profession, only to serve a year with the active army in time of +peace. By this means it was sought to combine the advantages of +an army of veterans with those of a numerous and truly national +army. But the conditional volunteering (<i>volontariat conditionnel</i>) +for a year was open to too great a number of people, and so +brought the system into discredit. As those who profited by +it had to be clothed and maintained at their own expense, and +the sum which they had to furnish for this purpose was generally +fixed at 1500 francs, it came to be considered the privilege of +those who could pay this sum. A new law of the 15th of July 1889 +lessened the difference between the two terms which it attempted +to reconcile. It reduced the term of service in the active army +to three years, and the exemptions, which were still preserved, +merely reduced the period to a year in times of peace. The same +reduction was also granted to those who were really pursuing +important scientific, technical or professional studies; the system +was so strict on this point that the number of those who profited +by those exemptions did not amount to 2000 in a year. This was +a compromise between two opposing principles; the democratic +principle of equality, being the stronger, was bound to triumph. +The law of the 21st of March 1905 reduced the term of service +in the active army to two years, but made it equal for all, admitting +of no exemption, but only certain facilities as to the age at +which it had to be accomplished.</p> + +<p>In 1883 the judicial <i>personnel</i> was reorganized and reduced +in number. With the exception of a few modifications the main +<span class="sidenote">Justice and taxation.</span> +lines of judicial organization remained the same. +In 1879 the conseil d’état was also reorganized. The +whole fabric of administrative jurisdiction was carefully +organized, and almost entirely separated from the +active administration.</p> + +<p>The system of taxation has remained essentially unaltered; +we may notice, however, the laws of 1897, 1898 and 1900, which +abolished or lessened the duties on so called <i>hygienic</i> drinks +(wine, beer, cider), and the financial law of 1901, which rearranged +and increased the transfer fees, and established a system of +progressive taxation in the case of succession dues.</p> + +<p>The labour laws, which generally partook of the nature +both of public and of private law, are a sign of our times. Under +the Third Republic they have been numerous, the +most notable being: the law of the 21st of March +<span class="sidenote">Labour legislation.</span> +1884 on professional syndicates, which introduced +the liberty of association in matters of this kind +before it became part of the common law (see <span class="sc"><a href="#artlinks">Trade Unions</a></span>); +the law of the 9th of April 1898 on the liability for accidents +incurred during work, and those which have completed it; +that of the 22nd of December 1892 on conciliation and arbitration +in the case of collective disputes between employers and workmen; +that of the 29th of June 1893 on the hygiene and safeguarding +of workers in industrial establishments, and the laws which +regulate the work of children and women in factories; finally, +that of the 15th of July 1893 on free medical attendance (see +<span class="sc"><a href="#artlinks">Labour Legislation</a></span>).</p> + +<p>As to criminal law, there have been more than fifty enactments, +mostly involving important modifications, due to more scientific +ideas of punishment, so that we may say that it has +been almost entirely recast since the establishment +<span class="sidenote">Criminal law.</span> +of the Third Republic. The separate system applied in +cases of preventive detention and imprisonment for short +periods; liberation before the expiry of the term of sentence, +subject to the condition that no fresh offence shall be committed +within a given time; transportation to the colonies of habitual +offenders; the remission of the penalty in the case of first +offenders, and the lapsing of the penalty when a certain time +has gone by without a fresh condemnation; greater facilities +for the rehabilitation of condemned persons, which now became +simply a matter for the courts, and occurred as a matter of +course at the end of a certain time; such were the chief results +of this legislation. Finally, the law of the 8th of December 1897 +completely altered the form of the preliminary examination +before the <i>juge d’instruction</i>, which had been the weakest point +in the French criminal procedure, though it was still held in +private; the new law made this examination really a hearing +of both sides, and made the appearance of counsel for the defence +practically compulsory.</p> + +<p>As to private law, both civil and commercial, we could +enumerate between 1871 and 1906 more than a hundred laws +which have modified it, sometimes profoundly, and have for +the most part done very useful work without attracting much +attention. They are generally examined and drawn up by +commissions of competent men, and pass both chambers almost +without discussion. There have, however, been a few which +aroused public interest and even deep feeling. Firstly, there +was the law of the 27th of July 1884, and those which completed +it; this law re-established divorce, which had been abolished +since 1816, but only permitted it for certain definite causes +determined by law. On the other hand, the law of the 6th of +February 1893 increased the liberty and independence of a +woman who was simply judicially separated, in order to +encourage separation, as opposed to divorce, when the conditions +allowed it. The law of the 25th of March 1896 on the succession +of illegitimate children, who were recognized by the parents, +treated them not in the same way as legitimate children, but +gave them the title of heirs in the succession of their father and +mother, together with much greater rights than they had +possessed under the <i>Code Civil</i>. The law of the 24th of July 1899, +on the protection of children who are ill-treated or morally +neglected, also modified some of the provisions of the law +as applied to the family, with a view to greater justice and +humanity. Finally, on the occasion of the centenary of the +<i>Code Civil</i> (see <span class="sc"><a href="#artlinks">Code Napoléon</a></span>), a commission, composed +of members of the chambers, magistrates, professors of law, +lawyers, political writers, and even novelists and dramatic +authors, was given the task of revising the whole structure of +the code.</p> + +<div class="condensed"> +<p>See generally Adhémar Esmein, <i>Cours élémentaire d’histoire du +droit français</i> (6th ed., 1906); J. Brissand, <i>Cours d’histoire générale +du droit français public et privé</i> (1904); Ernest Glasson, <i>Histoire du +droit et des institutions en France</i> (1887-1904); Paul Viollet, <i>Histoire +des institutions politiques et administratives de la France</i> (3rd ed., +1903); Fustel de Coulanges, <i>Histoire des institutions politiques de +l’ancienne France</i>; Jacques Flach, <i>Les Origines de l’ancienne France</i> +(1875-1889); Achille Luchaire, <i>Histoire des institutions monarchiques +de la France sous les premiers Capétiens</i> (2nd ed., 1900); Hippolyte +Taine, <i>Les Origines de la France contemporaine</i> (1878-1894); Adhémar +Esmein, <i>Eléments de droit constitutionnel français et comparé</i> (4th ed., +1906); Léon Duguit et Henry Monnier, <i>Les Constitutions et les principales +lois politiques de la France depuis 1789</i> (1898).</p> +</div> +<div class="author">(J. P. E.)</div> + +<hr class="foot" /> <div class="note"> + +<p><a name="ft1a" id="ft1a" href="#fa1a"><span class="fn">1</span></a> <i>Political Science and Comparative Constitutional Law</i> (Boston, +1896).</p> +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page930" id="page930"></a>930</span></p> + + +<hr class="art" /> +<p><span class="bold">FRANCESCHI, JEAN BAPTISTE,<a name="ar2" id="ar2"></a></span> <span class="sc">Baron</span> (1766-1813), French +general, was born at Bastia on the 5th of December 1766 and +entered the French service in 1793. He took part in the operations +in Corsica in the following year, and received a wound at +the siege of San Fiorenzo. After this he left the island and was +appointed a field officer in the French Army of Italy, with which +he served from 1795 to 1799. He served as a general officer in +the campaign of Marengo, in the Naples campaign of 1805-1806, +and in the Peninsular War from 1807 to 1809. He was created +a baron by Napoleon. He commanded a Neapolitan brigade +in the Russian War of 1812, and after the retreat from Moscow +took refuge, with the remnant of his command, in Danzig, +where in the course of the siege of 1813 he died on the 19th of +March.</p> + +<p>Two other generals of brigade in Napoleon’s wars bore the +name of Franceschi, and the three have often been mistaken for +each other. The first was born at Lyons, <span class="sc">Jean Baptiste Marie +Franceschi-Delonne</span> (1767-1810), who served throughout +the Revolutionary campaign on the Rhine, took part in the +campaign of Zürich in 1799, and distinguished himself very +greatly by his escape from, and subsequent return to, Genoa, +when in 1800 Masséna was closely besieged in that city. He +became a cavalry colonel in 1803, was promoted general of +brigade on the field of Austerlitz, and served in southern Italy +and in Spain on the staff of King Joseph Bonaparte. During +the Peninsular War he won great distinction as a cavalry general, +and in 1810 Napoleon made him a baron. At this time he was a +prisoner in the hands of the Spaniards, into whose hands he had +fallen while bearing important despatches during the campaign +of Talavera. He was harshly treated by his captors, and died +at Carthagena on the 23rd of October 1810. The second was +<span class="sc">François Franceschi-Losio</span> (1770-1810), born at Milan, who +entered the French Revolutionary army in 1795. He served +through the Italian campaign of 1796-97, and subsequently, +like Franceschi-Delonne, with Masséna at Zürich and at Genoa, +and at the headquarters of King Joseph in Italy and Spain. +He was killed in a duel by the Neapolitan colonel Filangieri +in 1810.</p> + + +<hr class="art" /> +<p><span class="bold">FRANCESCHI, PIERO<a name="ar3" id="ar3"></a></span> (or <span class="sc">Pietro</span>) <b>DE’</b> (<i>c.</i> 1416-1492), +Italian painter of the Umbrian school. This master is generally +named Piero della Francesca (Peter, son of Frances), the tradition +being that his father, a woollen-draper named Benedetto, had +died before his birth. This is not correct, for the mother’s +name was Romana, and the father continued living during +many years of Piero’s career. The painter is also named Piero +Borghese, from his birthplace, Borgo San Sepolcro, in Umbria. +The true family name was, as above stated, Franceschi, and +the family still exists under the name of Martini-Franceschi.</p> + +<p>Piero first received a scientific education, and became an +adept in mathematics and geometry. This early bent of mind +and course of study influenced to a large extent his development +as a painter. He had more science than either Paolo Uccello +or Mantegna, both of them his contemporaries, the former +older and the latter younger. Skilful in linear perspective, +he fixed rectangular planes in perfect order and measured them, +and thus got his figures in true proportional height. He preceded +and excelled Domenico Ghirlandajo in projecting shadows, +and rendered with considerable truth atmosphere, the harmony +of colours, and the relief of objects. He was naturally therefore +excellent in architectural painting, and, in point of technique, +he advanced the practice of oil-colouring in Italy.</p> + +<p>The earliest trace that we find of Piero as a painter is in 1439, +when he was an apprentice of Domenico Veneziano, and assisted +him in painting the chapel of S. Egidio, in S. Maria Novella of +Florence. Towards 1450 he is said to have been with the same +artist in Loreto; nothing of his, however, can now be identified +in that locality. In 1451 he was by himself, painting in Rimini, +where a fresco still remains. Prior to this he had executed +some extensive frescoes in the Vatican; but these were destroyed +when Raphael undertook on the same walls the “Liberation +of St Peter” and other paintings. His most extensive extant +series of frescoes is in the choir of S. Francesco in Arezzo,—the +“History of the Cross,” beginning with legendary subjects of +the death and burial of Adam, and going on to the entry of +Heraclius into Jerusalem after the overthrow of Chosroes. +This series is, in relation to its period, remarkable for effect, +movement, and mastery of the nude. The subject of the “Vision +of Constantine” is particularly vigorous in chiaroscuro; and a +preparatory design of the same composition was so highly effective +that it used to be ascribed to Giorgione, and might even (according +to one authority) have passed for the handiwork of Correggio +or of Rembrandt. A noted fresco in Borgo San Sepolcro, the +“Resurrection,” may be later than this series; it is preserved +in the Palazzo de’ Conservatori. An important painting of the +“Flagellation of Christ,” in the cathedral of Urbino, is later +still, probably towards 1470. Piero appears to have been much +in his native town of Borgo San Sepolcro from about 1445, and +more especially after 1454, when he finished the series in Arezzo. +He grew rich there, and there he died, and in October 1492 was +buried.</p> + +<div class="condensed"> +<p>Two statements made by Vasari regarding “Piero della Francesca” +are open to much controversy. He says that Piero became blind +at the age of sixty, which cannot be true, as he continued painting +some years later; but scepticism need perhaps hardly go to the +extent of inferring that he was never blind at all. Vasari also says +that Fra Luca Pacioli, a disciple of Piero in scientific matters, +defrauded his memory by appropriating his researches without +acknowledgment. This is hard upon the friar, who constantly +shows a great reverence for his master in the sciences. One of +Pacioli’s books was published in 1509, and speaks of Piero as still +living. Hence it has been propounded that Piero lived to the +patriarchal age of ninety-four or upwards; but, as it is now stated +that he was buried in 1492, we must infer that there is some mistake +in relation to Pacioli’s remark—perhaps the date of writing was +several years earlier than that of publication. Piero was known +to have left a manuscript of his own on perspective; this remained +undiscovered for a long time, but eventually was found by E. Harzen +in the Ambrosian library of Milan, ascribed to some supposititious +“Pietro, Pittore di Bruges.” The treatise shows a knowledge of +perspective as dependent on the point of distance.</p> + +<p>In the National Gallery, London, are three paintings attributed +to Piero de’ Franceschi. Another work, a profile of Isotta da Rimini, +may safely be rejected. The “Baptism of Christ,” which used to be +the altar-piece of the Priory of the Baptist in Borgo San Sepolcro, +is an important example; and still more so the “Nativity,” with the +Virgin kneeling, and five angels singing to musical instruments. +This is a very interesting and characteristic specimen, and has +indeed been praised somewhat beyond its deservings on aesthetic +grounds.</p> + +<p>Piero’s earlier style was energetic but unrefined, and to the last +he lacked selectness of form and feature. The types of his visages +are peculiar, and the costumes (as especially in the Arezzo series) +singular. He used to work assiduously from clay models swathed +in real drapery. Luca Signorelli was his pupil, and probably to +some extent Perugino; and his own influence, furthered by that of +Signorelli, was potent over all Italy. Belonging as he does to the +Umbrian school, he united with that style something of the Sienese +and more of the Florentine mode.</p> + +<p>Besides Vasari and Crowe & Cavalcaselle, the work by W.G. +Waters, <i>Piero della Francesca</i> (1899) should be consulted.</p> +</div> +<div class="author">(W. M. R.)</div> + + +<hr class="art" /> +<p><span class="bold">FRANCESCHINI, BALDASSARE<a name="ar4" id="ar4"></a></span> (1611-1689), Italian painter +of the Tuscan school, named, from Volterra the place of his +birth, Il Volterrano, or (to distinguish him from Ricciarelli) +Il Volterrano Giuniore, was the son of a sculptor in alabaster. +At a very early age he learned from Cosimo Daddi some of the +elements of art, and he started as an assistant to his father. +This employment being evidently below the level of his talents, +the marquises Inghirami placed him, at the age of sixteen, under +the Florentine painter Matteo Rosselli. In the ensuing year he +had advanced sufficiently to execute in Volterra some frescoes, +skilful in foreshortening, followed by other frescoes for the +Medici family in the Valle della Petraia. In 1652 the marchese +Filippo Niccolini, being minded to employ Franceschini upon the +frescoes for the cupola and back-wall of his chapel in S. Croce, +Florence, despatched him to various parts of Italy to perfect +his style. The painter, in a tour which lasted some months, +took more especially to the qualities distinctive of the schools +of Parma and Bologna, and in a measure to those of Pietro +da Cortona, whose acquaintance he made in Rome. He then +undertook the paintings commissioned by Niccolini, which +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page931" id="page931"></a>931</span> +constitute his most noted performance, the design being good, +and the method masterly. Franceschini ranks higher in fresco +than in oil painting. His works in the latter mode were not +unfrequently left unfinished, although numerous specimens +remain, the cabinet pictures being marked by much sprightliness +of invention. Among his best oil paintings of large scale is the +“St John the Evangelist” in the church of S. Chiara at Volterra. +One of his latest works was the fresco of the cupola of the Annunziata, +Florence, which occupied him for two years towards +1683, a production of much labour and energy. Franceschini +died of apoplexy at Volterra on the 6th of January 1689. He is +reckoned among those painters of the decline of art to whom the +general name of “machinist” is applied.</p> + +<p>He is not to be confounded with another Franceschini of the +same class, and of rather later date, also of no small eminence +in his time—the Cavaliere Marcantonio Franceschini (1648-1729), +who was a Bolognese.</p> + + +<hr class="art" /> +<p><span class="bold">FRANCHE-COMTÉ,<a name="ar5" id="ar5"></a></span> a province of France from 1674 to the +Revolution. It was bounded on the E. by Switzerland, on the +S. by Bresse and Bugey, on the N. by Lorraine, and on the W. +by the duchy of Burgundy and by Bassigny, embracing to the E. +of the Jura the valley of the Saône and most of that of the +Doubs. Under the Romans it corresponded to <i>Maxima Sequanorum</i>, +and after having formed part of the kingdom of Burgundy +was in the early part of the middle ages split up into the four +countships of Portois, Varais, Amons and Escuens. In the +10th century these four countships were united to form a whole, +which came to be called the countship of Burgundy, and belonged +at that time to the family of the counts of Mâcon.</p> + +<p>The limits of the countship were definitely settled under +Otto William, son of Albert or Adalbert, king of Italy (†1027), +who on the death of his father-in-law, Henry (1002), tried to +seize the duchy of Burgundy, but without success. The countship, +which formed a fief dependent on the kingdom of Burgundy, +passed to Renaud I., the second son of Otto William. When +the kingdom of Burgundy was joined to the Germanic empire, +he refused to pay homage to the emperor Henry III., whose +suzerainty over him never existed except in theory. William +I., surnamed the Great or Headstrong (1059-1087), still further +added to the power of his house by marrying Etiennette, heiress +of the count of Vienne, and by acquiring from his cousin Guy, +when the latter became a monk at Cluny, the countship of Mâcon. +One of his sons, Guy, became pope, under the name of Calixtus +II. His grandson, Renaud III. (1097-1148), in his turn refused +to pay homage to the emperor Lothair, who retaliated by confiscating +his dominions and giving them to Conrad of Zähringen. +Renaud, however, succeeded in maintaining until his death his +possession of the countships of Burgundy, Vienne and Mâcon. +He left as sole heiress a daughter, Beatrix, whom his brother +William III. imprisoned, in order to make an attempt on her +inheritance; she was set free, however, by the emperor Frederick +Barbarossa, who married her in 1156.</p> + +<p>On the death of Beatrix (1185) the countship of Burgundy +passed to Otto I. (1190-1200), the youngest but one of her sons, +who had to dispute its possession with Stephen, count of Auxonne, +the grandson of William III. Beatrix, the daughter and heiress +of Otto I. (1200-1231), married Otto, duke of Meran (†1234), +under whose government the inhabitants of Besançon, which +had been since the time of Frederick Barbarossa an imperial +city, formed themselves definitely into a <i>commune</i>. Alix, +daughter of Beatrix and of Otto of Meran, and heiress to the +countship of Burgundy, married Hugh of Chalon, son of John +the Ancient or the Wise (d. 1248), and a descendant of William +III. and consequently of William the Headstrong, thus bringing +the countship back into the family of its former lords. His +son Otto IV. (1279-1303) engaged in war against the bishop +of Basel, and the German king Rudolph I., who supported the +latter, entered Franche-Comté and besieged Besançon, but +without success (1289). Otto, in fulfilment of the treaties of +Ervennes and Vincennes (1291-1295) gave Jeanne, his daughter +by Mahaut of Artois, in marriage to Philip, count of Poitiers, +son of Philip the Fair. The latter took over the administration +of the countship in spite of strong opposition from the nobles +of the country, but their leader, John of Chalon-Arlay, was +compelled to make his submission. Another of Otto’s daughters +married Charles IV., the Handsome, and both princesses, +together with their sister-in-law Margaret of Burgundy, were +concerned in the celebrated trial of the Tour de Nesle. Jeanne, +however, continued to govern her countship when Philip her +husband became king of France (Philip V., “the Long”). +Jeanne, their daughter and heiress, married Odo IV., duke of +Burgundy (1330-1347), and her sister Margaret became the +wife of Louis II., count of Flanders. The countship returned +to Margaret at the death of Odo IV., who was succeeded in his +duchy by his grandson Philip of Rouvre.</p> + +<p>The marriage of Philip the Bold with Margaret, daughter of +Louis of Mâle, caused Franche-Comté to pass to the princes of +the ducal house of Burgundy, who kept it up till the death of +Charles the Bold (1477). On his death Louis XI. laid claim to the +government of the countship as well as of the duchy, as trustee +for the property of the princess Mary, who was closely related +to him and destined to marry the dauphin (later Charles VIII.). +French garrisons occupied the principal towns, and the lord of +Craon was appointed governor of the country. In consequence +of his severity there was a general rising, and at the same time +Mary married Maximilian, archduke of Austria, to whom her +father had formerly betrothed her (Aug. 1477). The French were +expelled from the fortified towns and Craon beaten by the people +of Dôle. Charles of Amboise, who took his place, reconquered +the province, and even Besançon submitted to the authority +of the king of France, who promised to respect its privileges.</p> + +<p>On the death of Louis XI. (1483), the estates of Franche-Comté +recognized as sovereign his son Charles, who was betrothed to +the little Margaret of Burgundy, daughter of Maximilian and +Mary (d. 1482), but when Charles VIII. refused Margaret’s +hand in order to marry Anne of Brittany there was a fresh rising, +and the French were again driven out. The treaty of Senlis +(23rd May 1483) put an end to the struggle: Charles abandoned +all his pretensions, and Maximilian was thus left in possession +of Franche-Comté, the sovereignty of which he handed on to +his son Philip and ultimately to the crown of Spain. He had, +however, constituted his daughter Margaret sovereign-governess +of Franche-Comté for life, and under the administration of this +princess (who died in 1530), as under the rule of Charles V., the +country enjoyed comparative independence, paying a “<i>don +gratuit</i>” of 200,000 livres every three years, and being actually +governed by the parliament of Dôle, and by governors chosen +from the nobility of the country. It was Franche-Comté which +furnished Philip II. of Spain with one of his best counsellors, +Cardinal Perrenot de Granvella.</p> + +<p>In the 16th century the country was disturbed by the preaching +of Protestant doctrines, which gained adherents especially in the +district of Montbéliard, and later by the wars between France +and Spain. In 1595 the armies of Henry IV. levied contributions +on Besançon and other towns; but the people of Franche-Comté +succeeded in obtaining special terms of neutrality in order to +shelter themselves from injury from either of the parties in the +war, and enjoyed a period of calm under the government of the +infanta Isabella Clara Eugénie and the archduke Albert (1599-1621). +But the country suffered greatly from the ravages of the +Thirty Years’ War, from the presence of the army of the Condés, +which besieged Dôle, from the devastation of the troops of Gallas, +and later of those of Bernard of Saxe-Weimar. The peace of +Westphalia (1648) confirmed Spain in the possession of Franche-Comté. +In 1668 the French again entered it, and the conquest, +of which the foundations had been laid by the intrigues of the +abbot of Watteville and the French party constituted by him, +was easily accomplished by Condé and Luxemburg, Louis XIV. +directing the army in Franche-Comté for some time in person. +None the less, the country was restored to Spain at the peace +of Aix-la-Chapelle (1668), but in 1674 Louis headed another +expedition there. Besançon capitulated after a siege of twenty-seven +days, and Dôle and Salins also fell into the hands of the +invaders.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page932" id="page932"></a>932</span></p> + +<p>In 1678 the treaty of Nijmwegen gave Franche-Comté to +France (the principality of Montbéliard remaining in the possession +of the house of Württemberg, which had acquired it by +marriage), and it was in celebration of this conquest that the +Arc de Triomphe of the Portes Saint Denis and Saint Martin +at Paris was erected. Franche-Comté became a military government +(<i>gouvernement</i>). The estates ceased to meet, and the old +“<i>don gratuit</i>” was replaced by a tax which became increasingly +heavy. Louis made Besançon, which Vauban fortified, into the +capital of the province, and transferred to it the parliament +and the university, the seat of which had hitherto been Dôle. +For purposes of administration, the county was divided among +the four great <i>bailliages</i> of Besançon, Dôle, Amont (chief town +Vesoul) and Aval (chief town Salins). At the Revolution were +formed from it the departments of Jura, Doubs and Haute-Saône.</p> + +<div class="condensed"> +<p>See Dunod, <i>Histoire des Sequanois; Hist. du comté de Bourgogne</i> +(Dijon, 1735-1740); E. Clerc, <i>Essai sur l’histoire de la Franche-Comté</i> +(2nd ed., Besançon, 1870).</p> +</div> +<div class="author">(R. Po.)</div> + + +<hr class="art" /> +<p><span class="bold">FRANCHISE<a name="ar6" id="ar6"></a></span> (from O. Fr. <i>franchise</i>, freedom, <i>franc</i>, free), +in English law, a royal privilege or branch of the crown’s prerogative +subsisting in the hands of a subject. A franchise is an +incorporeal hereditament, and arises either from royal grants or +from prescription which presupposes a grant. Such franchises are +bodies corporate, the right to hold a fair, market, ferry, free +fishery, &c. The term is also applied to the right of voting at +elections and the qualifications upon which that right is based +(see <span class="sc"><a href="#artlinks">Registration</a></span>; <span class="sc"><a href="#artlinks">Representation</a></span>; <span class="sc"><a href="#artlinks">Vote</a></span>). In the United +States the term is especially applied to the right or powers +of partial appropriation of public property by exclusive use, +or to a privilege of a public nature conferred on a corporation +created for the purpose.</p> + + +<hr class="art" /> +<p><span class="bold">FRANCIA<a name="ar7" id="ar7"></a></span> (<i>c.</i> 1450-1517), a Bolognese painter, whose real +name was Francesco Raibolini, his father being Marco di Giacomo +Raibolini, a carpenter, descended from an old and creditable +family, was born at Bologna about 1450. He was apprenticed +to a goldsmith currently named Francia, and from him probably +he got the nickname whereby he is generally known; he moreover +studied design under Marco Zoppo. The youth was thus +originally a goldsmith, and also an engraver of dies and niellos, +and in these arts he became extremely eminent. He was particularly +famed for his dies for medals; he rose to be mint-master +at Bologna, and retained that office till the end of his life. A +famous medal of Pope Julius II. as liberator of Bologna is +ascribed to his hand, but not with certainty. As a type-founder +he made for Aldus Manutius the first italic type.</p> + +<p>At a mature age—having first, it appears, become acquainted +with Mantegna—he turned his attention to painting. His +earliest known picture is dated 1494 (not 1490, as ordinarily +stated). It shows so much mastery that one is compelled to +believe that Raibolini must before then have practised painting +for some few years. This work is now in the Bologna gallery,—the +“Virgin enthroned, with Augustine and five other saints.” +It is an oil picture, and was originally painted for the church +of S. Maria della Misericordia, at the desire of the Bentivoglio +family, the rulers of Bologna. The same patrons employed him +upon frescoes in their own palace; one of “Judith and Holophernes” +is especially noted, its style recalling that of Mantegna. +Francia probably studied likewise the works of Perugino; and +he became a friend and ardent admirer of Raphael, to whom he +addressed an enthusiastic sonnet. Raphael cordially responded to +the Bolognese master’s admiration, and said, in a letter dated in +1508, that few painters or none had produced Madonnas more +beautiful, more devout, or better portrayed than those of Francia. +If we may trust Vasari—but it is difficult to suppose that he +was entirely correct—the exceeding value which Francia set on +Raphael’s art brought him to his grave. Raphael had consigned +to Francia his famous picture of “St Cecilia,” destined for the +church of S. Giovanni in Monte, Bologna; and Francia, on +inspecting it, took so much to heart his own inferiority, at the +advanced age of about sixty-six, to the youthful Umbrian, that +he sickened and shortly expired on the 6th of January 1517. +A contemporary record, after attesting his pre-eminence as a +goldsmith, jeweller and painter, states that he was “most handsome +in person and highly eloquent.”</p> + +<p>Distanced though he may have been by Raphael, Francia +is rightly regarded as the greatest painter of the earlier Bolognese +school, and hardly to be surpassed as representing the art +termed “antico-moderno,” or of the “quattrocento.” It has +been well observed that his style is a medium between that of +Perugino and that of Giovanni Bellini; he has somewhat more +of spontaneous naturalism than the former, and of abstract +dignity in feature and form than the latter. The magnificent +portrait in the Louvre of a young man in black, of brooding +thoughtfulness and saddened profundity of mood, would alone +suffice to place Francia among the very great masters, if it could +with confidence be attributed to his hand, but in all probability +its real author was Franciabigio; it had erewhile passed under +the name of Raphael, of Giorgione, or of Sebastian del Piombo. +The National Gallery, London, contains two remarkably fine +specimens of Francia, once combined together as principal +picture and lunette,—the “Virgin” and “Child and St Anna” +enthroned, surrounded by saints, and (in the lunette) the “Pietà,” +or lamentation of angels over the dead Saviour. They come +from the Buonvisi chapel in the church of S. Frediano, Lucca, +and were among the master’s latest paintings. Other leading +works are—in Munich, the “Virgin” sinking on her knees in +adoration of the Divine Infant, who is lying in a garden within +a rose trellis; in the Borghese gallery, Rome, a Peter Martyr; +in Bologna, the frescoes in the church of St Cecilia, illustrating +the life of the saint, all of them from the design of Raibolini, +but not all executed by himself. His landscape backgrounds +are of uncommon excellence. Francia had more than 200 +scholars. Marcantonio Raimondi, the famous engraver, is +the most renowned of them; next to him Amico Aspertini, and +Francia’s own son Giacomo, and his cousin Julio. Lorenzo +Costa was much associated with Francia in pictorial work.</p> + +<div class="condensed"> +<p>Among the authorities as to the life and work of Francia may be +mentioned J.A. Calvi, <i>Memorie della vita di Francesco Raibolini</i> (1812), +and especially G.C. Williamson, <i>Francia</i> (1900).</p> +</div> +<div class="author">(W. M. R.)</div> + + +<hr class="art" /> +<p><span class="bold">FRANCIA, JOSÉ GASPAR RODRIGUEZ<a name="ar8" id="ar8"></a></span> (<i>c.</i> 1757-1840), +dictator of Paraguay, was born probably about 1757. According +to one account he was of French descent; but the truth seems +to be that his father, Garcia Rodriguez Francia, was a native +of S. Paulo in Brazil, and came to Paraguay to take charge of +a plantation of black tobacco for the government. He studied +theology at the college of Cordova de Tucuman, and is said to +have been for some time a professor in that faculty; but he +afterwards turned his attention to the law, and practised in +Asuncion. Having attained a high reputation at once for +ability and integrity, he was selected for various important +offices. On the declaration of Paraguayan independence in +1811, he was appointed secretary to the national junta, and +exercised an influence on affairs greatly out of proportion to +his nominal position. When the congress or junta of 1813 +changed the constitution and established a duumvirate, Dr +Francia and the Gaucho general Yegres were elected to the +office. In 1814 he secured his own election as dictator for three +years, and at the end of that period he obtained the dictatorship +for life. In the accounts which have been published of his administration +we find a strange mixture of capacity and caprice, +of far-sighted wisdom and reckless infatuation, strenuous +endeavours after a high ideal and flagrant violations of the +simplest principles of justice. He put a stop to the foreign +commerce of the country, but carefully fostered its internal +industries; was disposed to be hospitable to strangers from +other lands, and kept them prisoners for years; lived a life of +republican simplicity, and punished with Dionysian severity +the slightest want of respect. As time went on he appears to +have grown more arbitrary and despotic. Deeply imbued with +the principles of the French Revolution, he was a stern antagonist +of the church. He abolished the Inquisition, suppressed the +college of theology, did away with the tithes, and inflicted +endless indignities on the priests. He discouraged marriage +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page933" id="page933"></a>933</span> +both by precept and example, and left behind him several +illegitimate children. For the extravagances of his later years +the plea of insanity has been put forward. On the 20th of +September 1840 he was seized with a fit and died.</p> + +<div class="condensed"> +<p>The first and fullest account of Dr Francia was given to the world +by two Swiss surgeons, Rengger and Longchamp, whom he had +detained from 1819 to 1825—<i>Essai historique sur la révolution de +Paraguay et la gouvernement dictatorial du docteur Francia</i> (Paris, +1827). Their work was almost immediately translated into English +under the title of <i>The Reign of Doctor Joseph G.R. De Francia +in Paraguay</i> (1827). About eleven years after there appeared at +London <i>Letters on Paraguay</i>, by J.P. and W.P. Robertson, two +young Scotsmen whose hopes of commercial success had been rudely +destroyed by the dictator’s interference. The account which they +gave of his character and government was of the most unfavourable +description, and they rehearsed and emphasized their accusations in +<i>Francia’s Reign of Terror</i> (1839) and <i>Letters on South America</i> (3 vols., +1843). From the very pages of his detractors Thomas Carlyle +succeeded in extracting materials for a brilliant defence of the dictator +“as a man or sovereign of iron energy and industry, of great +and severe labour.” It appeared in the <i>Foreign Quarterly Review</i> +for 1843, and is reprinted in his <i>Critical and Miscellaneous Essays</i>. +Sir Richard F. Burton gives a graphic sketch of Francia’s life and a +favourable notice of his character in his <i>Letters from the Battlefields +of Paraguay</i> (1870), while C.A. Washburn takes up a hostile position +in his <i>History of Paraguay</i> (1871).</p> +</div> + + +<hr class="art" /> +<p><span class="bold">FRANCIABIGIO<a name="ar9" id="ar9"></a></span> (1482-1525), Florentine painter. The name +of this artist is generally given as Mercantonio Franciabigio; +it appears, however, that his only real ascertained name was +Francesco di Cristofano; and that he was currently termed +Francia Bigio, the two appellatives being distinct. He was +born in Florence, and studied under Albertinelli for some months. +In 1505 he formed the acquaintance of Andrea del Sarto; and +after a while the two painters set up a shop in common in the +Piazza del Grano. Franciabigio paid much attention to anatomy +and perspective, and to the proportions of his figures, though +these are often too squat and puffy in form. He had a large +stock of artistic knowledge, and was at first noted for diligence. +As years went on, and he received frequent commissions for +all sorts of public painting for festive occasions, his diligence +merged in something which may rather be called workmanly +offhandedness. He was particularly proficient in fresco, and +Vasari even says that he surpassed all his contemporaries in this +method—a judgment which modern connoisseurship does not +accept. In the court of the Servites (or cloister of the Annunziata) +in Florence he painted in 1513 the “Marriage of the Virgin,” +as a portion of a series wherein Andrea del Sarto was chiefly +concerned. The friars having uncovered this work before it +was quite finished, Franciabigio was so incensed that, seizing +a mason’s hammer, he struck at the head of the Virgin, and some +other heads; and the fresco, which would otherwise be his +masterpiece in that method, remains thus mutilated. At the +Scalzo, in another series of frescoes on which Andrea was likewise +employed, he executed in 1518-1519 the “Departure of John +the Baptist for the Desert,” and the “Meeting of the Baptist +with Jesus”; and, at the Medici palace at Poggio a Caiano, +in 1521, the “Triumph of Cicero.” Various works which have +been ascribed to Raphael are now known or reasonably deemed +to be by Franciabigio. Such are the “Madonna del Pozzo,” +in the Uffizi Gallery; the half figure of a “Young Man,” in +the Louvre (see also <span class="sc"><a href="#artlinks">Francia</a></span>); and the famous picture in +the Fuller-Maitland collection, a “Young Man with a Letter.” +These two works show a close analogy in style to another in the +Pitti gallery, avowedly by Franciabigio, a “Youth at a Window,” +and to some others which bear this painter’s recognized monogram. +The series of portraits, taken collectively, placed beyond dispute +the eminent and idiosyncratic genius of the master. Two other +works of his, of some celebrity, are the “Calumny of Apelles,” +in the Pitti, and the “Bath of Bathsheba” (painted in 1523), +in the Dresden gallery.</p> + + +<hr class="art" /> +<p><span class="bold">FRANCIS<a name="ar10" id="ar10"></a></span> (Lat. <i>Franciscus</i>, Ital. <i>Francesco</i>, Span. <i>Francisco</i>, +Fr. <i>François</i>, Ger. <i>Franz</i>), a masculine proper name meaning +“Frenchman.” As a Christian name it originated with St +Francis of Assisi, whose baptismal name was Giovanni, but who +was called Francesco by his father on returning from a journey +in France. The saint’s fame made the name exceedingly popular +from his day onwards.</p> + + +<hr class="art" /> +<p><span class="bold">FRANCIS I.<a name="ar11" id="ar11"></a></span> (1708-1765), Roman emperor and grand duke of +Tuscany, second son of Leopold Joseph, duke of Lorraine, and +his wife Elizabeth Charlotte, daughter of Philip, duke of Orleans, +was born on the 8th of December 1708. He was connected +with the Habsburgs through his grandmother Eleanore, daughter +of the emperor Ferdinand III., and wife of Charles Leopold of +Lorraine. The emperor Charles VI. favoured the family, who, +besides being his cousins, had served the house of Austria with +distinction. He had designed to marry his daughter Maria +Theresa to Clement, the elder brother of Francis. On the death +of Clement he adopted the younger brother as her husband. +Francis was brought up at Vienna with Maria Theresa on the +understanding that they were to be married, and a real affection +arose between them. At the age of fifteen, when he was brought +to Vienna, he was established in the Silesian duchy of Teschen, +which had been mediatized and granted to his father by the +emperor in 1722. He succeeded his father as duke of Lorraine +in 1729, but the emperor, at the end of the Polish War of Succession, +desiring to compensate his candidate Stanislaus Leszczynski +for the loss of his crown in 1735, persuaded Francis to exchange +Lorraine for the reversion of the grand duchy of Tuscany. On +the 12th of February 1736 he was married to Maria Theresa, +and they went for a short time to Florence, when he succeeded +to the grand duchy in 1737 on the death of John Gaston, the +last of the ruling house of Medici. His wife secured his election +to the Empire on the 13th of September 1745, in succession to +Charles VII., and she made him co-regent of her hereditary +dominions. Francis was well content to leave the reality of +power to his able wife. He had a natural fund of good sense +and some business capacity, and was a useful assistant to Maria +Theresa in the laborious task of governing the complicated +Austrian dominions, but his functions appear to have been of a +purely secretarial character. He died suddenly in his carriage +while returning from the opera at Innsbruck on the 18th of +August 1765.</p> + +<div class="condensed"> +<p>See A. von Arneth, <i>Geschichte Maria Theresias</i> (Vienna, 1863-1879).</p> +</div> + + +<hr class="art" /> +<p><span class="bold">FRANCIS II.<a name="ar12" id="ar12"></a></span> (1768-1835), the last Roman emperor, and, as +Francis I., first emperor of Austria, was the son of Leopold II., +grand-duke of Tuscany, afterwards emperor, and of his wife +Maria Louisa, daughter of Charles III. of Spain. He was born +at Florence on the 12th of February 1768. In 1784 he was +brought to Vienna to complete his education under the eye of +his uncle the emperor Joseph II., who was childless. Joseph +was repelled by the frigid and retiring character of his nephew, +and is said to have treated him with an impatient contempt +which confirmed his natural timidity; but after the marriage +of Francis to Elizabeth of Württemberg (1788) their relations +improved. At the close of his uncle’s reign he saw some service +in the ill-conducted war with Turkey, and kept a careful diary +of his experiences. The death of his wife in childbirth on the +18th of February 1790 was followed by the death of his uncle +on the 20th; and Francis acted as regent with Prince Kaunitz +until his father came from Florence. On the 19th of September +he married his first cousin Maria Theresa, daughter of Ferdinand, +king of Naples, by whom he was the father of his successor +Ferdinand I., of Maria Louisa, wife of Napoleon, and of the +archduke Francis, father of the emperor Francis Joseph. After +her death (1807) he married Maria Ludovica Beatrix of Este +(1808), and when she died he made a fourth marriage with +Carolina Augusta of Bavaria (1816).</p> + +<p>He succeeded to the Austrian dominions and the empire on +the death of his father on the 1st of March 1792. The position +was a trying one for a young prince twenty-four years of age. +The dominions of the house of Austria, widely scattered in the +Low Countries, Germany and Italy, were exposed to the attacks +of the French revolutionary governments and of Napoleon. He +was dragged into all the coalitions against France, and in the +early days of his reign he had to guard against the ambition of +Prussia, and the aggressions of Russia in Poland and Turkey. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page934" id="page934"></a>934</span> +For long he had no adviser save such diplomatists as Prince +Kaunitz and Thugut, who had been trained in the old Austrian +diplomacy. His own best quality was an invincible patience +supported by reliance on the loyalty of his subjects, and a sense +of his duty to the state. (For the general events of this reign till +1815 see <span class="sc"><a href="#artlinks">Europe</a></span>, <span class="sc"><a href="#artlinks">Austria</a></span>, <span class="sc"><a href="#artlinks">Napoleon</a></span>, +<span class="sc"><a href="#artlinks">French Revolutionary Wars</a></span>, &c.) The emperor’s firmness averted what would have +been an irreparable loss of position. Seeing that the Empire +was in the last stage of dissolution, and that, even were it to +survive, it would pass from the house of Habsburg to that of +Bonaparte, he in 1804 assumed the title of hereditary emperor +of Austria. The object of this prudent measure was double. +In the first place, he guarded against the danger that his house +should sink to a lower rank than the Russian or the French. +In the second place, he gave some semblance of unity to his complex +dominions in Germany, Bohemia, Hungary and Italy, +by providing a common title for the supreme ruler. His action +was justified when, in 1806, the establishment of the Confederation +of the Rhine forced him to abdicate the empty title of Holy +Roman emperor.</p> + +<p>In 1805 he made an important change in the working of his +administration. He had hitherto been assisted by a cabinet +minister who was in direct relation with all the “chanceries” +and boards which formed the executive government, and who +acted as the channel of communication between them and the +emperor, and was in fact a prime minister. In 1805 Napoleon +insisted on the removal of Count Colloredo, who held the post. +From that time forward the emperor Francis acted as his own +prime minister, superintending every detail of his administration. +In foreign affairs after 1809 he reposed full confidence in Prince +Metternich. But Metternich himself declared at the close of his +life that he had sometimes held Europe in the palm of his hand, +but never Austria. Francis was sole master, and is entitled to +whatever praise is due to his government. It follows that he +must bear the blame for its errors. The history of the Austrian +empire under his rule and since his death bears testimony to +both his merits and his limitations. His indomitable patience +and loyalty to his inherited task enabled him to triumph over +Napoleon. By consenting to the marriage of his daughter, +Marie Louise, to Napoleon in 1810, he gained a respite which he +turned to good account. By following the guidance of Metternich +in foreign affairs he was able to intervene with decisive effect in +1813. The settlement of Europe in 1815 left Austria stronger +and more compact than she had been in 1792, and that this +was the case was largely due to the emperor.</p> + +<p>During the twenty years which preceded his death in 1835, +Francis continued to oppose the revolutionary spirit. He had +none of the mystical tendencies of the tsar Alexander I., and only +adhered to the half fantastic Holy Alliance of 1815 out of pure +politeness. But he was wholly in sympathy with the policy of +“repression” which came, in popular view, to be identified with +the Holy Alliance; and though Metternich was primarily responsible +for the part played by Austria in the “policing” of +Europe, Francis cannot but be held personally responsible for the +cruel and impolitic severities, associated especially with the +sinister name of the fortress prison of the Spielberg, which made +so many martyrs to freedom. It is not surprising that Francis +was denounced by Liberals throughout Europe as a tyrant and an +obscurantist. But though at home, as abroad, he met all suggestions +of innovation by a steady refusal to depart from old ways, +he was always popular among the mass of his subjects, who +called him “our good Kaiser Franz.” In truth, if in the spirit +of the traditional <i>Landesvater</i> he chastised his disobedient children +mercilessly, he was essentially a well-meaning ruler who forwarded +the material and moral good of his subjects according +to his lights. But he held that, by the will of God, the whole +sovereign authority resided in his person, and could not be +shared with others without a dereliction of duty on his part and +disastrous consequences; and his capital error as a ruler of +Austria was that he persisted in maintaining a system of administration +which depended upon the indefatigable industry of a +single man, and was entirely outgrown by the modern development +of his subjects. Before his death, government in Austria +was almost choked, and it broke down under a successor who +had not his capacity for work. Like his ancestor Philip II. of +Spain, Francis carried caution, and a disposition to sleep upon +every possible proposal, to a great length. He died on the 2nd +of March 1835.</p> + +<div class="condensed"> +<p>See Baron J.A. Helfert, <i>Kaiser Franz und die österreichischen +Befreiungs-Kriege</i> (Vienna, 1867). Ample bibliographies will be +found in Krones von Marchland’s <i>Grundriss der österreichischen +Geschichte</i> (Berlin, 1882).</p> +</div> + + +<hr class="art" /> +<p><span class="bold">FRANCIS I.<a name="ar13" id="ar13"></a></span> (1494-1547), king of France, son of Charles of +Valois, count of Angoulême, and Louise of Savoy, was born at +Cognac on the 12th of September 1494. The count of Angoulême, +who was the great-grandson of King Charles V., died in 1496, +and Louise watched over her son with passionate tenderness. +On the accession of Louis XII. in 1498, Francis became heir-presumptive. +Louis invested him with the duchy of Valois, +and gave him as tutor Marshal de Gié, and, after Gié’s disgrace +in 1503, the sieur de Boisy, Artus Gouffier. François de Rochefort, +abbot of St Mesmin, instructed Francis and his sister +Marguerite in Latin and history; Louise herself taught them +Italian and Spanish; and the library of the château at Amboise +was well stocked with romances of the Round Table, which +exalted the lad’s imagination. Francis showed an even greater +love for violent exercises, such as hunting, which was his ruling +passion, and tennis, and for tournaments, masquerades and +amusements of all kinds. His earliest gallantries are described by +his sister in the 25th and 42nd stories of the <i>Heptameron</i>. In +1507 Francis was betrothed to Claude, the daughter of Louis XII., +and in 1508 he came to court. In 1512 he gained his first military +experience in Guienne, and in the following year he commanded +the army of Picardy. He married Claude on the 18th of May +1514, and succeeded Louis XII. on the 1st of January 1515. +Of noble bearing, and, in spite of a very long and large nose, +extremely handsome, he was a sturdy and valiant knight, affable, +courteous, a brilliant talker and a facile poet. He had a sprightly +wit, some delicacy of feeling, and some generous impulses which +made him amiable. These brilliant qualities, however, were all +on the surface. At bottom the man was frivolous, profoundly +selfish, unstable, and utterly incapable of consistency or application. +The ambassadors remarked his negligence, and his +ministers complained of it. Hunting, tennis, jewelry and his +gallantry were the chief preoccupations of his life.</p> + +<p>His character was at once authoritative and weak. He was +determined to be master and to decide everything himself, but +he allowed himself to be dominated and easily persuaded. +Favourites, too, without governing entirely for him, played +an important part in his reign. His capricious humour elevated +and deposed them with the same disconcerting suddenness. +In the early years of his reign the conduct of affairs was chiefly +in the hands of Louise of Savoy, Chancellor Antoine Duprat, +Secretary Florimond Robertet, and the two Gouffiers, Boisy and +Bonnivet. The royal favour then elevated Anne de Montmorency +and Philippe de Chabot, and in the last years of the reign Marshal +d’Annebaud and Cardinal de Tournon. Women too had always a +great influence over Francis—his sister, Marguerite d’Angoulême, +and his mistresses. Whatever the number of these, he had only +two titular mistresses—at the beginning of the reign Françoise +de Châteaubriant, and from about 1526 to his death Anne de +Pisseleu, whom he created duchesse d’Étampes and who entirely +dominated him. It has not been proved that he was the lover of +Diane de Poitiers, nor does the story of “La belle Ferronnière” +appear to rest on any historical foundation.<a name="fa1b" id="fa1b" href="#ft1b"><span class="sp">1</span></a></p> + +<p>Circumstances alone gave a homogeneous character to the +foreign policy of Francis. The struggle against the emperor +Charles V. filled the greater part of the reign. In reality, the +policy of Francis, save for some flashes of sagacity, was irresolute +and vacillating. Attracted at first by Italy, dreaming of fair +feats of prowess, he led the triumphal Marignano expedition, +which gained him reputation as a knightly king and as the most +powerful prince in Europe. In 1519, in spite of wise counsels, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page935" id="page935"></a>935</span> +he stood candidate for the imperial crown. The election of +Charles V. caused an inevitable rivalry between the two monarchs +which accentuated still further the light and chivalrous temper of +the king and the cold and politic character of the emperor. +Francis’s personal intervention in this struggle was seldom +happy. He did not succeed in gaining the support of Henry VIII. +of England at the interview of the Field of the Cloth of Gold in +1520; his want of tact goaded the Constable de Bourbon to +extreme measures in 1522-1523; and in the Italian campaign +of 1525 he proved himself a mediocre, vacillating and foolhardy +leader, and by his blundering led the army to the disaster of +Pavia (the 25th of February 1525), where, however, he fought +with great bravery. “Of all things,” he wrote to his mother +after the defeat, “nothing remains to me but honour and life, +which is safe”—the authentic version of the legendary phrase +“All is lost save honour.” He strove to play the part of royal +captive heroically, but the prison life galled him. He fell ill at +Madrid and was on the point of death. For a moment he thought +of abdicating rather than of ceding Burgundy. But this was too +great a demand upon his fortitude, and he finally yielded and +signed the treaty of Madrid, after having drawn up a secret protest. +After Madrid he wavered unceasingly between two courses, either +that of continuing hostilities, or the policy favoured by Montmorency +of peace and understanding with the emperor. At times he +had the sagacity to recognize the utility of alliances, as was shown +by those he concluded with the Porte and with the Protestant +princes of Germany. But he could never pledge himself frankly +in one sense or the other, and this vacillation prevented him +from attaining any decisive results. At his death, however, +France was in possession of Savoy and Piedmont.</p> + +<p>In his religious policy Francis showed the same instability. +Drawn between various influences, that of Marguerite +d’Angoulême, the du Bellays, and the duchesse d’Étampes, +who was in favour of the Reformation or at least of toleration, +and the contrary influence of the uncompromising Catholics, +Duprat, and then Montmorency and de Tournon, he gave +pledges successively to both parties. In the first years of the +reign, following the counsels of Marguerite, he protected Jacques +Lefèvre of Etaples and Louis de Berquin, and showed some +favour to the new doctrines. But the violence of the Reformers +threw him into the arms of the opposite party. The affair of the +Placards in 1534 irritated him beyond measure, and determined +him to adopt a policy of severity. From that time, in spite of +occasional indulgences shown to the Reformers, due to his desire +to conciliate the Protestant powers, Francis gave a free hand +to the party of repression, of which the most active and most +pitiless member was Cardinal de Tournon; and the end of the +reign was sullied by the massacre of the Waldenses (1545).</p> + +<p>Francis introduced new methods into government. In his +reign the monarchical authority became more imperious and +more absolute. His was the government “<i>du bon plaisir</i>.” By +the unusual development he gave to the court he converted the +nobility into a brilliant household of dependants. The Concordat +brought the clergy into subjection, and enabled him to distribute +benefices at his pleasure among the most docile of his courtiers. +He governed in the midst of a group of favourites, who formed +the <i>conseil des affaires</i>. The states-general did not meet, and the +remonstrances of the parlement were scarcely tolerated. By +centralizing the financial administration by the creation of the +<i>Trésor de l’Épargne</i>, and by developing the military establishments, +Francis still further strengthened the royal power. His +government had the vices of his foreign policy. It was uncertain, +irregular and disorderly. The finances were squandered in +gratifying the king’s unbridled prodigality, and the treasury +was drained by his luxurious habits, by the innumerable gifts and +pensions he distributed among his mistresses and courtiers, by +his war expenses and by his magnificent buildings. His government, +too, weighed heavily upon the people, and the king was +less popular than is sometimes imagined.</p> + +<p>Francis owes the greater measure of his glory to the artists and +men of letters who vied in celebrating his praises. He was +pre-eminently the king of the Renaissance. Of a quick and +cultivated intelligence, he had a sincere love of letters and art. +He holds a high place in the history of humanism by the foundation +of the Collège de France; he did not found an actual college, +but after much hesitation instituted in 1530, at the instance of +Guillaume Budé (Budaeus), <i>Lecteurs royaux</i>, who in spite of the +opposition of the Sorbonne were granted full liberty to teach +Hebrew, Greek, Latin, mathematics, &c. The humanists +Budé, Jacques Colin and Pierre Duchâtel were the king’s +intimates, and Clément Marot was his favourite poet. Francis +sent to Italy for artists and for works of art, but he protected +his own countrymen also. Here, too, he showed his customary +indecision, wavering between the two schools. At his court he +installed Benvenuto Cellini, Francesco Primaticcio and Rosso +del Rosso, but in the buildings at Chambord, St Germain, +Villers-Cotterets and Fontainebleau the French tradition +triumphed over the Italian.</p> + +<p>Francis died on the 31st of March 1547, of a disease of the +urinary ducts according to some accounts, of syphilis according +to others. By his first wife Claude (d. 1524) he had three sons +and four daughters: Louise, who died in infancy; Charlotte, +who died at the age of eight; Francis (d. 1536); Henry, who +came to the throne as Henry II.; Madeleine, who became +queen of Scotland; Charles (d. 1545); and Margaret, duchess +of Savoy. In 1530 he married Eleanor, the sister of the emperor +Charles V.</p> + +<div class="condensed"> +<p><span class="sc">Authorities.</span>—For the official acts of the reign, the <i>Catalogue +des actes de François I<span class="sp">er</span></i>, published by the Académie des Sciences +morales et politiques (Paris, 1887-1907), is a valuable guide. The +<i>Bibliothèque Nationale</i>, the <i>National Archives</i>, &c., contain a mass of +unpublished documents. Of the published documents, see N. +Camuzat, <i>Meslanges historiques</i> ... (Troyes, 1619); G. Ribier, +<i>Lettres et mémoires d’estat</i> (Paris, 1666); <i>Letters de Marguerite +d’Angoulême</i>, ed. by F. Genin (Paris, 1841 and 1842); the <i>Correspondence +of Castillon and Marillac</i> (ed. by Kaulek, Paris, 1885), of <i>Odet +de Selve</i> (ed. by Lefèvre-Pontalis, Paris, 1888), and of <i>Guillaume +Pellicier</i> (ed. by Tausserat-Radel, Paris, 1900); <i>Captivité du roi +François I<span class="sp">er</span></i>, and <i>Poésies de François I<span class="sp">er</span></i> (both ed. by Champollion-Figeac, +Paris, 1847, of doubtful authenticity); <i>Relations des ambassadeurs +vénitiens</i>, &c. Of the memoirs and chronicles, see the +journal of Louise of Savoy in S. Guichenon’s <i>Histoire de la maison +de Savoie</i>, vol. iv. (ed. of 1778-1780); <i>Journal de Jean Barillon</i>, ed. +by de Vaissière (Paris, 1897-1899); <i>Journal d’un bourgeois de Paris</i>, +ed. by Lalanne (Paris, 1854); <i>Cronique du roy François I<span class="sp">er</span></i>, ed. by +Guiffrey (Paris, 1868); and the memoirs of Fleuranges, Montluc, +Tavannes, Vieilleville, Brantôme and especially Martin du Bellay +(coll. Michaud and Poujoulat). Of the innumerable secondary +authorities, see especially Paulin Paris, <i>Études sur le règne de François +I<span class="sp">er</span></i> (Paris, 1885), in which the apologetic tendency is excessive; +and H. Lemonnier in vol. v. (Paris, 1903-1904) of E. Lavisse’s +<i>Histoire de France</i>, which gives a list of the principal secondary +authorities. There is a more complete bibliographical study by +V.L. Bourrilly in the <i>Revue d’histoire moderne et contemporaine</i>, vol. +iv. (1902-1903). The printed sources have been catalogued by +H. Hauser, <i>Les Sources de l’histoire de France, XVI<span class="sp">e</span> siècle</i>, tome ii. +(Paris, 1907).</p> +</div> +<div class="author">(J. I.)</div> + +<hr class="foot" /> <div class="note"> + +<p><a name="ft1b" id="ft1b" href="#fa1b"><span class="fn">1</span></a>On this point see Paulin Paris, <i>Études sur le règne de François I<span class="sp">er</span></i>.</p> +</div> + + +<hr class="art" /> +<p><span class="bold">FRANCIS II.<a name="ar14" id="ar14"></a></span> (1544-1560), king of France, eldest son of Henry +II. and of Catherine de’ Medici, was born at Fontainebleau on +the 19th of January 1544. He married the famous Mary Stuart, +daughter of James V. of Scotland, on the 25th of April 1558, and +ascended the French throne on the 10th of July 1559. During +his short reign the young king, a sickly youth and of feeble +understanding, was the mere tool of his uncles Francis, duke of +Guise, and Charles, cardinal of Lorraine, into whose hands he +virtually delivered the reins of government. The exclusiveness +with which they were favoured, and their high-handed proceedings, +awakened the resentment of the princes of the blood, +Anthony king of Navarre and Louis prince of Condé, who gave +their countenance to a conspiracy (conspiracy of Amboise) +with the Protestants against the house of Guise. It was, however, +discovered shortly before the time fixed for its execution in +March 1560, and an ambush having been prepared, most of the +conspirators were either killed or taken prisoners. Its leadership +and organization had been entrusted to Godfrey de Barri, lord of +la Renaudie (d. 1560); and the prince of Condé, who was not +present, disavowed all connexion with the plot. The duke of +Guise was now named lieutenant-general of the kingdom, but +his Catholic leanings were somewhat held in check by the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page936" id="page936"></a>936</span> +chancellor Michel de l’Hôpital, through whose mediation the edict +of Romorantin, providing that all cases of heresy should be decided +by the bishops, was passed in May 1560, in opposition to a proposal +to introduce the Inquisition. At a meeting of the states-general +held at Orleans in the December following, the prince of +Condé, after being arrested, was condemned to death, and extreme +measures were being enacted against the Huguenots; +but the deliberations of the Assembly were broken off, and the +prince was saved from execution, by the king’s somewhat sudden +death, on the 5th of the month, from an abscess in the ear.</p> + +<div class="condensed"> +<p><span class="sc">Principal Authorities.</span>—“Lettres de Catherine de Médicis,” +edited by Hector de la Ferrière (1880 seq.), and “Négociations ... +relatives au règne de François II,” edited by Louis Paris (1841), +both in the <i>Collection de documents inédits sur l’histoire de France</i>; +notice of Francis, duke of Guise, in the <i>Nouvelle Collection des +mémoires pour servir à l’histoire de France</i>, edited by J.F. Michaud +and J.J.F. Poujoulat, series i. vol. vi. (1836 seq.); <i>Mémoires de +Condé servant d’éclaircissement ... à l’histoire de M. de Thou</i>, +vols. i and ii. (1743); Pierre de la Place, <i>Commentaires de l’estat de +la religion et de la république sous les rois Henri II, François II, +Charles IX</i> (1565); and Louis Régnier de la Planche, <i>Histoire de +l’estat de France ... sous ... François II</i> (<i>Panthéon littéraire</i>, +new edition, 1884). See also Ernest Lavisse, <i>Histoire de France</i> +(vol. vi. by J.H. Mariéjol, 1904), which contains a bibliography.</p> +</div> + + +<hr class="art" /> +<p><span class="bold">FRANCIS I.<a name="ar15" id="ar15"></a></span> (1777-1830), king of the Two Sicilies, was the son +of Ferdinand IV. (I.) and Maria Carolina of Austria. He married +Clementina, daughter of the emperor Leopold II. of Austria, +in 1796, and at her death Isabella, daughter of Charles IV. of +Spain. After the Bourbon family fled from Naples to Sicily +in 1806, and Lord William Bentinck, the British resident, had +established a constitution and deprived Ferdinand IV. of all +power, Francis was appointed regent (1812). On the fall of +Napoleon his father returned to Naples and suppressed the +Sicilian constitution and autonomy, incorporating his two +kingdoms into that of the Two Sicilies (1816); Francis then +assumed the revived title of duke of Calabria. While still heir-apparent +he professed liberal ideas, and on the outbreak of the +revolution of 1820 he accepted the regency apparently in a +friendly spirit towards the new constitution. But he was +playing a double game and proved to be the accomplice of his +father’s treachery. On succeeding to the throne in 1825 he cast +aside the mask of liberalism and showed himself as reactionary +as his father. He took little part in the government, which he +left in the hands of favourites and police officials, and lived +with his mistresses, surrounded by soldiers, ever in dread of +assassination. During his reign the only revolutionary movement +was the outbreak on the Cilento (1828), savagely repressed +by the marquis Delcarretto, an ex-Liberal turned reactionary.</p> + +<div class="condensed"> +<p>See Nisco, <i>Il Reame di Napoli sotto Francesco I</i> (Naples, 1893).</p> +</div> + + +<hr class="art" /> +<p><span class="bold">FRANCIS II.<a name="ar16" id="ar16"></a></span> (1836-1894), king of the Two Sicilies, son of +Ferdinand II. and Maria Cristina of Savoy, was the last of the +Bourbon kings of Naples. His education had been much +neglected and he proved a man of weak character, greatly +influenced by his stepmother Maria Theresa of Austria, by the +priests, and by the <i>Camarilla</i>, or reactionary court set. He +ascended the throne on the death of his father (22nd of May +1859). As prime minister he at once appointed Carlo Filangieri, +who, realizing the importance of the Franco-Piedmontese +victories in Lombardy, advised Francis to accept the alliance +with Piedmont proposed by Cavour. On the 7th of June a part +of the Swiss Guard mutinied, and while the king mollified them +by promising to redress their grievances, General Nunziante +collected other troops, who surrounded the mutineers and shot +them down. The incident resulted in the disbanding of the +whole Swiss Guard, the strongest bulwark of the dynasty. +Cavour again proposed an alliance to divide the papal states +between Piedmont and Naples, the province of Rome excepted, +but Francis rejected an idea which to him savoured of sacrilege. +Filangieri strongly advocated a constitution as the only measure +which might save the dynasty, and on the king’s refusal he +resigned. Meanwhile the revolutionary parties were conspiring +for the overthrow of the Bourbons in Calabria and Sicily, and +Garibaldi was preparing for a raid in the south. A conspiracy +in Sicily was discovered and the plotters punished with brutal +severity, but Rosalino Pilo and Francesco Crispi had organized +the movement, and when Garibaldi landed at Marsala (May +1860) he conquered the island with astonishing ease. These +events at last frightened Francis into granting a constitution, +but its promulgation was followed by disorders in Naples and +the resignation of ministers, and Liborio Romano became head +of the government. The disintegration of the army and navy +proceeded apace, and Cavour sent a Piedmontese squadron +carrying troops on board to watch events. Garibaldi, who had +crossed the straits of Messina, was advancing northwards and +was everywhere received by the people as a liberator. Francis, +after long hesitations and even an appeal to Garibaldi himself, +left Naples (6th of September) with his wife Maria Sophia, the +court, the diplomatic corps (the French and English ministers +excepted), and went by sea to Gaeta, where a large part of +the army was concentrated. The next day Garibaldi entered +Naples, was enthusiastically welcomed, and formed a provisional +government. King Victor Emmanuel had decided on the invasion +of the papal states, and after occupying Romagna and +the Marche entered the Neapolitan kingdom. Garibaldi’s troops +defeated the Neapolitan royalists on the Volturno (1st and 2nd +of October), while the Piedmontese captured Capua. Only +Gaeta, Messina, and Civitella del Tronto still held out, and the +siege of the former by the Piedmontese began on the 6th of +November 1860. Both Francis and Maria Sophia behaved with +great coolness and courage, and even when the French fleet, +whose presence had hitherto prevented an attack by sea, was +withdrawn, they still resisted; it was not until the 12th of +February 1861 that the fortress capitulated. Thus the kingdom +of Naples was incorporated in that of Italy, and the royal pair +from that time forth led a wandering life in Austria, France and +Bavaria. Francis died on the 27th of December 1894 at Arco +in Tirol. His widow survived him.</p> + +<p>Francis II. was weak-minded, stupid and vacillating, but, +although his short reign was stained with some cruel massacres +and persecutions, he was less of a tyrant than his father. The +courage and dignity he displayed during his reverses inspired +pity and respect. But the fact that he protected brigandage +in his former dominions and countenanced the most abominable +crimes in the name of legitimism greatly diminished the sympathy +which was felt for the fallen monarch.</p> + +<div class="condensed"> +<p><span class="sc">Bibliography.</span>—R. de Cesare, <i>La Fine d’un regno</i>, vol. ii. (Città +di Castello, 1900) gives a detailed account of the reign of Francis II., +while H.R. Whitehouse’s <i>Collapse of the Kingdom of Naples</i> (New +York, 1899) may be recommended to English readers; Nisco’s +<i>Francesco II</i> (Naples, 1887) should also be consulted. See under +<span class="sc"><a href="#artlinks">Naples</a></span>; <span class="sc"><a href="#artlinks">Garibaldi</a></span>; <span class="sc"><a href="#artlinks">Bixio</a></span>; <span class="sc"><a href="#artlinks">Cavour</a></span>; <span class="sc"><a href="#artlinks">Italy</a></span>; <span class="sc"><a href="#artlinks">Filangieri</a></span>; &c.</p> +</div> +<div class="author">(L. V.*)</div> + + +<hr class="art" /> +<p><span class="bold">FRANCIS IV.<a name="ar17" id="ar17"></a></span> (1779-1846) duke of Modena, was the son of the +archduke Ferdinand, Austrian governor of Lombardy, who +acquired the duchy of Modena through his wife Marie Beatrice, +heiress of the house of Este as well as of many fiefs of the Malaspina, +Pio da Carpi, Pico della Mirandola, Cibò, and other families. +At the time of the French invasion (1796) Francis was sent to +Vienna to be educated, and in 1809 was appointed governor of +Galicia. Later he went to Sardinia, where the exiled King Victor +Emmanuel I. and his wife Maria Theresa were living in retirement. +The latter arranged a marriage between her daughter Marie +Beatrice and Francis, and a secret family compact was made +whereby if the king and his two brothers died without male +issue, the Salic law would be changed so that Francis should +succeed to the kingdom instead of Charles Albert of Carignano +(N. Bianchi, <i>Storia della diplomazia europea in Italia</i>, i. 42-43). +On the fall of Napoleon in 1814 Francis received the duchy of +Modena, including Massa-Carrara and Lunigiana; his mother’s +advice was “to be above the law ... never to forgive the +Republicans of 1796, nor to listen to the complaints of his subjects, +whom nothing satisfies; the poorer they are the quieter they +are” (Silingardi, “Ciro Menotti,” in <i>Rivista europea</i>, Florence, +1880).</p> + +<p>The duke was well received at Modena; inordinately ambitious, +strong-willed, immensely rich, avaricious but not unintelligent, +he soon proved one of the most reactionary despots in Italy. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page937" id="page937"></a>937</span> +He still hoped to acquire either Piedmont or some other part +of northern Italy, and he was in touch with the Sanfedisti and +the Concistoro, reactionary Catholic associations opposed to +the Carbonari, but not always friendly to Austria. Against the +Carbonari and other Liberals he issued the severest edicts, and +although there was no revolt at Modena in 1821 as in Piedmont +and Naples, he immediately instituted judicial proceedings +against the supposed conspirators. Some 350 persons were +arrested and tortured, 56 being condemned to death (only a +few of them were executed) and 237 to imprisonment; a large +number, however, escaped, including Antonio Panizzi (afterwards +director of the British Museum). The ferocious police official +Besini who conducted the trials was afterwards murdered. +The duke actually proposed to Prince Metternich, the Austrian +chancellor, an agreement whereby the various Italian rulers +were to arrest every Liberal in the country on a certain day, but +the project fell through owing to opposition from the courts of +Florence and Rome. At the congress of Verona Metternich +made another attempt to secure the Piedmontese succession +for Francis, but without success. The duke became ever more +despotic; Modena swarmed with spies and informers, education +was hampered, feudalism strengthened; for the duke hoped +to consolidate his power by means of the nobility, and the least +expression of liberalism, or even failure to denounce a Carbonaro, +involved arrest and imprisonment. But strange to say, in 1830 +we find Francis actually coquetting with revolution. Having +lost all hope of acquiring the Piedmontese throne, he entered +into negotiations with the French Orleanist party with a view +to obtaining its support in his plans for extending his dominions. +He was thus brought into touch with Ciro Menotti (1798-1831) +and the Modenese Liberals; what the nature of the connexion +was is still obscure, but it was certainly short-lived and merely +served to betray the Carbonari. As soon as Francis learned that +a conspiracy was on foot to gain possession of the town, he had +Menotti and several other conspirators arrested on the night +of the 3rd of February 1831, and sent the famous message +to the governor of Reggio: “The conspirators are in my hands; +send me the hangman” (there is some doubt as to the authenticity +of the actual words). But the revolt broke out in other +parts of the duchy and in Romagna, and Francis retired to +Mantua with Menotti. A provisional government was formed +at Modena which proclaimed that “Italy is one,” but the duke +returned a few weeks later with Austrian troops, and resistance +was easily quelled. Then the political trials began; Menotti +and two others were executed, and hundreds condemned to +imprisonment. The population was now officially divided into +four classes, viz. “very loyal, loyal, less loyal, and disloyal,” +and the reaction became worse than ever, the duke interfering +in the minutest details of administration, such as hospitals, +schools, and roads. New methods of procedure were introduced +to deal with political trials, but the ministerial cabal by which +the country was administered intrigued and squabbled to such an +extent that it had to be dismissed.</p> + +<p>On the 20th of February 1846 Francis died. Although he had +many domestic virtues and charming manners, was charitable in +times of famine, and was certainly the ablest of the Italian despots, +Liberalism was in his eyes the most heinous of crimes, and his +reign is one long record of barbarous persecution.</p> +<div class="author">(L. V.*)</div> + + +<hr class="art" /> +<p><span class="bold">FRANCIS V.<a name="ar18" id="ar18"></a></span> (1819-1875), duke of Modena, son of Francis IV., +succeeded his father in 1846. Although less cruel and also less +intelligent than his father, he had an equally high opinion of +his own authority. His reign began with disturbances at Fivizzano +and Pontremoli, which Tuscany surrendered to him according +to treaty but against the wishes of the inhabitants (1847), +and at Massa and Carrara, where the troops shot down the +people. Feeling his position insecure, the duke asked for and +obtained an Austrian garrison, but on the outbreak of revolution +throughout Italy and at Vienna in 1848, further disorders +occurred in the duchy, and on the 20th of March he fled with his +family to Mantua. A provisional government was formed, and +volunteers were raised who fought with the Piedmontese against +Austria. But after the Piedmontese defeat Francis returned to +Modena, with Austrian assistance, in August and conferred many +appointments on Austrian officers. Like his father, he interfered +in the minutest details of administration, and instituted proceedings +against all who were suspected of Liberalism. Not content +with the severity of his judges, he overrode their sentences in +favour of harsher punishments. The disturbances at Carrara +were ruthlessly suppressed, and the prisons filled with politicals. +In 1859 numbers of young Modenese fled across the frontier to join +the Piedmontese army, as war with Austria seemed imminent; +and after the Austrian defeat at Magenta the duke left Modena to +lead his army in person against the Piedmontese, taking with him +the contents of the state treasury and many valuable books, +pictures, coins, tapestries and furniture from the palace. The +events of 1859-1860 made his return impossible; and after a short +spell of provisional government the duchy was united to Italy. +He retired to Austria, and died at Munich in November 1875.</p> + +<div class="condensed"> +<p><span class="sc">Bibliography.</span>—N. Bianchi, <i>I Ducati Estensi</i> (Turin, 1852); +Galvani, <i>Memorie di S.A.R. Francesco IV</i> (Modena, 1847); <i>Documenti +riguardanti il governo degli Austro-Estensi in Modena</i> (Modena, +1860); C. Tivaroni, <i>L’Italia durante il dominio austriaco</i>, i. 606-653 +(Turin, 1892), and <i>L’Italia degli Italiani</i>, i. 114-125 (Turin, 1895); +Silingardi, “Ciro Menotti,” in the <i>Rivista europea</i> (Florence, 1880); +F.A. Gualterio, <i>Gli ultimi rivolgimenti italiani</i> (Florence, 1850); +Bayard de Volo, <i>Vita di Francesco V</i> (4 vols., Modena, 1878-1885).</p> +</div> +<div class="author">(L. V.*)</div> + + +<hr class="art" /> +<p><span class="bold">FRANCIS OF ASSISI, ST.<a name="ar19" id="ar19"></a></span> (1181 or 1182-1226), founder of +the Franciscans (<i>q.v.</i>), was born in 1181 or 1182 at Assisi, one +of the independent municipal towns of Umbria. He came +from the upper middle class, his father, named Pietro Bernardone, +being one of the larger merchants of the city. Bernardone’s +commercial enterprises made him travel abroad, and it was +from the fact that the father was in France at the time of his +son’s birth that the latter was called Francesco. His education +appears to have been of the slightest, even for those days. It +is difficult to decide whether words of the early biographers +imply that his youth was not free from irregularities; in any +case, he was the recognized leader of the young men of the town +in their revels; he was, however, always conspicuous for his +charity to the poor. When he was twenty (1201) the neighbouring +and rival city of Perugia attempted to restore by force of +arms the nobles who had been expelled from Assisi by the +burghers and the populace, and Francis took part in the battle +fought in the plain that lies between the two cities; the men +of Assisi were defeated and Francis was among the prisoners. +He spent a year in prison at Perugia, and when peace was made +at the end of 1202 he returned to Assisi and recommenced his +old life.</p> + +<p>Soon a serious and prolonged illness fell upon him, during +which he entered into himself and became dissatisfied with his +way of life. On his recovery he set out on a military expedition, +but at the end of the first day’s march he fell ill, and had to stay +at Spoleto and return to Assisi. This disappointment brought +on again the spiritual crisis he had experienced in his illness, and +for a considerable time the conflict went on within him. One +day he gave a banquet to his friends, and after it they sallied +forth with torches, singing through the streets, Francis being +crowned with garlands as the king of the revellers; after a time +they missed him, and on retracing their steps they found him in +a trance or reverie, a permanently altered man. He devoted +himself to solitude, prayer and the service of the poor, and +before long went on a pilgrimage to Rome. Finding the usual +crowd of beggars before St Peter’s, he exchanged his clothes +with one of them, and experienced an overpowering joy in +spending the day begging among the rest. The determining +episode of his life followed soon after his return to Assisi; as +he was riding he met a leper who begged an alms; Francis had +always had a special horror of lepers, and turning his face he +rode on; but immediately an heroic act of self-conquest was +wrought in him; returning he alighted, gave the leper all the +money he had about him, and kissed his hand. From that day he +gave himself up to the service of the lepers and the hospitals. +To the confusion of his father and brothers he went about +dressed in rags, so that his old companions pelted him with mud. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page938" id="page938"></a>938</span> +Things soon came to a climax with his father: in consequence +of his profuse alms to the poor and to the restoration of the +ruined church of St Damian, his father feared his property would +be dissipated, so he took Francis before the bishop of Assisi +to have him legally disinherited; but without waiting for the +documents to be drawn up, Francis cast off his clothes and gave +them back to his father, declaring that now he had better reason +to say “Our Father which art in heaven,” and having received +a cloak from the bishop, he went off into the woods of Mount +Subasio singing a French song; some brigands accosted him +and he told them he was the herald of the great king (1206).</p> + +<p>The next three years he spent in the neighbourhood of Assisi +in abject poverty and want, ministering to the lepers and the +outcasts of society. It was now that he began to frequent the +ruined little chapel of St Mary of the Angels, known as the +Portiuncula, where much of his time was passed in prayer. +One day while Mass was being said therein, the words of the +Gospel came to Francis as a call: “Everywhere on your road +preach and say—The kingdom of God is at hand. Cure the sick, +raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, drive out devils. Freely have +you received, freely give. Carry neither gold nor silver nor +money in your girdles, nor bag, nor two coats, nor sandals, +nor staff, for the workman is worthy of his hire” (Matt. x. 7-10). +He at once felt that this was his vocation, and the next day, +layman as he was, he went up to Assisi and began to preach to +the poor (1209). Disciples joined him, and when they were +twelve in number Francis said: “Let us go to our Mother, +the holy Roman Church, and tell the pope what the Lord has +begun to do through us, and carry it out with his sanction.” +They obtained the sanction of Innocent III., and returning +to Assisi they gave themselves up to their life of apostolic +preaching and work among the poor.</p> + +<p>The character and development of the order are traced in the +article <span class="sc"><a href="#artlinks">Franciscans</a></span>; here the story of Francis’s own life and +the portrayal of his personality will be attempted. To delineate +in a few words the character of the Poverello of Assisi is indeed +a difficult task. There is such a many-sided richness, such a +tenderness, such a poetry, such an originality, such a distinction +revealed by the innumerable anecdotes in the memoirs of his +disciples, that his personality is brought home to us as one of +the most lovable and one of the strongest of men. It is probably +true to say that no one has ever set himself so seriously to imitate +the life of Christ and to carry out so literally Christ’s work in +Christ’s own way. This was the secret of his love of poverty as +manifested in the following beautiful prayer which he addressed +to our Lord: “Poverty was in the crib and like a faithful squire +she kept herself armed in the great combat Thou didst wage for +our redemption. During Thy passion she alone did not forsake +Thee. Mary Thy Mother stopped at the foot of the Cross, but +poverty mounted it with Thee and clasped Thee in her embrace +unto the end; and when Thou wast dying of thirst, as a watchful +spouse she prepared for Thee the gall. Thou didst expire in the +ardour of her embraces, nor did she leave Thee when dead, O +Lord Jesus, for she allowed not Thy body to rest elsewhere than +in a borrowed grave. O poorest Jesus, the grace I beg of Thee +is to bestow on me the treasure of the highest poverty. Grant +that the distinctive mark of our Order may be never to possess +anything as its own under the sun for the glory of Thy name, +and to have no other patrimony than begging” (in the <i>Legenda +3 Soc.</i>). This enthusiastic love of poverty is certainly the keynote +of St Francis’s spirit; and so one of his disciples in an allegorical +poem (translated into English as <i>The Lady of Poverty</i> by +Montgomery Carmichael, 1901), and Giotto in one of the frescoes +at Assisi, celebrated the “holy nuptials of Francis with Lady +Poverty.”</p> + +<p>Another striking feature of Francis’s character was his constant +joyousness; it was a precept in his rule, and one that he enforced +strictly, that his friars should be always rejoicing in the Lord. +He retained through life his early love of song, and during his +last illness he passed much of his time in singing. His love of +nature, animate and inanimate, was very keen and manifested +itself in ways that appear somewhat naïve. His preaching to +the birds is a favourite representation of St Francis in art. All +creatures he called his “brothers” or “sisters”—the chief +example is the poem of the “Praises of the Creatures,” wherein +“brother Sun,” “sister Moon,” “brother Wind,” and “sister +Water” are called on to praise God. In his last illness he was +cauterized, and on seeing the burning iron he addressed “brother +Fire,” reminding him how he had always loved him and asking +him to deal kindly with him. It would be an anachronism to +think of Francis as a philanthropist or a “social worker” or a +revivalist preacher, though he fulfilled the best functions of all +these. Before everything he was an ascetic and a mystic—an +ascetic who, though gentle to others, wore out his body by +self-denial, so much so that when he came to die he begged pardon +of “brother Ass the body” for having unduly ill treated it: a +mystic irradiated with the love of God, endowed in an extraordinary +degree with the spirit of prayer, and pouring forth his +heart by the hour in the tenderest affections to God and our Lord. +St Francis was a deacon but not a priest.</p> + +<p>From the return of Francis and his eleven companions from +Rome to Assisi in 1209 or 1210, their work prospered in a wonderful +manner. The effect of their preaching, and their example and +their work among the poor, made itself felt throughout Umbria +and brought about a great religious revival. Great numbers came +to join the new order which responded so admirably to the needs +of the time. In 1212 Francis invested St Clara (<i>q.v.</i>) with the +Franciscan habit, and so instituted the “Second Order,” that of +the nuns. As the friars became more and more numerous their +missionary labours extended wider and wider, spreading first over +Italy, and then to other countries. Francis himself set out, +probably in 1212, for the Holy Land to preach the Gospel to the +Saracens, but he was shipwrecked and had to return. A year or +two later he went into Spain to preach to the Moors, but had +again to return without accomplishing his object (1215 probably). +After another period of preaching in Italy and watching over +the development of the order, Francis once again set out for +the East (1219). This time he was successful; he made his way +to Egypt, where the crusaders were besieging Damietta, got +himself taken prisoner and was led before the sultan, to whom +he openly preached the Gospel. The sultan sent him back to +the Christian camp, and he passed on to the Holy Land. Here +he remained until September 1220. During his absence were +manifested the beginnings of the troubles in the order that were +to attain to such magnitude after his death. The circumstances +under which, at an extraordinary general chapter convoked +by him shortly after his return, he resigned the office of minister-general +(September 1220) are explained in the article <span class="sc"><a href="#artlinks">Franciscans</a></span>: +here, as illustrating the spirit of the man, it is in place to +cite the words in which his abdication was couched: “Lord, +I give Thee back this family which Thou didst entrust to me. +Thou knowest, most sweet Jesus, that I have no more the power +and the qualities to continue to take care of it. I entrust it, +therefore, to the ministers. Let them be responsible before Thee +at the Day of Judgment, if any brother by their negligence, or +their bad example, or by a too severe punishment, shall go astray.” +These words seem to contain the mere truth: Francis’s peculiar +religious genius was probably not adapted for the government +of an enormous society spread over the world, as the Friars +Minor had now become.</p> + +<p>The chief works of the next years were the revision and final +redaction of the Rule and the formation or organization of the +“Third Order” or “Brothers and Sisters of Penance,” a vast +confraternity of lay men and women who tried to carry out, +without withdrawing from the world, the fundamental principles +of Franciscan life (see <span class="sc"><a href="#artlinks">Tertiaries</a></span>).</p> + +<p>If for no other reason than the prominent place they hold in +art, it would not be right to pass by the Stigmata without a +special mention. The story is well known; two years before +his death Francis went up Mount Alverno in the Apennines +with some of his disciples, and after forty days of fasting and +prayer and contemplation, on the morning of the 14th of +September 1224 (to use Sabatier’s words), “he had a vision: +in the warm rays of the rising sun he discerned suddenly a strange +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page939" id="page939"></a>939</span> +figure. A seraph with wings extended flew towards him from +the horizon and inundated him with pleasure unutterable. +At the centre of the vision appeared a cross, and the seraph was +nailed to it. When the vision disappeared Francis felt sharp +pains mingling with the delights of the first moment. Disturbed +to the centre of his being he anxiously sought the meaning of it +all, and then he saw on his body the Stigmata of the Crucified.” +The early authorities represent the Stigmata not as bleeding +wounds, the holes as it were of the nails, but as fleshy excrescences +resembling in form and colour the nails, the head on the palm +of the hand, and on the back as it were a nail hammered down. +In the first edition of the <i>Vie</i>, Sabatier rejected the Stigmata; +but he changed his mind, and in the later editions he accepts their +objective reality as an historically established fact; in an +appendix he collects the evidence: there exists what is according +to all probability an autograph of Br. Leo, the saint’s favourite +disciple and companion on Mount Alverno at the time, which +describes the circumstances of the stigmatization; Elias of +Cortona (<i>q.v.</i>), the acting superior, wrote on the day after his +death a circular letter wherein he uses language clearly implying +that he had himself seen the Stigmata, and there is a considerable +amount of contemporary authentic second hand evidence. On +the strength of this body of evidence Sabatier rejects all theories +of fraud or hallucination, whatever may be the explanation of +the phenomena.</p> + +<p>Francis was so exhausted by the sojourn on Mount Alverno +that he had to be carried back to Assisi. The remaining months +of his life were passed in great bodily weakness and suffering, +and he became almost blind. However, he worked on with +his wonted cheerfulness and joyousness. At last, on the 3rd +of October 1226, he died in the Portiuncula at the age of forty-five. +Two years later he was canonized by Gregory IX., whom, as +Cardinal Hugolino of Ostia, he had chosen to be the protector +of his order.</p> + +<p>The works of St Francis consist of the Rule (in two redactions), +the Testament, spiritual admonitions, canticles and a few +letters. They were first edited by Wadding in 1623. Two +critical editions were published in 1904, one by the Franciscans +of Quaracchi near Florence, the other (in a longer and a shorter +form) by Professor H. Boehmer of Bonn. Sabatier and Goetz +(see below) have investigated the authenticity of the several +works; and the four lists, while exhibiting slight variations, +are in substantial accord. Besides the works, properly so called, +there is a considerable amount of traditional matter—anecdotes, +sayings, sermons—preserved in the biographies and in the +<i>Fioretti</i>;<a name="fa1c" id="fa1c" href="#ft1c"><span class="sp">1</span></a> a great deal of this matter is no doubt substantially +authentic, but it is not possible to subject it to any critical +sifting.</p> + +<div class="condensed"> +<p><i>Note on Sources.</i>—The sources for the life of St Francis and early +Franciscan history are very numerous, and an immense literature +has grown up around them. Any attempt to indicate even a selection +of this literature would here be impossible and also futile; +for the discovery of new documents has by no means ceased, and the +criticism of the materials is still in full progress, nor can it be said +that final results have yet emerged from the discussion. Students +will find the chief materials in the following collections: <i>Archiv für +Litteratur und Kirchengeschichte des Mittelalters</i> (ed. by Ehrle and +Denifle, 1885, &c.); publications of the Franciscans of Quaracchi +(list to be obtained from Herder, Freiburg im Breisgau); and the +two series edited by Paul Sabatier, <i>Collection d’études et de documents +sur l’histoire religieuse et littéraire du moyen âge</i> (5 vols. published up +to 1906) and <i>Opuscules de critique historique</i> (12 fascicules): the +easiest and most consecutive way of following the controversy is +by the aid of the “Bulletin Hagiographique” in <i>Analecta Bollandiana</i>. +Relatively popular accounts of the most important sources +are supplied in the introductory chapters of Sabatier’s <i>Vie de S. +François</i> and <i>Speculum perfectionis</i>, and Lempp’s <i>Frère Élie de +Cortone</i>.</p> + +<p>Concerning the life of St Francis and the beginnings of the order, +the chief documents that come under discussion are: the two <i>Lives</i> +by Thomas of Celano (1228 and 1248 respectively; Eng. trans. +with introduction by A.G. Ferrers Howell, 1908), of which the only +critical edition is that of Friar Ed. d’Alençon (1906); the so-called +<i>Legenda trium sociorum</i>; the <i>Speculum perfectionis</i>, discovered by +Paul Sabatier and edited in 1898 (Eng. trans. by Sebastian Evans, +<i>Mirror of Perfection</i>, 1899). Sabatier’s theory as to the nature of +these documents was, in brief, that the <i>Speculum perfectionis</i> was +the first of all the Lives of the saint, written in 1227 by Br. Leo, his +favourite and most intimate disciple, and that the <i>Legenda 3 Soc.</i> +is what it claims to be—the handiwork of Leo and the two other +most intimate companions of Francis, compiled in 1246; these are +the most authentic and the only true accounts, Thomas of Celano’s +Lives being written precisely in opposition to them, in the interests +of the majority of the order that favoured mitigations of the Rule +especially in regard to poverty. For ten years the domain of +Franciscan origins was explored and discussed by a number of +scholars; and then the whole ground was reviewed by Professor W. +Goetz of Munich in a study entitled <i>Die Quellen zur Geschichte des +hl. Franz von Assisi</i> (1904). His conclusions are substantially the +same as those of Père van Ortroy, the Bollandist, and Friar Lemmens, +an Observant Franciscan, and are the direct contrary of Sabatier’s: +the <i>Legenda 3 Soc.</i> is a forgery; the <i>Speculum perfectionis</i> is a compilation +made in the 14th century, also in large measure a forgery, +but containing an element (not to be precisely determined) derived +from Br. Leo; on the other hand, Thomas of Celano’s two Lives +are free from the “tendencies” ascribed to them by Sabatier, and +that of 1248 was written with the collaboration of Leo and the other +companions; thus the best sources of information are those portions +of the <i>Speculum</i> that can with certainty be carried back to Br. Leo, +and the Lives by Thomas of Celano, especially the second <i>Life</i>. +Goetz’s criticism of the documents is characterized by exceeding +carefulness and sobriety. Of course he does not suppose that his +conclusions are in all respects final; but his investigations show +that the time has not yet come when a biography of St Francis +could be produced answering to the demands of modern historical +criticism. The official life of St Francis is St Bonaventura’s <i>Legenda</i>, +published in a convenient form by the Franciscans of Quaracchi +(1898); Goetz’s estimate of it (<i>op. cit.</i>) is much more favourable +than Sabatier’s.</p> + +<p>Paul Sabatier’s fascinating and in many ways sympathetic <i>Vie de +S. François</i> (1894; 33rd ed., 1906; Eng. trans, by L.S. Houghton, +1901) will probably for a long time to come be accepted by the +ordinary reader as a substantially correct portrait of St Francis; +and yet Goetz declares that the most competent and independent +critics have without any exception pronounced that Sabatier has +depicted St Francis a great deal too much from the standpoint of +modern religiosity, and has exaggerated his attitude in face of the +church (<i>op. cit.</i> p. 5). In articles in the <i>Hist. Vierteljahrsschrift</i> +(1902, 1903) Goetz has shown that Sabatier’s presentation of St +Francis’s relations with the ecclesiastical authority in general, and +with Cardinal Hugolino (Gregory IX.) in particular, is largely based +on misconception; that the development of the order was not forced +on Francis against his will; and that the differences in the order +did not during Francis’s lifetime attain to such a magnitude as to +cause him during his last years the suffering depicted by Sabatier. +This from a Protestant historian like Goetz is most valuable criticism. +In truth Sabatier’s St Francis is an anachronism—a man at heart, a +modern pietistic French Protestant of the most liberal type, with a +veneer of 13th century Catholicism.</p> + +<p>Of lives of St Francis in English may be mentioned those by Mrs +Oliphant (2nd ed., 1871) and by Canon Knox Little (1897). For +general information and references to the literature of the subject, +see Otto Zöckler, <i>Askese und Mönchtum</i> (1897), ii. 470-493, and his +article in Herzog’s <i>Realencyklopädie</i> (ed. 3), “Franz von Assisi” +(1899); also Max Heimbucher, <i>Orden und Kongregationen</i> (1896), i. +§ 38. The chapter on St Francis in Emile Gebhart’s <i>Italie mystique</i> +(ed. 3, 1899) is very remarkable; indeed, though this writer is as +little ecclesiastically-minded as Sabatier himself, his general picture +of the state of religion in Italy at the time is far truer; here also +Sabatier has given way to the usual temptation of biographers to +exalt their hero by depreciating everybody else.</p> +</div> +<div class="author">(E. C. B.)</div> + +<hr class="foot" /> <div class="note"> + +<p><a name="ft1c" id="ft1c" href="#fa1c"><span class="fn">1</span></a> <i>The Little Flowers of St Francis</i>.</p> +</div> + + +<hr class="art" /> +<p><span class="bold">FRANCIS OF MAYRONE<a name="ar20" id="ar20"></a></span> [<span class="sc">Franciscus de Mayronis</span>] (d. +1325), scholastic philosopher, was born at Mayrone in Provence. +He entered the Franciscan order and subsequently went to +Paris, where he was a pupil of Duns Scotus. At the Sorbonne he +acquired a great reputation for ability in discussion, and was +known as the <i>Doctor Illuminatus</i> and <i>Magister Acutus</i>. He +became a professor of philosophy, and took part in the discussions +on the nature of Universals. Following Duns Scotus, he adopted +the Platonic theory of ideas, and denied that Aristotle had made +any contribution to metaphysical speculation. It is a curious +commentary on the theories of Duns Scotus that one pupil, +Francis, should have taken this course, while another pupil, +Occam, should have used his arguments in a diametrically +opposite direction and ended in extreme Nominalism.</p> + +<div class="condensed"> +<p>His works were collected and published at Venice in 1520 under +the title <i>Praeclarissima ac multum subtilia scripta Illuminati Doctoris +Francisci de Mayronis, &c.</i></p> +</div> + + +<hr class="art" /> +<p><span class="bold">FRANCIS OF PAOLA<a name="ar21" id="ar21"></a></span> (or <span class="sc">Paula</span>), <b>ST,</b> founder of the Minims, +a religious order in the Catholic Church, was born of humble +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page940" id="page940"></a>940</span> +parentage at Paola in Calabria in 1416, or according to the +Bollandists 1438. As a boy he entered a Franciscan friary, +but left it and went to live as a hermit in a cave on the seashore +near Paola. Soon disciples joined him, and with the bishop’s +approval he built a church and monastery. At first they called +themselves “Hermits of St Francis”; but the object they +proposed to themselves was to go beyond even the strict Franciscans +in fasts and bodily austerities of all kinds, in poverty and +in humility; and therefore, as the Franciscans were the Minors +(<i>minores</i>, less), the new order took the name of Minims (<i>minimi</i>, +least). By 1474 a number of houses had been established in +southern Italy and Sicily, and the order was recognized and +approved by the pope. In 1482 Louis XI. of France, being on +his deathbed and hearing the reports of the holiness of Francis, +sent to ask him to come and attend him, and at the pope’s +command he travelled to Paris. On this occasion Philip de +Comines in his <i>Memoirs</i> says: “I never saw any man living so +holily, nor out of whose mouth the Holy Ghost did more manifestly +speak.” He remained with Louis till his death, and Louis’ +successor, Charles VIII., held him in such high esteem that he +kept him in Paris, and enabled him to found various houses of +his order in France; in Spain and Germany, too, houses were +founded during Francis’s lifetime. He never left France, +and died in 1507 in the monastery of his order at Plessis-les-Tours.</p> + +<p>The Rule was so strict that the popes long hesitated to confirm +it in its entirety; not until 1506 was it finally sanctioned. The +most special feature is an additional vow to keep a perpetual +Lent of the strictest kind, not only flesh meat but fish and all +animal products—eggs, milk, butter, cheese, dripping—being +forbidden, so that the diet was confined to bread, vegetables, +fruit and oil, and water was the only drink. Thus in matter +of diet the Minims surpassed in austerity all orders in the West, +and probably all permanently organized orders in the East. +The strongly ascetical spirit of the Minims manifested itself in +the title borne by the superiors of the houses—not abbot (father), +or prior, or guardian, or minister, or rector, but corrector; and +the general superior is the corrector general. Notwithstanding +its extreme severity the order prospered. At the death of the +founder it had five provinces—Italy, France, Tours, Germany, +Spain. Later there were as many as 450 monasteries, and some +missions in India. There never was a Minim house in England +or Ireland. It ranks as one of the Mendicant orders. In 1909 +there were some twenty monasteries, mostly in Sicily, but one +in Rome (S. Andrea delle Fratte), and one in Naples, in Marseilles +and in Cracow. There have been Minim nuns (only one convent +has survived, till recently at Marseilles) and Minim Tertiaries, +in imitation of the Franciscan Tertiaries. The habit of the +Minims is black.</p> + +<div class="condensed"> +<p>See Helyot, <i>Hist. des ordres religieux</i> (1714), vii. c. 56; Max +Heimbucher, <i>Orden und Kongregationen</i> (1896), i. § 52; the article +“Franz von Paula” in Wetzer und Welte, <i>Kirchenlexicon</i> (ed. 2), +and in Herzog, <i>Realencyklopädie</i> (ed. 3); Catholic <i>Dictionary</i>, art. +“Minims.”</p> +</div> +<div class="author">(E. C. B.)</div> + + +<hr class="art" /> +<p><span class="bold">FRANCIS<a name="ar22" id="ar22"></a></span> (<span class="sc">François</span>) <b>OF SALES, ST</b> (1567-1622), bishop of +Geneva and doctor of the Church (1877), was born at the castle +of Sales, near Annecy, Savoy. His father, also François, comte de +Sales, but better known as M. de Boisy, a nobleman and soldier, +had been employed in various affairs of state, but in 1560, at +the age of thirty-eight, settled down on his ancestral estates and +married Françoise de Sionnay, a Savoyard like himself, and an +heiress. St Francis, the first child of this union, was born in +August 1567 when his mother was in her fifteenth year. M. de +Boisy was renowned for his experience and sound judgment, +and both parents were distinguished by piety, love of peace, +charity to the poor, qualities which early showed themselves in +their eldest son.</p> + +<p>He received his education first at La Roche, in the Arve valley, +then at the college of Annecy, founded by Eustace Chappius, +ambassador in England of Charles V., in 1549. At the age of +thirteen or fourteen he went to the Jesuit College of Clermont +at Paris, where he stayed till the summer of 1588, and where he +laid the foundations of his profound knowledge, while perfecting +himself in the exercises of a young nobleman and practising a +life of exemplary virtue. At this time also he developed an +ardent love of France, a country which was politically in antagonism +with his own, though so closely linked to it geographically, +socially and by language. At the end of 1588 he went to Padua, +to take his degree in canon and civil law, a necessary prelude in +Savoy at that time to distinction in a civil career. His heart, +however, especially from the date of his receiving the tonsure +(1578), was already turned towards the Church, and he gave his +attention even more to theology, under the great masters +Antonio Possevino, S.J., and Gesualdo, afterwards general of +the Friars Minor, than to his legal course. “At Padua,” he said +to a friend, “I studied law to please my father, and theology to +please myself.” In that licentious university Francis found +the greatest difficulty in resisting attacks on his virtue, and once +at least had to draw his sword to defend his personal safety +against a band of ruffians. The gentleness for which he was +already renowned was not that of a weak, but of a strong +character. He returned to Savoy in 1592, and, while seeking +the occasion to overcome his father’s resistance to his resolution +of embracing the ecclesiastical profession, took the diploma +of advocate to the senate. Meantime, without his knowledge, +his friends procured for him the post of provost of the chapter of +Geneva, an honour which reconciled M. de Boisy to the sacrifice +of more ambitious hopes. After a year of zealous work as preacher +and director he was sent by the bishop, Claude de Granier, to +try and win back the province of Chablais, which had embraced +Calvinism when usurped by Bern in 1535, and had retained it +even after its restitution to Savoy in 1564. At first the people +refused to listen to him, for he was represented to them as an +instrument of Satan, and all who had dealings with him were +threatened with the vengeance of the consistory. He therefore +wrote out his message on sheets which were passed from hand to +hand, and these, with the spectacle of his virtues and disinterestedness, +soon produced a strong effect. The sheets just spoken of +still exist in the Chigi library at Rome, and were published, +though with many alterations, in 1672, under the title of +<i>Les Controverses</i>. This must be considered the first work of +St Francis.</p> + +<p>The re-erection of a wayside cross in Annemasse, at the gates of +Geneva, amid an enormous concourse of converts, an event +which closed the three years of his apostolate, led to the composition +of the <i>Défense ... de la Croix</i>, published in 1600. +An illness brought on by toil and privation forced him to leave +his work to others for nearly a year, but in August 1598 he returned +to his field of labour, and in October of that year practically +the whole country was Catholic again. Up to that time +preaching and conference had been the only weapons employed. +The stories of the use of soldiers to produce simulated conversions +are incorrect.<a name="fa1d" id="fa1d" href="#ft1d"><span class="sp">1</span></a> Possibly the lamentable events of the +campaigns of 1589 in Gex and Chablais have been applied to the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page941" id="page941"></a>941</span> +period 1594-1598. In October of this last year, however, the +duke of Savoy, who came then to assist in person at the great +religious feasts which celebrated the return of the country to +unity of faith, expatriated such of the leading men as obstinately +refused even to listen to the Catholic arguments. He also forbade +Calvinist ministers to reside in the Chablais, and substituted +Catholic for Huguenot officials. St Francis concurred in these +measures, and, three years later, even requested that those who, +as he said, “follow their heresy, rather as a party than a religion,” +should be ordered either to conform or to leave their country, +with leave to sell their goods. His conduct, judged not by a +modern standard, but by the ideas of his age, will be found +compatible with the highest Christian charity, as that of the duke +with sound political prudence. At this time he was nominated +to the pope as coadjutor of Geneva,<a name="fa2d" id="fa2d" href="#ft2d"><span class="sp">2</span></a> and after a visit to Rome +he assisted Bishop de Granier in the administration of the newly +converted countries and of the diocese at large.</p> + +<p>In 1602 he made his second visit to the French capital, when +his transcendent qualities brought him into the closest relations +with the court of Henry IV., and made him the spiritual father +of that circle of select souls who centred round Madame Acarie. +Among the celebrated personages who became his life friends from +this time were Pierre de Bérulle, founder of the French Oratorians, +Guillaume Duval, the scholar, and the duc de Bellegarde, the +latter a special favourite of the king, who begged to be allowed +to share the Saint’s friendship. At this time also his gift as a +preacher became fully recognized, and de Sanzéa, afterwards +bishop of Bethlehem, records that Duval exhorted all his +students of the Sorbonne to listen to him and to imitate this, +“the true and excellent method of preaching.” His principles +are expressed in the admirable letter to André Frémyot of +October 1604.</p> + +<p>De Granier died in September 1602, and the new bishop +entered on the administration of his vast diocese, which, as +a contemporary says, “he found brick and left marble.” His +first efforts were directed to securing a virtuous and well-instructed +clergy, with its consequence of a people worthy of +their pastors. All his time was spent in preaching, confessing, +visiting the sick, relieving the poor. His zeal was not confined +to his diocese. In concert with Jeanne Françoise Frémyot +(1572-1641), widow of the baron de Chantal, whose acquaintance +he made while preaching through Lent at Dijon in 1604, he +founded the order of the Visitation, in favour of “strong souls +with weak bodies,” as he said, deterred from entering the orders +already existing, by their inability to undertake severe corporal +austerities. The institution rapidly spread, counting twenty +houses before his death and eighty before that of St Jeanne. +The care of his diocese and of his new foundation were not +enough for his ardent charity, and in 1609 he published his +famous <i>Introduction to a Devout Life</i>, a work which was at once +translated into the chief European languages and of which +he himself published five editions. In 1616 appeared his <i>Treatise +on the Love of God</i>, which teaches that perfection of the spiritual +life to which the former work is meant to be the “Introduction.”</p> + +<p>The important Lents of 1617 and 1618 at Grenoble were a +prelude to a still more important apostolate in Paris, “the theatre +of the world,” as St Vincent de Paul calls it. This third visit +to the great city lasted from the autumn of 1618 to that of 1619; +the direct object of it was to assist in negotiating the marriage +of the prince of Piedmont with Chrétienne of France, but nearly +all his time was spent in preaching and works of mercy, spiritual +or corporal. He was regarded as a living saint. St Vincent +scarcely left him, and has given the most extraordinary testimonies +(as yet unpublished) of his heroic virtues. Mère Angélique +Arnaud, who at this time put herself under his direction and +wished to join the Order of the Visitation, attracted by its humility +and sweetness, may be named as the most interesting of his +innumerable penitents of this period. He returned to Savoy, +and after three years more of unwearying labour died at Lyons +on the 28th of December 1622. A universal outburst of veneration +followed; indeed his cult had already begun, and after +an episcopal inquiry the pontifical commission in view of his +beatification was instituted by decree of the 21st of July 1626, +a celerity unique in the annals of the Congregation of Rites. +The depositions of witnesses were returned to Rome in 1632, +but meantime the forms of the Roman chancery had been +changed by Urban VIII., and the advocates could not at once +continue their work. Eventually a new commission was issued +in 1656, and on its report, into which were inserted nineteen of +the former depositions, the “servant of God” was beatified in +1661. The canonization took place in 1665.</p> + +<div class="condensed"> +<p>Besides the works which we have named, there were published +posthumously his <i>Entretiens</i>, <i>i.e.</i> a selection of the lectures given +to the Visitation, reported by the sisters who heard them, some of +his sermons, a large number of his letters, various short treatises of +devotion. The first edition of his united or so-called “Complete” +works was published at Toulouse in 1637. Others followed in 1641, +1647, 1652, 1663, 1669, 1685. The <i>Lettres</i> and <i>Opuscules</i> were republished +in 1768.</p> + +<p>The only modern editions of the complete works which it is worth +while to name are those of Blaise (1821), Virès (1856-1858), Migne +(1861), and the critical edition published by the Visitation of Annecy, +of which the 14th volume appeared in 1905.</p> + +<p>The biography of St Francis de Sales was written immediately +after his death by the celebrated P. de La Rivière and Dom John de +St François (Goulu), as well as by two other authors of less importance. +The saint’s nephew and successor, Charles Auguste de Sales, +brought out a more extended life, Latin and French, in 1635. The +lives of Giarda (1650), Maupas du Tour (1657) and Cotolendi (1687) +add little to Charles Auguste. Marsollier’s longer life, in two volumes +(1700), is quite untrustworthy; still more so that by Loyau d’Amboise +(1833), which is rather a romance than a biography. The lives by +Hamon (1856) and Pérennès (1860), without adding much to preceding +biographies, are serious and edifying. A complete life, founded +on the lately discovered process of 1626 and the new letters, was being +prepared by the author of the present article at the time of his death. +With the Lives must be mentioned the <i>Esprit du B.F. de Sales</i> by +Camus, bishop of Belley, who, amid innumerable errors, gives +various interesting traits and sayings of his saintly friend. Among +the very numerous modern studies may be named an essay by Leigh +Hunt entitled “The Gentleman Saint” (<i>The Seer</i>, pt. ii. No. 41); +a remarkable <i>causerie</i> by Sainte-Beuve (<i>Lundis</i>, 3rd Jan. 1853); +<i>Le Réveil du sentiment religieux en France au XVII<span class="sp">e</span> siècle</i>, by +Strowski (Paris, 1898); <i>Four Essays on S. F. de S.</i> and <i>Three Essays +on S. F. de S. as Preacher</i>, by Canon H.B. Mackey.</p> +</div> +<div class="author">(H. B. M.)</div> + +<hr class="foot" /> <div class="note"> + +<p><a name="ft1d" id="ft1d" href="#fa1d"><span class="fn">1</span></a> This, at least, is the account given by Catholic authorities. +Less favourable is the view taken by non-Catholic historians, which +seems in some measure to be confirmed by St Francis himself. +According to this, Duke Charles Emmanuel of Savoy, who succeeded +his more tolerant father in 1580, was determined to reduce the +Chablais to the Catholic religion, by peaceful means if possible, +by force if necessary. After two years of preaching Francis wrote +to the duke (<i>Œuvres compl.</i> ii. p. 551): “During 27 months I have +scattered the seed of the Word of God in this miserable land; shall +I say among thorns or on stony ground? Certainly, save for the +conversion of the seigneur d’Avully and the advocate Poncet, I +have little to boast of.” In the winter of 1596-1597 Francis was +at Turin, and at his suggestion the duke decided on a regular plan +for the coercion of the refractory Protestants. This plan anticipated +that employed later by Louis XIV. against the Huguenots in France. +The Calvinist ministers were expelled; Protestant books were +confiscated and destroyed; the acts of Protestant lawyers and +officials were declared invalid. The country was flooded with +Jesuits and friars, whose arguments were reinforced by quartering +troops, veterans of the Indian wars in Mexico, on the refractory +inhabitants. Those whose stubborn persistence in error survived +all these inducements to repent were sent into exile. See the article +“Franz von Sales” by J. Ehni in Herzog-Hauck, <i>Realencyklopädie</i> +(3rd ed., Leipzig, 1899).</p> +<div class="author">(W. A. P.)</div> + +<p><a name="ft2d" id="ft2d" href="#fa2d"><span class="fn">2</span></a> With the title of Nicopolis <i>in partibus</i>.—<span class="sc">Ed.</span></p> +</div> + + +<hr class="art" /> +<p><span class="bold">FRANCIS, SIR PHILIP<a name="ar23" id="ar23"></a></span> (1740-1818), English politician and +pamphleteer, the supposed author of the <i>Letters of Junius</i>, +and the chief antagonist of Warren Hastings, was born in Dublin +on the 22nd of October 1740. He was the only son of Dr Philip +Francis (c. 1708-1773), a man of some literary celebrity in his +time, known by his translations of Horace, Aeschines and +Demosthenes. He received the rudiments of an excellent +education at a free school in Dublin, and afterwards spent a +year or two (1751-1752) under his father’s roof at Skeyton +rectory, Norfolk, and elsewhere, and for a short time he had +Gibbon as a fellow-pupil. In March 1753 he entered St Paul’s +school, London, where he remained for three years and a half, +becoming a proficient classical scholar. In 1756, immediately +on his leaving school, he was appointed to a junior clerkship in +the secretary of state’s office by Henry Fox (afterwards Lord +Holland), with whose family Dr Francis was at that time on +intimate terms; and this post he retained under the succeeding +administration. In 1758 he was employed as secretary to +General Bligh in the expedition against Cherbourg; and in the +same capacity he accompanied the earl of Kinnoul on his special +embassy to the court of Portugal in 1760.</p> + +<p>In 1761 he became personally known to Pitt, who, recognizing +his ability and discretion, once and again made use of his services +as private amanuensis. In 1762 he was appointed to a principal +clerkship in the war office, where he formed an intimate friendship +with Christopher D’Oyly, the secretary of state’s deputy, whose +dismissal from office in 1772 was hotly resented by “Junius”; +and in the same year he married Miss Macrabie, the daughter +of a retired London merchant. His official duties brought him +into direct relations with many who were well versed in the +politics of the time. In 1763 the great constitutional questions +arising out of the arrest of Wilkes began to be sharply canvassed. +It was natural that Francis, who from a very early age had +been in the habit of writing occasionally to the newspapers, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page942" id="page942"></a>942</span> +should be eager to take an active part in the discussion, though +his position as a government official made it necessary that his +intervention should be carefully disguised. He is known to have +written to the <i>Public Ledger</i> and <i>Public Advertiser</i>, as an advocate +of the popular cause, on many occasions about and after the +year 1763; he frequently attended debates in both Houses of +Parliament, especially when American questions were being +discussed; and between 1769 and 1771 he is also known to have +been favourable to the scheme for the overthrow of the Grafton +government and afterwards of that of Lord North, and for +persuading or forcing Lord Chatham into power. In January +1769 the first of the <i>Letters of Junius</i> appeared, and the series +was continued till January 21, 1772. They had been preceded +by others under various signatures such as, “Candor,” +“Father of Candor,” “Anti-Sejanus,” “Lucius,” “Nemesis,” +which have all been attributed, some of them certainly in +error, to one and the same hand. The authorship of the <i>Letters +of Junius</i> has been assigned to Francis on a variety of grounds +(see <span class="sc"><a href="#artlinks">Junius</a></span>).</p> + +<p>In March 1772 Francis finally left the war office, and in July +of the same year he left England for a tour through France, +Germany and Italy, which lasted until the following December. +On his return he was contemplating emigration to New England, +when in June 1773 Lord North, on the recommendation of Lord +Barrington, appointed him a member of the newly constituted +supreme council of Bengal at a salary of £10,000 per annum. +Along with his colleagues Monson and Clavering he reached +Calcutta in October 1774, and a long struggle with Warren +Hastings, the governor-general, immediately began. These +three, actuated probably by petty personal motives, combined +to form a majority of the council in harassing opposition to the +governor-general’s policy; and they even accused him of +corruption, mainly on the evidence of Nuncomar. The death of +Monson in 1776, and of Clavering in the following year, made +Hastings again supreme in the council. But a dispute with +Francis, more than usually embittered, led in August 1780 +to a minute being delivered to the council board by Hastings, +in which he stated that “he judged of the public conduct of +Mr Francis by his experience of his private, which he had found +to be void of truth and honour.” A duel was the consequence, +in which Francis received a dangerous wound (see <span class="sc"><a href="#artlinks">Hastings, +Warren</a></span>). Though his recovery was rapid and complete, he +did not choose to prolong his stay abroad. He arrived in England +in October 1781, and was received with little favour.</p> + +<p>Little is known of the nature of his occupations during the +next two years, except that he was untiring in his efforts to procure +first the recall, and afterwards the impeachment of his +hitherto triumphant adversary. In 1783 Fox produced his India +Bill, which led to the overthrow of the coalition government. In +1784 Francis was returned by the borough of Yarmouth, Isle +of Wight; and although he took an opportunity to disclaim +every feeling of personal animosity towards Hastings, this did +not prevent him, on the return of the latter in 1785, from doing +all in his power to bring forward and support the charges which +ultimately led to the impeachment resolutions of 1787. Although +excluded by a majority of the House from the list of the managers +of that impeachment, Francis was none the less its most energetic +promoter, supplying his friends Burke and Sheridan with all the +materials for their eloquent orations and burning invectives. +At the general election of 1790 he was returned member for +Bletchingley. He sympathized warmly and actively with the +French revolutionary doctrines, expostulating with Burke on +his vehement denunciation of the same. In 1793 he supported +Grey’s motion for a return to the old constitutional system of +representation, and so earned the title to be regarded as one +of the earliest promoters of the cause of parliamentary reform; +and he was one of the founders of the “Society of the Friends +of the People.” The acquittal of Hastings in April 1795 disappointed +Francis of the governor-generalship, and in 1798 +he had to submit to the additional mortification of a defeat in +the general election. He was once more successful, however, +in 1802, when he sat for Appleby, and it seemed as if the great +ambitions of his life were about to be realized when the Whig +party came into power in 1806. His disappointment was great +when the governor-generalship was, owing to party exigencies, +conferred on Sir Gilbert Elliot (Lord Minto); he declined, it is +said, soon afterwards the government of the Cape, but accepted +a K.C.B. Though re-elected for Appleby in 1806, he failed +to secure a seat in the following year; and the remainder of his +life was spent in comparative privacy.</p> + +<p>Among the later productions of his pen were, besides the +<i>Plan of a Reform in the Election of the House of Commons</i>, pamphlets +entitled <i>Proceedings in the House of Commons on the Slave +Trade</i> (1796), <i>Reflections on the Abundance of Paper in Circulation +and the Scarcity of Specie</i> (1810), <i>Historical Questions Exhibited</i> +(1818), and a <i>Letter to Earl Grey on the Policy of Great Britain +and the Allies towards Norway</i> (1814). His first wife, by whom +he had six children, died in 1806, and in 1814 he married his +second wife, Emma Watkins, who long survived him, and who +left voluminous manuscripts relating to his biography. Francis +died on the 23rd of December 1818. In his domestic relations +he was exemplary, and he lived on terms of mutual affection with +a wide circle of friends. He was, however, full of vindictiveness, +dissimulation and treachery, and there can be little doubt that +in his historic conflict with Warren Hastings unworthy personal +motives played a leading part.</p> + +<div class="condensed"> +<p><span class="sc">Bibliography.</span>—For the evidence identifying Francis with Junius +see the article Junius, and the authorities there cited. See also +<i>Memoirs of Sir Philip Francis, with Correspondence and Journals</i>, by +Joseph Parkes and Herman Merivale (2 vols., London, 1867); <i>The +Francis Letters</i>, edited by Beata Francis and Eliza Keary (2 vols., +London, 1901); Sir J.F. Stephen, <i>The Story of Nuncomar and the +Impeachment of Sir E. Impey</i> (2 vols., London, 1885); Lord Macaulay’s +<i>Essay</i> on “Warren Hastings”; G.B. Malleson, <i>Life of Warren +Hastings</i> (London, 1894); G.W. Forrest, <i>The Administration of +Warren Hastings, 1772-1785</i> (Calcutta, 1892); Sir Leslie Stephen’s +article on Francis in <i>Dict. of Nat. Biog.</i> vol. xx.</p> +</div> + + +<hr class="art" /> +<p><span class="bold">FRANCIS JOSEPH I.<a name="ar24" id="ar24"></a></span> (1830-  ), emperor of Austria, king +of Bohemia, and apostolic king of Hungary, was the eldest son +of the archduke Francis Charles, second son of the reigning +emperor Francis I., being born on the 18th of August 1830. His +mother, the archduchess Sophia, was daughter of Maximilian I., +king of Bavaria. She was a woman of great ability and strong +character, and during the years which followed the death of the +emperor Francis was probably the most influential personage +at the Austrian court; for the emperor Ferdinand, who succeeded +in 1835, was physically and mentally incapable of performing +the duties of his office; as he was childless, Francis Joseph was +in the direct line of succession. During the disturbances of 1848, +Francis Joseph spent some time in Italy, where, under Radetzky, +at the battle of St Lucia, he had his first experience of warfare. +At the end of that year, after the rising of Vienna and capture of +the city by Windischgrätz, it was clearly desirable that there +should be a more vigorous ruler at the head of the empire, and +Ferdinand, now that the young archduke was of age, was able +to carry out the abdication which he and his wife had long desired. +All the preparations were made with the utmost secrecy; on the +2nd of December 1848, in the archiepiscopal palace at Olmütz, +whither the court had fled from Vienna, the emperor abdicated. +His brother resigned his rights of succession to his son, and +Francis Joseph was proclaimed emperor. Ferdinand retired +to Prague, where he died in 1875.</p> + +<p>The history of the Dual Monarchy during his reign is told under +the heading of <span class="sc"><a href="#artlinks">Austria-Hungary</a></span>, and here it is only necessary +to deal with its personal aspects. The young emperor was during +the first years of his reign completely in the hands of Prince Felix +Schwarzenberg, to whom, with Windischgrätz and Radetzky, +he owed it that Austria had emerged from the revolution +apparently stronger than it had been before. The first task was +to reduce Hungary to obedience, for the Magyars refused to +acknowledge the validity of the abdication in so far as it concerned +Hungary, on the ground that such an act would only be +valid with the consent of the Hungarian parliament. A further +motive for their attitude was that Francis Joseph, unlike his +predecessor, had not taken the oath to observe the Hungarian +constitution, which it was the avowed object of Schwarzenberg +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page943" id="page943"></a>943</span> +to overthrow. In the war which followed the emperor himself +took part, but it was not brought to a successful conclusion till +the help of the Russians had been called in. Hungary, deprived +of her ancient constitution, became an integral part of the Austrian +empire. The new reign began, therefore, under sinister omens, +with the suppression of liberty in Italy, Hungary and Germany. +In 1853 a Hungarian named Lebenyi attempted to assassinate +the emperor, and succeeded in inflicting a serious wound with a +knife. With the death of Schwarzenberg in 1852 the personal +government of the emperor really began, and with it that long +series of experiments of which Austria has been the subject. +Generally it may be said that throughout his long reign Francis +Joseph remained the real ruler of his dominions; he not only +kept in his hands the appointment and dismissal of his ministers, +but himself directed their policy, and owing to the great knowledge +of affairs, the unremitting diligence and clearness of +apprehension, to which all who transacted business with him +have borne testimony, he was able to keep a very real control even +of the details of government.</p> + +<p>The recognition of the separate status of Hungary, and the +restoration of the Magyar constitution in 1866, necessarily made +some change in his position, and so far as concerns Hungary +he fully accepted the doctrine that ministers are responsible +to parliament. In the other half of the monarchy (the so-called +Cisleithan) this was not possible, and the authority and influence +of the emperor were even increased by the contrast with the +weaknesses and failures of the parliamentary system. The most +noticeable features in his reign were the repeated and sudden +changes of policy, which, while they arose from the extreme +difficulty of finding any system by which the Habsburg monarchy +could be governed, were due also to the personal idiosyncrasies +of the emperor. First we have the attempt at the autocratic +centralization of the whole monarchy under Bach; the personal +influence of the emperor is seen in the conclusion of the Concordat +with Rome, by which in 1855 the work of Joseph II. was undone +and the power of the papacy for a while restored. The foreign +policy of this period brought about the complete isolation of +Austria, and the “ingratitude” towards Russia, as shown +during the period of the Crimean War, which has become +proverbial, caused a permanent estrangement between the two +great Eastern empires and the imperial families. The system +led inevitably to bankruptcy and ruin; the war of 1859, by +bringing it to an end, saved the monarchy. After the first +defeat Francis Joseph hastened to Italy; he commanded in +person at Solferino, and by a meeting with Napoleon arranged +the terms of the peace of Villafranca. The next six years, both +in home and foreign policy, were marked by great vacillation. +In order to meet the universal discontent and the financial +difficulties constitutional government was introduced; a parliament +was established in which all races of the empire were +represented, and in place of centralized despotism was established +Liberal centralization under Schmerling and the German Liberals. +But the Magyars refused to send representatives to the central +parliament; the Slavs, resenting the Germanizing policy of the +government, withdrew; and the emperor had really withdrawn +his confidence from Schmerling long before the constitution +was suspended in 1865 as a first step to a reconciliation with +Hungary. In the complicated German affairs the emperor in +vain sought for a minister on whose knowledge and advice he +could depend. He was guided in turn by the inconsistent advice +of Schmerling, Rechberg, Mensdorff, not to mention more +obscure counsellors, and it is not surprising that Austria was +repeatedly outmatched and outwitted by Prussia. In 1863, +at the <i>Fürstentag</i> in Frankfort, the emperor made an attempt +by his personal influence to solve the German question. He +invited all the German sovereigns to meet him in conference, +and laid before them a plan for the reconstruction of the confederation. +The momentary effect was immense; for some +of the halo of the Holy Empire still clung round the head of +the house of Habsburg, and Francis Joseph was welcomed to +the ancient free city with enthusiasm. In spite of this, however, +and of the skill with which he presided over the debates, the +conference came to nothing owing to the refusal of the king of +Prussia to attend.</p> + +<p>The German question was settled definitively by the battle +of Königgrätz in 1866; and the emperor Francis Joseph, with +characteristic Habsburg opportunism, was quick to accommodate +himself to the new circumstances. Above all, he recognized +the necessity for reconciling the Magyars to the monarchy; for +it was their discontent that had mainly contributed to the +collapse of the Austrian power. He had already, in 1859, as the +result of a visit to Budapest, made certain modifications in the +Bach system by way of concession to Magyar sentiment, and in +1861 he had had an interview with Deák, during which, though +unconvinced by that statesman’s arguments, he had at least +assured himself of his loyalty. He now made Beust, Bismarck’s +Saxon antagonist, the head of his government, as the result +of whose negotiations with Deák the Austro-Hungarian Compromise +of 1867 was agreed upon. A law was passed by the +Hungarian diet regularizing the abdication of Ferdinand; at +the beginning of June Francis Joseph signed the inaugural +diploma and took the oath in Magyar to observe the constitution; +on the 8th he was solemnly crowned king of Hungary. The +traditional coronation gift of 100,000 florins he assigned to the +widows and orphans of those who had fallen in the war against +Austria in 1849.</p> + +<p>Once having accepted the principle of constitutional government, +the emperor-king adhered to it loyally, in spite of the +discouragement caused by party struggles embittered by racial +antagonisms. If in the Cisleithan half of the monarchy parliamentary +government broke down, this was through no fault +of the emperor, who worked hard to find a <i>modus vivendi</i> between +the factions, and did not shrink from introducing manhood +suffrage in the attempt to establish a stable parliamentary +system. This expedient, indeed, probably also conveyed a +veiled threat to the Magyar chauvinists, who, discontented with +the restrictions placed upon Hungarian independence under the +Compromise, were agitating for the complete separation of +Austria and Hungary under a personal union only; for universal +suffrage in Hungary would mean the subordination of the Magyar +minority to the hitherto subject races. For nearly forty years +after the acceptance of the Compromise the attitude of the +emperor-king towards the Magyar constitution had been scrupulously +correct. The agitation for the completely separate +organization of the Hungarian army, and for the substitution +of Magyar for German in words of command in Hungarian +regiments, broke down the patience of the emperor, tenacious +of his prerogative as supreme “war lord” of the common army. +A Hungarian deputation which came to Vienna in September +1905 to urge the Magyar claims was received ungraciously by +the emperor, who did not offer his hand to the members, addressed +them in German, and referred them brusquely to the chancellor, +Count Goluchowski. This incident caused a considerable sensation, +and was the prelude to a long crisis in Hungarian affairs, +during which the emperor-king, while quick to repair the unfortunate +impression produced by his momentary pique, held +inflexibly to his resolve in the matter of the common army.</p> + +<p>In his relations with the Slavs the emperor displayed the +same conciliatory disposition as in the case of the Magyars; +but though he more than once held out hopes that he would be +crowned at Prague as king of Bohemia, the project was always +abandoned. In this, indeed, as in other cases, it may be said +that the emperor was guided less by any abstract principles +than by a common-sense appreciation of the needs and possibilities +of the moment. Whatever his natural prejudices or +natural resentments, he never allowed these to influence his +policy. The German empire and the Italian kingdom had been +built up out of the ruins of immemorial Habsburg ambitions; +yet he refused to be drawn into an alliance with France in 1869 +and 1870, and became the mainstay of the Triple Alliance of +Austria-Hungary, Germany and Italy. His reputation as a +consistent moderating influence in European policy and one of +the chief guarantors of European peace was indeed rudely +shaken in October 1908, the year in which he celebrated his +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page944" id="page944"></a>944</span> +sixty years’ jubilee as emperor, by the issue of the imperial +recript annexing Bosnia and Herzegovina to the Habsburg dominions, in +violation of the terms of the treaty of Berlin. But his opportunism was +again justified by the result. Europe lost an ideal; but Austria gained +two provinces.</p> + +<p>In his private life the emperor was the victim of terrible +catastrophes—his wife, his brother and his only son having +been destroyed by sudden and violent deaths. He married in +1854 Elizabeth, daughter of Maximilian Joseph, duke of +Bavaria, who belonged to the younger and non-royal branch +of the house of Wittelsbach. The empress, who shared the +remarkable beauty common to all her family, took little part +in the public life of Austria. After the first years of +married life she was seldom seen in Vienna, and spent much +of her time in travelling. She built a castle of great +beauty and magnificence, called the Achilleion, in the +island of Corfu, where she often o resided. In 1867 she +accompanied the emperor to Budapest, and took much interest +in the reconciliation with the Magyars. She became a +good Hungarian scholar, and spent much time in Hungary. An admirable +horsewoman, in later years she repeatedly visited England and Irland +for the hunting season. In 1897 she was assassinated at Geneva by an +Italian anarchist; previous attempts had been made on her and on her husband +during a visit to Trieste.</p> + +<p>There was one son of the marriage, the crown prince +Rudolph (1857-1889). A man of much ability and promise, he +was a good linguist, and showed great interest in natural +history. He published two works, <i>Fifteen Days on the +Danube</i> and <i>A Journey in the East</i>, and also +promoted illustrated work giving a full description of the +whole Austro-Hungarian monarchy; he personally shared the +labours of the editorial work. In 1881 he merried Stéphanie, +daughter of the king of the Belgians. On 30th January 1889 +he commited suicide at Mayerling, a country house near Vienna. +He left one daughter, Elizabeth, who was betrothed to Count +Alfred Windischgrätz in 1901. In 1900 his widow, the crown +princess Stéphanie, married Count Lonyay; by this she +sacrificed her rank and position within the Austrian +monarchy. Besides the crown prince the empress gave birth +to three daughters, of whom two survive: Gisela (born +1857), who married a son of the prince regent of Bavaria; +and Marie Valerie (born 1868), who married the archduke +Franz Salvator of Tuscany.</p> + +<div class="condensed"> +<p>See J. Emmer. <i>Kaisser Franz Joseph</i> (2 vols., Vienna, +1898); J. Schnitzer, <i>Franz Joseph I. und seine Zeit</i> +(2 vols., <i>ib.</i>, 1899); <i>Viribis unitis. Das Buch +vom Kaiser</i>, with introduction by J.A. v. Halfert, ed. M. +Herzig (<i>ib.</i>, 1898); R. Rostok, <i>Die +Regierungszeit des K. u. K. Franz Joseph I.</i> (3rd ed. +<i>ib.</i>, 1903).</p> +</div> + +<hr class="art" /> + + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th +Edition, Volume 10, Slice 8, by Various + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ENCYC. BRITANNICA, VOL 10 SL 8 *** + +***** This file should be named 36226-h.htm or 36226-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/6/2/2/36226/ + +Produced by Marius Masi, Don Kretz and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 10, Slice 8 + "France" to "Francis Joseph I." + +Author: Various + +Release Date: May 25, 2011 [EBook #36226] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ENCYC. BRITANNICA, VOL 10 SL 8 *** + + + + +Produced by Marius Masi, Don Kretz and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + + +Transcriber's notes: + +(1) Numbers following letters (without space) like C2 were originally + printed in subscript. Letter subscripts are preceded by an + underscore, like C_n. + +(2) Characters following a carat (^) were printed in superscript. + +(3) Side-notes were relocated to function as titles of their respective + paragraphs. + +(4) Macrons and breves above letters and dots below letters were not + inserted. + +(5) The following typographical errors have been corrected: + + ARTICLE France: "The importance of their commercial relations was + brought into relief as though it were a new fact." 'commercial' + amended from 'commerical'. + + ARTICLE France: "The revenues of the Carolingian monarch (which are + no longer identical with the finances of the state) consisted + chiefly in the produce of the royal lands (villae), ..." + 'identical' amended from 'indentical'. + + ARTICLE France: "The most salient features of feudal succession + were the right of primogeniture and the preference given to + heirs-male ..." 'preference' amended from 'perference'. + + ARTICLE France: "The law of the 15th of March 1850 established the + liberty of secondary education, but it conferred certain privileges + on the Catholic clergy, a clear sign of the spirit of social + conservatism which was the leading motive for its enactment." 'The' + amended from 'Thd'. + + ARTICLE France: "... on which occasion he exercised his right of + dissolution against a chamber, the moderate but decidedly + republican majority in which he was re-elected by the country." + added 'he'. + + + + + ENCYCLOPAEDIA BRITANNICA + + A DICTIONARY OF ARTS, SCIENCES, LITERATURE + AND GENERAL INFORMATION + + ELEVENTH EDITION + + + VOLUME X, SLICE VIII + + France to Francis Joseph I. + + + + +ARTICLES IN THIS SLICE: + + + FRANCE (part) FRANCIS I. (king of France) + FRANCESCHI, JEAN BAPTISTE FRANCIS II. (king of France) + FRANCESCHI, PIERO DE' FRANCIS I. (king of Sicily) + FRANCESCHINI, BALDASSARE FRANCIS II. (king of Sicily) + FRANCHE-COMTE FRANCIS IV. + FRANCHISE FRANCIS V. + FRANCIA FRANCIS OF ASSISI, ST. + FRANCIA, JOSE GASPAR RODRIGUEZ FRANCIS OF MAYRONE + FRANCIABIGIO FRANCIS OF PAOLA, ST + FRANCIS FRANCIS OF SALES, ST + FRANCIS I. (Roman emperor) FRANCIS, SIR PHILIP + FRANCIS II. (Roman emperor) FRANCIS JOSEPH I. + + + + +FRANCE (Continued from Volume 10 slice 7). + + +EXTERIOR POLICY 1870-1909 + + The new epoch. + +The Franco-German War marks a turning-point in the history of the +exterior policy of France as distinct as does the fall of the ancient +monarchy or the end of the Napoleonic epoch. With the disappearance of +the Second Empire, by its own fault, on the field of Sedan in September +1870, followed in the early months of 1871 by the proclamation of the +German empire at Versailles and the annexation of Alsace and Lorraine +under the treaty of peace of Frankfort, France descended from its +primacy among the nations of continental Europe, which it had gradually +acquired in the half-century subsequent to Waterloo. It was the design +of Bismarck that united Germany, which had been finally established +under his direction by the war of 1870, should take the place hitherto +occupied by France in Europe. The situation of France in 1871 in no wise +resembled that after the French defeat of 1815, when the First Empire, +issue of the Revolution, had been upset by a coalition of the European +monarchies which brought back and supported on his restored throne the +legitimate heir to the French crown. In 1871 the Republic was founded in +isolation. France was without allies, and outside its frontiers the form +of its executive government was a matter of interest only to its German +conquerors. Bismarck desired that France should remain isolated in +Europe and divided at home. He thought that the Republican form of +government would best serve these ends. The revolutionary tradition of +France would, under a Republic, keep aloof the monarchies of Europe, +whereas, in the words of the German ambassador at Paris, Prince +Hohenlohe, a "monarchy would strengthen France and place her in a better +position to make alliances and would threaten our alliances." At the +same time Bismarck counted on governmental instability under a Republic +to bring about domestic disorganization which would so disintegrate the +French nation as to render it unformidable as a foe and ineffective as +an ally. The Franco-German War thus produced a situation unprecedented +in the mutual relations of two great European powers. From that +situation resulted all the exterior policy of France, for a whole +generation, colonial as well as foreign. + +In 1875 Germany saw France in possession of a constitution which gave +promise of durability if not of permanence. German opinion had already +been perturbed by the facility and speed with which France had paid off +the colossal war indemnity exacted by the conqueror, thus giving proof +of the inexhaustible resources of the country and of its powers of +recuperation. The successful reorganization of the French army under the +military law of 1872 caused further alarm when there appeared to be some +possibility of the withdrawal of Russia from the Dreikaiserbund, which +had set the seal on Germany's triumph and France's abasement in Europe. +It seemed, therefore, as though it might be expedient for Germany to +make a sudden aggression upon France before that country was adequately +prepared for war, in order to crush the nation irreparably and to remove +it from among the great powers of Europe. + +The constitution of the Third Republic was voted by the National +Assembly on the 25th of February 1875. The new constitution had to be +completed by electoral laws and other complementary provisions, so it +could not become effective until the following year, after the first +elections of the newly founded Senate and Chamber of Deputies. M. Buffet +was then charged by the president of the republic, Marshal MacMahon, to +form a provisional ministry in which the duc Decazes, who had been +foreign minister since 1873, was retained at the Quai d'Orsay. The +cabinet met for the first time on the 11th of March, and ten days later +the National Assembly adjourned for a long recess. + + + The crisis of 1875. + +It was during that interval that occurred the incident known as "The +Scare of 1875." The Kulturkampf had left Prince Bismarck in a state of +nervous irritation. In all directions he was on the look out for traces +of Ultramontane intrigue. The clericals in France after the fall of +Thiers had behaved with great indiscretion in their desire to see the +temporal power of the pope revived. But when the reactionaries had +placed MacMahon at the head of the state, their divisions and their +political ineptitude had shown that the government of France would soon +pass from their hands, and of this the voting of the Republican +constitution by a monarchical assembly was the visible proof. +Nevertheless Bismarck, influenced by the presence at Berlin of a French +ambassador, M. de Gontaut-Biron, whom he regarded as an Ultramontane +agent, seems to have thought otherwise. A military party at Berlin +affected alarm at a law passed by the French Assembly on the 12th of +March, which continued a provision increasing from three to four the +battalions of each infantry regiment, and certain journals, supposed to +be inspired by Bismarck, argued that as the French were preparing, it +might be well to anticipate their designs before they were ready. Europe +was scared by an article on the 6th of May in _The Times_, professing to +reveal the designs of Bismarck, from its Paris correspondent, Blowitz, +who was in relations with the French foreign minister, the duc Decazes, +and with Prince Hohenlohe, German ambassador to France, both being +prudent diplomatists, and, though Catholics, opposed to Ultramontane +pretensions. Europe was astounded at the revelation and alarmed at the +alleged imminence of war. In England the Disraeli ministry addressed the +governments of Russia, Austria and Italy, with a view to restraining +Germany from its aggressive designs, and Queen Victoria wrote to the +German emperor to plead the cause of peace. It is probable that there +was no need either for this intervention or for the panic which had +produced it. We know now that the old emperor William was steadfastly +opposed to a fresh war, while his son, the crown prince Frederick, who +then seemed likely soon to succeed him for a long reign, was also +determined that peace should be maintained. The scare had, however, a +most important result, in sowing the seeds of the subsequent +Franco-Russian alliance. Notwithstanding that the tsar Alexander II. was +on terms of affectionate intimacy with his uncle, the emperor William, +he gave a personal assurance to General Le Flo, French ambassador at St +Petersburg, that France should have the "moral support" of Russia in the +case of an aggression on the part of Germany. It is possible that the +danger of war was exaggerated by the French foreign minister and his +ambassador at Berlin, as is the opinion of certain French historians, +who think that M. de Gontaut-Biron, as an old royalist, was only too +glad to see the Republic under the protection, as it were, of the most +reactionary monarchy of Europe. At the same time Bismarck's denials of +having acted with terrorizing intent cannot be accepted. He was more +sincere when he criticized the ostentation with which the Russian +Chancellor, Prince Gortchakoff, had claimed for his master the character +of the defender of France and the obstacle to German ambitions. It was +in memory of this that, in 1878 at the congress of Berlin, Bismarck did +his best to impair the advantages which Russia had obtained under the +treaty of San Stefano. + + + Congress of Berlin. + +The events which led to that congress put into abeyance the prospect of +a serious understanding between France and Russia. The insurrection in +Herzegovina in July 1875 reopened the Eastern question, and in the +Orient the interests of France and Russia had been for many years +conflicting, as witness the controversy concerning the Holy Places, +which was one of the causes of the Crimean War. France had from the +reign of Louis XIV. claimed the exclusive right of protecting Roman +Catholic interests in the East. This claim was supported not only by the +monarchists, for the most part friendly to Russia in other respects, who +directed the foreign policy of the Third Republic until the +Russo-Turkish War of 1877, but by the Republicans, who were coming into +perpetual power at the time of the congress of Berlin--the ablest of the +anti-clericals, Gambetta, declaring in this connexion that +"anti-clericalism was not an article of exportation." The defeat of the +monarchists at the elections of 1877, after the "Seize Mai," and the +departure from office of the duc Decazes, whose policy had tended to +prepare the way for an alliance with the tsar, changed the attitude of +French diplomacy towards Russia. M. Waddington, the first Republican +minister for foreign affairs, was not a Russophil, while Gambetta was +ardently anti-Russian, and he, though not a minister, was exercising +that preponderant influence in French politics which he retained until +1882, the last year of his life. Many Republicans considered that the +monarchists, whom they had turned out, favoured the support of Russia +not only as a defence against Germany, which was not likely to be +effective so long as a friendly uncle and nephew were reigning at Berlin +and at St Petersburg respectively, but also as a possible means of +facilitating a monarchical restoration in France. Consequently at the +congress of Berlin M. Waddington and the other French delegates +maintained a very independent attitude towards Russia. They supported +the resolutions which aimed at diminishing the advantages obtained by +Russia in the war, they affirmed the rights of France over the Holy +Places, and they opposed the anti-Semitic views of the Russian +representatives. The result of the congress of Berlin seemed therefore +to draw France and Russia farther apart, especially as Gambetta and the +Republicans now in power were more disposed towards an understanding +with England. The contrary, however, happened. The treaty of Berlin, +which took the place of the treaty of San Stefano, was the ruin of +Russian hopes. It was attributed to the support given by Bismarck to the +anti-Russian policy of England and Austria at the congress, the German +chancellor having previously discouraged the project of an alliance +between Russia and Germany. The consequence was that the tsar withdrew +from the Dreikaiserbund, and Germany, finding the support of Austria +inadequate for its purposes, sought an understanding with Italy. Hence +arose the Triple Alliance of 1882, which was the work of Bismarck, who +thus became eventually the author of the Franco-Russian alliance, which +was rather a sedative for the nervous temperament of the French than a +remedy necessary for their protection. The twofold aim of the Triplice +was the development of the Bismarckian policy of the continued isolation +of France and of the maintenance of the situation in Europe acquired by +the German empire in 1871. The most obvious alliance for Germany was +that with Russia, but it was clear that it could be obtained only at the +price of Russia having a free hand to satisfy its ambitions in the East. +This not only would have irritated England against Germany, but also +Austria, and so might have brought about a Franco-Austrian alliance, and +a day of reckoning for Germany for the combined rancours of two nations, +left by 1866 and 1871. It was thus that Germany allied itself first with +Austria and then with Italy, leaving Russia eventually to unite with +France. + + + Egyptian question. + +As the congress of Berlin took in review the general situation of the +Turkish empire, it was natural that the French delegates should +formulate the position of France in Egypt. Thus the powers of Europe +accepted the maintenance of the _condominium_ in Egypt, financial and +administrative, of England and France. Egypt, nominally a province of +the Turkish empire, had been invested with a large degree of autonomy, +guaranteed by an agreement made in 1840 and 1841 between the Porte and +the then five great powers, though some opposition was made to France +being a party to this compact. By degrees Austria, Prussia and Russia +(as well as Italy when it attained the rank of a great power) had left +the international control of Egypt to France and England by reason of +the preponderance of the interests of those two powers on the Nile. + +In 1875 the interests of England in Egypt, which had hitherto been +considered inferior to those of France, gained a superiority owing to +the purchase by the British government of the shares of the khedive +Ismail in the Suez Canal. Whatever rivalry there may have been between +England and France, they had to present a united front to the +pretensions of Ismail, whose prodigalities made him impatient of the +control which they exercised over his finances. This led to his +deposition and exile. The control was re-established by his successor +Tewfik on the 4th of September 1879. The revival ensued of a so-called +national party, which Ismail for his own purposes had encouraged in its +movement hostile to foreign domination. In September 1881 took place the +rising led by Arabi, by whose action an assembly of notables was +convoked for the purpose of deposing the government authorized by the +European powers. The fear lest the sultan should intervene gave an +appearance of harmony to the policy of England and France, whose +interests were too great to permit of any such interference. At the end +of 1879 the first Freycinet cabinet had succeeded that of M. Waddington +and had in turn been succeeded in September 1880 by the first Ferry +cabinet. In the latter the foreign minister was M. Barthelemy +Saint-Hilaire, an aged philosopher who had first taken part in politics +when he helped to dethrone Charles X. in 1830. In September 1881 he +categorically invited the British government to join France in a +military intervention to oppose any interference which the Porte might +attempt, and the two powers each sent a war-ship to Alexandria. On the +14th of November Gambetta formed his _grand ministere_, in which he was +foreign minister. Though it lasted less than eleven weeks, important +measures were taken by it, as Arabi had become under-secretary for war +at Cairo, and was receiving secret encouragement from the sultan. On the +7th of January 1882, at the instance of Gambetta, a joint note was +presented by the British and French consuls to the khedive, to the +effect that their governments were resolved to maintain the _status +quo_, Gambetta having designed this as a consecration of the +Anglo-French alliance in the East. Thereupon the Porte protested, by a +circular addressed to the powers, against this infringement of its +suzerainty in Egypt. Meanwhile, the assembly of notables claimed the +right of voting the taxes and administering the finances of the country, +and Gambetta, considering this as an attempt to emancipate Egypt from +the financial control of Europe, moved the British government to join +with France in protesting against any interference on the part of the +notables in the budget. But when Lord Granville accepted this proposal +Gambetta had fallen, on the 26th of January, being succeeded by M. de +Freycinet, who for the second time became president of the council and +foreign minister. Gambetta fell nominally on a scheme of partial +revision of the constitution. It included the re-establishment of +_scrutin de liste_, a method of voting to which many Republicans were +hostile, so this gave his enemies in his own party their opportunity. He +thus fell the victim of republican jealousy, nearly half the Republicans +in the chamber voting against him in the fatal division. The subsequent +debates of 1882 show that many of Gambetta's adversaries were also +opposed to his policy of uniting with England on the Egyptian question. +Henceforth the interior affairs of Egypt have little to do with the +subject we are treating; but some of the incidents in France which led +to the English occupation of Egypt ought to be mentioned. M. de +Freycinet was opposed to any armed intervention by France; but in the +face of the feeling in the country in favour of maintaining the +traditional influence of France in Egypt, his declarations of policy +were vague. On the 23rd of February 1882 he said that he would assure +the non-exclusive preponderance in Egypt of France and England by means +of an understanding with Europe, and on the 11th of May that he wished +to retain for France its peculiar position of privileged influence. +England and France sent to Alexandria a combined squadron, which did not +prevent a massacre of Europeans there on the 11th of June, the khedive +being now in the hands of the military party under Arabi. On the 11th of +July the English fleet bombarded Alexandria, the French ships in +anticipation of that action having departed the previous day. On the +18th of July the Chamber debated the supplementary vote for the fleet in +the Mediterranean, M. de Freycinet declaring that France would take no +active part in Egypt except as the mandatory of the European powers. +This was the occasion for the last great speech of Gambetta in +parliament. In it he earnestly urged close co-operation with England, +which he predicted would otherwise become the mistress of Egypt, and in +his concluding sentences he uttered the famous "_Ne rompez jamais +l'alliance anglaise._" A further vote, proposed in consequence of +Arabi's open rebellion, was abandoned, as M. de Freycinet announced that +the European powers declined to give France and England a collective +mandate to intervene in their name. In the Senate on the 25th of July M. +Scherer, better known as a philosopher than as a politician, who had +Gambetta's confidence, read a report on the supplementary votes which +severely criticized the timidity and vacillation of the government in +Egyptian policy. Four days later in the Chamber M. de Freycinet proposed +an understanding with England limited to the protection of the Suez +Canal. Attacked by M. Clemenceau on the impossibility of separating the +question of the canal from the general Egyptian question, the ministry +was defeated by a huge majority, and M. de Freycinet fell, having +achieved the distinction of being the chief instrument in removing Egypt +from the sphere of French interest. + +Some of the Republicans whose votes turned out M. de Freycinet wanted +Jules Ferry to take his place, as he was considered to be a strong man +in foreign policy, and Gambetta, for this reason, was willing to see his +personal enemy at the head of public affairs. But this was prevented by +M. Clemenceau and the extreme Left, and the new ministry was formed by +M. Duclerc, an old senator whose previous official experience had been +under the Second Republic. On its taking office on the 7th of August, +the ministerial declaration announced that its policy would be in +conformity with the vote which, by refusing supplies for the occupation +of the Suez Canal, had overthrown M. de Freycinet. The declaration +characterized this vote as "a measure of reserve and of prudence but not +as an abdication." Nevertheless the action of the Chamber--which was due +to the hostility to Gambetta of rival leaders, who had little mutual +affection, including MM. de Freycinet, Jules Ferry, Clemenceau and the +president of the Republic, M. Grevy, rather than to a desire to abandon +Egypt--did result in the abdication of France. After England +single-handed had subdued the rebellion and restored the authority of +the khedive, the latter signed a decree on the 11th of January 1883 +abolishing the joint control of England and France. Henceforth Egypt +continued to be a frequent topic of debate in the Chambers; the +interests of France in respect of the Egyptian finances, the judicial +system and other institutions formed the subject of diplomatic +correspondence, as did the irritating question of the eventual +evacuation of Egypt by England. But though it caused constant friction +between the two countries up to the Anglo-French convention of the 8th +of April 1904, there was no longer a French active policy with regard to +Egypt. The lost predominance of France in that country did, however, +quicken French activity in other regions of northern Africa. + + + Algerian policy. + + Tunis. + +The idea that the Mediterranean might become a French lake has, in +different senses, been a preoccupation for France and for its rivals in +Europe ever since Algeria became a French province by a series of +fortuitous incidents--an insult offered by the dey to a French consul, +his refusal to make reparation, and the occasion it afforded of +diverting public attention in France from interior affairs after the +Revolution of 1830. The French policy of preponderance in Egypt had only +for a secondary aim the domination of the Mediterranean. The French +tradition in Egypt was a relic of Napoleon's vain scheme to become +emperor of the Orient even before he had made himself emperor of the +West. It was because Egypt was the highway to India that under Napoleon +III. the French had constructed the Suez Canal, and for the same reason +England could never permit them to become masters of the Nile delta. But +the possessors of Algeria could extend their coast-line of North Africa +without seriously menacing the power which held Gibraltar and Malta. It +was Italy which objected to a French occupation of Tunis. Algeria has +never been officially a French "colony." It is in many respects +administered as an integral portion of French territory, the +governor-general, as agent of the central power, exercising wide +jurisdiction. Although the Europeans in Algeria are less than a seventh +of the population, and although the French are actually a minority of +the European inhabitants--Spaniards prevailing in the west, Italians and +Maltese in the east--the three departments of Constantine, Algiers and +Oran are administered like three French departments. Consequently, when +disturbances occurred on the borderland separating Constantine from +Tunis, the French were able to say to Europe that the integrity of their +national frontier was threatened by the proximity of a turbulent +neighbour. The history of the relations between Tunis and France were +set forth, from the French standpoint, in a circular, of which Jules +Ferry was said to be the author, addressed by the foreign minister, M. +Barthelemy Saint-Hilaire on the 9th of May 1881, to the diplomatic +agents of France abroad. The most important point emphasized by the +French minister was the independence of Tunis from the Porte, a +situation which would obviate difficulties with Turkey such as had +always hampered the European powers in Egypt. In support of this +contention a protest made by the British government in 1830, against the +French conquest of Algiers, was quoted, as in it Lord Aberdeen had +declared that Europe had always treated the Barbary states as +independent powers. On the other hand, there was the incident of the bey +of Tunis having furnished to Turkey a contingent during the Crimean War, +which suggested a recognition of its vassalage to the Sublime Porte. But +in 1864, when the sultan had sent a fleet to La Goulette to affirm his +"rights" in Tunis, the French ambassador at Constantinople intimated +that France declined to have Turkey for a neighbour in Algeria. France +also in 1868 essayed to obtain control over the finances of the regency; +but England and Italy had also large interests in the country, so an +international financial commission was appointed. In 1871, when France +was disabled after the war, the bey obtained from Constantinople a +firman of investiture, thus recognizing the suzerainty of the Porte. +Certain English writers have reproached the Foreign Office for its lack +of foresight in not taking advantage of France's disablement by +establishing England as the preponderant power in Tunis. The fact that +five-sixths of the commerce of Tunis is now with France and Algeria may +seem to justify such regrets. Yet by the light of subsequent events it +seems probable that England would have been diverted from more +profitable undertakings had she been saddled with the virtual +administration and military occupation of a vast territory which such +preponderance would have entailed. The wonder is that this opportunity +was not seized by Italy; for Mazzini and other workers in the cause of +Italian unity, before the Bourbons had been driven from Naples, had cast +eyes on Tunis, lying over against the coasts of Sicily at a distance of +barely 100 m., as a favourable field for colonization and as the key of +the African Mediterranean. But when Rome became once more the capital of +Italy, Carthage was not fated to fall again under its domination and +the occasion offered by France's temporary impotence was neglected. In +1875 when France was rapidly recovering, there went to Tunis as consul +an able Frenchman, M. Roustan, who became virtual ruler of the regency +in spite of the resistance of the representative of Italy. French action +was facilitated by the attitude of England. On the 26th of July 1878 M. +Waddington wrote to the marquis d'Harcourt, French ambassador in London, +that at the congress of Berlin Lord Salisbury had said to him--the two +delegates being the foreign ministers of their respective +governments--in reply to his protest, on behalf of France, against the +proposed English occupation of Cyprus, "Do what you think proper in +Tunis: England will offer no opposition." This was confirmed by Lord +Salisbury in a despatch to Lord Lyons, British ambassador in Paris, on +the 8th of August, and it was followed in October by an intimation made +by the French ambassador at Rome that France intended to exercise a +preponderant influence in Tunis. Italy was not willing to accept this +situation. In January 1881 a tour made by King Humbert in Sicily, where +he received a Tunisian mission, was taken to signify that Italy had not +done with Tunis, and it was answered in April by a French expedition in +the regency sent from Algeria, on the pretext of punishing the Kroumirs +who had been marauding on the frontier of Constantine. It was on this +occasion that M. Barthelemy Saint-Hilaire issued the circular quoted +above. France nominally was never at war with Tunis; yet the result of +the invasion was that that country became virtually a French possession, +although officially it is only under the protection of France. The +treaty of El Bardo of the 12th of May 1881, confirmed by the decree of +the 22nd of April 1882, placed Tunis under the protectorate of France. +The country is administered under the direction of the French Foreign +Office, in which there is a department of Tunisian affairs. The governor +is called minister resident-general of France, and he also acts as +foreign minister, being assisted by seven French and two native +ministers. + + + Extension of African Territory. + + The protectorate system. + +The annexation of Tunis was important for many reasons. It was the first +successful achievement of France after the disasters of the +Franco-German War, and it was the first enterprise of serious utility to +France undertaken beyond its frontiers since the early period of the +Second Empire. It was also important as establishing the hegemony of +France on the southern shores of the Mediterranean. When M. Jules Cambon +became governor-general of Algeria, his brother M. Paul Cambon having +been previously French resident in Tunis and remaining the vigilant +ambassador to a Mediterranean power, a Parisian wit said that just as +Switzerland had its _Lac des quatre_ Cantons, so France had made of the +midland sea its _Lac des deux Cambons_. The _jeu d'esprit_ indicated +what was the primary significance to the French of their becoming +masters of the Barbary coast from the boundary of Morocco to that of +Tripoli. Apart from the Mediterranean question, when the scramble for +Africa began and the Hinterland doctrine was asserted by European +powers, the possession of this extended coast-line resulted in France +laying claim to the Sahara and the western Sudan. Consequently, on the +maps, the whole of northwest Africa, from Tunis to the Congo, is claimed +by France with the exception of the relatively small areas on the coast +belonging to Morocco, Spain, Portugal, Liberia, Germany and England. On +this basis, in point of area, France is the greatest African power, in +spite of British annexations in south and equatorial Africa, its area +being estimated at 3,866,950 sq. m. (including 227,950 in Madagascar) as +against 2,101,411 more effectively possessed by Great Britain. The +immensity of its domain on paper is no doubt a satisfaction to a people +which prefers to pursue its policy of colonial expansion without the aid +of emigration. The acquisition of Tunis by France is also important as +an example of the system of protectorate as applied to colonization. +Open annexation might have more gravely irritated the powers having +interests in the country. England, in spite of Lord Salisbury's +suggestions to the French foreign minister, was none too pleased with +France's policy; while Italy, with its subjects outnumbering all other +European settlers in the regency, was in a mood to accept a pretext for +a quarrel for the reasons already mentioned. Apart from these +considerations the French government favoured a protectorate because it +did not wish to make of Tunis a second Algeria. While the annexation of +the latter had excellent commercial results for France, it had not been +followed by successful colonization, though it had cost France 160 +millions sterling in the first sixty years after it became French +territory. The French cannot govern at home or abroad without a +centralized system of administration. The organization of Algeria, as +departments of France with their administrative divisions, was not an +example to imitate. In the beylical government France found, ready-made, +a sufficiently centralized system, such as did not exist in Algeria +under native rule, which could form a basis of administration by French +functionaries under the direction of the Quai d'Orsay. The result has +not been unpleasing to the numerous advocates in France of protectorates +as a means of colonization. According to M. Paul Leroy-Beaulieu, the +most eminent French authority on colonization, who knows Tunis well, a +protectorate is the most pacific, the most supple, and the least costly +method of colonization in countries where an organized form of native +government exists; it is the system in which the French can most nearly +approach that of English crown colonies. One evil which it avoids is the +so-called representative system, under which senators and deputies are +sent to the French parliament not only from Algeria as an integral part +of France, but from the colonies of Martinique, Guadeloupe and French +India, while Cochin-China, Guiana and Senegal send deputies alone. These +sixteen deputies and seven senators attach themselves to the various +Moderate, Radical and Socialist groups in parliament, which have no +connexion with the interests of the colonies; and the consequent +introduction of French political controversies into colonial elections +has not been of advantage to the oversea possessions of France. From +this the protectorate system has spared Tunis, and the paucity of French +immigration will continue to safeguard that country from parliamentary +representation. After twenty years of French rule, of 120,000 European +residents in Tunis, not counting the army, only 22,000 were French, +while nearly 70,000 were Italian. If under a so-called representative +system the Italians had demanded nationalization, for the purpose of +obtaining the franchise, complications might have arisen which are not +to be feared under a protectorate. + + + The Triple Alliance. + +But of all the results of the French annexation of Tunis, the most +important was undoubtedly the Triple Alliance, into which Italy entered +in resentment at having been deprived of the African territory which +seemed marked out as its natural field for colonial expansion. The most +manifest cause of Italian hostility towards France had passed away four +years before the annexation of Tunis, when the reactionaries, who had +favoured the restitution of the temporal power of the pope, fell for +ever from power. The clericalism of the anti-republicans, who favoured a +revival of the fatal policy of the Second Empire whereby France, after +Magenta and Solferino, had by leaving its garrison at St Angelo, been +the last obstacle to Italian unity, was one of the chief causes of their +downfall. For after the war with Germany, the mutilated land and the +vanquished nation had need to avoid wanton provocations of foreign +powers. Henceforth the French Republic, governed by Republicans, was to +be an anti-clerical force in Europe, sympathizing with the Italian +occupation of Rome. But to make Italy realize that France was no longer +the enemy of complete Italian unity it would have been necessary that +all causes of irritation between the two Latin sister nations were +removed. Such causes of dissension did, however, remain, arising from +economic questions. The maritime relations of the two chief +Mediterranean powers were based on a treaty of navigation of 1862--when +Venice was no party to it being an Austrian port--which Crispi denounced +as a relic of Italian servility towards Napoleon III. Commercial rivalry +was induced by the industrial development of northern Italy, when freed +from Austrian rule. Moreover, the emigrant propensity of the Italians +flooded certain regions of France with Italian cheap labour, with the +natural result of bitter animosity between the intruders and the +inhabitants of the districts thus invaded. The annexation of Tunis, +coming on the top of these causes of irritation, exasperated Italy. A +new treaty of commerce was nevertheless signed between the two countries +on the 3rd of November 1881. Unfortunately for its stability, King +Humbert the previous week had gone to Vienna to see the emperor of +Austria. In visiting in his capital the former arch-enemy of Italian +unity, who could never return the courtesy, Rome being interdicted for +Catholic sovereigns by the "prisoner of the Vatican," Humbert had only +followed the example of his father Victor Emmanuel, who went both to +Berlin and to Vienna in 1873. But that was when in France the duc de +Broglie was prime minister of a clerical government of which many of the +supporters were clamouring for the restitution of the temporal power. +King Humbert's visit to Vienna at the moment when Gambetta, the great +anti-clerical champion, was at the height of his influence was +significant for other reasons. Since the 7th of October 1879 Germany and +Austria had been united by a defensive treaty, and though its provisions +were not published until 1888, the two central empires were known to be +in the closest alliance. The king of Italy's visit to Vienna, where he +was accompanied by his ministers Depretis and Mancini, had therefore the +same significance as though he had gone to Berlin also. On the 20th of +May 1882 was signed the treaty of the Triple Alliance, which for many +years bound Italy to Germany in its relations with the continental +powers. The alliance was first publicly announced on the 13th of March +1883, in the Italian Chamber, by Signor Mancini, minister for foreign +affairs. The aim of Italy in joining the combination was alliance with +Germany, the enemy of France. The connexion with Austria was only +tolerated because it secured a union with the powerful government of +Berlin. It effected the complete isolation of France in Europe. An +understanding between the French Republic and Russia, which alone could +alter that situation, was impracticable, as its only basis seemed to be +the possibility of having a common enemy in Germany or even in England. +But that double eventuality was anticipated by a secret convention +concluded at Skiernewice in September 1884 by the tsar and the German +emperor, in which they guaranteed to one another a benevolent neutrality +in case of hostilities between England and Russia arising out of the +Afghan question. + +It will be convenient here to refer to the relations of France with +Germany and Italy respectively in the years succeeding the signature of +the Triple Alliance. With Germany both Gambetta, who died ten weeks +before the treaty was announced and who was a strong Russophobe, and his +adversary Jules Ferry were inclined to come to an understanding. But in +this they had not the support of French opinion. In September 1883 the +king of Spain had visited the sovereigns of Austria and Germany. +Alphonso XII., to prove that this journey was not a sign of hostility to +France, came to Paris on his way home on Michaelmas Day on an official +visit to President Grevy. Unfortunately it was announced that the German +emperor had made the king colonel of a regiment of Uhlans garrisoned at +Strassburg, the anniversary of the taking of which city was being +celebrated by the emperor by the inauguration of a monument made out of +cannon taken from the French, on the very eve of King Alphonso's +arrival. Violent protests were made in Paris in the monarchical and in +not a few republican journals, with the result that the king of Spain +was hooted by the crowd as he drove with the president from the station +to his embassy, and again on his way to dine the same night at the +Elysee. The incident was closed by M. Grevy's apologies and by the +retirement of the minister of war, General Thibaudin, who under pressure +from the extreme Left had declined to meet _le roi uhlan_. Though it +displayed the bitter hostility of the population towards Germany, the +incident did not aggravate Franco-German relations. This was due to the +policy of the prime minister, Jules Ferry, who to carry it out made +himself foreign minister in November, in the place of Challemel-Lacour, +who resigned. + + + Franco-German relations. + +Jules Ferry's idea was that colonial expansion was the surest means for +France to recover its prestige, and that this could be obtained only by +maintaining peaceful relations with all the powers of Europe. His +consequent unpopularity caused his fall in April 1885, and the next year +a violent change of military policy was marked by the arrival of General +Boulanger at the ministry of war, where he remained, in the Freycinet +and Goblet cabinets, from January 1886 to the 17th of May 1887. His +growing popularity in France was answered by Bismarck, who asked for an +increased vote for the German army, indicating that he considered +Boulanger the coming dictator for the war of revenge; so when the +Reichstag, on the 14th of January 1887, voted the supplies for three +years, instead of for the seven demanded by the chancellor, it was +dissolved. Bismarck redoubled his efforts in the press and in diplomacy, +vainly attempting to come to an understanding with Russia and with more +success moving the Vatican to order the German Catholics to support him. +He obtained his vote for seven years in March, and the same month +renewed the Triple Alliance. In April the Schnaebele incident seemed +nearly to cause war between France and Germany. The commissary-special, +an agent of the ministry of the interior, at Pagny-sur-Moselle, the last +French station on the frontier of the annexed territory of Lorraine, +having stepped across the boundary to regulate some official matter with +the corresponding functionary on the German side, was arrested. It was +said that Schnaebele was arrested actually on French soil, and on +whichever side of the line he was standing he had gone to meet the +German official at the request of the latter. Bismarck justified the +outrage in a speech in the Prussian Landtag which suggested that it was +impossible to live at peace with a nation so bellicose as the French. In +France the incident was regarded as a trap laid by the chancellor to +excite French opinion under the aggressive guidance of Boulanger, and to +produce events which would precipitate a war. The French remained calm, +in spite of the growing popularity of Boulanger. The Goblet ministry +resigned on the 17th of May 1887 after a hostile division on the budget, +and the opportunity was taken to get rid of the minister of war, who +posed as the coming restorer of Alsace and Lorraine to France. The +Boulangist movement soon became anti-Republican, and the opposition to +it of successive ministries improved the official relations of the +French and German governments. The circumstances attending the fall of +President Grevy the same year strengthened the Boulangist agitation, and +Jules Ferry, who seemed indicated as his successor, was discarded by the +Republican majority in the electoral congress, as a revolution was +threatened in Paris if the choice fell on "the German Ferry." Sadi +Carnot was consequently elected president of the Republic on the 3rd of +December 1887. Three months later, on the 9th of March 1888, died the +old emperor William who had personified the conquest of France by +Germany. His son, the pacific emperor Frederick, died too, on the 15th +of June, so the accession of William II., the pupil of Bismarck, at a +moment when Boulanger threatened to become plebiscitary dictator of +France, was ominous for the peace of Europe. But in April 1889 Boulanger +ignominiously fled the country, and in March 1890 Bismarck fell. France +none the less rejected all friendly overtures made by the young emperor. +In February 1891 his mother came to Paris and was unluckily induced to +visit the scenes of German triumph near the capital--the ruins of St +Cloud and the Chateau of Versailles where the German empire was +proclaimed. The incident called forth such an explosion of wrath from +the French press that it was clear that France had not forgotten 1871. +By this time, however, France was no longer isolated and at the mercy of +Germany, which by reason of the increase of its population while that of +France had remained almost stationary, was, under the system of +compulsory military service in the two countries, more than a match for +its neighbour in a single-handed conflict. Even the Triple Alliance +ceased to be a terror for France. An understanding arose between France +and Russia preliminary to the Franco-Russian alliance, which became the +pivot of French exterior relations until the defeat of Russia in the +Japanese war of 1904. So the second renewal of the Triplice was +forthwith answered by a visit of the French squadron to Kronstadt in +July 1891. + + + France and Italy. + +While such were the relations between France and the principal party to +the Triple Alliance, the same period was marked by bitter dissension +between France and Italy. Tunis had made Italy Gallophobe, but the +diplomatic relations between the two countries had been courteous until +the death of Depretis in 1887. When Crispi succeeded him as prime +minister, and till 1891 was the director of the exterior policy of +Italy, a change took place. Crispi, though not the author of the Triple +Alliance, entered with enthusiasm into its spirit of hostility to +France. The old Sicilian revolutionary hastened to pay his respects to +Bismarck at Friedrichsruh in October 1887, the visit being highly +approved in Italy. Before that the French Chamber had, in July 1886, by +a small majority, rejected a new treaty of navigation between France and +Italy, this being followed by the failure to renew the commercial treaty +of 1881. Irritating incidents were of constant occurrence. In 1888 a +conflict between the French consul at Massowah and the Italians who +occupied that Abyssinian port induced Bismarck to instruct the German +ambassador in Paris to tell M. Goblet, minister for foreign affairs in +the Floquet cabinet, in case he should refer to the matter, that if +Italy were involved thereby in complications it would not stand +alone--this menace being communicated to Crispi by the Italian +ambassador at Berlin and officially printed in a green-book. But after +Bismarck's fall relations improved a little, and in April 1890 the +Italian fleet was sent to Toulon to salute President Carnot in the name +of King Humbert, though this did not prevent the French government being +suspected of having designs on Tripoli. Italian opinion was again +incensed against France by the action of the French clericals, +represented by a band of Catholic "pilgrims" who went to Rome to offer +their sympathy to the pope in the autumn of 1891, and outraged the +burial-place of Victor Emmanuel by writing in the visitors' register +kept at the Pantheon the words "_Vive le pape._" In August 1893 a fight +took place at Aigues Mortes, the medieval walled city on the salt +marshes of the Gulf of Lyons, between French and Italian workmen, in +which seven Italians were killed. But Crispi had gone out of office +early in 1891, and the ministers who succeeded him were more disposed to +prevent a rupture between Italy and France. Crispi became prime minister +again in December 1893, but this time without the portfolio of foreign +affairs. He placed at the Consulta Baron Blanc, who though a strong +partisan of the Triple Alliance was closely attached to France, being a +native of Savoy, where he spent his yearly vacations on French soil. +That the relations between the two nations were better was shown by what +occurred after the murder of President Carnot in June 1894. The fact +that the assassin was an Italian might have caused trouble a little +earlier; but the grief of the Italians was so sincere, as shown by +popular demonstrations at Rome, that no anti-Italian violence took place +in France, and in the words of the French ambassador, M. Billot, +Caserio's crime seemed likely to further an understanding between the +two peoples. The movement was very slight and made no progress during +the short presidency of M. Casimir-Perier. On the 1st of November 1894 +Alexander III. died, when the Italian press gave proof of the importance +attributed by the Triplice to the Franco-Russian understanding by +expressing a hope that the new tsar would put an end to it. But on the +10th of June 1895, the foreign minister, M. Hanotaux, intimated to the +French Chamber that the understanding had become an alliance, and on the +17th the Russian ambassador in Paris conveyed to M. Felix Faure, who was +now president of the Republic, the collar of St Andrew, while the same +day the French and Russian men-of-war, invited to the opening of the +Kiel Canal, entered German waters together. The union of France with +Russia was no doubt one cause of the cessation of Italian hostility to +France; but others were at work. The inauguration of the statue of +MacMahon at Magenta the same week as the announcement of the +Franco-Russian alliance showed that there was a disposition to revive +the old sentiment of fraternity which had once united France with Italy. +More important was the necessity felt by the Italians of improved +commercial relations with the French. Crispi fell on the 4th of March +1896, after the news of the disaster to the Italian troops at Adowa, the +war with Abyssinia being a disastrous legacy left by him. The previous +year he had caused the withdrawal from Paris of the Italian ambassador +Signor Ressmann, a friend of France, transferring thither Count +Tornielli, who during his mission in London had made a speech, after the +visit of the Italian fleet to Toulon, which qualified him to rank as a +_misogallo_. But with the final disappearance of Crispi the relations of +the two Latin neighbours became more natural. Commerce between them had +diminished, and the business men of both countries, excepting certain +protectionists, felt that the commercial rupture was mutually +prejudicial. Friendly negotiations were initiated on both sides, and +almost the last act of President Felix Faure before his sudden death--M. +Delcasse being then foreign minister--was to promulgate, on the 2nd of +February 1899, a new commercial arrangement between France and Italy +which the French parliament had adopted. By that time M. Barrere was +ambassador at the Quirinal and was engaged in promoting cordial +relations between Italy and France, of which Count Tornielli in Paris +had already become an ardent advocate. Italy remained a party to the +Triple Alliance, which was renewed for a third period in 1902. But so +changed had its significance become that in October 1903 the French +Republic received for the first time an official visit from the +sovereigns of Italy. This reconciliation of France and Italy was +destined to have most important results outside the sphere of the Triple +Alliance. The return visit which President Loubet paid to Victor +Emmanuel III. in April 1904, it being the first time that a French chief +of the state had gone to Rome since the pope had lost the temporal +sovereignty, provoked a protest from the Vatican which caused the +rupture of diplomatic relations between France and the Holy See, +followed by the repudiation of the Concordat by an act passed in France, +in 1905, separating the church from the state. + + + Russian alliance. + +While the decadence of the Triple Alliance had this important effect on +the domestic affairs of France, its inception had produced the +Franco-Russian alliance, which took France out of its isolation in +Europe, and became the pivot of its exterior policy. It has been noted +that in the years succeeding the Franco-Prussian War the tsar Alexander +II. had shown a disposition to support France against German aggression, +as though to make up for his neutrality during the war, which was so +benevolent for Germany that his uncle William I. had ascribed to it a +large share of the German victory. The assassination of Alexander II. by +revolutionaries in 1881 made it difficult for the new autocrat to +cultivate closer relations with a Republican government, although the +Third Republic, under the influence of Gambetta, to whom its +consolidation was chiefly due, had repudiated that proselytizing spirit, +inherited from the great Revolution, which had disquieted the monarchies +of Europe in 1848 and had provoked their hostility to the Second +Republic. But the Triple Alliance which was concluded the year after the +murder of the tsar indicated the possible expediency of an understanding +between the two great powers of the West and the East, in response to +the combination of the three central powers of Europe,--though Bismarck +after his fall revealed that in 1884 a secret treaty was concluded +between Germany and Russia, which was, however, said to have in view a +war between England and Russia. Internal dissension on the subject of +colonial policy in the far East, followed by the fall of Jules Ferry and +the Boulangist agitation were some of the causes which prevented France +from strengthening its position in Europe by seeking a formal +understanding with Russia in the first part of the reign of Alexander +III. But when the Boulangist movement came to an end, entirely from the +incompetency of its leader, it behoved the government of the Republic to +find a means of satisfying the strong patriotic sentiment revealed in +the nation, which, directed by a capable and daring soldier, would have +swept away the parliamentary republic and established a military +dictatorship in its place. The Franco-Russian understanding provided +that means, and Russia was ready for it, having become, by the +termination in 1890 of the secret treaty with Germany, not less isolated +in Europe than France. In July 1891, when the French fleet visited +Kronstadt the incident caused such enthusiasm throughout the French +nation that the exiled General Boulanger's existence would have been +forgotten, except among his dwindling personal followers, had he not put +an end to it by suicide two months later at Brussels. The Franco-Russian +understanding united all parties, not in love for one another but in the +idea that France was thereby about to resume its place in Europe. The +Catholic Royalists ceased to talk of the restitution of the temporal +power of the pope in their joy at the deference of the government of the +republic for the most autocratic monarchy of Christendom; the +Boulangists, now called Nationalists, hoped that it would lead to the +war of revenge with Germany, and that it might also be the means of +humiliating England, as shown by their resentment at the visit of the +French squadron to Portsmouth on its way home from Kronstadt. It is, +however, extremely improbable that the understanding and subsequent +alliance would have been effected had the Boulangist movement succeeded. +For the last thing that the Russian government desired was war with +Germany. What it needed and obtained was security against German +aggression on its frontier and financial aid from France; so a French +plebiscitary government, having for its aim the restitution of Alsace +and Lorraine, would have found no support in Russia. As the German +chancellor, Count von Caprivi, said in the Reichstag on the 27th of +November 1891, a few weeks after a Russian loan had been subscribed in +France nearly eight times over, the naval visit to Kronstadt had not +brought war nearer by one single inch. Nevertheless when in 1893 the +Russian fleet paid a somewhat tardy return visit to Toulon, where it was +reviewed by President Carnot, a party of Russian officers who came to +Paris was received by the population of the capital, which less than +five years before had acclaimed General Boulanger, with raptures which +could not have been exceeded had they brought back to France the +territory lost in 1871. In November 1894, Alexander III. died, and in +January 1895, M. Casimir-Perier resigned the presidency of the Republic, +to which he had succeeded only six months before on the assassination of +M. Carnot. So it was left to Nicholas II. and President Felix Faure to +proclaim the existence of a formal alliance between France and Russia. +It appears that in 1891 and 1892, at the time of the first public +manifestations of friendship between France and Russia, in the words of +M. Ribot, secret conventions were signed by him, being foreign minister, +and M. de Freycinet, president of the council, which secured for France +"the support of Russia for the maintenance of the equilibrium in +Europe"; and on a later occasion the same statesman said that it was +after the visit of the empress Frederick to Paris in 1891 that Alexander +III. made to France certain offers which were accepted. The word +"alliance" was not publicly used by any minister to connote the +relations of France with Russia until the 10th of June 1895, when M. +Hanotaux used the term with cautious vagueness amid the applause of the +Chamber of Deputies. Yet not even when Nicholas II. came to France in +October 1896 was the word "alliance" formally pronounced in any of the +official speeches. But the reception given to the tsar and tsaritsa in +Paris, where no European sovereign had come officially since William of +Germany passed down the Champs Elysees as a conqueror, was of such a +character that none could doubt that this was the consecration of the +alliance. It was at last formally proclaimed by Nicholas II., on board a +French man-of-war, on the occasion of the visit of the president of the +Republic to Russia in August 1897. From that date until the formation of +M. Briand's cabinet in 1909, nine different ministries succeeded one +another and five ministers of foreign affairs; but they all loyally +supported the Franco-Russian alliance, although its popularity +diminished in France long before the war between Russia and Japan, which +deprived it of its efficacy in Europe. In 1901 Nicholas II. came again +to France and was the guest of President Loubet at Compiegne. His visit +excited little enthusiasm in the nation, which was disposed to attribute +it to Russia's financial need of France; while the Socialists, now a +strong party which provided the Waldeck-Rousseau ministry with an +important part of its majority in the Chamber, violently attacked the +alliance of the Republic with a reactionary autocracy. However anomalous +that may have been it did not prevent the whole French nation from +welcoming the friendship between the governments of Russia and of France +in its early stages. Nor can there be any doubt that the popular +instinct was right in according it that welcome. France in its +international relations was strengthened morally by the understanding +and by the alliance, which also served as a check to Germany. But its +association with Russia had not the results hoped for by the French +reactionaries. It encouraged them in their opposition to the +parliamentary Republic during the Dreyfus agitation, the more so because +the Russian autocracy is anti-Semitic. It also made a Nationalist of one +president of the Republic, Felix Faure, whose head was so turned by his +imperial frequentations that he adopted some of the less admirable +practices of princes, and also seemed ready to assume the bearing of an +autocrat. His sudden death was as great a relief to the parliamentary +Republicans as it was a disappointment to the plebiscitary party, which +anti-Dreyfusism, with its patriotic pretensions, had again made a +formidable force in the land. But the election of the pacific and +constitutional M. Loubet as president of the Republic at this critical +moment in its history counteracted any reactionary influence which the +Russian alliance might have had in France; so the general effect of the +alliance was to strengthen the Republic and to add to its prestige. The +visit of the tsar to Paris, the first paid by a friendly sovereign since +the Second Empire, impressed a population, proud of its capital, by an +outward sign which seemed to show that the Republic was not an obstacle +to the recognition by the monarchies of Europe of the place still held +by France among the great powers. Before M. Loubet laid down office the +nation, grown more republican, saw the visit of the tsar followed by +those of the kings of England and of Italy, who might never have been +moved to present their respects to the French Republic had not Russia +shown them the way. + + + Relations with England. + +While the French rejoiced at the Russian alliance chiefly as a check to +the aggressive designs of Germany, they also liked the association of +France with a power regarded as hostile to England. This traditional +feeling was not discouraged by one of the chief artificers of the +alliance, Baron Mohrenheim, Russian ambassador in Paris, who until 1884 +had filled the same position in London, where he had not learned to love +England, and who enjoyed in France a popularity rarely accorded to the +diplomatic agent of a foreign power. An _entente cordiale_ has since +been initiated between England and France. But it is necessary to refer +to the less agreeable relations which existed between the two countries, +as they had some influence on the exterior policy of the Third Republic. +England and France had no causes of friction within Europe. But in its +policy of colonial expansion, during the last twenty years of the 19th +century, France constantly encountered England all over the globe. The +first important enterprise beyond the seas seriously undertaken by +France after the Franco-German War, was, as we have seen, in Tunis. But +even before that question had been mentioned at the congress of Berlin, +in 1878, France had become involved in an adventure in the Far East, +which in its developments attracted more public attention at home than +the extension of French territory in northern Africa. Had these pages +been written before the end of the 19th century it would have seemed +necessary to trace the operations of France in Indo-China with not less +detail than has been given to the establishment of the protectorate in +Tunis. But French hopes of founding a great empire in the Far East came +to an end with the partial resuscitation of China and the rise to power +of Japan. As we have seen, Jules Ferry's idea was that in colonial +expansion France would find the best means of recovering prestige after +the defeat of 1870-71 in the years of recuperation when it was +essential to be diverted from European complications. Jules Ferry was +not a friend of Gambetta, in spite of later republican legends. But the +policy of colonial expansion in Tunis and in Indo-China, associated with +Ferry's name, was projected by Gambetta to give satisfaction to France +for the necessity, imposed, in his opinion, on the French government, of +taking its lead in foreign affairs from Berlin. How Jules Ferry +developed that system we know now from Bismarck's subsequent expressions +of regret at Ferry's fall. He believed that, had Ferry remained in +power, an amicable arrangement would have been made between France and +Germany, a formal agreement having been almost concluded to the effect +that France should maintain peaceable and friendly relations with +Germany, while Bismarck supported France in Tunis, in Indo-China and +generally in its schemes of oversea colonization. Even though the +friendly attitude of Germany towards those schemes was not official the +contrast was manifest between the benevolent tone of the German press +and that of the English, which was generally hostile. Jules Ferry took +his stand on the position that his policy was one not of colonial +conquest, but of colonial conservation, that without Tunis, Algeria was +insecure, that without Tongking and Annam, there was danger of losing +Cochin-China, where the French had been in possession since 1861. It was +on the Tongking question that Ferry fell. On the 30th of March 1885, on +the news of the defeat of the French troops at Lang-Son, the Chamber +refused to vote the money for carrying on the campaign by a majority of +306 to 149. Since that day public opinion in France has made amends to +the memory of Jules Ferry. His patriotic foresight has been extolled. +Criticism has not been spared for the opponents of his policy in +parliament of whom the most conspicuous, M. Clemenceau and M. Ribot, +have survived to take a leading part in public affairs in the 20th +century. The attitude of the Parisian press, which compared Lang-Son +with Sedan and Jules Ferry with Emile Ollivier, has been generally +deplored, as has that of the public which was ready to offer violence to +the fallen minister, and which was still so hostile to him in 1887 that +the congress at Versailles was persuaded that there would be a +revolution in Paris if it elected "the German Ferry" president of the +Republic. Nevertheless his adversaries in parliament, in the press and +in the street have been justified--not owing to their superior sagacity, +but owing to a series of unexpected events which the most foreseeing +statesmen of the world never anticipated. The Indo-China dream of Jules +Ferry might have led to a magnificent empire in the East to compensate +for that which Dupleix lost and Napoleon failed to reconquer. + +The Russian alliance, which came at the time when Ferry's policy was +justified in the eyes of the public, too late for him to enjoy any +credit, gave a new impetus to the French idea of establishing an empire +in the Far East. In the opinion of all the prophets of Europe the great +international struggle in the near future was to be that of England with +Russia for the possession of India. If Russia won, France might have a +share in the dismembered Indian empire, of which part of the frontier +now marched with that of French Indo-China, since Burma had become +British and Tongking French. Such aspirations were not formulated in +white-books or in parliamentary speeches. Indeed, the apprehension of +difficulty with England limited French ambition on the Siamese frontier. +That did not prevent dangerous friction arising between England and +France on the question of the Mekong, the river which flows from China +almost due south into the China Sea traversing the whole length of +French Indo-China, and forming part of the eastern boundary of Upper +Burma and Siam. The aim of France was to secure the whole of the left +bank of the Mekong, the highway of commerce from southern China. The +opposition of Siam to this delimitation was believed by the French to be +inspired by England, the supremacy of France on the Mekong river being +prejudicial to British commerce with China. The inevitable rivalry +between the two powers reached an acute crisis in 1893, the British +ambassador in Paris being Lord Dufferin, who well understood the +question, upper Burma having been annexed to India under his +viceroyalty in 1885. The matter was not settled until 1894, when not +only was the French claim to the left bank of the Mekong allowed, but +the neutrality of a 25-kilometre zone on the Siamese bank was conceded +as open to French trade. It is said that at one moment in July 1893 +England and France were more nearly at war than at any other +international crisis under the Third Republic, not excluding that of +Fashoda, though the acute tension between the governments was unknown to +the public. + +The Panama affair had left French public opinion in a nervous condition. +Fantastic charges were brought not only in the press, but in the chamber +of deputies, against newspapers and politicians of having accepted +bribes from the British government. At the general election in August +and September 1893 M. Clemenceau was pursued into his distant +constituency in the Var by a crowd of Parisian politicians, who brought +about his defeat less by alleging his connexion with the Panama scandal +than by propagating the legend that he was the paid agent of England. +The official republic, which changed its prime minister three times and +its foreign minister twice in 1893, M. Develle filling that post in the +Ribot and Dupuy ministries and M. Casimir-Perier in his own, repudiated +with energy the calumnies as to the attempted interference of England in +French domestic affairs. But the successive governments were not in a +mood to make concessions in foreign questions, as all France was under +the glamour of the preliminary manifestations of the Russian alliance. +This was seen, a few weeks after the elections, in the wild enthusiasm +with which Paris received Admiral Avelane and his officers, who had +brought the Russian fleet to Toulon to return the visit of the French +fleet to Kronstadt in 1891. The death of Marshal MacMahon, who had won +his first renown in the Crimea, and his funeral at the Invalides while +the Russians were in Paris, were used to emphasize the fact that the +allies before Sebastopol were no longer friends. The projector of the +French empire in the Far East did not live to see this phase of the +seeming justification of the policy which had cost him place and +popularity. Jules Ferry had died on the 17th of March 1893, only three +weeks after his triumphant rehabilitation in the political world by his +election to the presidency of the Senate, the second post in the state. +The year he died it seemed as though with the active aid of Russia and +the sympathy of Germany the possessions of France in south-eastern Asia +might have indefinitely expanded into southern China. A few years later +the defeat of Russia by Japan and the rise of the sea-power of the +Japanese practically ended the French empire in Indo-China. What the +French already had at the end of the last century is virtually +guaranteed to them only by the Anglo-Japanese alliance. It is in the +irony of things that these possessions which were a sign of French +rivalry with England should now be secured to France by England's +friendliness. For it is now recognized by the French that the defence of +Indo-China is impossible. + + + African policy. + + French and English rivalry. + + Upper Nile exploration. + + Marchand mission. + + Fashoda. + + Convention of 1898. + +Had the French dream been realized of a large expansion of territory +into southern China, the success of the new empire would have been based +on free Chinese labour. This might have counterbalanced an initial +obstacle to all French colonial schemes, more important than those which +arise from international difficulties--the reluctance of the French to +establish themselves as serious colonists in their oversea possessions. +We have noted how Algeria, which is nearer to Toulon and Marseilles than +are Paris and Havre, has been comparatively neglected by the French, +after eighty years of occupation, in spite of the amenity of its climate +and its soil for European settlers. The new French colonial school +advocates the withdrawal of France from adventures in distant tropical +countries which can be reached only by long sea voyages, and the +concentration of French activity in the northern half of the African +continent. Madagascar is, as we have seen, counted as Africa in +computing the area of French colonial territory. But it lies entirely +outside the scheme of African colonization, and in spite of the loss of +life and money incurred in its conquest, its retention is not popular +with the new school, although the first claim of France to it was as +long ago as the reign of Louis XIII., when in 1642 a company was founded +under the protection of Richelieu for the colonization of the island. +The French of the 19th and 20th centuries may well be considered less +enterprising in both hemispheres than were their ancestors of the 17th, +and Madagascar, after having been the cause of much ill-feeling between +England and France under the Third Republic down to the time of its +formal annexation, by the law of the 9th of August 1896, is not now the +object of much interest among French politicians. On the African +continent it is different. When the Republic succeeded to the Second +Empire the French African possessions outside Algiers were +inconsiderable in area. The chief was Senegal, which though founded as a +French station under Louis XIII., was virtually the creation of +Faidherbe under the Second Empire, even in a greater degree than were +Tunis and Tongking of Jules Ferry under the Third Republic. There was +also Gabun, which is now included in French Congo. Those outposts in the +tropics became the starting-points for the expansion of a French sphere +of influence in north Africa, which by the beginning of the 20th century +made France the nominal possessor of a vast territory stretching from +the equatorial region on the gulf of Guinea to the Mediterranean. A +large portion of it is of no importance, including the once mysterious +Timbuktu and the wilds of the waterless Sahara desert. But the steps +whereby these wide tracts of wilderness and of valuable territory came +to be marked on the maps in French colours, by international agreement, +are important, as they were associated with the last serious official +dispute between England and France before the period of _entente_. M. +Hanotaux, who was foreign minister for the then unprecedented term of +four years, from 1894 to 1898, with one short interval of a few months, +has thrown an instructive light on the feeling with which French +politicians up to the end of the 19th century regarded England. He +declared in 1909, with the high authority of one who was during years of +Anglo-French tension the mouthpiece of the Republic in its relations +with other powers, that every move in the direction of colonial +expansion made by France disquieted and irritated England. He complained +that when France, under the stimulating guidance of Jules Ferry, +undertook the reconstitution of an oversea domain, England barred the +way--in Egypt, in Tunis, in Madagascar, in Indo-China, in the Congo, in +Oceania. Writing with the knowledge of an ex-foreign minister, who had +enjoyed many years of retirement to enable him to weigh his words, M. +Hanotaux asserted without any qualification that when he took office +England "had conceived a triple design, to assume the position of heir +to the Portuguese possessions in Africa, to destroy the independence of +the South African republics, and to remain in perpetuity in Egypt." We +have not to discuss the truth of those propositions, we have only to +note the tendency of French policy; and in so doing it is useful to +remark that the official belief of the Third Republic in the last period +of the 19th century was that England was the enemy of French colonial +expansion all over the globe, and that in the so-called scramble for +Africa English ambition was the chief obstacle to the schemes of France. +M. Hanotaux, with the authority of official knowledge, indicated that +the English project of a railway from the Cape of Good Hope to Cairo was +the provocation which stimulated the French to essay a similar +adventure; though he denied that the Marchand mission and other similar +expeditions about to be mentioned were conceived with the specific +object of preventing the accomplishment of the British plan. The +explorations of Stanley had demonstrated that access to the Great Lakes +and the Upper Nile could be effected as easily from the west coast of +Africa as from other directions. The French, from their ancient +possession of Gabun, had extended their operations far to the east, and +had by treaties with European powers obtained the right bank of the +Ubanghi, a great affluent of the Congo, as a frontier between their +territory and that of the Congo Independent State. They thus found +themselves, with respect to Europe, in possession of a region which +approached the valley of the Upper Nile. Between the fall of Jules Ferry +in 1885 and the beginning of the Russian alliance came a period of +decreased activity in French colonial expansion. The unpopularity of the +Tongking expedition was one of the causes of the popularity of General +Boulanger, who diverted the French public from distant enterprises to a +contemplation of the German frontier, and when Boulangism came to an end +the Panama affair took its place in the interest it excited. But the +colonial party in France did not lose sight of the possibility of +establishing a position on the Upper Nile. The partition of Africa +seemed to offer an occasion for France to take compensation for the +English occupation of Egypt. In 1892 the Budget Commission, on the +proposal of M. Etienne, deputy for Oran, who had three times been +colonial under secretary, voted 300,000 francs for the despatch of a +mission to explore and report on those regions, which had not had much +attention since the days of Emin. But the project was not then carried +out. Later, parliament voted a sum six times larger for strengthening +the French positions on the Upper Ubanghi and their means of +communication with the coast. But Colonel Monteil's expedition, which +was the consequence of this vote, was diverted, and the 1,800,000 francs +were spent at Loango, the southern port of French Congo, and on the +Ivory Coast, the French territory which lies between Liberia and the +British Gold Coast Colony, where a prolonged war ensued with Samory, a +Nigerian chieftain. In September 1894, M. Delcasse being colonial +minister, M. Liotard was appointed commissioner of the Upper Ubanghi +with instructions to extend French influence in the Bahr-el-Ghazal up to +the Nile. In addition to official missions, numerous expeditions of +French explorers took place in Central Africa during this period, and +negotiations were continually going on between the British and French +governments. Towards the end of 1895 Lord Salisbury, who had succeeded +Lord Kimberley at the foreign office, informed Baron de Courcel, the +French ambassador, that an expedition to the Upper Nile was projected +for the purpose of putting an end to Mahdism. M. Hanotaux was not at +this moment minister of foreign affairs. He had been succeeded by M. +Berthelot, the eminent chemist, who resigned that office on the 26th of +March 1896, a month before the fall of the Bourgeois cabinet of which he +was a member, in consequence of a question raised in the chamber on this +subject of the English expedition to the Soudan. According to M. +Hanotaux, who returned to the Quai d'Orsay, in the Meline ministry, on +the 29th of April 1896, Lord Salisbury at the end of the previous year, +in announcing the expedition confidentially to M. de Courcel, had +assured him that it would not go beyond Dongola without a preliminary +understanding with France. There must have been a misunderstanding on +this point, as after reaching Dongola in September 1896 the +Anglo-Egyptian army proceeded up the Nile in the direction of Khartoum. +Before M. Hanotaux resumed office the Marchand mission had been formally +planned. On the 24th of February 1896 M. Guieysse, colonial minister in +the Bourgeois ministry, had signed Captain Marchand's instructions to +the effect that he must march through the Upper Ubanghi, in order to +extend French influence as far as the Nile, and try to reach that river +before Colonel Colvile, who was leading an expedition from the East. He +was also advised to conciliate the Mahdi if the aim of the mission could +be benefited thereby. M. Liotard was raised to the rank of governor of +the Upper Ubanghi, and in a despatch to him the new colonial minister, +M. Andre Lebon, wrote that the Marchand mission was not to be considered +a military enterprise, it being sent out with the intention of +maintaining the political line which for two years M. Liotard had +persistently been following, and of which the establishment of France in +the basin of the Nile ought to be the crowning reward. Two days later, +on the 25th of June 1896, Captain Marchand embarked for Africa. This is +not the place for a description of his adventures in crossing the +continent or when he encountered General Kitchener at Fashoda, two +months after his arrival there in July 1898 and a fortnight after the +battle of Omdurman and the capture of Khartoum. The news was made known +to Europe by the sirdar's telegrams to the British government in +September announcing the presence of the French mission at Fashoda. Then +ensued a period of acute tension between the French and English +governments, which gave the impression to the public that war between +the two countries was inevitable. But those who were watching the +situation in France on the spot knew that there was no question of +fighting. France was unprepared, and was also involved in the toils of +the Dreyfus affair. Had the situation been that of a year later, when +the French domestic controversy was ending and the Transvaal War +beginning, England might have been in a very difficult position. General +Kitchener declined to recognize a French occupation of any part of the +Nile valley. A long discussion ensued between the British and French +governments, which was ended by the latter deciding on the 6th of +November 1898 not to maintain the Marchand mission at Fashoda. Captain +Marchand refused to return to Europe by way of the Nile and Lower Egypt, +marching across Abyssinia to Jibuti in French Somaliland, where he +embarked for France. He was received with well-merited enthusiasm in +Paris. But the most remarkable feature of his reception was that the +ministry became so alarmed lest the popularity of the hero of Fashoda +should be at the expense of that of the parliamentary republic, that it +put an end to the public acclamations by despatching him secretly from +the capital--a somewhat similar treatment having been accorded to +General Dodds in 1893 on his return to France after conquering Dahomey. +The Marchand mission had little effect on African questions at issue +between France and Great Britain, as a great settlement had been +effected while it was on its way across the continent. On the 14th of +June 1898, the day before the fall of the Meline ministry, when M. +Hanotaux finally quitted the Quai d'Orsay, a convention of general +delimitation was signed at Paris by that minister and by the British +ambassador, Sir Edmund Monson, which as regards the respective claims of +England and France covered in its scope the whole of the northern half +of Africa from Senegambia and the Congo to the valley of the Nile. +Comparatively little attention was paid to it amid the exciting events +which followed, so little that M. de Courcel has officially recorded +that three months later, on the eve of the Fashoda incident, Lord +Salisbury declared to him that he was not sufficiently acquainted with +the geography of Africa to express an opinion on certain questions of +delimitation arising out of the success of the British expedition on the +Upper Nile. The convention of June 1898 was, however, of the highest +importance, as it affirmed the junction into one vast territory of the +three chief African domains of France, Algeria and Tunis, Senegal and +the Niger, Chad and the Congo, thus conceding to France the whole of the +north-western continent with the exception of Morocco, Liberia and the +European colonies on the Atlantic. This arrangement, which was completed +by an additional convention on the 21st of March 1899, made Morocco a +legitimate object of French ambition. + + + The entente with England. + +The other questions which caused mutual animosity between England and +France in the decline of the 19th century had nothing whatever to do +with their conflicting international interests. The offensive attitude +of the English press towards France on account of the Dreyfus affair was +repaid by the French in their criticism of the Boer War. When those +sentimental causes of mutual irritation had become less acute, the press +of the two countries was moved by certain influences to recognize that +it was in their interest to be on good terms with one another. The +importance of their commercial relations was brought into relief as +though it were a new fact. At last in 1903 state visits between the +rulers of England and of France took place in their respective capitals, +for the first time since the early days of the Second Empire, followed +by an Anglo-French convention signed on the 8th of April 1904. By this +an arrangement was come to on outstanding questions of controversy +between England and France in various parts of the world. France +undertook not to interfere with the action of England in Egypt, while +England made a like undertaking as to French influence in Morocco. +France conceded certain of its fishing rights in Newfoundland which had +been a perpetual source of irritation between the two countries for +nearly two hundred years since the treaty of Utrecht of 1713. In return +England made several concessions to France in Africa, including that of +the Los Islands off Sierra Leone and some rectifications of frontier on +the Gambia and between the Niger and Lake Chad. Other points of +difference were arranged as to Siam, the New Hebrides and Madagascar. +The convention of 1904 was on the whole more advantageous for England +than for France. The free hand which England conceded to France in +dealing with Morocco was a somewhat burdensome gift owing to German +interference; but the incidents which arose from the Franco-German +conflict in that country are as yet too recent for any estimate of their +possible consequences. + + + The work of M. Delcasse. + +One result was the retirement of M. Delcasse from the foreign office on +the 6th of June 1905. He had been foreign minister for seven years, a +consecutive period of rare length, only once exceeded in England since +the creation of the office, when Castlereagh held it for ten years, and +one of prodigious duration in the history of the Third Republic. He +first went to the Quai d'Orsay in the Brisson ministry of June 1898, +remained there during the Dupuy ministry of the same year, was +reappointed by M. Waldeck-Rousseau in his cabinet which lasted from June +1899 to June 1902, was retained in the post by M. Combes till his +ministry fell in January 1905, and again by his successor M. Rouvier +till his own resignation in June of that year. M. Delcasse had thus an +uninterrupted reign at the foreign office during a long critical period +of transition both in the interior politics of France and in its +exterior relations. He went to the Quai d'Orsay when the Dreyfus +agitation was most acute, and left it when parliament was absorbed in +discussing the separation of church and state. He saw the Franco-Russian +alliance lose its popularity in the country even before the Russian +defeat by the Japanese in the last days of his ministry. Although in the +course of his official duties at the colonial office he had been partly +responsible for some of the expeditions sent to Africa for the purpose +of checking British influence, he was fully disposed to pursue a policy +which might lead to a friendly understanding with England. In this he +differed from M. Hanotaux, who was essentially the man of the +Franco-Russian alliance, owing to it much of his prestige, including his +election to the French Academy, and Russia, to which he gave exclusive +allegiance, was then deemed to be primarily the enemy of England. M. +Delcasse on the contrary, from the first, desired to assist a +_rapprochement_ between England and Russia as preliminary to the +arrangement he proposed between England and France. He was foreign +minister when the tsar paid his second visit to France, but there was no +longer the national unanimity which welcomed him in 1896, M. Delcasse +also accompanied President Loubet to Russia when he returned the tsar's +second visit in 1902. But exchange of compliments between France and +Russia were no longer to be the sole international ceremonials within +the attributes of the French foreign office; M. Delcasse was minister +when the procession of European sovereigns headed by the kings of +England and of Italy in 1903 came officially to Paris, and he went with +M. Loubet to London and to Rome on the president's return visits to +those capitals--the latter being the immediate cause of the rupture of +the concordat with the Vatican, though M. Delcasse was essentially a +concordatory minister. His retirement from the Rouvier ministry in June +1905 was due to pressure from Germany in consequence of his opposition +to German interference in Morocco. His resignation took place just a +week after the news had arrived of the destruction of the Russian fleet +by the Japanese, which completed the disablement of the one ally of +France. The impression was current in France that Germany wished to give +the French nation a fright before the understanding with England had +reached an effective stage, and it was actually believed that the +resignation of M. Delcasse averted a declaration of war. Although that +belief revived to some extent the fading enmity of the French towards +the conquerors of Alsace-Lorraine, the fear which accompanied it moved a +considerable section of the nation to favour an understanding with +Germany in preference to, or even at the expense of, friendly relations +with England. M. Clemenceau, who only late in life came into office, and +attained it at the moment when a better understanding with England was +progressing, had been throughout his long career, of all French public +men in all political groups, the most consistent friend of England. His +presence at the head of affairs was a guarantee of amicable Anglo-French +relations, so far as they could be protected by statesmanship. + +By reason of the increased duration and stability of ministries, the +personal influence of ministers in directing the foreign policy of +France has in one sense become greater in the 20th century than in those +earlier periods when France had first to recuperate its strength after +the war and then to take its exterior policy from Germany. Moreover, not +only have cabinets lasted longer, but the foreign minister has often +been retained in a succession of them. Of the thirty years which in 1909 +had elapsed since Marshal MacMahon retired and the republic was governed +by republicans, in the first fifteen years from 1879 to 1894 fourteen +different persons held the office of minister of foreign affairs, while +six sufficed for the fifteen years succeeding the latter date. One must +not, however, exaggerate the effect of this greater stability in +office-holding upon continuity of policy, which was well maintained even +in the days when there was on an average a new foreign minister every +year. Indeed the most marked breach in the continuity of the foreign +policy of France has been made in that later period of long terms of +office, which, with the repudiation of the Concordat, has seen the +withdrawal of the French protectorate over Roman Catholic missions in +the East--though it is too soon to estimate the result. In another +respect France has under the republic departed a long way from a +tradition of the Quai d'Orsay. It no longer troubles itself on the +subject of nationalities. Napoleon III., who had more French temperament +than French blood in his constitution, was an idealist on this question, +and one of the causes of his own downfall and the defeat of France was +his sympathy in this direction with German unity. Since Sedan little has +been done in France to further the doctrine of nationalities. A faint +echo of it was heard during the Boer war, but French sympathy with the +struggling Dutch republics of South Africa was based rather on +anti-English sentiment than on any abstract theory. (J. E. C. B.) + + BIBLIOGRAPHY OF FRENCH HISTORY.--The scientific study of the history + of France only begins with the 16th century. It was hampered at first + by the traditions of the middle ages and by a servile imitation of + antiquity. Paulus Aemilius of Verona (_De rebus gestis Francorum_, + 1517), who may be called the first of modern historians, merely + applies the oratorical methods of the Latin historiographers. It is + not till the second half of the century that history emancipates + itself; Catholics and Protestants alike turn to it for arguments in + their religious and political controversies. Francois Hotman published + (1574) his _Franco-Gallia_; Claude Fauchet his _Antiquites gauloises + et francoises_ (1579); Etienne Pasquier his _Recherches de la France_ + (1611), "the only work of erudition of the 16th century which one can + read through without being bored." Amateurs like Petau, A. de Thou, + Bongars and Peiresc collected libraries to which men of learning went + to draw their knowledge of the past; Pierre Pithou, one of the authors + of the _Satire Menippee_, published the earliest annals of France + (_Annales Francorum_, 1588, and _Historiae Francorum scriptores + coetanei XI._, 1596), Jacques Bongars collected in his _Gesta Dei per + Francos_ (1611-1617) the principal chroniclers of the Crusades. Others + made a study of chronology like J.J. Scaliger (_De emendatione + temporum_, 1583; _Thesaurus temporum_, 1606), sketched the history of + literature, like Francois Grude, sieur of La Croix in Maine + (_Bibliotheque francoise_, 1584), and Antoine du Verdier (_Catalogue + de tous les auteurs qui ont ecrit ou traduit en francais_, 1585), or + discussed the actual principles of historical research, like Jean + Bodin (_Methodus ad facilem historiarum cognitionem_, 1566) and Henri + Lancelot Voisin de La Popeliniere (_Histoire des histoires_, 1599). + + But the writers of history are as yet very inexpert; the _Histoire + generale des rois de France_ of Bernard de Girard, seigneur de Haillan + (1576), the _Grandes Annales de France_ of Francois de Belleforest + (1579), the _Inventaire general de l'histoire de France_ of Jean de + Serres (1597), the _Histoire generale de France depuis Pharamond_ of + Scipion Dupleix (1621-1645), the _Histoire de France_ (1643-1651) of + Francois Eudes de Mezeray, and above all his _Abrege chronologique de + l'histoire de France_ (1668), are compilations which were eagerly + read when they appeared, but are worthless nowadays. Historical + research lacked method, leaders and trained workers; it found them all + in the 17th century, the golden age of learning which was honoured + alike by laymen, priests and members of the monastic orders, + especially the Benedictines of the congregation of St Maur. The + publication of original documents was carried on with enthusiasm. To + Andre Duchesne we owe two great collections of chronicles: the + _Historiae Normannorum scriptores antiqui_ (1619) and the _Historiae + Francorum scriptores_, continued by his son Francois (5 vols., + 1636-1649). These publications were due to a part only of his + prodigious activity; his papers and manuscripts, preserved in the + Bibliotheque Nationale at Paris, are an inexhaustible mine. Charles du + Fresne, seigneur du Cange, published Villehardouin (1657) and + Joinville (1668); Etienne Baluze, the _Capitularia regum Francorum_ + (1674), the _Nova collectio conciliorum_ (1677), the _Vitae paparum + Avenionensium_ (1693). The clergy were very much aided in their work + by their private libraries and by their co-operation; Pere Philippe + Labbe published his _Bibliotheca nova manuscriptorum_ (1657), and + began (1671) his _Collection des conciles_, which was successfully + completed by his colleague Pere Cossart (18 vols.). In 1643 the Jesuit + Jean Bolland brought out vol. i. of the _Acta sanctorum_, a vast + collection of stories and legends which has not yet been completed + beyond the 4th of November. (See BOLLANDISTS.) The Benedictines, for + their part, published the _Acta sanctorum ordinis sancti Benedicti_ (9 + vols., 1668-1701). One of the chief editors of this collection, Dom + Jean Mabillon, published on his own account the Vetera analecta (4 + vols., 1675-1685) and prepared the _Annales ordinis sancti Benedicti_ + (6 vols., 1703-1793). To Dom Thierri Ruinart we owe good editions of + Gregory of Tours and Fredegarius (1699). The learning of the 17th + century further inaugurated those specialized studies which are + important aids to history. Mabillon in his _De re diplomatica_ (1681) + creates the science of documents or diplomatics. Adrien de Valois lays + a sound foundation for historical geography by his critical edition of + the _Notitia Galliarum_ (1675). Numismatics finds an enlightened + pioneer in Francois Leblanc (_Traite historique des monnaies de + France_, 1690). Du Cange, one of the greatest of the French scholars + who have studied the middle ages, has defined terms bearing on + institutions in his _Glossarium mediae et infimae latinitatis_ (1678), + recast by the Benedictines (1733), with an important supplement by Dom + Carpentier (1768), republished twice during the 19th century, with + additions, by F. Didot (1840-1850), and by L. Favre at Niort + (1883-1888); this work is still indispensable to every student of + medieval history. Finally, great biographical or bibliographical works + were undertaken; the _Gallia christiana_, which gave a chronological + list of the archbishops, bishops and abbots of the Gauls and of + France, was compiled by two twin brothers, Scevole and Louis de + Sainte-Marthe, and by the two sons of Louis (4 vols., 1656); a fresh + edition, on a better plan, and with great additions, was begun in 1715 + by Denys de Sainte-Marthe, continued throughout the 18th century by + the Benedictines, and finished in the 19th century by Barthelemy + Haureau (1856-1861). + + As to the nobility, a series of researches and publications, begun by + Pierre d'Hozier (d. 1660) and continued well on into the 19th century + by several of his descendants, developed into the _Armorial general de + la France_, which was remodelled several times. A similar work, of a + more critical nature, was carried out by Pere Anselme (_Histoire + genealogique de la maison de France et des grands officiers de la + couronne_, 1674) and by Pere Ange and Pere Simplicien, who completed + the work (3rd ed. in 9 vols., 1726-1733). Critical bibliography is + especially represented by certain Protestants, expelled from France by + the revocation of the Edict of Nantes. Pierre Bayle, the sceptic, + famous for his _Dictionnaire critique_ (1699), which is in part a + refutation of the _Dictionnaire historique et geographique_ published + in 1673 by the Abbe Louis Moreri, was the first to publish the + _Nouvelles de la republique des lettres_ (1684-1687), which was + continued by Henri Basnage de Beauval under the title of _Histoire des + ouvrages des savants_ (24 vols.). In imitation of this, Jean Le Clerc + successively edited a _Bibliotheque universelle et historique_ + (1686-1693), a _Bibliotheque choisie_ (1703-1713), and a _Bibliotheque + ancienne et moderne_ (1714-1727). These were the first of our + "periodicals." + + The 18th century continues the traditions of the 17th. The + Benedictines still for some time hold the first place. Dom Edmond + Martene visited numerous archives (which were then closed) in France + and neighbouring countries, and drew from them the material for two + important collections: _Thesaurus novus anecdotorum_ (9 vols., 1717, + in collaboration with Dom Ursin Durand) and _Veterum scriptorum + collectio_ (9 vols., 1724-1733). Dom Bernard de Montfaucon also + travelled in search of illustrated records of antiquity; private + collections, among others the celebrated collection of Gaignieres (now + in the Bibliotheque Nationale), provided him with the illustrations + which he published in his _Monuments de la monarchie francoise_ (5 + vols., 1729-1733). The text is in two languages, Latin and French. Dom + Martin Bouquet took up the work begun by the two Duchesnes, and in + 1738 published vol. i. of the Historians of France (_Rerum Gallicarum + et Francicarum scriptores_), an enormous collection which was intended + to include all the sources of the history of France, grouped under + centuries and reigns. He produced the first eight volumes himself; his + work was continued by several collaborators, the most active of whom + was Dom Michel J. Brial, and already comprised thirteen volumes when + it was interrupted by the Revolution. In 1733, Antoine Rivet de La + Grange produced vol. i. of the _Histoire litteraire de la France_, + which in 1789 numbered twelve volumes. While Dom C. Francois Toustaint + and Dom Rene Prosper Tassin published a _Nouveau Traite de + diplomatique_ (6 vols., 1750-1765), others were undertaking the _Art + de verifier les dates_ (1750; new and much enlarged edition in 1770). + Still others, with more or less success, attempted histories of the + provinces. + + In the second half of the 18th century, the ardour of the Benedictines + of St Maur diminished, and scientific work passed more and more into + the hands of laymen. The Academie des Inscriptions et Belles-lettres, + founded in 1663 and reorganized in 1701, became its chief instrument, + numbering among its members Denis Francois Secousse, who continued the + collection of _Ordonnances des rois de France_, begun (1723) by J. de + Lauriere; J.-B. de La Curne de Sainte Palaye (_Memoires sur l'ancienne + chevalerie_, 1759-1781; _Glossaire de la langue francaise depuis son + origine jusqu'a la fin de Louis XIV_, printed only in 1875-1882); + J.-B. d'Anville (_Notice sur l'ancienne Gaule tiree des monuments_, + 1760); and L.G. de Brequigny, the greatest of them all, who continued + the publication of the _Ordonnances_, began the _Table chronologique + des diplomes concernant l'histoire de France_ (3 vols., 1769-1783), + published the _Diplomata, chartae, ad res Francicas spectantia_ (1791, + with the collaboration of La Porte du Theil), and directed fruitful + researches in the archives in London, to enrich the _Cabinet des + chartes_, where Henri Bertin (1719-1792), an enlightened minister of + Louis XV., had in 1764 set himself the task of collecting the + documentary sources of the national history. The example set by the + religious orders and the government bore fruit. The general assembly + of the clergy gave orders that its _Proces verbaux_ (9 vols., + 1767-1789) should be printed; some of the provinces decided to have + their history written, and mostly applied to the Benedictines to have + this done. Brittany was treated by Dom Lobineau (1707) and Dom Morice + (1742); the duchy of Burgundy by Dom Urbain Plancher (1739-1748); + Languedoc by Dom Dominique Vaissete (1730-1749, in collaboration with + Dom Claude de Vic; new ed. 1873-1893); for Paris, its secular history + was treated by Dom Michel Felibien and Dom Lobineau (1725), and its + ecclesiastical history by the abbe Lebeuf (1745-1760; new ed. + 1883-1890). + + This ever-increasing stream of new evidence aroused curiosity, gave + rise to pregnant comparisons, developed and sharpened the critical + sense, but further led to a more and more urgent need for exact + information. The Academie des Inscriptions brought out its _Histoire + de l'Academie avec les memoires de litterature tires de ses registres_ + (vol. i. 1717; 51 vols. appeared before the Revolution, with five + indexes; _vide_ the _Bibliographie_ of Lasteyrie, vol. iii. pp. 256 et + seq.). Other collections, mostly of the nature of bibliographies, were + the _Journal des savants_ (111 vols., from 1665 to 1792; _vide_ the + _Table methodique_ by H. Cocheris, 1860); the _Journal de Trevoux_, or + _Memoires pour l'histoire des sciences et des beaux-arts_, edited by + Jesuits (265 vols., 1701-1790); the _Mercure de France_ (977 vols., + from 1724 to 1791). To these must be added the dictionaries and + encyclopaedias: the _Dictionnaire de Moreri_, the last edition of + which numbers 10 vols. (1759); the _Dictionnaire geographique, + historique et politique des Gaules et de la France_, by the abbe J.J. + Expilly (6 vols., 1762-1770; unfinished); the _Repertoire universel et + raisonne de jurisprudence civile, criminelle, canonique et + beneficiale_, by Guyot (64 vols., 1775-1786; supplement in 17 vols., + 1784-1785), reorganized and continued by Merlin de Douai, who was + afterwards one of the _Montagnards_, a member of the Directory, and a + count under the Empire. + + The historians did not use to the greatest advantage the treasures of + learning provided for them; they were for the most part superficial, + and dominated by their political or religious prejudices. Thus works + like that of Pere Gabriel Daniel (_Histoire de France_, 3 vols., + 1713), of President Henault (_Abrege chronologique_, 1744; 25 editions + between 1770 and 1834), of the abbe Paul Francois Velly and those who + completed his work (_Histoire de France_, 33 vols., 1765 to 1783), of + G.H. Gaillard (_Histoire de la rivalite de la France et de + l'Angleterre_, 11 vols., 1771-1777), and of L.P. Anquetil (1805), in + spite of the brilliant success with which they met at first, have + fallen into a just oblivion. A separate place must be given to the + works of the theorists and philosophers: _Histoire de l'ancien + gouvernement de la France_, by the Comte de Boulainvilliers (1727), + _Histoire critique de l'etablissement de la monarchie francoise dans + les deux Gaules_, by the abbe J.B. Dubos (1734); _L'Esprit des lois_, + by the president de Montesquieu (1748); the _Observations sur + l'histoire de France_, by the abbe de Mably (1765); the _Theorie de la + politique de la monarchie francaise_, by Marie Pauline de Lezardiere + (1792). These works have, if nothing else, the merit of provoking + reflection. + + At the time of the Revolution this activity was checked. The religious + communities and royal academies were suppressed, and France violently + broke with even her most recent past, which was considered to belong + to the _ancien regime_. When peace was re-established, she began the + task of making good the damage which had been done, but a greater + effort was now necessary in order to revive the spirit of the + institutions which had been overthrown. The new state, which was, in + spite of all, bound by so many ties to the former order of things, + seconded this effort, and during the whole of the 19th century, and + even longer, had a strong influence on historical production. The + section of the Institut de France, which in 1816 assumed the old name + of Academie des Inscriptions et Belles-lettres, began to reissue the + two series of the _Memoires_ and of the _Notices et extraits des + manuscrits tires de la bibliotheque royale_ (the first volume had + appeared in 1787); began (1844) that of the _Memoires presentes par + divers savants_ and the _Comptes rendus_ (subject index 1857-1900, by + G. Ledos, 1906); and continued the _Recueil des historiens de France_, + the plan of which was enlarged by degrees (_Historiens des croisades, + obituaires, pouilles, comptes_, &c.), the _Ordonnances_ and the _Table + chronologique des diplomes_. During the reign of Louis Philippe, the + ministry of the interior reorganized the administration of the + archives of the departments, communes and hospitals, of which the + _Inventaires sommaires_ are a mine of precious information (see the + _Rapport au ministre_, by G. Servois, 1902). In 1834 the ministry of + public instruction founded a committee, which has been called since + 1881 the Comite des Travaux historiques et scientifiques, under the + direction of which have been published: (1) the _Collection des + documents inedits relatifs a l'histoire de France_ (more than 260 + vols. have appeared since 1836); (2) the _Catalogue general des + manuscrits des bibliotheques de France_; (3) the _Dictionnaires + topographiques_ (25 vols. have appeared); and the _Repertoires + archeologiques_ of the French departments (8 vols. between 1861 and + 1888); (4) several series of _Bulletins_, the details of which will be + found in the _Bibliographie_ of Lasteyrie. At the same time were + founded or reorganized, both in Paris and the departments, numerous + societies, devoted sometimes partially and sometimes exclusively to + history and archaeology; the Academie Celtique (1804), which in 1813 + became the Societe des Antiquaires de France (general index by M. + Prou, 1894); the Societe de l'Histoire de France (1834); the Societe + de l'Ecole des Chartes (1839); the Societe de l'Histoire de Paris et + de l'Ile-de-France (1874; four decennial indexes), &c. The details + will be found in the excellent _Bibliographie generale des travaux + historiques et archeologiques publies par les societes savantes de + France_, which has appeared since 1885 under the direction of Robert + de Lasteyrie. + + Individual scholars also associated themselves with this great + literary movement. Guizot published a _Collection de memoires relatifs + a l'histoire de France_ (31 vols., 1824-1835); Buchon, a _Collection + des chroniques nationales francaises ecrites en langue vulgaire du + XIII^e au XVI^e siecle_ (47 vols., 1824-1829), and a _Choix de + chroniques et memoires sur l'histoire de France_ (14 vols., + 1836-1841); Petitot and Monmerque, a _Collection de memoires relatifs + a l'histoire de France_ (131 vols., 1819-1829); Michaud and Poujoulat, + a _Nouvelle Collection de memoires pour servir a l'histoire de France_ + (32 vols., 1836-1839); Barriere and de Lescure, a _Bibliotheque de + memoires relatifs a l'histoire de France pendant le XVIII^e siecle_ + (30 vols., 1855-1875); and finally Berville and Barriere, a + _Collection des memoires relatifs a la Revolution Francaise_ (55 + vols., 1820-1827). The details are to be found in the _Sources de + l'histoire de France_, by Alfred Franklin (1876). The abbe J.P. Migne + in his _Patrologia Latina_ (221 vols., 1844-1864), re-edited a number + cf texts anterior to the 13th century. Under the second empire, the + administration of the imperial archives at Paris published ten volumes + of documents (_Monuments historiques_, 1866; _Layettes du tresor des + chartes_, 1863, which were afterwards continued up to 1270; _Actes du + parlement de Paris_, 1863-1867), not to mention several volumes of + _Inventaires_. The administration of the Bibliotheque imperiale had + printed the _Catalogue general de l'histoire de France_ (10 vols., + 1855-1870; vol. xi., containing the alphabetical index to the names of + the authors, appeared in 1895). Other countries also supplied a number + of useful texts; there is much in the English Rolls series, in the + collection of _Chroniques belges_, and especially in the _Monumenta + Germaniae historica_. + + At the same time the scope of history and its auxiliary sciences + becomes more clearly defined; the Ecole des Chartes produces some + excellent palaeographers, as for instance Natalis de Wailly (_Elements + de paleographie_, 1838), and L. Delisle (q.v.), who has also left + traces of his profound researches in the most varied departments of + medieval history (_Bibliographie des travaux de M. Leopold Delisle_, + 1902); Anatole de Barthelemy made a study of coins and medals, Douet + d'Arcq and G. Demay of seals. The works of Alexandre Lenoir (_Musee + des monuments francais_, 1800-1822), of Arcisse de Caumont (_Histoire + de l'architecture du moyen age_, 1837; _Abecedaire ou rudiment + d'archeologie_, 1850), of A. Napoleon Didron (_Annales + archeologiques_, 1844), of Jules Quicherat (_Melanges d'archeologie et + d'histoire_, published after his death, 1886), and the dictionaries of + Viollet le Duc (_Dictionnaire raisonne de l'architecture francaise_, + 1853-1868; _Dictionnaire du mobilier francais_, 1855) displayed to the + best advantage one of the most brilliant sides of the French + intellect, while other sciences, such as geology, anthropology, the + comparative study of languages, religions and folk-lore, and political + economy, continued to enlarge the horizon of history. The task of + writing the general history of a country became more and more + difficult, especially for one man, but the task was none the less + undertaken by several historians, and by some of eminence. Francois + Guizot treated of the _Histoire de la civilisation en France_ + (1828-1830); Augustin Thierry after the _Recits des temps + merovingiens_ (1840) published the _Monuments de l'histoire du tiers + etat_ (1849-1856), the introduction to which was expanded into a book + (1855); Charles Simonde de Sismondi produced a mediocre _Histoire des + francais_ in 31 vols. (1821-1844), and Henri Martin a _Histoire de + France_ in 16 vols. (1847-1854), now of small use except for the two + or three last centuries of the _ancien regime_. Finally J. Michelet, + in his _Histoire de France_ (17 vols., 1833-1856) and his _Histoire de + la Revolution_ (7 vols., 1847-1853), aims at reviving the very soul of + the nation's past. + + After the Franco-German War begins a better organization of scientific + studies, modelled on that of Germany. The Ecole des Hautes Etudes, + established in 1868, included in its programme the critical study of + the sources, both Latin and French, of the history of France; and from + the _seminaire_ of Gabriel Monod came men of learning, already + prepared by studying at the Ecole des Chartes: Paul Viollet, who + revived the study of the history of French law; Julien Havet, who + revived that of Merovingian diplomatics; Arthur Giry, who resumed the + study of municipal institutions where it had been left by A. Thierry, + prepared the _Annales carolingiennes_ (written by his pupils, Eckel, + Favre, Lauer, Lot, Poupardin), and brought back into honour the study + of diplomatics (_Manuel de diplomatique_, 1894); Auguste Molinier, + author of the _Sources de l'histoire de France_ (1902-1904; general + index, 1906), &c. Auguste Longnon introduced at the Ecole des Hautes + Etudes the study of historical geography (_Atlas historique de la + France_, in course of publication since 1888). The universities, at + last reorganized, popularized the employment of the new methods. The + books of Fustel de Coulanges and Achille Luchaire on the middle ages, + and those of A. Aulard on the revolution, gave a strong, though + well-regulated, impetus to historical production. The Ecole du Louvre + (1881) increased the value of the museums and placed the history of + art among the studies of higher education, while the Musee + archeologique of St-Germain-en-Laye offered a fruitful field for + research on Gallic and Gallo-Roman antiquities. Rich archives, + hitherto inaccessible, were thrown open to students; at Rome those of + the Vatican (_Registres pontificaux_, published by students at the + French school of archaeology, since 1884); at Paris, those of the + Foreign Office (_Recueil des instructions donnees aux ambassadeurs + depuis le traite de Westphalie_, 16 vols., 1885-1901; besides various + collections of diplomatic papers, inventories, &c.). Those of the War + Office were used by officers who published numerous documents bearing + on the wars of the Revolution and the Empire, and on that of + 1870-1871. In 1904 a commission, generously endowed by the French + parlement, was entrusted with the task of publishing the documents + relating to economic and social life of the time of the Revolution, + and four volumes had appeared by 1908. Certain towns, Paris, Bordeaux, + &c., have made it a point of honour to have their chief historical + monuments printed. The work now becomes more and more specialized. + _L'Histoire de France_, by Ernest Lavisse (1900, &c.), is the work of + fifteen different authors. It is therefore more than ever necessary + that the work should be under sound direction. The _Manuel de + bibliographie historique_ of Ch. V. Langlois (2nd edition, 1901-1904) + is a good guide, as is his _Archives de l'histoire de France_ (1891, + in collaboration with H. Stein). + + Besides the special bibliographies mentioned above, it will be useful + to consult the _Bibliotheque historique_ of Pere Jacques Lelong (1719; + new ed. by Fevret de Fontette, 5 vols., 1768-1778); the _Geschichte + der historischen Forschung und Kunst_ of Ludwig Wachler (2 vols., + 1812-1816); the _Bibliographie de la France_, established in 1811 (1st + series, 1811-1856, 45 vols.; 2nd series, 1 vol. per annum since 1857); + the publications of the Societe de Bibliographie (_Polybiblion_, from + 1868 on, &c.); the _Bibliographie de l'histoire de France_, by Gabriel + Monod (1888); the _Repertoire_ of the abbe Ulysse Chevalier + (_Biobibliographie_; new ed. 1903-1907; and _Topobibliographie_, + 1894-1899). Bearing exclusively on the middle ages are the + _Bibliotheca historica medii aevi_ of August Potthast (new ed. 1896) + and the _Manuel_ (_Les Sources de l'histoire de France_, 1901, &c.) of + A. Molinier; but the latter is to be continued up to modern times, the + 16th century having already been begun by Henri Hausser (1st part, + 1906). Finally, various special reviews, besides teaching historical + method by criticism and by example, try to keep their readers _au + courant_ with literary production; the _Revue critique d'histoire et + de litterature_ (1866 fol.), the _Revue des questions historiques_ + (1866 fol.), the _Revue historique_ (1876 fol.), the _Revue d'histoire + moderne et contemporaine_, accompanied annually by a valuable + _Repertoire methodique_ (1898 fol.); the _Revue de synthese + historique_ (1900 fol.), &c. (C. B.*) + + +FRENCH LAW AND INSTITUTIONS + +_Celtic Period._--The remotest times to which history gives us access +with reference to the law and institutions formerly existing in the +country which is now called France are those in which the dominant race +at least was Celtic. On the whole, our knowledge is small of the law and +institutions of these Celts, or Gauls, whose tribes constituted +independent Gaul. For their reconstruction, modern scholars draw upon +two sources; firstly, there is the information furnished by the +classical writers and by Caesar and Strabo in particular, which is +trustworthy but somewhat scanty; the other source, which is not so pure, +consists in the accounts found in those legal works of the middle ages +written in the neo-Celtic dialects, the most important and the greater +number of which belong to Ireland. A reconstruction from them is always +hazardous, however delicate and scientific be the criticism which is +brought to bear on it, as in the case of d'Arbois de Jubainville, for +example. Moreover, in the historical evolution of French institutions +those of the Celts or Gauls are of little importance. Not one of them +can be shown to have survived in later law. What has survived of the +Celtic race is the blood and temperament, still found in a great many +Frenchmen, certain traits which the ancients remarked in the Gauls being +still recognizable: _bellum gerere et argute loqui_. + +_Roman Period._--It was the Roman conquest and rule which really formed +Gaul, for she was Romanized to the point of losing almost completely +that which persists most stubbornly in a conquered nation, namely, the +language; the Breton-speaking population came to France later, from +Britain. The institutions of Roman Gaul became identical with those of +the Roman empire, provincial and municipal government undergoing the +same evolution as in the other parts of the empire. It was under Roman +supremacy too, as M. d'Arbois de Jubainville has shown, that the +ownership of land became personal and free in Gaul. The law for the +Gallo-Romans was that which was administered by the _conventus_ of the +magistrate; there are only a few peculiarities, mere Gallicisms, +resulting from conventions or usage, which are pointed out by Roman +jurisconsults of the classical age. The administrative reforms of +Diocletian and Constantine applied to Gaul as to the rest of the empire. +Gaul under this rule consisted of seventeen provinces, divided between +two dioceses, ten in the diocese of the Gauls, under the authority of +the praetorian prefect, who resided at Treves; and the other seven in +the _dioecesis septem provinciarum_, under the authority of a +_vicarius_. The Gallo-Romans became Christian with the other subjects of +the empire; the Church extended thither her powerful organization +modelled on the administrative organization, each _civitas_ having a +bishop, just as it had a _curia_ and municipal magistrates. But, +although endowed with privileges by the Christian emperors, the Church +did not yet encroach upon the civil power. She had the right of +acquiring property, of holding councils, subject to the imperial +authority, and of the free election of bishops. But only the first germs +of ecclesiastical jurisdiction are to be traced. In virtue of the laws, +the bishops were privileged arbitrators, and in the matter of public +sins exercised a disciplinary jurisdiction over the clergy and the +faithful. In the second half of the 4th century, monasteries appeared in +Gaul. After the fall of the Western empire, there was left to the +Gallo-Romans as an expression of its law, which was also theirs, a +written legislation. It consisted of the imperial constitutions, +contained in the Gregorian, Hermogenian and Theodosian codes (the two +former being private compilations, and the third an official +collection), and the writings of the five jurists (Gaius, Papinian, +Paulus, Ulpian and Modestinus), to which Valentinian III. had in 426 +given the force of law. + +_The Barbarian Invasion._--The invasions and settlements of the +barbarians open a new period. Though there were robbery and violence in +every case, the various barbarian kingdoms set up in Gaul were +established under different conditions. In those of the Burgundians and +Visigoths, the owners of the great estates, which had been the +prevailing form of landed property in Roman Gaul, suffered partial +dispossession, according to a system the rules regulating which can, in +the case of the Burgundians, be traced almost exactly. It is doubtful +whether a similar process took place in the case of the Frankish +settlements, but their first conquests in the north and east seem to +have led to the extermination or total expulsion of the Gallo-Roman +population. It is impossible to say to what extent, in these various +settlements, the system of collective property prevailing among the +Germanic tribes was adopted. Another important difference was that, in +embracing Christianity, some of the barbarians became Arians, as in the +case of the Visigoths and Burgundians; others Catholic, as in the case +of the Franks. This was probably the main cause of the absorption of the +other kingdoms into the Frankish monarchy. In each case, however, the +barbarian king appeared as wishing not to overthrow the Roman +administration, but to profit by its continuation. The kings of the +Visigoths and Burgundians were at first actually representatives of the +Western empire, and Clovis himself was ready to accept from the emperor +Anastasius the title of consul; but these were but empty forms, similar +to the fictitious ties which long existed or still exist between China +or Turkey and certain parts of their former empires, now separated from +them for ever. + +As soon as the Merovingian monarch had made himself master of Gaul, he +set himself to maintain and keep in working order the administrative +machinery of the Romans, save that the administrative unit was +henceforth no longer the _provincia_ but the _civitas_, which generally +took the name of _pagus_, and was placed under the authority of a count, +_comes_ or _grafio_ (_Graf_). Perhaps this was not entirely an +innovation, for it appears that at the end of the Roman supremacy +certain _civitates_ had already a _comes_. Further, several _pagi_ could +be united under the authority of a _dux_. The _pagus_ seems to have +generally been divided into hundreds (_centenae_). + +But the Roman administrative machinery was too delicate to be handled by +barbarians; it could not survive for long, but underwent changes and +finally disappeared. Thus the Merovingians tried to levy the same direct +taxes as the Romans had done, the _capitatio terrena_ and the _capitatio +humana_, but they ceased to be imposts reassessed periodically in +accordance with the total sum fixed as necessary to meet the needs of +the state, and became fixed annual taxes on lands or persons; finally, +they disappeared as general imposts, continuing to exist only as +personal or territorial dues. In the same way the Roman municipal +organization, that of the _curiae_, survived for a considerable time +under the Merovingians, but was used only for the registration of +written deeds; under the Carolingians it disappeared, and with it the +old senatorial nobility which had been that of the Empire. The +administration of justice (apart from the king's tribunal) seems to have +been organized on a system borrowed partly from Roman and partly from +Germanic institutions; it naturally tends to assume popular forms. +Justice is administered by the count (_comes_) or his deputy +(_centenarius_ or _vicarius_), but on the verdict of notables called in +the texts _boni homines_ or _rachimburgii_. This takes place in an +assembly of all the free subjects, called _mallus_, at which every free +man is bound to attend at least a certain number of times a year, and in +which are promulgated the general acts emanating from the king. The +latter could issue commands or prohibitions under the name of _bannus_, +the violation of which entailed a fine of 60 _solidi_; the king also +administered justice (_in palatio_), assisted by the officers of his +household, his jurisdiction being unlimited and at the same time +undefined. He could hear all causes, but was not bound to hear any, +except, apparently, accusations of deliberate failure of justice and +breach of trust on the part of the _rachimburgii_. + + + Character of the Merovingian kingship. + +But what proved the great disturbing element in Gallo-Roman society was +the fact that the conquerors, owing to their former customs and the +degree of their civilization, were all warriors, men whose chief +interest was to become practised in the handling of arms, and whose +normal state was that of war. It is true that under the Roman empire all +the men of a _civitas_ were obliged, in case of necessity, to march +against the enemy, and under the Frankish monarchy the count still +called together his _pagenses_ for this object. But the condition of the +barbarian was very different; he lived essentially for fighting. Hence +those gatherings or annual reviews of the _Campus Martius_, which +continued so long, in Austrasia at least. They constituted the chief +armed force; for mercenary troops, in spite of the assertions of some to +the contrary, play at this period only a small part. But this military +class, though not an aristocracy (for among the Franks the royal race +alone was noble), was to a large extent independent, and the king had to +attach these _leudes_ or _fideles_ to himself by gifts and favours. At +the same time the authority of the king gradually underwent a change in +character, though he always claimed to be the successor of the Roman +emperor. It gradually assumed that domestic or personal character that, +among the Germans, marked most of the relations between men. The +household of the king gained in political importance, by reason that the +heads of the principal offices in the palace became at the same time +high public officials. There was, moreover, a body of men more +especially attached to the king, the _antrustions_ (q.v.) and the +commensals (_convivae regis_) whose _weregeld_ (i.e. the price of a +man's life in the system of compensation then prevalent) was three times +greater than that of the other subjects of the same race. + +The Frankish monarch had also the power of making laws, which he +exercised after consulting the chief men of the kingdom, both lay and +ecclesiastical, in the _placita_, which were meetings differing from the +_Campus Martius_ and apparently modelled principally on the councils of +the Church. But throughout the kingdom in many places the direct +authority of the king over the people ceased to make itself felt. The +_immunitates_, granted chiefly to the great ecclesiastical properties, +limited this authority in a curious way by forbidding public officials +to exercise their functions in the precinct of land which was _immunis_. +The judicial and fiscal rights frequently passed to the landowner, who +in any case became of necessity the intermediary between the supreme +power and the people. In regard to this last point, moreover, the case +seems to have been the same with all the great landowners or _potentes_, +whose territory was called _potestas_, and who gained a real authority +over those living within it; later in the middle ages they were called +_homines potestatis_ (_hommes de poeste_). + +Other principles, arising perhaps less from Germanic custom strictly +speaking than from an inferior level of civilization, also contributed +towards the weakening of the royal power. The monarch, like his +contemporaries, considered the kingdom and the rights of the king over +it to be his property; consequently, he had the power of dealing with it +as if it were a private possession; it is this which gave rise to the +concessions of royal rights to individuals, and later to the partitions +of the kingdom, and then of the empire, between the sons of the king or +emperor, to the exclusion of the daughters, as in the division of an +inheritance in land. This proved one of the chief weaknesses of the +Merovingian monarchy. + + + Position of the Church. + +In order to rule the Gallo-Romans, the barbarians had had inevitably to +ask the help of the Church, which was the representative of Roman +civilization. Further, the Merovingian monarch and the Catholic Church +had come into close alliance in their struggle with the Arians. The +result for the Church had been that she gained new privileges, but at +the same time became to a certain extent dependent. Under the +Merovingians the election of the bishop _a clero et populo_ is only +valid if it obtains the assent (_assensus_) of the king, who often +directly nominates the prelate. But at the same time the Church retains +her full right of acquiring property, and has her jurisdiction partially +recognized; that is to say, she not only exercises more freely than ever +a disciplinary jurisdiction, but the bishop, in place of the civil +power, administers civil and criminal justice over the clergy. The +councils had for a long time forbidden the clergy to cite one another +before secular tribunals; they had also, in the 6th century, forbidden +secular judges under pain of excommunication to cite before them and +judge the clergy, without permission of the bishop. A decree of Clotaire +II. (614) acknowledged the validity of these claims, but not completely; +a precise interpretation of the text is, however, difficult. + + + Carolingian period. + + Beginnings of the feudal system. + +The Merovingian dynasty perished of decay, amid increasing anarchy. The +crown passed, with the approval of the papacy, to an Austrasian mayor of +the palace and his family, one of those mayors of the palace (i.e. chief +officer of the king's household) who had been the last support of the +preceding dynasty. It was then that there developed a certain number of +institutions, which offered themselves as useful means of consolidating +the political organism, and were in reality the direct precursors of +feudalism. One was the royal benefice (_beneficium_), of which, without +doubt, the Church provided both the model and, in the first instance, +the material. The model was the _precaria_, a form of concession by +which it was customary for the Church to grant the possession of her +lands to free men; this practice she herself had copied from the +five-years leases granted by the Roman exchequer. Gradually, however, +the _precaria_ had become a concession made, in most cases, free and for +life. As regards the material, when the Austrasian mayors of the palace +(probably Charles Martel) wished to secure the support of the _fideles_ +by fresh benefits, the royal treasury being exhausted, they turned to +the Church, which was at that time the greatest landowner, and took +lands from her to give to their warriors. In order to disguise the +robbery it was decided--perhaps as an afterthought--that these lands +should be held as _precariae_ from the Church, or from the monastic +houses which had furnished them. Later, when the royal treasury was +reorganized, the grants of land made by the kings naturally took a +similar form: the _beneficium_, as a free grant for life. Under the +Merovingians royal grants of land were in principle made in full +ownership, except, as Brunner has shown, that provision was made for a +revocation under certain circumstances. No special services seem to have +been attached to the benefice, whether granted by the king or by some +other person, but, in the second half of the 9th century at least, the +possession of the benefice is found as the characteristic of the +military class and the form of their pay. This we find clearly set forth +in the treatise _de ecclesiis et capellis_ of Hincmar of Reims. The +_beneficium_, in obedience to a natural law, soon tended to crystallize +into a perpetual and hereditary right. Another institution akin to the +_beneficium_ was the _senioratus_; by the _commendatio_, a form of +solemn contract, probably of Germanic origin, and chiefly characterized +by the placing of the hands between those of the lord, a man swore +absolute fidelity to another man, who became his _senior_. It became the +generally received idea (as expressed in the capitularies) that it was +natural and normal for every free man to have a _senior_. At the same +time a benefice was never granted unless accompanied by the +_commendatio_ of the beneficiary to the grantor. As the most important +_seniores_ were thus bound to the king and received from him their +benefices, he expected through them to command their men; but in reality +the king disappeared little by little in the _senior_. The king granted +as benefices not only lands, but public functions, such as those of +count or _dux_, which thus became possessions, held, first for life, and +later as hereditary properties. The Capitulary of Kiersy-sur-Oise (877), +which was formerly considered to have made fiefs legally and generally +hereditary, only proves that it was already the custom for benefices of +this kind, _honores_, to pass from the father to one of the sons. + + + Reforms of Charlemagne. + + Carolingian fiscal system. + + The Church under Charlemagne. + +Charlemagne, while sanctioning these institutions, tried to arrest the +political decomposition. He reorganized the administration of justice, +fixing the respective jurisdictions of the count and the _centenarius_, +substituting for the _rachimburgii_ permanent _scabini_, chosen by the +count in the presence of the people, and defining the relations of the +count, as the representative of the central authority, with the +_advocati_ or _judices_ of _immunitates_ and _potestates_. He +reorganized the army, determining the obligations and the military +outfit of free men according to their means. Finally, he established +those regular inspections by the _missi dominici_ which are the subject +of so many of his capitularies. From the _De ordine palatii_ of Hincmar +of Reims, who follows the account of a contemporary of the great +emperor, we learn that he also regularly established two general +assemblies, _conventus_ or _placita_, in the year, one in the autumn, +the other in the spring, which were attended by the chief officials, lay +and ecclesiastical. It was here that the capitularies (q.v.) and all +important measures were first drawn up and then promulgated. The +revenues of the Carolingian monarch (which are no longer identical with +the finances of the state) consisted chiefly in the produce of the royal +lands (_villae_), which the king and his suite often came and consumed +on the spot; and it is known how carefully Charlemagne regulated the +administration of the _villae_. There were also the free gifts which the +great men were bound, according to custom, to bring to the _conventus_, +the contributions of this character from the monasteries practically +amounting to a tax; the regular personal or territorial dues into which +the old taxes had resolved themselves; the profits arising from the +courts (the royal _bannus_, and the _fredum_, or part of the +compensation-money which went to the king); finally, numberless +requisitions in kind, a usage which had without doubt existed +continuously since Roman times. The Church was loaded with honours and +had added a fresh prerogative to her former privileges, namely, the +right of levying a real tax in kind, the _tithe_. Since the 3rd century +she had tried to exact the payment of tithes from the faithful, +interpreting as applicable to the Christian clergy the texts in the Old +Testament bearing on the Levites; Gallican councils had repeatedly +proclaimed it as an obligation, though, it appears, with little success. +But from the reign of Pippin the Short onwards the civil law recognized +and sanctioned this obligation, and the capitularies of Charlemagne and +Louis the Debonnaire contain numerous provisions dealing with it. +Ecclesiastical jurisdiction extended farther and farther, but +Charlemagne, the protector of the papacy, maintained firmly his +authority over the Church. He nominated its dignitaries, both bishops +and abbots, who were true ecclesiastical officials, parallel with the +lay officials. In each _pagus_, bishop and count owed each other mutual +support, and the missi on the same circuit were ordinarily a count and a +bishop. In the first collection of capitularies, that of Ansegisus, two +books out of four are devoted to ecclesiastical capitularies. + + + The law under the Frank monarchy. + +What, then, was the private and criminal law of this Frankish monarchy +which had come to embrace so many different races? The men of Roman +descent continued under the Roman law, and the conquerors could not hope +to impose their customs upon them. The authorized expression of the +Roman law was henceforth to be found in the _Lex romana Wisigothorum_ or +_Breviarium Alarici_, drawn up by order of Alaric II. in 506. It is an +abridgment of the codes, of that of Theodosius especially, and of +certain of the writings of the jurists included under the Law of +Citations. As to the barbarians, they had hitherto had nothing but +customs, and these customs, of which the type nearest to the original is +to be found in the oldest text of the _Lex Salica_, were nothing more +than a series of tariffs of compensations, that is to say, sums of money +due to the injured party or his family in case of crimes committed +against individuals, for which crimes these compensations were the only +penalty. They also introduced a barbarous system of trial, that by +compurgation, i.e. exculpation by the oath of the defendant supported by +a certain number of _cojurantes_, and that by ordeal, later called +_judicium Dei_. In each new kingdom the barbarians naturally kept their +own laws, and when these men of different races all became subject to +the Frankish monarchy, there evolved itself a system (called the +_personnalite des lois_) by which every subject had, in principle, the +right to be tried by the law of the race to which he belonged by birth +(or sometimes for some other reason, such as emancipation or marriage). +When the two adversaries were of different race, it was the law of the +defendant which had to be applied. The customs of the barbarians had +been drawn up in Latin. Sometimes, as in the case of the first text of +the Salic law, the system on which they were compiled is not exactly +known; but it was generally done under the royal authority. At this +period only these written documents bear the name of "law" (_leges +romanorum_; _leges barbarorum_), and at least the tacit consent of the +people seems to have been required for these collections of laws, in +accordance with an axiom laid down in a later capitulary; _lex fit +consensu populi et constitutione regis_. It is noteworthy, too, that in +the process of being drawn up in Latin, most of the _leges barbarorum_ +were very much Romanized. + +In the midst of this diversity, a certain number of causes tended to +produce a partial unity. The capitularies, which had in themselves the +force of law, when there was no question of modifying the _leges_, +constituted a legislation which was the same for all; often they +inflicted corporal punishment for grave offences, which applied to all +subjects without distinction. Usage and individual convenience led to +the same result. The Gallo-Romans, and even the Church itself, to a +certain extent, adopted the methods of trial introduced by the Germans, +as was likely in a country relapsing into barbarism. On the other hand, +written acts became prevalent among the barbarians, and at the same time +they assimilated a certain amount of Roman law; for these acts continued +to be drawn up in Latin, after Roman models, which were in most cases +simply misinterpreted owing to the general ignorance. The type is +preserved for us in those collections of _Formulae_, of which complete +and scientific editions have been published by Eugene de Roziere and +Carl Zeumer. During this period, too, the Gallican Church adopted the +collection of councils and decretals, called later the _Codex canonum +ecclesiae Gallicanae_, which she continued to preserve. This collection +was that of Dionysius Exiguus, which was sent to Charlemagne in 774 by +Pope Adrian I. But in the course of the 9th century apocryphal +collections were also formed in the Gallican Church: the False +Capitularies of Benedictus Levita, and the False Decretals of Isidorus +Mercator (see DECRETALS). + +All the subjects of the Frankish monarchy were not of equal status. +There was, strictly speaking, no nobility, both the Roman and the +Germanic nobility having died out; but slavery continued to exist. The +Church, however, was preparing the transformation of the slave into the +serf, by giving force and validity to their marriages, in cases, at +least, when the master had approved of them, and by forbidding the +latter unjustly to seize the slave's _peculium_. But between the free +man (_ingenuus_) and the slave lay a number of persons of intermediate +status; they possessed legal personality but were subject to +incapacities of various kinds, and had to perform various duties towards +other men. There was, to begin with, the Roman colonist (_colonus_), a +class as to the origin of which there is still a controversy, and of +which there is no clear mention in the laws before the 4th century; they +and their children after them were attached perpetually to a certain +piece of land, which they were allowed to cultivate on payment of a +rent. There were, further, the _liti_ (_litus_ or _lidus_), a similar +class of Germanic origin; also the greater number of the freedmen or +descendants of freedmen. Many free men who had fled to the great +landowners for protection took, by arrangement or by custom, a similar +position. Under the Merovingian regime, and especially under the +Carolingians, the occupation of the land tended to assume the character +of tenure; but free ownership of land continued to exist under the name +of _alod_ (_alodis_), and there is even evidence for the existence of +this in the form of small properties, held by free men; the capitularies +contain numerous complaints and threats against the counts, who +endeavoured by the abuse of their power to obtain the surrender of these +properties. + + + Anarchy and feudal origins. + +_Period of Anarchy and the Rise of Feudalism._--The 10th and 11th +centuries were a period of profound anarchy, during which feudalism was +free to develop itself and to take definitive shape. At that time the +French people may be said to have lived without laws, without even fixed +customs and without government. The legislative power was no longer +exercised, for the last Carolingian capitularies date from the year 884, +and the first laws of the Capetian kings (if they may be called laws) do +not appear till during the 12th century. During this period the old +capitularies and _leges_ fell into disuse and in their place territorial +customs tended to grow up, their main constituents being furnished by +the law of former times, but which were at the outset ill-defined and +strictly local. As to the government, if the part played by the Church +be excepted, we shall see that it could be nothing but the application +of brute force. In this anarchy, as always happens under similar +conditions, men drew together and formed themselves into groups for +mutual defence. A nucleus was formed which was to become the new social +unit, that is to say, the feudal group. Of this the centre was a chief, +around whom gathered men capable of bearing arms, who commended +themselves to him according to the old form of vassalage, _per manus_. +They owed him fidelity and assistance, the support of their arms but not +of their purse, save in quite exceptional cases; while he owed them +protection. Some of them lived in his castle or fortified house, +receiving their equipment only and eating at his table. Others received +lands from him, which were, or later became, fiefs, on which they lived +_casati_. The name fief, _feudum_, does not appear, however, till +towards the end of this period; these lands are frequently called +_beneficia_ as before; the term most in use at first, in many parts, is +_casamentum_. The fief, moreover, was generally held for life and did +not become generally hereditary till the second half of the 11th +century. The lands kept by the chief and those which he granted to his +men were for the most part rented from him, or from them, for a certain +amount in money or in kind. All these conditions had already existed +previously in much the same form; but the new development is that the +chief was no longer, as before, merely an intermediary between his men +and the royal power. The group had become in effect independent, so +organized as to be socially and politically self-sufficient. It +constituted a small army, led, naturally, by the chief, and composed of +his feudatories, supplemented in case of need by the _rustici_. It also +formed an assembly in which common interests were discussed, the lord, +according to custom, being bound to consult his feudatories and they to +advise him to the best of their power. It also formed a court of +justice, in which the feudatories gave judgment under the presidency of +their lord; and all of them claimed to be subject only to the +jurisdiction of this tribunal composed of their peers. Generally they +also judged the villeins (_villani_) and the serfs dependent on the +group, except in cases where the latter obtained as a favour judges of +their own status, which was, however, at that time a very rare +occurrence. + +Under these conditions a nobility was formed, those men becoming nobles +who were able to devote themselves to the profession of arms and were +either chiefs or soldiers in one of the groups which have just been +described. The term designating a noble, _miles_, corresponds also to +that of knight (Fr. _chevalier_, Low Lat. _caballerius_), for the reason +that chivalry, of which the origins are uncertain, represents +essentially the technical skill and professional duties of this military +class. Every noble was destined on coming of age to become a knight, and +the knight equally as a matter of course received a fief, if he had not +one already by hereditary title. This nobility, moreover, was not a +caste but could be indefinitely recruited by the granting of fiefs and +admission to knighthood (see KNIGHTHOOD AND CHIVALRY). + + + Private war. + +The state of anarchy was by now so far advanced that war became an +individual right, and the custom of private war arose. Every man had in +principle the right of making war to defend his rights or to avenge his +wrongs. Later on, doubtless, in the 13th century, this was a privilege +of the noble (_gentilhomme_); but the texts defining the limits which +the Church endeavoured to set to this abuse, namely, the Peace of God +and the Truce of God, show that this was at the outset a power possessed +by men of all classes. Even a man who had appeared in a court of law and +received judgment had the choice of refusing to accept the judgment and +of making war instead. Justice, moreover, with its frequent employment +of trial by combat, did not essentially differ from private war. + +It is unnecessary to go further and to affirm, with certain historians +of our time, for example Guilhermoz and See, that the only free men at +that time, besides the clergy, were the nobles, all the rest being +serfs. There are many indications which lead us to assume, not only in +the towns but even in the country districts, the existence of a class of +men of free status who were not _milites_, the class later known in the +13th century as _vilains_, _hommes de poeste_, and, later, _roturiers_. +The fact more probably was that only the nobles and ecclesiastics were +exempt from the exactions of the feudal lords; while from all the others +the seigneurs could at pleasure levy the _taille_ (a direct and +arbitrary tax), and those innumerable rights then called +_consuetudines_. Free ownership, the _allodium_, even under the form of +small freeholds, still existed by way of exception in many parts. + +Had, then, the main public authority disappeared? This is practically +the contention of certain writers, who, like M. See, maintain that real +property, the possession of a domain, conferred on the big landed +proprietor all rights of taxation, command and coercion over the +inhabitants of his domain, who, according to this view, were always +serfs. But this is an exaggeration of the thesis upheld by old French +authors, who saw in feudalism, though in a different sense, a confusion +of property with sovereignty. It appears that in this state of political +disintegration each part of the country which had a homogeneous +character tended to form itself into a higher unit. In this unit there +arose a powerful lord, generally a duke, a count, or a viscount, who +sometimes came to be called the _capitalis dominus_. He was either a +former official of the monarchy, whose function had become hereditary, +or a usurper who had formed himself on this model. He laid claim to an +authority other than that conferred by the possession of real property. +He still claimed to exercise over the whole of his former district +certain rights, which we see him sometimes surrendering for the benefit +of churches or monasteries. His court of justice was held in the highest +honour, and to it were referred the most important affairs. But in this +district there were generally a number of more or less powerful lords, +who as a rule had as yet no particular feudal title and are often given +the name of _principes_. Often, but not always, they had commended +themselves to this duke or count by doing homage. + + + The royal power. + +On the other hand, the royal power continued to exist, being recognized +by a considerable part of old Gaul, the _regnum Francorum_. But under +the last of the Carolingians it had in fact become elective, as is shown +by the elections of Odo and Robert before that of Hugh Capet. The +electors were the chief lords and prelates of the _regnum Francorum_. +But following a clever policy, each king during his lifetime took as +partner of his kingdom his eldest son and consecrated and crowned him in +advance, so that the first of the Capetians revived the principle of +heredity in favour of the eldest son, while establishing the hereditary +indivisibility of the kingdom. This custom was recognized at the +accession of Louis the Fat, but the authority of the king was very weak, +being merely a vague allegiance. His only real authority lay where his +own possessions were, or where there had not arisen a duke, a count, or +lord of equal rank with them. He maintained, however, a general right of +administering justice, a _curia_, the jurisdiction of which seems to +have been universal. It is true that the parties in a suit had to submit +themselves to it voluntarily, and could accept or reject the judgment +given, but this was at that time the general rule. The king dispensed +justice surrounded by the officers of his household (_domestici_), who +thus formed his council; but these were not the only ones to assist him, +whether in court or council. Periodically, at the great yearly +festivals, he called together the chief lords and prelates of his +kingdom, thus carrying on the tradition of the Carolingian _placita_ or +_conventus_; but little by little, with the appropriation of the +_honores_, the character of the gathering changed; it was no longer an +assembly of officials but of independent lords. This was now called the +_curia regis_. + + + The Church. + +While the power of the State was almost disappearing, that of the +Church, apart from the particular acts of violence of which she was +often the victim, continued to grow. Her jurisdiction gained ground, +since her procedure was reasonable and comparatively scientific (except +that she admitted to a certain extent compurgation by oath and the +_judicia Dei_, with the exception of trial by combat). Not only was the +privilege of clergy, by which accused clerks were brought under her +jurisdiction, almost absolute, but she had cognizance of a number of +causes in which laymen only were concerned, marriage and everything +nearly or remotely affecting it, wills, crimes and offences against +religion; and even contracts, when the two parties wished it or when the +agreement was made on oath, came within her competence. Such, then, were +the ecclesiastical or Christian courts (_cours d'eglise, course de +chretiente_). The Church, moreover, remained in close connexion with the +crown, the king preserving a quasi-ecclesiastical character, while the +royal prerogatives with regard to the election of bishops were +maintained more successfully than the rights of the crown, though in +many of the great fiefs they none the less passed to the count or the +duke. It was at this time too that the Church tried to break the last +ties which still kept her more or less dependent on the civil power; +this was the true import of the Investiture Contest (see INVESTITURE, +and CHURCH HISTORY), though this was not very acute in France. + + + The feudal monarchy. + + Roman law. + + The customs. + +The period of the true feudal monarchy is embraced by the 12th and 13th +centuries, that is to say, it was at this time that the crown again +assumed real strength and authority; but so far it had no organs and +instruments save those which were furnished by feudalism, now organized +under a regular hierarchy, of which the king was the head, the +"sovereign enfeoffer of the kingdom" (_souverain fieffeux du royaume_), +as he came later on to be called. This new position of affairs was the +result of three great factors: the revival of Roman Law, the final +organization of feudalism and the rise of the privileged towns. The +revival of Roman law began in France and Italy in the second half of the +11th century, developing with extraordinary brilliance in the latter +country at the university of Bologna, which was destined for a long time +to dominate Europe. Roman law spread rapidly in the French schools and +universities, except that of Paris, which was closed to it by the +papacy; and the influence of this study was so great that it transformed +society. On the one hand it contributed largely to the reconstitution of +the royal power, modelling the rights of the king on those of the Roman +emperor. On the other hand it wrought a no less profound change in +private law. From this time dates the division of old France into the +_Pays de droit ecrit_, in which Roman law, under the form in which it +was codified by Justinian, was received as the ordinary law; and the +_Pays de coutume_, where it played only a secondary part, being +generally valid only as _ratio scripta_ and not as _lex scripta_. In +this period the customs also took definitive form, and over and above +the local customs properly so called there were formed customs known as +_general_, which held good through a whole province or _bailliage_, and +were based on the jurisprudence of the higher jurisdictions. + + + Final organization of feudalism. + + Feudal character of justice. + +The final organization of feudalism resulted from the struggle for +organization which was proceeding in each district where the more +powerful lords compelled the others to do them homage and become their +vassals; the _capitalis dominus_ had beneath him a whole hierarchy, and +was himself a part of the feudal system of France (see FEUDALISM). +Doubtless in the case of lords like the dukes of Brittany and Burgundy, +the king could not actually demand the strict fulfilment of the feudal +obligations; but the principle was established. The question now arises, +did free and absolute property, the _allodium_, entirely disappear in +this process, and were all lands held as tenures? It continued to exist, +by way of exception, in most districts, unchanged save in the burden of +proof of ownership, with which, according to the customs, sometimes the +lord and sometimes the holder of the land was held charged. In one +respect, however, namely in the administration of justice, the feudal +hierarchy had absolute sway. Towards the end of the 13th century +Beaumanoir clearly laid down this principle: "All secular jurisdiction +in France is held from the king as a fief or an _arriere-fief_." +Henceforth it could also be said that "All justice emanates from the +king." The law concerning fiefs became settled also from another point +of view, the fief becoming patrimonial; that is to say, not only +hereditary, but freely alienable by the vassal, subject in both cases to +certain rights of transfer due to the lord, which were at first fixed by +agreement and later by custom. The most salient features of feudal +succession were the right of primogeniture and the preference given to +heirs-male; but from the 13th century onwards the right of +primogeniture, which had at first involved the total exclusion of the +younger members of a family, tended to be modified, except in the case +of the chief lords, the eldest son obtaining the preponderant share or +_preciput_. Non-noble (_roturier_) tenancies also became patrimonial in +similar circumstances, except that in their case there was no right of +primogeniture nor any privilege of males. The tenure of serfs did not +become alienable, and only became hereditary by certain devices. + + + Rise of the privileged towns. + +Feudal society next saw the rise of a new element within it: the +privileged towns. At this time many towns acquired privileges, the +movement beginning towards the end of the 11th century; they were +sanctioned by a formal concession from the lord to whom the town was +subject, the concession being embodied in a charter or in a record of +customs (_coutume_). Some towns won for themselves true political +rights, for instance the right of self-administration, rights of justice +over the inhabitants, the right of not being taxed except by their own +consent, of maintaining an armed force, and of controlling it +themselves. Others only obtained civil rights, e.g. guarantees against +the arbitrary rights of justice and taxation of the lord or his provost. +The chief forms of municipal organization at this time were the _commune +juree_ of the north and east, and the _consulat_, which came from Italy +and penetrated as far as Auvergne and Limousin. The towns with important +privileges formed in feudal society as it were a new class of lordships; +but their lords, that is to say their burgesses, were inspired by quite +a new spirit. The crown courted their support, taking them under its +protection, and championing the causes in which they were interested +(see COMMUNE). Finally, it is in this period, under Philip Augustus, +that the great fiefs began to be effectually reannexed to the crown, a +process which, continued by the kings up to the end of the _ancien +regime_, refounded for their profit the territorial sovereignty of +France. + + + Great officers of the crown and peers of France. + +The crown maintained the machinery of feudalism, the chief central +instruments of which were the great officers of the crown, the +seneschal, butler, constable and chancellor, who were to become +irremovable officials, those at least who survived. But this period saw +the rise of a special college of dignitaries, that of the Twelve Peers +of France, consisting of six laymen and six ecclesiastics, which took +definitive shape at the beginning of the 13th century. We cannot yet +discern with any certainty by what process it was formed, why those six +prelates and those six great feudatories in particular were selected +rather than others equally eligible. But there is no doubt that we have +here a result of that process of feudal organization mentioned above; +the formation of a similar assembly of twelve peers occurs also in a +certain number of the great fiefs. Besides the part which they played at +the consecration of kings, the peers of France formed a court in which +they judged one another under the presidency of the king, their +overlord, according to feudal custom. But the _cour des pairs_ in this +sense was not separate from the _curia regis_, and later from the +parlement of Paris, of which the peers of France were by right members. +From this time, too, dates another important institution, that of the +_maitres des requetes_. + + + Growth of the royal power. + +The legislative power of the crown again began to be exercised during +the 12th century, and in the 13th century had full authority over all +the territories subject to the crown. Beaumanoir has a very interesting +theory on this subject. The right of war tends to regain its natural +equilibrium, the royal power following the Church in the endeavour to +check private wars. Hence arose the _quarantaine le roi_, due to Philip +Augustus or Saint Louis, by which those relatives of the parties to a +quarrel who had not been present at the quarrel were rendered immune +from attack for forty days after it; and above all the _assurements_ +imposed by the king or lord; on these points too Beaumanoir has an +interesting theory. The rule was, moreover, already in force by which +private wars had to cease during the time that the king was engaged in a +foreign war. But the most appreciable progress took place in the +administrative and judicial institutions. Under Philip Augustus arose +the royal _baillis_ (see BAILIFF: section _Bailli_), and seneschals +(q.v.), who were the representatives of the king in the provinces, and +superior judges. At the same time the form of the feudal courts tended +to change, as they began more and more to be influenced by the +Romano-canonical law. Saint Louis had striven to abolish trial by +combat, and the Church had condemned other forms of ordeal, the +_purgatio vulgaris_. In most parts of the country the feudal lords began +to give place in the courts of law to the provosts (_prevots_) and +_baillis_ of the lords or of the crown, who were the judges, having as +their councillors the _avocats_ (advocates) and _procureurs_ +(procurators) of the assize. The feudal courts, which were founded +solely on the relations of homage and tenure, before which the vassals +and tenants as such appeared, disappeared in part from the 13th century +on. Of the seigniorial jurisdictions there soon remained only the +_hautes_ or _basses justices_ (in the 14th century arose an intermediate +grade, the _moyenne justice_), all of which were considered to be +concessions of the royal power, and so delegations of the public +authority. As a result of the application of Roman and canon law, there +arose the _appeal_ strictly so called, both in the class of royal and of +seigniorial jurisdictions, the case in the latter instance going finally +before a royal court, from which henceforth there was no appeal. In the +13th century too appeared the theory of crown cases (_cas royaux_), +cases which the lords became incompetent to try and which were reserved +for the royal court. Finally, the _curia regis_ was gradually +transformed into a regular court of justice, the _Parlement_ (q.v.), as +it was already called in the second half of the 13th century. At this +time the king no longer appeared in it regularly, and before each +session (for it was not yet a permanent body) a list of properly +qualified men was drawn up in advance to form the parlement, only those +whose names were on the list being capable of sitting in it. Its main +function had come to be that of a final court of appeal. At the various +sessions, which were regularly held at Paris, appeared the _baillis_ and +seneschals, who were called upon to answer for the cases they had judged +and also for their administration. The accounts were received by members +of the parlement at the Temple, and this was the origin of the Cour or +Chambre des Comptes. + + + Nobles, commons and the Church in the 13th century. + +At the end of this period the nobility became an exclusive class. It +became an established rule that a man had to be noble in order to be +made a knight, and even in order to acquire a fief; but in this latter +respect the king made exceptions in the case of _roturiers_, who were +licensed to take up fiefs, subject to a payment known as the _droits de +franc-fief_. The _roturiers_, or villeins who were not in a state of +thraldom, were already a numerous class not only in the towns but in the +country. The Church maintained her privileges; a few attempts only were +made to restrain the abuse, not the extent, of her jurisdiction. This +jurisdiction was, during the 12th century, to a certain extent +regularized, the bishop nominating a special functionary to hold his +court; this was the _officialis_ (Fr. _official_), whence the name of +_officialite_ later applied in France to the ecclesiastical +jurisdictions. On one point, however, her former rights were diminished. +She preserved the right of freely acquiring personal and real property, +but though she could still acquire feudal tenures she could not keep +them; the customs decided that she must _vider les mains_, that is, +alienate the property again within a year and a day. The reason for this +new rule was that the Church, the ecclesiastical establishment, is a +proprietor who does not die and in principle does not surrender her +property; consequently, the lords had no longer the right of exacting +the transfer duties on those tenures which she acquired. It was +possible, however, to compromise and allow the Church to keep the tenure +on condition of the consent not only of the lord directly concerned, but +of all the higher lords up to the _capitalis dominus_; it goes without +saying that this concession was only obtained by the payment of +pecuniary compensations, the chief of which was the _droit +d'amortissement_, paid to these different lords. In this period the form +of the episcopal elections underwent a change, the electoral college +coming to consist only of the canons composing the chapter of the +cathedral church. But except for the official candidatures, which were +abused by the kings and great lords, the elections were regular; the +Pragmatic Sanction, attributed to Saint Louis, which implies the +contrary, is nowadays considered apocryphal by the best critics. + + + Changes in criminal law. + +Finally, it must be added that during the 13th century criminal law was +profoundly modified. Under the influence of Roman law a system of +arbitrary penalties replaced those laid down by the customs, which had +usually been fixed and cruel. The criminal procedure of the feudal +courts had been based on the right of accusation vested only in the +person wronged and his relations; for this was substituted the +inquisitorial procedure (_processus per inquisitionem_), which had +developed in the canon law at the very end of the 12th century, and was +to become the _procedure a l'extraordinaire_ of the _ancien regime_, +which was conducted in secret and without free defence and debate. Of +this procedure torture came to be an ordinary and regular part. + + + The customs. + +The customs, which at that time contained almost the whole of the law +for a great part of France, were not fixed by being written down. In +that part of France which was subject to customary law (_la France +coutumiere_) they were defined when necessary by the verdict of a jury +of practitioners in what was called the _enquete par turbes_; some of +them, however, were, in part at least, authentically recorded in +seigniorial charters, _chartes de ville_ or _chartes de coutume_. Their +rules were also recorded by experts in private works or collections +called _livres coutumiers_, or simply _coutumiers_ (customaries). The +most notable of these are _Les Coutumes de Beauvoisis_ of Philippe de +Beaumanoir, which Montesquieu justly quotes as throwing light on those +times; also the _Tres ancienne coutume de Normandie_ and the _Grand +Coutumier de Normandie_; the _Conseil a un ami of Pierre des Fontaines_, +the _Etablissements de Saint Louis_; the _Livre de jostice et de plet_. +At the same time the clerks of important judges began to collect in +registers notable decisions; it is in this way that we have preserved to +us the old decisions of the exchequer of Normandy, and the _Olim_ +registers of the parlement of Paris. + +_The Limited Monarchy._--The 14th and 15th centuries were the age of the +limited monarchy. Feudal institutions kept their political importance; +but side by side with them arose others of which the object was the +direct exercise of the royal authority; others also arose from the very +heart of feudalism, but at the same time transformed its laws in order +to adapt them to the new needs of the crown. In this period certain +rules for the succession to the throne were fixed by precedents: the +exclusion of women and of male descendants in the female line, and the +principle that a king could not by an act of will change the succession +of the crown. The old _curia regis_ disappeared and was replaced by the +parlement as to its judicial functions, while to fulfil its deliberative +functions there was formed a new body, the royal council (_conseil du +roi_), an administrative and governing council, which was in no way of a +feudal character. The number of its members was at first small, but they +tended to increase; soon the brevet of _conseiller du roi en ses +conseils_ was given to numerous representatives of the clergy and +nobility, the great officers of the crown becoming members by right. +Side by side with these officials, whose power was then at its height, +there were gradually evolved more subservient ministers who could be +dispensed with at will; the _secretaires des commandements du roi_ of +the 15th century, who in the 16th century developed into the +_secretaires d'etat_, and were themselves descended from the _clercs du +secret_ and _secretaires des finances_ of the 14th century. The College +of the Twelve Peers of France had not its full numbers at the end of the +13th century; the six ecclesiastical peerages existed and continued to +exist to the end, together with the archbishopric and bishoprics to +which they were attached, not being suppressed; but several of the great +fiefs to which six lay peerages had been attached had been annexed to +the crown. To fill these vacancies, Philip the Fair raised the duchies +of Brittany and Anjou and the countship of Artois to the rank of +peerages of France. This really amounted to changing the nature of the +institution; for the new peers held their rank merely at the king's +will, though the rank continued to belong to a great barony and to be +handed down with it. Before long peers began to be created when there +were no gaps in the ranks of the College, and there was a constant +increase in the numbers of the lay peers. + + + States general and provincial estates. + +At the beginning of the 14th century appeared the states general (_etats +generaux_), which were often convoked, though not at fixed intervals, +throughout the whole of the 14th century and the greater part of the +15th. Their power reached its height at a critical moment of the Hundred +Years' War during the reign of King John. At the same time there arose +side by side with them, and from the same causes, the provincial +estates, which were in miniature for each province what the states +general were for the whole kingdom. Of these provincial assemblies some +were founded in one or other of the great fiefs, being convoked by the +duke or count under the pressure of the same needs which led the king to +convoke the states general; others, in provinces which had already been +annexed to the crown, probably had their origin in the councils summoned +by the _bailli_ or seneschal to aid him in his administration. Later it +became a privilege for a province to have its own assembly; those which +did so were never of right subject to the royal _taille_, and kept, at +least formally, the right of sanctioning, by means of the assembly, the +subsidies which took its place. Hence it became the endeavour of the +crown to suppress these provincial assemblies, which in the 14th century +were to be found everywhere; from the outset of the 15th century they +began to disappear in central France. + + + Royal taxation. + +The most characteristic feature of this period was the institution of +universal taxation by the crown. So far the king's sole revenues were +those which he exacted, in his capacity of feudal lord, wherever another +lord did not intervene between him and the inhabitants, in addition to +the income arising from certain crown rights which he had preserved or +regained. But these revenues, known later as the income of the royal +domain and later still as the _finances ordinaires_, became insufficient +in proportion as the royal power increased; it became a necessity for +the monarch to be able to levy imposts throughout the whole extent of +the provinces annexed to the crown, even upon the subjects of the +different lords. This he could only do by means of the co-operation of +those lords, lay and ecclesiastical, who alone had the right of taxing +their subjects; the co-operation of the privileged towns, which had the +right to tax themselves, was also necessary. It was in order to obtain +this consent that the states general, in most cases, and the provincial +assemblies, in all cases, were convoked. In some cases, however, the +king adopted different methods; for instance, he sometimes utilized the +principle of the feudal aids. In cases where his vassals owed him, as +overlord, a pecuniary aid, he substituted for the sum paid directly by +his vassals a tax levied by his own authority on their subjects. It is +in this way that for thirty years the necessary sums were raised, +without any vote from the states general, to pay the ransom of King +John. But in principle the taxes were in the 14th century sanctioned by +the states general. Whatever form they took, they were given the generic +name of Aids or _auxilia_, and were considered as occasional and +extraordinary subsidies, the king being obliged in principle to "live of +his own" (_vivre de son domaine_). Certain aids, it is true, tended to +become permanent under the reign of Charles VI.; but the taxes subject +to the consent of the states general were at first the sole resource of +Charles VII. In the second half of his reign the two chief taxes became +permanent: in 1435 that of the aids (a tax on the sale of articles of +consumption, especially on wine), with the formal consent of the states +general, and that of the _taille_ in 1439. In the latter case the +consent of the states general was not given; but only the nobility +protested, for at the same time as the royal _taille_ became permanent +the seigniorial _taille_ was suppressed. These imposts were increased, +on the royal authority, by Louis XI. After his death the states general, +which met at Tours in 1484, endeavoured to re-establish the periodical +vote of the tax, and only granted it for two years, reducing it to the +sum which it had reached at the death of Charles VII. But the promise +that they would again be convoked before the expiry of two years was not +kept. These imposts and that of the _gabelle_ were henceforth permanent. +Together with the taxes there was evolved the system of their +administration. Their main outlines were laid down by the states general +in the reign of King John, in 1355 and the following years. For the +administration of the subsidies which they granted, they nominated from +among their own numbers _surintendants generaux_ or _generaux des +finances_, and further, for each diocese or equivalent district, _elus_. +Both had not only the active administration but also judicial rights, +the latter constituting courts of the first instance and the former +courts of final appeal. After 1360 the crown again adopted this +organization, which had before been only temporary; but henceforth +_generaux_ and _elus_ were nominated by the king. The _elus_, or +_officiers des elections_, only existed in districts which were subject +to the royal _taille_; hence the division, so important in old France, +into _pays d'elections_ and _pays d'etats_. The _elus_ kept both +administration and jurisdiction; but in the higher stage a +differentiation was made: the _generaux des finances_, who numbered +four, kept the administration, while their jurisdiction as a court of +final appeal was handed over to another body, the _cour des aides_, +which had already been founded at the end of the 14th century. Besides +the four _generaux des finances_, who administered the taxation, there +were four Treasurers of France (_tresoriers de France_), who +administered the royal domain; and these eight officials together formed +in the 15th century a kind of ministry of finance to the monarchy. + + + The army. + +The army also was organized. On the one hand, the military service +attached to the fiefs was transformed for the profit of the king, who +alone had the right of making war: it became the _arriere-ban_, a term +which had formerly applied to the _levee en masse_ of all the +inhabitants in times of national danger. Before the 14th century the +king had only had the power of calling upon his own immediate vassals +for service. Henceforth all possessors of fiefs owed him, whether within +the kingdom or on the frontiers, military service without pay and at +their own expense. This was for long an important resource for the king. +But Charles VII. organized an army on another footing. It comprised the +_francs-archers_ furnished by the parishes, a militia which was only +summoned in case of war, but in time of peace had to practise archery, +and companies of _gendarmerie_ or heavy cavalry, forming a permanent +establishment, which were called _compagnies d'ordonnance_. It was +chiefly to provide for the expense of the first nucleus of a permanent +army that the _taille_ itself had been made permanent. + +The new army led to the institution of the governors of provinces, who +were to command the troops quartered there. At first they were only +appointed for the frontiers and fortified places, but later the kingdom +was divided into _gouvernements generaux_. There were at first twelve of +these, which were called in the middle of the 16th century the _douze +anciens gouvernements_. Although, strictly speaking, they had only +military powers, the governors, always chosen from among the great +lords, became in the provinces the direct representatives of the king +and caused the _baillis_ and seneschals to take a secondary place. + + + The law courts. + +The courts of law continued to develop on the lines already laid down. +The parlement, which had come to be a judicial committee nominated every +year, but always consisting in fact of the same persons, changed in the +course of the 14th century into a body of magistrates who were permanent +but as yet subject to removal. During this period were evolved its +organization and definitive features (see PARLEMENT). The provincial +parlements had arisen after and in imitation of that of Paris, and had +for the most part taken the place of some superior jurisdiction which +had formerly existed in the same district when it had been independent +(like Provence) or had formed one of the great fiefs (like Normandy or +Burgundy). It was during this period also that the parlements acquired +the right of opposing the registration, that is to say, the promulgation +of laws, of revising them, and of making representations +(_remontrances_) to the king when they refused the registration, giving +the reasons for such refusal. The other royal jurisdictions were +completed (see BAILIFF, CHATELET). Besides them arose another of great +importance, which was of military origin, but came to include all +citizens under its sway. These were the provosts of the marshals of +France (_prevots des marechaux de France_), who were officers of the +_Marechaussee_ (the gendarmerie of the time); they exercised criminal +jurisdiction without appeal in the case of crimes committed by vagabonds +and fugitives from justice, this class being called their _gibier_ +(game), and of a number of crimes of violence, whatever the rank of the +offender. Further, another class of officers was created in connexion +with the law courts: the "king's men" (_gens du roi_), the _procureurs_ +and _avocats du roi_, who were at first simply those lawyers who +represented the king in the law courts, or pleaded for him when he had +some interest to follow up or to defend. Later they became officers of +the crown. In the case of the _procureurs du roi_ this development took +place in the first half of the 14th century. Their duty was not only to +represent the king in the law courts, whether as plaintiff or defendant, +but also to take care that in each case the law was applied, and to +demand its application. From this time on the _procureurs du roi_ had +full control over matters concerning the public interest, and especially +over public prosecution. In this period, too, appeared what was +afterwards called _justice retenue_, that is to say, the justice which +the king administered, or was supposed to administer, in person. It was +based on the idea that, since all justice and all judicial power reside +in the king, he could not deprive himself of them by delegating their +exercise to his officers and to the feudal lords. Consequently he could, +if he thought fit, take the place of the judges and call up a case +before his own council. He could reverse even the decisions of the +courts of final appeal, and in some cases used this means of appealing +against the decrees of the parlements (_proposition d'erreur, requete +civile, pourvoi en revision_). In these cases the king was supposed to +judge in person; in reality they were examined by the _maitres des +requetes_ and submitted to the royal council (_conseil du roi_), at +which the king was always supposed to be present and which had in itself +no power of giving a decision. For this purpose there was soon formed a +special committee of the council, which was called the _conseil prive_ +or _de justice_. At the end of the 15th century, Charles VIII., in order +to relieve the council of some of its functions, created a new final +court, the _grand conseil_, to deal with a number of these cases. But +before long it again became the custom to appeal to the _conseil du +roi_, so that the _grand conseil_ became almost useless. The king +frequently, by means of _lettres de justice_, intervened in the +procedure of the courts, by granting _benefices_, by which rules which +were too severe were modified, and faculties or facilities for +overcoming difficulties arising from flaws in contracts or judgments, +cases at that time not covered by the common law. By _lettres de grace_ +he granted reprieve or pardon in individual cases. The most extreme form +of intervention by the king was made by means of _lettres de cachet_ +(q.v.), which ordered a subject to go without trial into a state prison +or into exile. + + + The Church. + +The condition of the Church changed greatly during this period. The +jurisdiction of the _officialites_ was very much reduced, even over the +clergy. They ceased to be competent to judge actions concerning the +possession of real property, in which the clergy were defendants. In +criminal law the theory of the _cas privilegie_, which appears in the +14th century, enabled the royal judges to take action against and judge +the clergy for all serious crimes, though without the power of +inflicting any penalties but arbitrary fines, the ecclesiastical judge +remaining competent, in accordance with the privileges of clergy, to try +the offender for the same crime as what was technically called a _delit +commun_. The development of jurisprudence gradually removed from the +_officialites_ causes of a purely secular character in which laymen only +were concerned, such as wills and contracts; and in matrimonial cases +their jurisdiction was limited to those in which the _foedus matrimonii_ +was in question. For the acquisition of real property by ecclesiastical +establishments the consent of the king to the amortizement was always +necessary, even in the case of allodial lands; and if it was a case of +feudal tenures the king and the direct overlords alone kept their +rights, the intermediate lords being left out of the question. + + + Papal encroachments. + +As regards the conferring of ecclesiastical benefices, from the 14th +century onwards the papacy encroached more and more upon the rights of +the bishops, in whose gift the inferior benefices generally were, and of +the electors, who usually conferred the superior benefices; at the same +time it exacted from newly appointed incumbents heavy dues, which were +included under the generic name of annates (q.v.). During the Great +Schism of the Western Church, these abuses became more and more crying, +until by a series of edicts, promulgated with the consent and advice of +the parlement and the clergy, the Gallican Church was restored to the +possession of its former liberties, under the royal authority. Thus +France was ready to accept the decrees of reform issued by the council +of Basel (q.v.), which she did, with a few modifications, in the +Pragmatic Sanction of Charles VII., adopted after a solemn assembly of +the clergy and nobles at Bourges and registered by the parlement of +Paris in 1438. It suppressed the annates and most of the means by which +the popes disposed of the inferior benefices: the reservations and the +_gratiae expectativae_. For the choice of bishops and abbots, it +restored election by the chapters and convents. The Pragmatic Sanction, +however, was never recognized by the papacy, nor was it consistently and +strictly applied by the royal power. The transformation of the civil and +criminal law under the influence of Roman and canon law had become more +and more marked. The production of the _coutumiers_, or _livres de +pratiques_, also continued. The chief of them were: in the 14th century, +the _Stylus Vetus Curiae Parlamenti_ of Guillaume de Breuil; the _Tres +ancienne coutume de Bretagne_; the _Grand Coutumier de France_, or +_Coutumier de Charles VI._; the _Somme rural_ of Boutillier; in the 15th +century, for Auvergne, the _Practica forensis_ of Masuer. Charles VII., +in an article of the Grand Ordonnance of Montil-les-Tours (1453), +ordered the general customs to be officially recorded under the +supervision of the crown. It was an enormous work, which would almost +have transformed them into written laws; but up to the 16th century +little recording was done, the procedure established by the Ordonnance +for the purpose not being very suitable. + + + Government under the absolute monarchy. + +_The Absolute Monarchy._--From the 16th century to the Revolution was +the period of the absolute monarchy, but it can be further divided into +two periods: that of the establishment of this regime, from 1515 to +about 1673; and that of the _ancien regime_ when definitively +established, from 1673 to 1789. The reigns of Francis I. and Henry II. +clearly laid down the principle of the absolute power of the crown and +applied it effectually, as is plainly seen from the temporary +disappearance of the states general, which were not assembled under +these two reigns. There were merely a few assemblies of notables chosen +by the royal power, the most important of which was that of Cognac, +under Francis I., summoned to advise on the non-fulfilment of the treaty +of Madrid. It is true that in the second half of the 16th century the +states general reappeared. They were summoned in 1560 at Orleans, then +in 1561 at Pontoise, and in 1576 and 1588 at Blois. The League even +convoked one, which was held at Paris in 1593. This represented a +crucial and final struggle. Two points were then at issue: firstly, +whether France was to be Protestant or Catholic; secondly, whether she +was to have a limited or an absolute monarchy. The two problems were not +necessarily bound up with one another. For if the Protestants desired +political liberty, many of the Catholics wished for it too, as is proved +by the writings of the time, and even by the fact that the League +summoned the estates. But the states general of the 16th century, in +spite of their good intentions and the great talents which were at their +service, were dominated by religious passions, which made them powerless +for any practical purpose. They only produced a few great ordinances of +reform, which were not well observed. They were, however, to be called +together yet again, as a result of the disturbances which followed the +death of Henry IV.; but their dissensions and powerlessness were again +strikingly exemplified and they did not reappear until 1789. Other +bodies, however, which the royal power had created, were to carry on the +struggle against it. There were the parlements, the political rivals of +the states general. Thanks to the principle according to which no law +came into effect so long as it had not been registered by them, they +had, as we have seen, won for themselves the right of a preliminary +discussion of those laws which were presented to them, and of refusing +registration, explaining their reasons to the king by means of the +_remontrances_. The royal power saw in this merely a concession from +itself, a consultative power, which ought to yield before the royal +will, when the latter was clearly manifested, either by _lettres de +jussion_ or by the actual words and presence of the king, when he came +in person to procure the registration of a law in a so-called _lit de +justice_. But from the 16th century onwards the members of the +parlements claimed, on the strength of a historical theory, to have +inherited the powers of the ancient assemblies (the Merovingian and +Carolingian _placita_ and the _curia regis_), powers which they, +moreover, greatly exaggerated. The successful assertion of this claim +would have made them at once independent of and necessary to the crown. +During the minority of kings, they had possessed, in fact, special +opportunities for asserting their pretensions, particularly when they +had been called upon to intervene in the organization of the regency. It +is on this account that at the beginning of the reign of Louis XIV. the +parlement of Paris wished to take part in the government, and in 1648, +in concert with the other supreme courts of the capital, temporarily +imposed a sort of charter of liberties. But the first Fronde, of which +the parlement was the centre and soul, led to its downfall, which was +completed when later on Louis XIV. became all-powerful. The ordinance of +1667 on civil procedure, and above all a declaration of 1673, ordered +the parlement to register the laws as soon as it received them and +without any modification. It was only after this registration that they +were allowed to draw up remonstrances, which were henceforth futile. The +nobles, as a body, had also become politically impotent. They had been +sorely tried by the wars of religion, and Richelieu, in his struggles +against the governors of the provinces, had crushed their chief leaders. +The second Fronde was their last effort (see FRONDE). At the same time +the central government underwent changes. The great officers of the +crown disappeared one by one. The office of constable of France was +suppressed by purchase during the first half of the 17th century, and of +those in the first rank only the chancellor survived till the +Revolution. But though his title could only be taken from him by +condemnation on a capital charge, the king was able to deprive him of +his functions by taking from him the custody and use of the seal of +France, which were entrusted to a _garde des sceaux_. Apart from the +latter, the king's real ministers were the secretaries of state, +generally four in number, who were always removable and were not chosen +from among the great nobles. For purposes of internal administration, +the provinces were divided among them, each of them corresponding by +despatches with those which were assigned to him. Any other business +(with the exception of legal affairs, which belonged to the chancellor, +and finance, of which we shall speak later) was divided among them +according to convenience. At the end of the 16th century, however, were +evolved two regular departments, those of war and foreign affairs. Under +Francis I. and Henry II., the chief administration of finance underwent +a change; for the four _generaux des finances_, who had become too +powerful, were substituted the _intendants des finances_, one of whom +soon became a chief minister of finance, with the title _surintendant_. +The _generaux des finances_, like the _tresoriers_ de France, became +provincial officials, each at the head of a _generalite_ (a superior +administrative district for purposes of finance); under Henry II. the +two functions were combined and assigned to the _bureaux des finances_. +The fall of Fouquet led to the suppression of the office of +_surintendant_; but soon Colbert again became practically a minister of +finance, under the name of _controleur general des finances_, both title +and office continuing to exist up to the Revolution. + +The _conseil du roi_, the origin of which we have described, was an +important organ of the central government, and for a long time included +among its members a large number of representatives of the nobility and +clergy. Besides the councillors of state (_conseillers d'etat_), its +ordinary members, the great officers of the crown and secretaries of +state, princes of the blood and peers of France were members of it by +right. Further, the king was accustomed to grant the brevet of +councillor to a great number of the nobility and clergy, who could be +called upon to sit in the council and give an opinion on matters of +importance. But in the 17th century the council tended to differentiate +its functions, forming three principal sections, one for political, one +for financial, and the third for legal affairs. Under Louis XIV. it took +a definitely professional, administrative and technical character. The +_conseillers a brevet_ were all suppressed in 1673, and the peers of +France ceased to be members of the council. The political council, or +_conseil d'en haut_, had no _ex officio_ members, not even the +chancellor; the secretary of state for foreign affairs, however, +necessarily had entry to it; it also included a small number of persons +chosen by the king and bearing the title of ministers of state +(_ministres d'etat_). The other important sections of the conseil du roi +were the _conseil des finances_, organized after the fall of Fouquet, +and the _conseil des depeches_, in which sat the four secretaries of +state and where everything concerned with internal administration +(except finance) was dealt with, including the legal business connected +with this administration. As to the government and the preparation of +laws, under Louis XIV. and Louis XV., the _conseil du roi_ often passed +into the background, when, as the saying went, a minister who was +projecting some important measure _travaillait seul avec le roi_ (worked +alone with the king), having from the outset gained the king's ear. + + + Provincial administration. + +The chief authority in the provincial administration belonged in the +16th century to the governors of the provinces, though, strictly +speaking, the governor had only military powers in his _gouvernement_; +for, as we have seen, he was the direct representative of the king for +general purposes. But at the end of this century were created the +intendants of the provinces, who, after a period of conflict with the +governors and the parlements, became absolute masters of the +administration in all those provinces which had no provincial estates, +and the instruments of a complete administrative centralization (see +INTENDANT). + + + The towns. + +The towns having a _corps de ville_, that is to say, a municipal +organization, preserved in the 16th century a fairly wide autonomy, and +played an important part in the wars of religion, especially under the +League. But under Louis XIV. their independence rapidly declined. They +were placed under the tutelage of the intendants, whose sanction, or +that of the _conseil du roi_, was necessary for all acts of any +importance. In the closing years of the 17th century, the municipal +officials ceased, even in principle, to be elective. Their functions +ranked as offices which were, like royal offices, saleable and +heritable. The pretext given by the edicts were the intrigues and +dissensions caused by the elections; the real cause was that the +government wanted to sell these offices, which is proved by the fact +that it frequently allowed towns to redeem them and to re-establish the +elections. + + + Sale of offices. + +The sale of royal offices is one of the characteristic features of the +_ancien regime_. It had begun early, and, apparently, with the office of +councillor of the parlement of Paris, when this became permanent, in the +second half of the 14th century. It was first practised by magistrates +who wished to dispose of their office in favour of a successor of their +own choice. The _resignatio in favorem_ of ecclesiastical benefices +served as model, and at first care was taken to conceal the money +transaction between the parties. The crown winked at these resignations +in consideration of a payment in money. But in the 16th century, under +Francis I. at the latest, the crown itself began officially to sell +offices, whether newly created or vacant by the death of their +occupiers, taking a fee from those upon whom they were conferred. Under +Charles IX. the right of resigning _in favorem_ was recognized by law in +the case of royal officials, in return for a payment to the treasury of +a certain proportion of the price. In the case of judicial offices there +was a struggle for at least two centuries between the system of sale and +another, also imitated from canon law, i.e. the election or presentation +of candidates by the legal corporations. The ordinances of the second +half of the 16th century, granted in answer to complaints of the states +general, restored and confirmed the latter system, giving a share in the +presentation to the towns or provincial notables and forbidding sales. +The system of sale, however, triumphed in the end, and, in the case of +judges, had, moreover, a favourable result, assuring to them that +irremovability which Louis XI. had promised in vain; for, under this +system, the king could not reasonably dismiss an official arbitrarily +without refunding the fee which he had paid. On the other hand, it +contributed to the development of the _epices_, or dues paid by +litigants to the judges. The system of sale, and with it irremovability, +was extended to all official functions, even to financial posts. The +process was completed by the recognition of the rights in the sale of +offices as hereditary, i.e. the right of resigning the office on payment +of a fee, either in favour of a competent descendant or of a third +party, passed to the heirs of an official who had died without having +exercised this right himself. It was established under Henry IV. in 1604 +by the system called the _Paulette_, in return for the payment by the +official of an annual fee (_droit annuel_) which was definitely fixed at +a hundredth part of the price of the office. Thus these offices, though +the royal nomination was still required as well as the professional +qualifications required by the law, became heritable property in virtue +of the finance attached to them. This led to the formation of a class of +men who, though bound in many ways to the crown, were actually +independent. Hence the tendency in the 18th century to create new and +important functions under the form, not of offices, but of simple +commissions. + + + Fundamental laws of France. + +In this period of the history of France were evolved and defined the +essential principles of the old public law. There were, in the first +place, the _fundamental laws of the realm_, which were true +constitutional principles, established for the most part not by law but +by custom, and considered as binding in respect of the king himself; so +that, although he was sovereign, he could neither abrogate, nor modify, +nor violate them. There was, however, some discussion as to what rules +actually came under this category, except in the case of two series +about which there was no doubt. These were, on the one hand, those which +dealt with the succession to the crown and forbade the king to change +its order, and those which proclaimed the inalienability of the royal +domain, against which no title by prescription was valid. This last +principle, introduced in the 14th century, had been laid down and +defined by the edict of Moulins in 1566; it admitted only two +exceptions: the formation of appanages (q.v.), and selling +(_engagement_), to meet the necessities of war, with a perpetual option +of redeeming it. + +There was in the second place the theory of the rights, franchises and +liberties of the Gallican Church, formed of elements some of which were +of great antiquity, and based on the conditions which had determined the +relations of the Gallican Church with the crown and papacy during the +Great Schism and under the Pragmatic Sanction of Bourges, and defined at +the end of the 16th and the beginning of the 17th century. This body of +doctrine was defined by the writings of three men especially, Guy +Coquille, Pierre Pithou and Pierre Dupuy, and was solemnly confirmed by +the declaration of the clergy of France, or _Declaration des quatres +articles_ of 1682, and by the edict which promulgated it. Its substance +was based chiefly on three principles: firstly, that the temporal power +was absolutely independent of the spiritual power; secondly, that the +pope had authority over the clergy of France in temporal matters and +matters of discipline only by the consent of the king; thirdly, that +the king had authority over and could legislate for the Gallican Church +in temporal matters and matters of discipline. The old public law +provided a safeguard against the violation of these rules. This was the +process known as the _appel comme d'abus_, formed of various elements, +some of them very ancient, and definitely established during the 16th +century. It was heard before the parlements, but could, like every other +case, be evoked before the royal council. Its effect was to annul any +act of the ecclesiastical authority due to abuse or contrary to French +law. The clergy were, when necessary, reduced to obedience by means of +arbitrary fines and by the seizure of their temporalities. The Pragmatic +Sanction had been abrogated and replaced by the Concordat of 1515, +concluded between Francis I. and Leo X., which remained in force until +suppressed by the Constituent Assembly. The Concordat, moreover, +preserved many of the enactments of the Pragmatic Sanction, notably +those which protected the collation of the inferior benefices from the +encroachments of the papacy, and which had introduced reforms in certain +points of discipline. But in the case of the superior benefices +(bishoprics and abbeys) election by the chapters was suppressed. The +king of France nominated the candidate, to whom the pope gave canonical +institution. As a matter of fact, the pope had no choice; he had to +institute the nominee of the king, unless he could show his unworthiness +or incapacity, as the result of inquiries regularly conducted in France; +for the pope it was, as the ancient French authors used to say, a case +of compulsory collation. The annates were re-established at the time of +the Concordat, but considerably diminished in comparison with what they +had been before the Pragmatic Sanction. We must add, to complete this +account, that many of the inferior benefices, in France as in the rest +of Christendom, were conferred according to the rules of patronage, the +patron, whether lay or ecclesiastic, presenting a candidate whom the +bishop was bound to appoint, provided he was neither incapable nor +unsuitable. There was some difficulty in getting the Concordat +registered by the parlement of Paris, and the latter even announced its +intention of not taking the Concordat into account in those cases +concerning benefices which might come before it. The crown found an easy +method of making this opposition ineffectual, namely, to transfer to the +Grand Conseil the decision of cases arising out of the application of +the Concordat. + +In the 16th century also, contributions to the public services drawn +from the immense possessions of the clergy were regularized. Since the +second half of the 12th century at least, the kings had in times of +urgent need asked for subsidies from the church, and ever since the +Saladin tithe (_dime saladine_) of Philip Augustus this contribution had +assumed the form of a tithe, taking a tenth part of the revenue of the +benefices for a given period. Tithes of this kind were fairly frequently +granted by the clergy of France, either with the pope's consent or +without (this being a disputed point). After the conclusion of the +Concordat, Leo X. granted the king a tithe (_decime_) under the pretext +of a projected war against the Turks; hitherto concessions of this kind +had been made by the papacy in view of the Crusades or of wars against +heretics. The concession was several times renewed, until, by force of +custom, the levying of these tithes became permanent. But in the middle +of the 16th century the system changed. The crown was heavily in debt, +and its needs had increased. The property of the clergy having been +threatened by the states general of 1560 and 1561, the king proposed to +them to remit the bulk of the tithes and other dues, in return for the +payment by them of a sum equivalent to the proceeds of the taxes which +he had mortgaged. A formal contract to this effect was concluded at +Poissy in 1561 between the king and the clergy of France, represented by +the prelates who were then gathered together for the Colloquy of Poissy +with the Protestants, and some of those who had been sitting at the +states general of Pontoise. The fulfilment of this agreement was, +however, evaded by the king, who diverted part of the funds provided by +the clergy from their proper purpose. In 1580, after a period of ten +years which had been agreed on, a new assembly of the clergy was called +together and, after protesting against this action, renewed the +agreement, which was henceforward always renewed every ten years. Such +was the definitive form of the contribution of the clergy, who also +acquired the right of themselves assessing and levying these taxes on +the holders of benefices. Thus every ten years there was a great +assembly of the clergy, the members of which were elected. There were +two stages in the election, a preliminary one in the dioceses and a +further election in the ecclesiastical provinces, each province sending +four deputies to the general assembly, two of the first rank, that is to +say, chosen from the episcopate, and two of the second rank, which +included all the other clergy. The _dons gratuits_ (benevolences) voted +by the assembly comprised a fixed sum equivalent to the old tithes and +supplementary sums paid on one occasion only, which were sometimes +considerable. The church, on her side, profited by this arrangement in +order to obtain the commutation or redemption of the taxes affecting +ecclesiastics considered as individuals. This settlement only applied to +the "clergy of France," that is to say, to the clergy of those districts +which were united to the crown before the end of the 16th century. The +provinces annexed later, called _pays etrangers_, or _pays conquis_, had +in this matter, as in many others, an arrangement of their own. At last, +under Louis XV. the edict of 1749, _concernant les etablissements et +acquisitions des gens de mainmorte_, was completely effective in +subordinating the acquisition of property by ecclesiastical +establishments to the consent and control of the crown, rendering them +incapable of acquiring real property by bequests. + +At the end of the 16th century a wise law had been made which, in spite +of the traces which it bore of past struggles, had established a +reasonable balance among the Christians of France. The edict of Nantes, +in 1598, granted the Protestants full civil rights, liberty of +conscience and public worship in many places, and notably in all the +royal _bailliages_. The Catholics, whose religion was essentially a +state religion, had never accepted this arrangement as final, and at +last, in 1685, under Louis XIV., the edict of Nantes was revoked and the +Protestant pastors expelled from France. Their followers were forbidden +to leave the country, but many succeeded nevertheless in escaping +abroad. The position of those who remained behind was peculiar. Laws +passed in 1715 and 1724 established the legal theory that there were no +longer any Protestants in France, but only _vieux catholiques_ and +_nouveaux convertis_. The result was that henceforth they had no longer +any regular civil status, the registers containing the lists of +Catholics enjoying civil rights being kept by the Catholic clergy. + +The form of government established under Louis XIV. was preserved +without any fundamental modification under Louis XV. After the death of +Louis XIV., however, the regent, under the inspiration of the duc de St +Simon, made trial of a system of which the latter had made a study while +in a close correspondence with the duke of Burgundy. It consisted in +substituting for the authority of the ministers, secretaries of state +and controller-general councils, or governmental bodies, mainly composed +of great lords and prelates. These only lasted for a few years, when a +return was made to the former organization. The parlements had regained +their ancient rights in consequence of the parlement of Paris having, in +1715, set aside the will of Louis XIV. as being contrary to the +fundamental laws of the kingdom, in that it laid down rules for the +composition of the council of regency, and limited the power of the +regent. This newly revived power they exercised freely, and all the more +so since they were the last surviving check on the royal authority. +During this reign there were numerous conflicts between them and the +government, the causes of this being primarily the innumerable incidents +to which the bull _Unigenitus_ gave rise, and the increase of taxation; +proceedings against Jesuits also figure conspicuously in the action of +the parlements. They became at this period the avowed representatives of +the nation; they contested the validity of the registration of laws in +the _lits de justice_, asserting that laws could only be made obligatory +when the registration had been freely endorsed by themselves. Before +the registration of edicts concerning taxation they demanded a statement +of the financial situation and the right of examining the accounts. +Finally, by the theory of the _classes_, which considered the various +parlements of France as parts of one and the same body, they established +among them a political union. These pretensions the crown refused to +recognize. Louis XV. solemnly condemned them in a _lit de justice_ of +December 1770, and in 1771 the chancellor Maupeou took drastic measures +against them. The magistrates of the parlement of Paris were removed, +and a new parlement was constituted, including the members of the _grand +conseil_, which had also been abolished. The _cour des aides_ of Paris, +which had made common cause with the parlement, was also suppressed. +Many of the provincial parlements were reorganized, and a certain number +of useful reforms were carried out in the jurisdiction of the parlement +of Paris; the object of these, however, was in most cases that of +diminishing its importance. These actions, the _coup d'etat_ of the +chancellor Maupeou, as they were called, produced an immense sensation. +The repeated conflicts of the reign of Louis XV. had already given rise +to a whole literature of books, pamphlets and tracts in which the rights +of the crown were discussed. At the same time the political philosophy +of the 18th century was disseminating new principles, and especially +those of the supremacy of the people and the differentiation of powers, +the government of England also became known among the French. Thus men's +minds were being prepared for the Revolution. + +The personal government of Louis XVI. from 1774 to 1789 was chiefly +marked by two series of facts. Firstly, there was the partial +application of the principles propounded by the French economists of +this period, the Physiocrats, who had a political doctrine peculiar to +themselves. They were not in favour of political liberty, but attached +on the contrary to the absolute monarchy, of which they did not fear the +abuses because they were convinced that so soon as they should be known, +reason (_evidence_) alone would suffice to make the crown respect the +"natural and essential laws of bodies politic" (_Lois naturelles et +essentielles des societes politiques_, the title of a book by Mercier de +La Riviere). On the other hand, they favoured civil and economic +liberty. They wished, in particular, to decentralize the administration +and restore to the landed proprietors the administration and levying of +taxes, which they wished to reduce to a tax on land only. This school +came into power with Turgot, who was appointed controller-general of the +finances, and laid the foundations of many reforms. He actually +accomplished for the moment one very important reform, namely, the +suppression of the trade and craft gilds (_communautes, jurandes et +maitrises_). This organization, which was common to the whole of Europe +(see GILDS), had taken definitive shape in France in the 13th and 14th +centuries, but had subsequently been much abused. Turgot suppressed the +privileges of the _maitres_, who alone had been able to work on their +own account, or to open shops and workshops, and thus proclaimed the +freedom of labour, industry and commerce. However, the old organization, +slightly amended, was restored under his successor Necker. It was +Turgot's purpose to organize provincial and other inferior assemblies, +whose chief business was to be the assessment of taxes. Necker applied +this idea, partially and experimentally, by creating a few of these +provincial assemblies in various _generalites_ of the _pays +d'elections_. A general reform on these lines and on a very liberal +basis was proposed by Calonne to the assembly of notables in 1787, and +it was brought into force for all the _pays d'elections_, though not +under such good conditions, by an edict of the same year. Louis XVI. had +inaugurated his reign by the restoration of the parlements; all the +bodies which had been suppressed by Maupeou and all the officials whom +he had dismissed were restored, and all the bodies and officials created +by him were suppressed. But it was not long before the old struggle +between the crown and parlements again broke out. It began by the +conservative opposition offered by the parlement of Paris to Turgot's +reforms. But the real struggle broke out in 1787 over the edicts coming +from the assembly of notables, and particularly over the two new taxes, +the stamp duty and the land tax. The parlement of Paris refused to +register them, asserting that the consent of the taxpayers, as +represented by the states general, was necessary to fresh taxation. The +struggle seemed to have come to an end in September; but in the +following November it again broke out, in spite of the king's promise to +summon the states general. It reached its height in May 1788, when the +king had created a _cour pleniere_ distinct from the parlements, the +chief function of which was to register the laws in their stead. A +widespread agitation arose, amounting to actual anarchy, and was only +ended by the recall of Necker to power and the promise to convoke the +states general for 1789. + + + The army. + +_Various Institutions._--The permanent army which, as has been stated +above, was first established under Charles VII., was developed and +organized during the _ancien regime_. The _gendarmerie_ or heavy cavalry +was continuously increased in numbers. On the other hand, the _francs +archers_ fell into disuse after Louis XI.; and, after a fruitless +attempt had been made under Francis I. to establish a national infantry, +the system was adopted for this also of recruiting permanent bodies of +mercenaries by voluntary enlistment. First there were the "old bands" +(_vieilles bandes_), chiefly those of Picardy and Piedmont, and at the +end of the 16th century appeared the first regiments, the number of +which was from time to time increased. There were also in the service +and pay of the king French and foreign regiments, the latter principally +Swiss, Germans and Scots. The system of purchase penetrated also to the +army. Each regiment was the property of a great lord; the captain was, +so to speak, owner of his company, or rather a contractor, who, in +return for the sums paid him by the king, recruited his men and gave +them their uniform, arms and equipment. In the second half of the reign +of Louis XIV. appeared the militia (_milices_). To this force each +parish had to furnish one recruit, who was at first chosen by the +assembly of the inhabitants, later by drawing lots among the bachelors +or widowers without children, who were not exempt. The militia was very +rarely raised from the towns. The purpose for which these men were +employed varied from time to time. Sometimes, as under Louis XIV., they +were formed into special active regiments. Under Louis XV. and Louis +XVI. they were formed into _regiments provinciaux_, which constituted an +organized reserve. But their chief use was during war, when they were +individually incorporated into various regiments to fill up the gaps. + +Under Louis XV., with the duc de Choiseul as minister of war, great and +useful reforms were effected in the army. Choiseul suppressed what he +called the "farming of companies" (_compagnie-ferme_); recruiting became +a function of the state, and voluntary enlistment a contract between the +recruit and the state. Arms, uniform and equipment were furnished by the +king. Choiseul also equalized the numbers of the military units, and his +reforms, together with a few others effected under Louis XVI., produced +the army which fought the first campaigns of the Revolution. + + + System of taxation. + +One of the most distinctive features of the _ancien regime_ was +excessive taxation. The taxes imposed by the king were numerous, and, +moreover, hardly any of them fell on all parts of the kingdom. To this +territorial inequality was added the inequality arising from privileges. +Ecclesiastics, nobles, and many of the crown officials were exempted +from the heaviest imposts. The chief taxes were the _taille_ (q.v.), the +_aides_ and the _gabelle_ (q.v.), or monopoly of salt, the consumption +of which was generally made compulsory up to the amount determined by +regulations. In the 17th and 18th centuries certain important new taxes +were established: from 1695 to 1698 the _capitation_, which was +re-established in 1701 with considerable modifications, and in 1710 the +tax of the _dixieme_, which became under Louis XV. the tax of the +_vingtiemes_. These two imposts had been established on the principle of +equality, being designed to affect every subject in proportion to his +income; but so strong was the system of privileges, that as a matter of +fact the chief burden fell upon the roturiers. The income of a roturier +who was not exempt was thus subject in turn to three direct imposts: the +_taille_, the _capitation_ and the _vingtiemes_, and the apportioning or +assessment of these was extremely arbitrary. In addition to indirect +taxation strictly so called, which was very extensive in the 17th and +18th centuries, France under the _ancien regime_ was subject to the +_traites_, or customs, which were not only levied at the frontiers on +foreign trade, but also included many internal custom-houses for trade +between different provinces. Their origin was generally due to +historical reasons; thus, among the _provinces reputees etrangeres_ were +those which in the 14th century had refused to pay the aids for the +ransom of King John, also certain provinces which had refused to allow +customs offices to be established on their foreign frontier. Colbert had +tried to abolish these internal duties, but had only succeeded to a +limited extent. + +The indirect taxes, the _traites_ and the revenues of the royal domain +were farmed out by the crown. At first a separate contract had been made +for each impost in each _election_, but later they were combined into +larger lots, as is shown by the name of one of the customs districts, +_l'enceinte des cinq grosses fermes_. From the reign of Henry IV. on the +levying of each indirect impost was farmed _en bloc_ for the whole +kingdom, a system known as the _fermes generales_; but the real _ferme +generale_, including all the imposts and revenues which were farmed in +the whole of France, was only established under Colbert. The _ferme +generale_ was a powerful company, employing a vast number of men, most +of whom enjoyed various privileges. Besides the royal taxes, seigniorial +imposts survived under the form of tolls and market dues. The lords also +often possessed local monopolies, e.g. the right of the common bakehouse +(_four banal_), which were called the _banalites_. + + + Courts of law. + +The organization of the royal courts of justice underwent but few +modifications during the _ancien regime_. The number of parlements, of +_cours des aides_ and of _cours des comptes_ increased; in the 17th +century the name of _conseil superieur_ was given to some new bodies +which actually discharged the functions of the parlement, this being the +period of the decline of the parlement. In the 16th century, under Henry +II., had been created _presidiaux_, or courts of final jurisdiction, +intended to avoid numerous appeals in small cases, and above all to +avoid a final appeal to the parlements. Seigniorial courts survived, but +were entirely subordinate to the royal jurisdictions and were badly +officered by ill-paid and ignorant judges, the lords having long ago +lost the right to sit in them in person. Their chief use was to deal +with cases concerning the payment of feudal dues to the lord. Both +lawyers and people would have preferred only two degrees of justice; and +an ordinance of May 1788 realized this desire in the main. It did not +suppress the seigniorial jurisdictions, but made their extinction a +certainty by allowing litigants to ignore them and go straight to the +royal judges. This was, however, reversed on the recall of Necker and +the temporary triumph of the parlements. + + + Ecclesiastical courts. + +The ecclesiastical jurisdictions survived to the end, but with +diminished scope. Their competency had been considerably reduced by the +Ordinance of Villers Cotterets of 1539, and by an edict of 1693. But a +series of ingenious legal theories had been principally efficacious in +gradually depriving them of most of the cases which had hitherto come +under them. In the 18th century the privilege of clergy did not prevent +civil suits in which the clergy were defendants from being almost always +taken before secular tribunals, and ever since the first half of the +17th century, for all grave offences, or _cas privilegies_, the royal +judge could pronounce a sentence of corporal punishment on a guilty +cleric without this necessitating his previous degradation. The inquiry +into the case was, it is true, conducted jointly by the royal and the +ecclesiastical judge, but each of them pronounced his sentence +independently. All cases concerning benefices came before the royal +judges. Finally, the _officialites_ had no longer as a rule any +jurisdiction over laymen, even in the matter of marriage, except in +questions of betrothals, and sometimes in cases of opposition to +marriages. The parish priests, however, continued to enter declarations +of baptisms, marriages and burials in registers kept according to the +civil laws. + + + The "customs." + +The general customs of the _pays coutumiers_ were almost all officially +recorded in the 16th century, definite procedure for this purpose having +been adopted at the end of the 15th century. Drafts were prepared by the +officials of the royal courts in the chief town of the district in which +the particular customs were valid, and were then submitted to the +government. The king then appointed commissioners to visit the district +and promulgate the customs on the spot. For the purpose of this +_publication_ the lords, lay and ecclesiastical, of the district, with +representatives of the towns and of various bodies of the inhabitants, +were summoned for a given day to the chief town. In this assembly each +article was read, discussed and put to the vote. Those which were +approved by the majority were thereupon decreed (_decretes_) by the +commissioners in the king's name; those which gave rise to difficulties +were put aside for the parlement to settle when it registered the +_coutume_. The _coutumes_ in this form became practically written law; +henceforward their text could only be modified by a formal revision +carried out according to the same procedure as the first version. +Throughout the 16th century a fair number of _coutumes_ were thus +revised (_reformees_), with the express object of profiting by the +observations and criticisms on the first text which had appeared in +published commentaries and notes, the most important of which were those +of Charles Dumoulin. In the 16th century there had been a revival of the +study of Roman law, thanks to the historical school, among the most +illustrious representatives of which were Jacques Cujas, Hugues Doneau +and Jacques Godefroy; but this study had only slight influence on +practical jurisprudence. Certain institutions, however, such as +contracts and obligations, were regulated throughout the whole of France +by the principles of Roman law. + +Legislation by _ordonnances, edits, declarations_ or _lettres patentes_, +emanating from the king, became more and more frequent; but the +character of the _grandes ordonnances_, which were of a far-reaching and +comprehensive nature, underwent a change during this period. In the +14th, 15th and 16th centuries they had been mainly _ordonnances de +reformation_ (i.e. revising previous laws), which were most frequently +drawn up after a sitting of the states general, in accordance with the +suggestions submitted by the deputies. The last of this type was the +ordinance of 1629, promulgated after the states general of 1614 and the +assemblies of notables which had followed it. In the 17th and 18th +centuries they became essentially _codifications_, comprising a +systematic and detailed statement of the whole branch of law. There are +two of these series of codifying ordinances: the first under Louis XIV., +inspired by Colbert and carried out under his direction. The chief +ordinances of this group are that of 1667 on civil procedure (code of +civil procedure); that of 1670 on the examination of criminal cases +(code of penal procedure); that of 1673 on the commerce of merchants, +and that of 1681 on the regulation of shipping, which form between them +a complete code of commerce by land and sea. The ordinance of 1670 +determined the formalities of that secret and written criminal +procedure, as opposed to the hearing of both parties in a suit, which +formerly obtained in France; it even increased its severity, continuing +the employment of torture, binding the accused by oath to speak the +truth, and refusing them counsel save in exceptional cases. The second +series of codifications was made under Louis XV., through the action of +the chancellor d'Aguesseau. Its chief result was the regulation, by the +ordinances of 1731, 1735 and 1747, of deeds of gift between living +persons, wills, and property left in trust. Under Louis XVI. some +mitigation was made of the criminal law, notably the abolition of +torture. + + + Land tenure. + +The feudal regime, in spite of the survival of seigniorial courts and +tolls, was no longer of any political importance; but it still furnished +the common form of real property. The fief, although it still implied +homage from the vassal, no longer involved any service on his part +(excepting that of the _arriere-ban_ due to the king); but when a fief +changed hands the lord still exacted his _profits_. Tenures held by +_roturiers_, in addition to some similar rights of transfer, were +generally subject to periodical and fixed contributions for the profit +of the lord. This system was still further complicated by tenures which +were simply real and not feudal, e.g. that by payment of ground rent, +which were superadded to the others, and had become all the heavier +since, in the 18th century, royal rights of transfer had been added to +the feudal rights. The inhabitants of the country districts were longing +for the liberation of real property. + + + Serfdom. + + The three estates. + +Serfdom had disappeared from most of the provinces of the kingdom; among +all the _coutumes_ which were officially codified, not more than ten or +so still recognized this institution. This had been brought about +especially by the agency of the custom by which serfs had been +transformed into _roturiers_. An edict of Louis XVI. of 1779 abolished +serfdom on crown lands, and mitigated the condition of the serfs who +still existed on the domains of individual lords. The nobility still +remained a privileged class, exempt from certain taxes. Certain offices +were restricted to the nobility; according to an edict of Louis XVI. +(1781) it was even necessary to be a noble in order to become an officer +in the army. In fact, the royal favours were reserved for the nobility. +Certain rules of civil and criminal procedure also distinguished nobles +from _roturiers_. The acquisition of fiefs had ceased to bring nobility +with it, but the latter was derived from three sources: birth, _lettres +d'anoblissement_ granted by the king and appointment to certain offices. +In the 17th and 18th centuries the peers of France can be reckoned among +the nobility, forming indeed its highest grade, though the rank of peer +was still attached to a fief, which was handed down with it; on the eve +of the Revolution there were thirty-eight lay peers. The rest of the +nation, apart from the ecclesiastics, consisted of the _roturiers_, who +were not subject to the disabilities of the serfs, but had not the +privileges of the nobility. Hence the three orders (estates) of the +kingdom: the clergy, the nobility and the _tiers etat_ (third estate). +An edict of Louis XVI. had made a regular civil status possible to the +Protestants, and had thrown open offices and professions to them, though +not entirely; but the exercise of their religion was still forbidden. + +_The Revolution._--With the Revolution France entered the ranks of +constitutional countries, in which the liberty of men is guaranteed by +fixed and definite laws; from this time on, she has had always (except +in the interval between two revolutions) a written constitution, which +could not be touched by the ordinary legislative power. The first +constitution was that of 1791; the states general of 1789, transformed +by their own will, backed by public opinion, into the Constituent +Assembly, drew it up on their own authority. But their work did not stop +there. They abolished the whole of the old public law of France and part +of the criminal law, or rather, transformed it in accordance with the +principles laid down by the political philosophy of the 18th century. +The principles which were then proclaimed are still, on most points, the +foundation of modern French law. The development resulting from this +extraordinary impetus can be divided into two quite distinct phases: the +first, from 1789 to the _coup d'etat_ of the 18th Brumaire in the year +VIII., was the continuation of the impulse of the Revolution; the second +includes the Consulate and the first Empire, and was, as it were, the +marriage or fusion of the institutions arising from the Revolution with +those of the _ancien regime_. + + + The Constitutions of the Revolution. + +On the whole, the constitutional law of the Revolution is a remarkably +united whole, if we consider only the two constitutions which were +effectively applied during this first phase, that of the 3rd of +September 1791, and that of the 5th Fructidor in the year III. It is +true that between them occurred the ultra-democratic constitution of the +24th of June 1793, the first voted by the Convention; but although this +was ratified by the popular vote, to which it had been directly +submitted, in accordance with a principle proclaimed by the Convention +and kept in force under the Consulate and the Empire, it was never +carried into effect. It was first suspended by the establishment of the +revolutionary government strictly so called, and after Thermidor, under +the pretext of completing it, the Convention put it aside and made a new +one, being taught by experience. As long as it existed it was the +sovereign assembly of the Convention itself which really exercised the +executive power, governing chiefly by means of its great committees. + +The constitution of 1791 was without doubt monarchical, in so far as it +preserved royalty. The constitution of the year III. was, on the +contrary, republican. The horror of monarchy was still so strong at that +time that an executive college was created, a Directory of five members, +one of whom retired every year; they were elected by a complicated and +curious procedure, in which each of the two legislative councils played +a distinct part. But this difference, though apparently essential, was +not in reality very profound; this is proved, for example, by the fact +that the Directory had distinctly more extensive powers than those +conferred on Louis XVI. by the Constituent Assembly. On almost all +points of importance the two constitutions were similar. They were both +preceded by a statement of principles, a "Declaration of the Rights of +Man and of the Citizen." They were both based on two principles which +they construed alike: the sovereignty of the people and the separation +of powers. Both of them (with the exception of what has been said with +regard to the ratification of constitutions after 1793) recognized only +representative government. From the principle of the sovereignty of the +people they had not deduced universal suffrage; though, short of this, +they had extended the suffrage as far as possible. According to the +constitution of 1791, in addition to the conditions of age and +residence, an elector was bound to pay a direct contribution equivalent +to three days' work; the constitution of the year III. recognized the +payment of any direct contribution as sufficient; it even conferred on +every citizen the right of having himself enrolled, without any other +qualification than a payment equivalent to three days' work, and thus to +become an elector. Further, neither of the two constitutions admitted of +a direct suffrage; the elections were carried out in two stages, and +only those who paid at a higher rating could be chosen as electors for +the second stage. The executive power, which was in the case of both +constitutions clearly separated from the legislative, could not initiate +legislation. The Directory had no veto; Louis XVI. had with difficulty +obtained a merely suspensive veto, which was overridden in the event of +three legislatures successively voting against it. The right of +dissolution was possessed by neither the king nor the Directory. Neither +the king's ministers nor those of the Directory could be members of the +legislative body, nor could they even be chosen from among its ranks. +The ministers of Louis XVI. had, however, thanks to an unfortunate +inspiration of the Constituent Assembly of 1791, the right of entry to, +and, to a certain extent, of speaking in the Legislative Assembly; the +constitution of the year III. showed greater wisdom in not bringing them +in any way into contact with the legislative power. The greatest and +most notable difference between the two constitutions was that that of +1791 established a single chamber which was entirely renewed every two +years; that of the year III., on the contrary, profiting by the lessons +of the past, established two chambers, one-third of the members of which +were renewed every year. Moreover, the two chambers, the Council of Five +Hundred and the Council of Ancients, were appointed by the same +electors, and almost the only difference between their members was that +of age. + + + Abolition of the "ancien regime." + +The Revolution entirely abolished the _ancien regime_, and in the first +instance whatever remained of feudalism. The Constituent Assembly, in +the course of its immense work of settlement, wished to draw +distinctions, abolishing absolutely, without indemnity, all rights which +had amounted in the beginning to a usurpation and could not be +justified, e.g. serfdom and seigniorial courts of justice. On the other +hand, it declared subject to redemption such feudal charges as had been +the subject of contract or of a concession of lands. But as it was +almost impossible to discover the exact origin of various feudal +rights, the Assembly had proceeded to do this by means of certain legal +assumptions which sometimes admitted of a proof to the contrary. It +carefully regulated the conditions and rate of repurchase, and forbade +the creation in the future of any perpetual charge which could not be +redeemed: a principle that has remained permanent in French law. This +was a rational and equitable solution; but in a period of such violent +excitement it could not be maintained. The Legislative Assembly declared +the abolishment without indemnity of all feudal rights for which the +original deed of concession could not be produced; and to produce this +was, of course, in most cases impossible. Finally, the Convention +entirely abolished all feudal rights, and commanded that the old deeds +should be destroyed; it maintained on the contrary, though subject to +redemption, those tenures and charges which were solely connected with +landed property and not feudal. + +With feudalism had been abolished serfdom. Further, the Constituent +Assembly suppressed nobility; it even forbade any one to assume and bear +the titles, emblems and arms of nobility. Thus was established the +equality of citizens before the law. The Assembly also proclaimed the +liberty of labour and industry, and suppressed the corporations of +artisans and workmen, the _jurandes_ and _maitrises_, as Turgot had +done. But, in order to maintain this liberty of the individual, it +forbade all associations between workers, or employers, fearing that +such contracts would again lead to the formation of corporations similar +to the old ones. It even forbade and declared punishable, as being +contrary to the declaration of the rights of man and the citizen, +combinations or strikes, or an agreement between workmen or employers to +refuse to work or to give work except on given conditions. Such, for a +long time, was French legislation on this point. + + + Administrative reorganization. + +The Constituent Assembly gave to France a new administrative division, +that into departments, districts, cantons and communes; and this +division, which was intended to make the old provincial distinctions +disappear, had to serve all purposes, the department being the unit for +all public services. This settlement was definitive, with the exception +of certain modifications in detail, and exists to the present day. But +there was a peculiar administrative organism depending on this +arrangement. The constitution of 1791, it is true, made the king the +titulary head of the executive power; but the internal administration of +the kingdom was not actually in his hands. It was deputed, under his +orders, to bodies elected in each department, district and commune. The +municipal bodies were directly elected by citizens duly qualified; other +bodies were chosen by the method of double election. Each body consisted +of two parts: a council, for deliberative purposes, and a _bureau_ or +_directoire_ chosen by the council from among its numbers to form the +executive. These were the only instruments for the general +administration and for that of the direct taxes. The king could, it is +true, annul the illegal acts of these bodies, but not dismiss their +members; he could merely suspend them from exercising their functions, +but the matter then went before the Legislative Assembly, which could +maintain or remit the suspension as it thought fit. The king had not a +single agent chosen by himself for general administrative purposes. This +was a reaction, though a very exaggerated one, against the excessive +centralization of the _ancien regime_, and resulted in an absolute +administrative anarchy. The organization of the revolutionary government +partly restored the central authority; the councils of the departments +were suppressed; the Committee of Public Safety and the "representatives +of the people on mission" were able to remove and replace the members of +the elected bodies; and also, by an ingenious arrangement, national +agents were established in the districts. The constitution of the year +III. continued in this course, simplifying the organization established +by the Constituent Assembly, while maintaining its principle. The +department had an administration of five members, elected as in the +past, but having executive as well as deliberative functions. The +district was suppressed. The communes retained only a municipal agent +elected by themselves, and the actual municipal body, the importance of +which was considerably increased, was removed to the canton, and +consisted of the municipal agents from each commune, and a president +elected by the duly qualified citizens of the canton. The Directory was +represented in each departmental and communal administration by a +commissary appointed and removable by itself, and could dismiss the +members of these administrations. + + + Judicial system. + +The Constituent Assembly decided on the complete reorganization of the +judicial organization. This was accomplished on a very simple plan, +which realized that ideal of the two degrees of justice which, as we +have noticed, was that of France under the _ancien regime_. In the lower +degrees it created in each canton a justice of the peace (_juge de +paix_), the idea and name of which were borrowed from England, but which +differed very much from the English justice of the peace. He judged, +both with and without appeal, civil cases of small importance; and, in +cases which did not come within his competency, it was his duty to try +to reconcile the parties. In each district was established a civil court +composed of five judges. This completed the judicial organization, +except for the court of cassation, which had functions peculiar to +itself, never judging the facts of the case but only the application of +the law. For cases coming under the district court, the Assembly had not +thought fit to abolish the guarantee of the appeal in cases involving +sums above a certain figure. But by a curious arrangement the district +tribunals could hear appeals from one another. With regard to penal +prosecutions, there was in each department a criminal court which judged +crimes with the assistance of a jury; it consisted of judges borrowed +from district courts, and had its own president and public prosecutor. +Correctional tribunals, composed of _juges de paix_, dealt with +misdemeanours. The Assembly preserved the commercial courts, or consular +jurisdictions, of the _ancien regime_. There was a court of cassation, +the purpose of which was to preserve the unity of jurisprudence in +France; it dealt with matters of law and not of fact, considering +appeals based on the violation of law, whether in point of matter or of +form, and if such violation were proved, sending the matter before +another tribunal of the same rank for re-trial. All judges were elected +for a term of years; the _juges de paix_ by the primary assembly of the +canton, the district judges by the electoral assembly consisting of the +electors of the second degree for the district, the members of the court +of cassation by the electors of the departments, who were divided for +the purpose into two series, which voted alternately. The Constituent +Assembly did, it is true, require professional guarantees, by proof of a +more or less extended exercise of the profession of lawyer from all +judges except the _juges de paix_. But the system was really the same as +that of the administrative organization. The king only appointed the +_commissaires du roi_ attached to the district courts, criminal +tribunals and the court of cassation; but the appointment once made +could not be revoked by him. These commissaries fulfilled one of the +functions of the old _ministere public_, their duty being to demand the +application of laws. The Convention did not change this general +organization; but it suppressed the professional guarantees required in +the case of candidates for a judgeship, so that henceforth all citizens +were eligible; and it also caused new elections to take place. Moreover, +the Convention, either directly or by means of one of its committees, +not infrequently removed and replaced judges without further election. +The constitution of the year III. preserved this system, but introduced +one considerable modification. It suppressed the district courts, and in +their place created in each department a civil tribunal consisting of +twenty judges. The idea was a happy one, for it gave the courts more +importance, and therefore more weight and dignity. But this reform, +beneficial as it would be nowadays, was at the time premature, in view +of the backward condition of means of communication. + + + The army. + +The Constituent Assembly suppressed the militia and maintained the +standing army, according to the old type, the numbers of which were +henceforth to be fixed every year by the Legislative Assembly. The army +was to be recruited by voluntary enlistment, careful rules for which +were drawn up; the only change was in the system of appointment to +ranks; promotion went chiefly by seniority, and in the lower ranks a +system of nomination by equals or inferiors was organized. The Assembly +proclaimed, however, the principle of compulsory and personal service, +but under a particular form, that of the National Guard, to which all +qualified citizens belonged, and in which almost all ranks were +conferred by election. Its chief purpose was to maintain order at home; +but it could be called upon to furnish detachments for defence against +foreign invasion. This was an institution which, with many successive +modifications, and after various long periods of inactivity followed by +a revival, lasted more than three-quarters of a century, and was not +suppressed till 1871. For purposes of war the Convention, in addition to +voluntary enlistments and the resources furnished by the National +Guards, and setting aside the forced levy of 200,000 men in 1793, +decided on the expedient of calling upon the communes to furnish men, a +course which revived the principle of the old militia. But the Directory +drew up an important military law, that of the 6th Fructidor of the year +VI., which established compulsory military service for all, under the +form of conscription strictly so called. Frenchmen aged from 20 to 25 +(_defenseurs conscrits_) were divided into five classes, each including +the men born in the same year, and were liable until they were 25 years +old to be called up for active service, the whole period of service not +exceeding four years. No class was called upon until the younger classes +had been exhausted, and the sending of substitutes was forbidden. This +law, with a few later modifications, provided for the French armies up +to the end of the Empire. + + + Taxation. + +The Constituent Assembly abolished nearly all the taxes of the _ancien +regime_. Almost the only taxes preserved were the stamp duty and that on +the registration of acts (the old _controle_ and _centieme denier_), and +these were completely reorganized; the customs were maintained only at +the frontiers for foreign trade. In the establishment of new taxes the +Assembly was influenced by two sentiments: the hatred which had been +inspired by the former arbitrary taxation, and the influence of the +school of the Physiocrats. Consequently it did away with indirect +taxation on objects of consumption, and made the principal direct tax +the tax on land. Next in importance were the _contribution personnelle +et mobiliere_ and the _patentes_. The essential elements of the former +were a sort of capitation-tax equivalent to three days' work, which was +the distinctive and definite sign of a qualified citizen, and a tax on +personal income, calculated according to the rent paid. The _patentes_ +were paid by traders, and were also based on the amount of rent. These +taxes, though considerably modified later, are still essentially the +basis of the French system of direct taxation. The Constituent Assembly +had on principle repudiated the tax on the gross income, much favoured +under the _ancien regime_, which everybody had felt to be arbitrary and +oppressive. The system of public contributions under the Convention was +arbitrary and revolutionary, but the councils of the Directory, side by +side with certain bad laws devised to tide over temporary crises, made +some excellent laws on the subject of taxation. They resumed the +regulation of the land tax, improving and partly altering it, and also +dealt with the _contribution personnelle et mobiliere_, the _patentes_, +and the stamp and registration duties. It was at this time, too, that +the door and window tax, which still exists, was provisionally +established; there was also a partial reappearance of indirect taxation, +in particular the _octrois_ of the towns, which had been suppressed by +the Constituent Assembly. + + + Religious liberty. + +The Constituent Assembly gave the Protestants liberty of worship and +full rights; it also gave Jews the status of citizen, which they had not +had under the _ancien regime_, together with political rights. With +regard to the Catholic Church, the Assembly placed at the disposal of +the nation the property of the clergy, which had already, in the course +of the 18th century, been regarded by most political writers as a +national possession; at the same time it provided for salaries for the +members of the clergy and pensions for those who had been monks. It +abolished tithes and the religious orders, and forbade the re-formation +of the latter in the future. The ecclesiastical districts were next +reorganized, the department being always taken as the chief unit, and a +new church was organized by the civil constitution of the clergy, the +bishops being elected by the electoral assembly of the department (the +usual electors), and the cures by the electoral assembly of the +district. This was an unfortunate piece of legislation, inspired partly +by the old Gallican spirit, partly by the theories on civil religion of +J.J. Rousseau and his school, and, together with the civic oath imposed +on the clergy, it was a source of endless troubles. The constitutional +church established in this way was, however, abolished as a state +institution by the Convention. By laws of the years III. and IV. the +Convention and the Directory, in proclaiming the liberty of worship, +declared that the Republic neither endowed nor recognized any form of +worship. Buildings formerly consecrated to worship, which had not been +alienated, were again placed at the disposal of worshippers for this +purpose, but under conditions which were hard for them to accept. + + + Civil law. + + Criminal law. + +The Assemblies of the Revolution, besides the laws which, by abolishing +feudalism, altered the character of real property, passed many others +concerning civil law. The most important are those of 1792, passed by +the Legislative Assembly, which organized the registers of the _etat +civil_ kept by the municipalities, and laid down rules for marriage as a +purely civil contract. Divorce was admitted to a practically unlimited +extent; it was possible not only for causes determined by law, and by +mutual consent, but also for incompatibility of temper and character +proved, by either husband or wife, to be of a persistent nature. Next +came the laws of the Convention as to inheritance, imposing perfect +equality among the natural heirs and endeavouring to ensure the division +of properties. Illegitimate children were considered by these laws as on +the same level with legitimate children. The Convention and the councils +of the Directory also made excellent laws on the administration of +_hypotheques_, and worked at the preparation of a Civil Code (see CODE +NAPOLEON). In criminal law their work was still more important. In 1791 +the Constituent Assembly gave France her first penal code. It was +inspired by humanitarian ideas, still admitting capital punishment, +though accompanied by no cruelty in the execution; but none of the +remaining punishments was for life. Long imprisonment with hard labour +was introduced. Finally, as a reaction against the former system of +arbitrary penalties, there came a system of fixed penalties determined, +both as to its assessment and its nature, for each offence, which the +judge could not modify. The Constituent Assembly also reformed the +procedure of criminal trials, taking English law as model. It introduced +the jury, with the double form of _jury d'accusation_ and _jury de +jugement_. Before the judges procedure was always public and oral. The +prosecution was left in principle to the parties concerned, plaintiffs +or _denonciateurs civiques_, and the preliminary investigation was +handed over to two magistrates; one was the _juge de paix_, as in +English procedure at this period, and the other a magistrate chosen from +the district court and called the _directeur du jury_. The Convention, +before separating, passed the _Code des delits et des peines_ of the 3rd +Brumaire in the year IV. This piece of work, which was due to Merlin de +Douai, was intended to deal with criminal procedure and penal law; but +only the first part could be completed. It was the procedure established +by the Constituent Assembly, but further organized and improved. + +_The Consulate and the Empire._--The constitutional law of the Consulate +and the Empire is to be found in a series of documents called later the +_Constitutions de l'Empire_, the constitution promulgated during the +Hundred Days being consequently given the name of _Acte additionnel aux +Constitutions de l'Empire_. These documents consist of (1) the +Constitution of the 22nd Frimaire of the year VIII., the work of Sieyes +and Bonaparte, the text on which the others were based; (2) the +_senatus consulte_ of the 16th Thermidor in the year X., establishing +the consulate for life; and (3) the _senatus consulte_ of the 28th +Floreal in the year XII., which created the Empire. These constitutional +acts, which were all, whether in their full text or in principle, +submitted to the popular vote by means of a _plebiscite_, had all the +same object: to assure absolute power to Napoleon, while preserving the +forms and appearance of liberty. Popular suffrage was maintained, and +even became universal; but, since the system was that of suffrage in +many stages, which, moreover, varied very much, the citizens in effect +merely nominated the candidates, and it was the Senate, playing the part +of _grand electeur_ which Sieyes had dreamed of as his own, which chose +from among them the members of the various so-called elected bodies, +even those of the political assemblies. According to the constitution of +the year VIII., the first consul (to whom had been added two colleagues, +the second and third consuls, who did not disappear until the Empire) +possessed the executive power in the widest sense of the word, and he +alone could initiate legislation. There were three representative +assemblies in existence, elected as we have seen; but one of them, the +Corps Legislatif, passed laws without discussing them, and without the +power of amending the suggestions of the government. The Tribunate, on +the contrary, discussed them, but its vote was not necessary for the +passing of the law. The Senate was the guardian and preserver of the +constitution; in addition to its role of _grand electeur_, its chief +function was to annul laws and acts submitted to it by the Tribunate as +being unconstitutional. This original organization was naturally +modified during the course of the Consulate and the Empire; not only did +the emperor obtain the right of directly nominating senators, and the +princes of the imperial family, and grant dignitaries of the Empire that +of entering the Senate by right; but a whole body, the Tribunate, which +was the only one which could preserve some independence, disappeared, +without resort having been had to a plebiscite; it was modified and +weakened by _senatus consulte_ of the year X., and was suppressed in +1807 by a mere _senatus consulte_. The importance of another body, on +the contrary, the _conseil d'etat_, which had been formed on the +improved type of the ancient _conseil du roi_, and consisted of members +appointed by Napoleon and carefully chosen, continually increased. It +was this body which really prepared and discussed the laws; and it was +its members who advocated them before the Corps Legislatif, to which the +Tribunate also sent orators to speak on its behalf. The ministers, who +had no relation with the legislative power, were merely the agents of +the head of the state, freely chosen by himself. Napoleon, however, +found these powers insufficient, and arrogated to himself others, a fact +which the Senate did not forget when it proclaimed his downfall. Thus he +frequently declared war upon his own authority, in spite of the +provisions to the contrary made by the constitution of the year VIII.; +and similarly, under the form of _decrets_, made what were really laws. +They were afterwards called _decrets-lois_, and those that were not +indissolubly associated with the political regime of the Empire, and +survived it, were subsequently declared valid by the court of cassation, +on the ground that they had not been submitted to the Senate as +unconstitutional, as had been provided by the constitution of the year +VIII. + + + Administrative changes under Consulate and Empire. + +This period saw the rise of a whole new series of great organic laws. +For administrative organization, the most important was that of the 28th +Pluviose in the year VIII. It established as chief authority for each +department a prefect, and side by side with him a _conseil general_ for +deliberative purposes; for each _arrondissement_ (corresponding to the +old _district_) a sub-prefect (_sous-prefet_) and a _conseil +d'arrondissement_; and for each _commune_, a mayor and a municipal +council. But all these officials, both the members of the councils and +the individual agents, were appointed by the head of the state or by the +prefect, so that centralization was restored more completely than ever. +Together with the prefect there was also established a _conseil de +prefecture_, having administrative functions, and generally acting as a +court of the first instance in disputes and litigation arising out of +the acts of the administration; for the Constituent Assembly had removed +such cases from the jurisdiction of the civil tribunals, and referred +them to the administrative bodies themselves. The final appeal in these +disputes was to the _conseil d'etat_, which was supreme judge in these +matters. In 1807 was created another great administrative jurisdiction, +the _cour des comptes_, after the pattern of that which had existed +under the _ancien regime_. + + + Judicial changes. + +Judicial organization had also been fundamentally altered. The system of +election was preserved for a time in the case of the _juges de paix_ and +the members of the court of cassation, but finally disappeared there, +even where it had already been no more than a form. The magistrates were +in principle appointed for life, but under the Empire a device was found +for evading the rule of irremovability. For the judgment of civil cases +there was a court of first instance in every arrondissement, and above +these a certain number of courts of appeal, each of which had within its +province several departments. The separate criminal tribunals were +abolished in 1809 by the _Code d'Instruction Criminelle_, and the +magistrates forming the _cour d'assises_, which judged crimes with the +aid of a jury, were drawn from the courts of appeal and from the civil +tribunals. The _jury d'accusation_ was also abolished by the _Code +d'Instruction Criminelle_, and the right of pronouncing the indictment +was transferred to a chamber of the court of appeal. The correctional +tribunals were amalgamated with the civil tribunals of the first +instance. The _tribunal de cassation_, which took under the Empire the +name of _cour de cassation_, consisted of magistrates appointed for +life, and still kept its powers. The _ministere public_ (consisting of +imperial _avocats_ and _procureurs_) was restored in practically the +same form as under the _ancien regime_. + + + Taxation. + +The former system of taxation was preserved in principle, but with one +considerable addition: Napoleon re-established indirect taxation on +articles of consumption, which had been abolished by the Constituent +Assembly; the chief of these were the duties on liquor (_droits reunis_, +or excise) and the monopoly of tobacco. + + + The Concordat. + +The Concordat concluded by Napoleon with the papacy on the 26th Messidor +of the year IX. re-established the Catholic religion in France as the +form of worship recognized and endowed by the state. It was in principle +drawn up on the lines of that of 1516, and assured to the head of the +French state in his dealings with the papacy the same prerogatives as +had formerly been enjoyed by the kings; the chief of these was that he +appointed the bishops, who afterwards had to ask the pope for canonical +institution. The territorial distribution of dioceses was preserved +practically as it had been left by the civil constitution of the clergy. +The state guaranteed the payment of salaries to bishops and cures; and +the pope agreed to renounce all claims referring to the appropriation of +the goods of the clergy made by the Constituent Assembly. Later on, a +decree restored to the _fabriques_ (vestries) such of their former +possessions as had not been alienated, and the churches which had not +been alienated were restored for the purposes of worship. The law of the +18th Germinal in the year X., ratifying the Concordat, reasserted, under +the name of _articles organiques du culte catholique_, all the main +principles contained in the old doctrine of the liberties of the +Gallican Church. The Concordat did not include the restoration of the +religious orders and congregations; Napoleon sanctioned by decrees only +a few establishments of this kind. + + + The university. + +One important creation of the Empire was the university. The _ancien +regime_ had had its universities for purposes of instruction and for the +conferring of degrees; it had also, though without any definite +organization, such secondary schools as the towns admitted within their +walls, and the primary schools of the parishes. The Revolution +suppressed the universities and the teaching congregations. The +constitution of the year III. proclaimed the liberty of instruction and +commanded that public schools, both elementary and secondary, should be +established. Under the Directory there was in each department an _ecole +centrale_, in which all branches of human knowledge were taught. +Napoleon, developing ideas which had been started in the second half of +the 18th century, founded by laws and decrees of 1806, 1808 and 1811 the +Universite de France, which provided and organized higher, secondary and +primary education; this was to be the monopoly of the state, carried on +by its _facultes_, _lycees_ and primary schools. No private educational +establishment could be opened without the authorization of the state. + + + The Codes. + +But chief among the documents dating from this period are the Codes, +which still give laws to France. These are the Civil Code of 1804, the +_Code de Procedure Civile_ of 1806, the _Code de Commerce_ of 1807, the +_Code d'Instruction Criminelle_ of 1809, and the _Code Penal_ of 1810. +These monumental works, in the elaboration of which the _conseil d'etat_ +took the chief part, contributed, to a greater or less extent, towards +the fusion of the old law of France with the laws of the Revolution. It +was in the case of the _Code Civil_ that this task presented the +greatest difficulty (see CODE NAPOLEON). The _Code de Commerce_ was +scarcely more than a revised and emended edition of the _ordonnances_ of +1673 and 1681; while the _Code de Procedure Civile_ borrowed its chief +elements from the _ordonnance_ of 1667. In the case of the _Code +d'Instruction Criminelle_ a distinctly new departure was made; the +procedure introduced by the Revolution into courts where judgment was +given remained public and oral, with full liberty of defence; the +preliminary procedure, however, before the examining court (_juge +d'instruction_ or _chambre des mises en accusation_) was borrowed from +the _ordonnance_ of 1670; it was the procedure of the old law, without +its cruelty, but secret and written, and generally not in the presence +of both parties. The _Code Penal_ maintained the principles of the +Revolution, but increased the penalties. It substituted for the system +of fixed penalties, in cases of temporary punishment, a maximum and a +minimum, between the limits of which judges could assess the amount. +Even in the case of misdemeanours, it admitted the system of extenuating +circumstances, which allowed them still further to decrease and alter +the penalty in so far as the offence was mitigated by such +circumstances. (See further under NAPOLEON I.) + + + Constitutional monarchy. + +_The Restored Monarchy._--The Restoration and the Monarchy of July, +though separated by a revolution, form one period in the history of +French institutions, a period in which the same regime was continued and +developed. This was the constitutional monarchy, with a parliamentary +body consisting of two chambers, a system imitated from England. The +same constitution was preserved under these two monarchies--the charter +granted by Louis XVIII. in 1814. The revolution of 1830 took place in +defence of the charter which Charles X. had violated by the +_ordonnances_ of July, so that this charter was naturally preserved +under the "July Monarchy." It was merely revised by the Chamber of +Deputies, which had been one of the movers of the revolution, and by +what remained of the House of Peers. In order to give the constitution +the appearance of originating in the will of the people, the preface, +which made it appear to be a favour granted by the king, was destroyed. +The two chambers acquired the initiative in legislation, which had not +been recognized as theirs under the Restoration, but from this time on +belonged to them equally with the king. The sittings of the House of +Peers were henceforth held in public; but this chamber underwent another +and more fundamental transformation. The peers were nominated by the +king, with no limit of numbers, and according to the charter of 1814 +their appointment could be either for life or hereditary; but, in +execution of an ordinance of Louis XVIII., during the Restoration they +were always appointed under the latter condition. Under the July +Monarchy their tenure of office was for life, and the king had to choose +them from among twenty-two classes of notables fixed by law. The +franchise for the election of the Chamber of Deputies had been limited +by a system of money qualifications; but while, under the Restoration, +it had been necessary, in order to be an elector, to pay three hundred +francs in direct taxation, this sum was reduced in 1831 to two hundred +francs, while in certain cases even a smaller amount sufficed. In order +to be elected as a deputy it was necessary, according to the charter of +1814, to pay a thousand francs in direct taxation, and according to that +of 1830 five hundred francs. From 1817 onwards there was direct +suffrage, the electors directly electing the deputies. The idea of those +who had framed the charter of 1814 had been to give the chief influence +to the great landed proprietors, though the means adopted to this end +were not adequate: in 1830 the chief aim had been to give a +preponderating influence to the middle and lower middle classes, and +this had met with greater success. The House of Peers, under the name of +_cour des pairs_, had also the function of judging attempts and plots +against the security of the state, and it had frequently to exercise +this function both under the Restoration and the July Monarchy. + +This was a period of parliamentary government; that is, of government by +a cabinet, resting on the responsibility of the ministers to the Chamber +of Deputies. The only interruption was that caused by the resistance of +Charles X. at the end of his reign, which led to the revolution of July. +Parliamentary government was practised regularly and in an enlightened +spirit under the Restoration, although the Chamber had not then all the +powers which it has since acquired. It is noteworthy that during this +period the right of the House of Peers to force a ministry to resign by +a hostile vote was not recognized. By the creation of a certain number +of new peers, a _fournee de pairs_, as it was then called, the majority +in this House could be changed when necessary. But the government of the +Restoration had to deal with two extreme parties of a very opposite +nature: the _Ultras_, who wished to restore as far as possible the +_ancien regime_, to whom were due the acts of the _chambre introuvable_ +of 1816, and later the laws of the ministry of Villele, especially the +law of sacrilege and that voting compensation to the dispossessed +nobles, known as the _milliard des emigres_; and on the other hand the +_Liberals_, including the Bonapartists and Republicans, who were +attached to the principles of the Revolution. In order to prevent either +of these parties from predominating in the chamber, the government made +a free use of its power of dissolution. It further employed two means to +check the progress of the Liberals; firstly, there were various +alterations successively made in the electoral law, and the press laws, +frequently restrictive in their effect, which introduced the censorship +and a preliminary authorization in the case of periodical publications, +and gave the correctional tribunals jurisdiction in cases of press +offences. The best electoral law was that of 1817, and the best press +laws were those of 1819; but these were not of long duration. Under the +July Monarchy parliamentary government, although its machinery was +further perfected, was not so brilliant. The majorities in the Chamber +of Deputies were often uncertain, so much so, that more than once the +right of dissolution was exercised in order to try by new elections to +arrive at an undivided and certain majority. King Louis Philippe, though +sober-minded, wished to exercise a personal influence on the policy of +the cabinet, so that there were then two schools, represented +respectively by Thiers and Guizot, one of which held the theory that +"the king reigns but does not govern"; while the other maintained that +he might exercise a personal influence, provided that he could rely on a +ministry supported by a majority of the Chamber of Deputies. But the +weak point in the July Monarchy was above all the question of the +franchise. A powerful movement of opinion set in towards demanding an +extension, some wishing for universal suffrage, but the majority +proposing what was called the _adjonction des capacites_, that is to +say, that to the number of qualified electors should be added those +citizens who, by virtue of their professions, capacity or acquirements, +were inscribed after them on the general list for juries. But the +government obstinately refused all electoral reform, and held to the law +of 1831. It also refused parliamentary reform, by which was meant a rule +which would have made most public offices incompatible with the position +of deputy, the Chamber of Deputies being at that time full of +officials. The press, thanks to the Charter, was perfectly free, without +either censorship or preliminary authorization, and press offences were +judged by a jury. + + + The system of the Empire retained. + +In another respect also the Restoration and the July Monarchy were at +one, the second continuing the spirit of the first, viz. in maintaining +in principle the civil, legal and administrative institutions of the +Empire. The preface to the charter of 1814 sanctioned and guaranteed +most of the legal rights won by the Revolution; even the alienation of +national property was confirmed. It was said, it is true, that the old +nobility regained their titles, and that the nobility of the Empire kept +those which Napoleon had given them; but these were merely titles and +nothing more; there was no privileged nobility, and the equality of +citizens before the law was maintained. Judicial and administrative +organization, the system of taxation, military organization, the +relations of church and state, remained the same, and the university +also continued to exist. The government did, it is true, negotiate a new +Concordat with the papacy in 1817, but did not dare even to submit it to +the chambers. The most important reform was that of the law concerning +recruiting for the army. The charter of 1814 had promised the abolition +of conscription, in the form in which it had been created by the law of +the year VI. The law of the 10th of March 1818 actually established a +new system. The contingent voted by the chambers for annual +incorporation into the standing army was divided up among all the +cantons; and, in order to furnish it, lots were drawn among all the men +of a certain class, that is to say, among the young Frenchmen who +arrived at their majority that year. Those who were not chosen by lot +were definitely set free from military service. The sending of +substitutes, a custom which had been permitted by Napoleon, was +recognized. This was the type of all the laws on recruiting in France, +of which there were a good number in succession up to 1867. On other +points they vary, in particular as to the duration of service, which was +six years, and later eight years, under the Restoration; but the system +remained the same. + +The Restoration produced a code, the _Code forestier_ of 1827, for the +regulation of forests (_eaux et forets_). In 1816 a law had abolished +divorce, making marriage indissoluble, as it had been in the old law. +But the best laws of this period were those on finance. Now, for the +first time, was introduced the practice of drawing up regular budgets, +voted before the year to which they applied, and divided since 1819 into +the budget of expenditure and budget of receipts. + +Together with other institutions of the Empire, the Restoration had +preserved the exaggerated system of administrative centralization +established in the year VIII.; and proposals for its relaxation +submitted to the chambers had come to nothing. It was only under the +July Monarchy that it was relaxed. The municipal law of the 21st of +March 1831 made the municipal councils elective, and extended widely the +right of voting in the elections for them; the _maires_ and their +assistants continued to be appointed by the government, but had to be +chosen from among the members of the municipal councils. The law of the +22nd of June 1833 made the general councils of the departments also +elective, and brought the _adjonction des capacites_ into effect for +their election. The powers of these bodies were enlarged in 1838, and +they gained the right of electing their president. In 1833 was granted +another liberty, that of primary education; but in spite of violent +protestations, coming especially from the Catholics, secondary and +higher education continued to be a monopoly of the state. Many organic +laws were promulgated, one concerning the National Guard, which was +reorganized in order to adapt it to the system of citizen +qualifications; one in 1832 on the recruiting of the army, fixing the +period of service at seven years; and another in 1834 securing the +status of officers. A law of the 11th of June 1842 established the great +railway lines. In 1832 the _Code Penal_ and _Code d'Instruction +Criminelle_ were revised, with the object of lightening penalties; the +system of extenuating circumstances, as recognized by a jury, was +extended to the judgment of all crimes. There was also a revision of +Book III. of the _Code de Commerce_, treating of bankruptcy. Finally, +from this period date the laws of the 3rd of May 1841, on expropriation +for purposes of public utility, and of the 30th of June 1838, on the +treatment of the insane, which is still in force. Judicial organization +remained as it was, but the amount of the sum up to which civil +tribunals of the first instance could judge without appeal was raised +from 1000 francs to 1500, and the competency of the _juges de paix_ was +widened. + +_The Second Republic and the Second Empire._--From the point of view of +constitutional law, the Second Republic and the Second Empire were each +in a certain sense a return to the past. The former revived the +tradition of the Assemblies of the Revolution; the latter was obviously +and avowedly an imitation of the Consulate and the First Empire. + + + Republican constitution of 1848. + +The provisional government set up by the revolution of the 24th of +February 1848 proclaimed universal suffrage, and by this means was +elected a Constituent Assembly, which sat till May 1849, and, after +first organizing various forms of another provisional government, passed +the Republican constitution of the 4th of November 1848. This +constitution, which was preceded by a preface recalling the Declarations +of Rights of the Revolution, gave the legislative power to a single +permanent assembly, elected by direct universal suffrage, and entirely +renewed every three years. The executive authority, with very extensive +powers, was given to a president of the Republic, also elected by the +universal and direct suffrage of the French citizens. The constitution +was not very clear upon the point of whether it adopted parliamentary +government in the strict sense, or whether the president, who was +declared responsible, was free to choose his ministers and to retain or +dismiss them at his own pleasure. This gave rise to an almost permanent +dispute between the president, who claimed to have his own political +opinions and to direct the government, and the Assembly, which wished to +carry on the traditions of cabinet government and to make the ministers +fully responsible to itself. Consequently, in January 1851, a solemn +debate was held, which ended in the affirmation of the responsibility of +ministers to the Assembly. On the other hand, the president, though very +properly given great power by the constitution, was not immediately +eligible for re-election on giving up his office. Now Louis Napoleon, +who was elected president on the 10th of December 1848 by a huge +majority, wished to be re-elected. Various propositions were submitted +to the Assembly in July 1851 with a view to modifying the constitution; +but they could not succeed, as the number of votes demanded by the +constitution for the convocation of a Constituent Assembly was not +reached. Moreover, the Legislative Assembly elected in May 1849 was very +different from the Constituent Assembly of 1848. The latter was animated +by that spirit of harmony and, in the main, of adhesion to the Republic +which had followed on the February Revolution. The new assembly, on the +contrary, was composed for the most part of representatives of the old +parties, and had monarchist aspirations. By the unfortunate law of the +31st of May 1850 it even tried by a subterfuge to restrict the universal +suffrage guaranteed by the constitution. It suspended the right of +holding meetings, but, on the whole, respected the liberty of the press. +It was especially impelled to these measures by the growing fear of +socialism. The result was the _coup d'etat_ of the 2nd of December 1851. +A detail of some constitutional importance is to be noticed in this +period. The _conseil d'etat_, which had remained under the Restoration +and the July Monarchy an administrative council and the supreme arbiter +in administrative trials, acquired new importance under the Second +Republic. The ordinary _conseillers d'etat_ (_en service ordinaire_) +were elected by the Legislative Assembly, and consultation with the +_conseil d'etat_ was often insisted on by the constitution or by law. +This was the means of obtaining a certain modifying power as a +substitute for the second chamber, which had not met with popular +approval. During its short existence the Second Republic produced many +important laws. It abolished the penalty of death for political crimes, +and suppressed negro slavery in the colonies. The election of +_conseillers generaux_ was thrown open to universal suffrage, and the +municipal councils were allowed to elect the _maires_ and their +colleagues. The law of the 15th of March 1850 established the liberty of +secondary education, but it conferred certain privileges on the Catholic +clergy, a clear sign of the spirit of social conservatism which was the +leading motive for its enactment. Certain humanitarian laws were passed, +applying to the working classes. + + + Constitution of Jan. 14, 1852. + + Restoration of the Empire. + + The empire liberal. + +With the _coup d'etat_ of the 2nd of December 1851 began a new era of +constitutional plebiscites and disguised absolutism. The proclamations +of Napoleon on the 2nd of December contained a criticism of +parliamentary government, and formulated the wish to restore to France +the constitutional institutions of the Consulate and the Empire, just as +she had preserved their civil, administrative and military institutions. +Napoleon asked the people for the powers necessary to draw up a +constitution on these principles; the plebiscite issued in a vast +majority of votes in his favour, and the constitution of the 14th of +January 1852 was the result. It bore a strong resemblance to the +constitution of the First Empire after 1807. The executive power was +conferred on Louis Napoleon for ten years, with the title of president +of the Republic and very extended powers. Two assemblies were created. +The conservative Senate, composed of _ex officio_ members (cardinals, +marshals of France and admirals) and life members appointed by the head +of the state, was charged with the task of seeing that the laws were +constitutional, of opposing the promulgation of unconstitutional laws, +and of receiving the petitions of citizens; it had also the duty of +providing everything not already provided but necessary for the proper +working of the constitution. The second assembly was the _Corps +Legislatif_, elected by direct universal suffrage for six years, which +passed the laws, the government having the initiative in legislation. +This body was not altogether a _corps des muets_, as in the year VIII., +but its powers were very limited; thus the general session assured to it +by the constitution was only for three months, and it could only discuss +and put to the vote amendments approved by the _conseil d'etat_; the +ministers did not in any way come into contact with it and could not be +members of it, being responsible only to the head of the state, and only +the Senate having the right of accusing them before a high court of +justice. The _conseil d'etat_ was composed in the same way and had the +same authority as it had possessed from the year VIII. to 1814; and it +was the members of it who supported projected laws before the Corps +Legislatif. To this was added a Draconian press legislation; not only +were press offences, many of which were mere expressions of opinion, +judged not by a jury but by the correctional tribunals; but further, +political papers could not be founded without an authorization, and were +subject to a regular administrative discipline; they could be warned, +suspended or suppressed without a trial, by a simple act of the +administration. The constitution of January 1852 was still Republican in +name, though less so than that of the year VIII. The period +corresponding with the Consulate was also shorter in the case of Louis +Napoleon. The year 1852 had not come to an end before a _senatus +consulte_, that of the 10th of November, ratified by a plebiscite, +re-established the imperial rank in favour of Napoleon III.; it also +conferred on him certain new powers, especially with reference to the +budget and foreign treaties; thus various cracks, which experience had +revealed in the original structure of the Empire, were filled up. This +period was called that of the _empire autoritaire_. Further features of +it were the free appointment of the _maires_ by the emperor, the oath of +fidelity to him imposed on all officials, and the legal organization of +official candidatures for the elections. Two measures marked the highest +point reached by this system: the _loi de surete generale_ of the 27th +of February 1858, which allowed the government to intern in France or +Algeria, or to exile certain French citizens, without a trial. The other +was the _senatus consulte_ of the 17th of February 1858, which made the +validity of candidatures for the Corps Legislatif subject to a +preliminary oath of fidelity on the part of the candidate. But for +various causes, which cannot be examined here, a series of measures was +soon to be initiated which were gradually to lead back again to +political liberty, and definitively to found what has been called the +_empire liberal_. One by one the different rules and proceedings of +parliamentary government as it had existed in France regained their +force. The first step was the decree of the 24th of November 1860, which +re-established for each ordinary session the address voted by the +chambers in response to the speech from the throne. In 1867 this +movement took a more decisive form. It led to a new constitution, that +of the 21st of May 1870, which was again ratified by popular suffrage. +While maintaining the Empire and the imperial dynasty, it organized +parliamentary government practically in the form in which it had +operated under the July Monarchy, with two legislative chambers, the +Senate and the Corps Legislatif, the consent of both of which was +necessary for legislation, and which, together with the emperor, had the +initiative in this matter. The laws of the 11th of May 1868 and the 6th +of June 1868 restored to a certain extent the liberty of the press and +of holding meetings, though without abolishing offences of opinion, or +again bringing press offences under the jurisdiction of a jury. Laws of +the 22nd and 23rd of July 1870 gave the _conseils generaux_, whose +powers had been somewhat widened, the right of electing their +presidents, and provided that the _maires_ and their colleagues should +be chosen from among the members of the municipal councils. + + + Economic and social reforms under the Second Empire. + + Commercial treaties. + +The legislation of the Second Empire led to a considerable number of +reforms. Its chief aim was the development of commerce, industry and +agriculture, and generally the material prosperity of the country. The +Empire, though restricting liberty in political matters, increased it in +economic matters. Such were the decrees and laws of 1852 and 1853 +relating to land-banks (_etablissements de credit foncier_) and that of +1857 on trade-marks, those of 1863 and 1867 on commercial companies, +that of 1858 on general stores (_magasins generaux_) and warrants, that +of 1856 on drainage, that of 1865 on the _associations syndicales de +proprietaires_, that of 1866 on the mercantile marine. The law of the +14th of June 1865 introduced into France the institution, borrowed from +England, of cheques. But of still greater importance for economic +development than all these laws were the treaties concluded by the +emperor with foreign powers, in order to introduce, as far as possible, +free exchange of commodities; the chief of these, which was the model of +all the others, was that concluded with Great Britain on the 23rd of +January 1860. Moreover, the law of the 25th of May 1864 admitted for the +first time the right of strikes and lock-outs among workmen or +employers, annulling articles 414 and following of the _Code Penal_, +which had so far made them a penal offence, even when not accompanied by +fraudulent practices, threats or violence, tending to hinder the liberty +of labour. The superannuation fund (_caisse des retraites pour la +vieillesse_), supported by voluntary payments from those participating +in it, which had been created by the law of the 18th of June 1850, was +reorganized and perfected, and a law of the 11th of July 1868 +established, with the guarantee of the state, two funds for voluntary +insurance, one in case of death, the other against accidents occurring +in industrial or agricultural employment. A decree of 1863 established +in principle the freedom of bakeries, and another in 1864 that of +theatrical management. + + + Reforms in the criminal law. + + Civil legislation. + + Taxation and army. + +Criminal law was the subject of important legislation. Two codes were +promulgated on special points, the codes of military justice for the +land forces (1857) and for the naval forces (1858). But the common law +was also largely remodelled. A law of the 10th of June 1858, it is true, +created certain new crimes, with a view to protecting the members of the +imperial family, and that of the 17th of July 1856 increased the powers +and independence of the _juges d'instruction_; but, on the other hand, +useful improvements were introduced by laws of 1856 and 1865, and +notably with regard to precautionary detention and provisional release +with or without bail. A law of the 20th of May 1863 organized a simple +and rapid procedure, copied from that followed in England before the +police courts, for summary jurisdiction. A law of 1868 permitted the +revision of criminal trials after the death of the condemned person. But +the most far-reaching reforms took place in 1854, namely, the abolition +of the total loss of civil rights which formerly accompanied +condemnation to imprisonment for life, and the law of the 30th of May on +penal servitude (_travaux forces_) which substituted transportation to +the colonies for the system of continental convict prisons. Finally, in +1863, there was a revision of the _Code Penal_, which, in the process of +lightening penalties, made a certain number of crimes into +misdemeanours, and in consequence transferred the judgment of them from +the assize courts to the correctional tribunals. In civil legislation +may be noted the law of the 23rd of March 1855 on hypothecs (see CODE +NAPOLEON); that of the 22nd of July 1857, which abolished seizure of the +person (_contrainte par corps_) for civil and commercial debts; and +finally, the law of the 14th of July 1866, on literary copyright. The +system of taxation was hardly modified at all, except for the +establishment of a tax on the income arising from investments (shares +and bonds of companies) in 1857, and the tax on carriages (1862). On the +1st of February 1868 was promulgated an important military law, which, +however, passed the Corps Legislatif with some difficulty. It asserted +the principle of universal compulsory military service, at least, in +time of war. It preserved, however, the system of drawing lots to +determine the annual contingent to be incorporated into the standing +army; the term of service was fixed at five years, and it was still +permissible to send a substitute. But able-bodied men who were not +included in the annual contingent formed a reserve force called the +_garde nationale mobile_, each department organizing its own section. +These _gardes mobiles_, though they were not effectively organized or +exercised under the Empire, took part in the war of 1870-71. + + + Definitive establishment of the Republic. + +_The Third Republic._--The Third Republic had at first a provisional +government, unanimously acclaimed by the people of Paris. It was +accepted by France, exercised full powers, and sustained by no means +ingloriously a desperate struggle against the enemy; a certain number of +its _decrets-lois_ are still in force. After the capitulation of Paris, +a National Assembly was elected to treat with Germany. It was elected in +accordance with the electoral law of 1849, which had been revived with a +few modifications, and it met at Bordeaux to the number of 753 members +on the 13th of February 1871. It was a sovereign assembly, since France +had no longer a constitution, and for this very reason it claimed from +the outset constituent powers; the Republican party at the time, +however, contested this claim, the majority in the assembly being +frankly monarchist, though divided as to the choice of a monarch. But +for some time the National Assembly either could not or would not +exercise this power, and up to 1875 affairs remained in a provisional +state, legalized and regulated this time by the Assembly. This was an +application, though unconscious, of a form of government which M. Grevy +had proposed to the Constituent Assembly in 1848. There was a single +assembly, with one man elected by it as head of the executive power (the +first to be elected was M. Thiers, who received the title of president +of the Republic in August 1871), who was responsible to the Assembly and +governed with the help of ministers chosen by himself, who were also +responsible to it. Thiers fell on the 24th of May 1873. His place was +taken by Marshal MacMahon, on whom the Assembly later conferred, in +November 1873, the position of president of the Republic for seven +years, when the refusal of the comte de Chambord to accept the tricolour +in place of the white flag of the Bourbons had made any attempt to +restore the monarchy impossible. Henceforth the definitive adoption of +the Republican form of government became inevitable, and the opinion of +the country began to turn in this direction, as was shown by the +elections of deputies which took place to fill up the gaps occurring in +the Assembly. The Assembly, however, shrank from the inevitable +solution, and when a discussion was begun in January 1875 on the +projected constitutional laws prepared by the _commission des trente_, +the only proposals made by the latter were for a more complete +organization of the powers of one man, Marshal MacMahon. But on the 30th +of January 1875 was adopted, by 353 votes to 352, an amendment by M. +Wallon which provided for the election of an indefinite succession of +presidents of the Republic; this amounted to a definitive recognition of +the Republic. In this connexion it has often been said that the Republic +was established by a majority of one. This is not an accurate statement, +for it was only the case on the first reading of the law; the majority +on the second and third readings increased until it became considerable. +There was a strong movement in the direction of a reconciliation between +the parties; and there had been a _rapprochement_ between the +Republicans and the Right Centre. At the end of February were passed and +promulgated two constitutional laws, that of the 25th of February 1875, +on the organization of the public powers, and that of the 24th of +February 1875, on the organization of the senate. In the middle of the +year they were supplemented by a third, that of the 16th of July 1875, +on the relations between the public powers. + + + The French Constitution. + +Thus was built up the actual constitution of France. It differs +fundamentally, both in form and contents, from previous constitutions. +As to its form, instead of a single methodical text divided into an +uninterrupted series of articles, it consisted of three distinct laws. +As to matter, it is obviously a work of an essentially practical nature, +the result of compromise and reciprocal concessions. It does not lay +down any theoretical principles, and its provisions, which were arrived +at with difficulty, confine themselves strictly to what is necessary to +ensure the proper operation of the governmental machinery. The result is +a compromise between Republican principles and the rules of +constitutional and parliamentary monarchy. On this account it has been +accused, though unjustly, of being too monarchical. Its duration, by far +the longest of any French constitution since 1791, is a sign of its +value and vitality. It is in fact a product of history, and not of +imagination. Its composition is as follows. The legislative power was +given to two elective chambers, having equal powers, the vote of both of +which is necessary for legislation, and both having the right of +initiating and amending laws. The constitution assures them an ordinary +session of five months, which opens by right on the second Tuesday in +January. One house, the Chamber of Deputies, is elected by direct +universal suffrage and is entirely renewed every four years; the other, +the Senate, consists of 300 members, divided by the law of the 27th of +February 1875 into two categories; 75 of the senators were elected for +life and irremovable, and the first of them were elected by the National +Assembly, but afterwards it was the Senate itself which held elections +to fill up vacancies. The 225 remaining senators were elected by the +departments and by certain colonies, among which they were apportioned +in proportion to the population; they are elected for nine years, a +third of the house being renewed every three years. The electoral +college in each department which nominated them included the deputies, +the members of the general council of the department and of the councils +of the arrondissements, and one delegate elected by each municipal +council, whatever the importance of the commune. This was practically a +system of election in two and, partly, three degrees, but with this +distinguishing feature, that the electors of the second degree had not +been chosen purely with a view to this election, but chiefly for the +exercise of other functions. The most important elements in this +electoral college were the delegates from the municipal councils, and by +giving one delegate to each, to Paris just as to the smallest commune in +France, the National Assembly intended to counterbalance the power of +numbers, which governed the elections for the Chamber of Deputies, and, +at the same time, to give a preponderance to the country districts. The +75 irremovable senators were another precaution against the danger from +violent waves of public opinion. The executive power was entrusted to a +president, elected for seven years (as Marshal MacMahon had been in +1873), by the Chamber and the Senate, combined into a single body under +the name of National Assembly. He is always eligible for re-election, +and is irresponsible except in case of high treason. His powers are of +the widest, including the initiative in legislation jointly with the two +chambers, the appointment to all civil and military offices, the +disposition, and, if he wish it, the leadership of the armed forces, the +right of pardon, the right of negotiating treaties with foreign powers, +and, in principle, of ratifying them on his own authority, the consent +of the two chambers being required only in certain cases defined by the +constitution. The nomination of _conseillers d'etat_ for ordinary +service, whom the National Assembly had made elective, as in 1848, and +elected itself, was restored to the president of the Republic, together +with the right of dismissing them. But these powers he can only exercise +through the medium of a ministry, politically and jointly responsible to +the chambers, and forming a council, over which the president usually +presides. + +The French Republic is essentially a parliamentary republic. The right +of dissolving the Chamber of Deputies before the expiration of its term +of office belongs to the president, but in order to do so he must have, +besides a ministry which will take the responsibility for it, the +preliminary sanction of the Senate. The Senate is at the same time a +high court of justice, which can judge the president of the Republic and +ministers accused of crimes committed by them in the exercise of their +functions; in these two cases the prosecution is instituted by the +Chamber of Deputies. The Senate can also be called upon to judge any +person accused of an attempt upon the safety of the state, who is then +seized by a decree of the president of the Republic, drawn up in the +council of ministers. Possible revision of the constitution is provided +for very simply: it has to be proposed as a law, and for its acceptance +a resolution passed by each chamber separately, by an absolute majority, +is necessary. The revision is then carried out by the Senate and the +Chamber of Deputies to form a National Assembly. There have been two +revisions since 1875. The first time, in 1879, it was simply a question +of transferring the seat of the government and of the chambers back to +Paris from Versailles, where it had been fixed by one of the +constitutional laws. The second time, in 1884, more fundamental +modifications were required. The most important point was to change the +composition and election of the Senate. With a view to this, the new +constitutional law of the 14th of August 1884 abolished the +constitutional character of a certain number of articles of the law of +the 24th of February 1875, thus making it possible to modify them by an +ordinary law. This took place in the same year; the 75 senators for life +were suppressed for the future by a process of extinction, and their +seats divided among the most populous departments. Further, in the +electoral college which elects the senators, there was allotted to the +municipal councils a number of delegates proportionate to the number of +members of the councils, which depends on the importance of the commune. +The law of the 14th of August 1884 also modified the constitution in +another important respect. The law of the 25th of February 1875 had +admitted the possibility not only of a partial, but even of a total +revision, which could affect and even change the form of the state. The +law of the 14th of August 1884, however, declared that no proposition +for a revision could be accepted which aimed at changing the republican +form of government. The composition of the Chamber of Deputies was not +fixed by the constitution, and consequently admitted more easily of +variation. Since 1871 the mode of election has oscillated between the +_scrutin de liste_ for the departments and the _scrutin uninominal_ for +the arrondissements. The organic law of the 30th of November 1875 had +established the latter system; in 1885 the _scrutin de liste_ was +established by law, but in 1889 the _scrutin d'arrondissement_ was +restored; and in this same year, on account of the ambitions of General +Boulanger and the suggestion which was made for a sort of plebiscite in +his favour, was passed the law on plural candidatures, which forbids +anyone to become a candidate for the Chamber of Deputies in more than +one district at a time. + + + Working of the constitution. + +The system established by the constitution of 1875 has worked +excellently in some of its departments; for instance, the mode of +electing the president of the Republic. Between 1875 and 1906 there were +seven elections, sometimes under tragic or very difficult conditions; +the election has always taken place without delay or obstruction, and +the choice has been of the best. The high court of justice, which has +twice been called into requisition, in 1889 and in 1899-1900, has acted +as an efficient check, in spite of the difficulties confronting such a +tribunal when feeling runs high. Parliamentary government in the form +set up by the constitution, besides the criticism to which this system +is open in all countries where it is established, even in England, met +with special difficulties in France. In the first place, the useful but +rather secondary role assigned to the president of the Republic has by +no means satisfied all those who have occupied this high office. Two +presidents have resigned on the ground that their powers were +insufficient. Another, even after re-election, had to withdraw in face +of the opposition of the two chambers, being no longer able to obtain a +parliamentary ministry. It is difficult, however, to accept the theory +of an eminent American political writer, Mr John W. Burgess,[1] that in +order to attain to a position of stable equilibrium, the French Republic +ought to adopt the presidential system of the United States. In France +this sharp division between the two powers has never been observed +except in those periods when the representative assemblies were +powerless, under the First and Second Empires. It is true that the +apparent multiplicity of parties and their lack of discipline, together +with the French procedure of _interpellations_ and the orders of the day +by which they are concluded, make the formation of homogeneous and +lasting cabinets difficult; but since the end of the 19th century there +has been great progress in this respect. Another difficulty arose in +1896. The Senate, appealing to the letter of the constitution and +relying on its elective character, claimed the right of forcing a +ministry to resign by its vote, in the same way as the Chamber of +Deputies. The Senate was victorious in the struggle, and forced the +ministry presided over by M. Leon Bourgeois to resign; but the precedent +is not decisive, for in order to gain its ends the Senate had recourse +to the means of refusing to sanction the taxes, declining to consider +the proposals for the supplies necessary for the Madagascar expedition +so long as the ministry which it was attacking was in existence. The +weakest point in the French parliamentary organism is perhaps the right +of dissolution. It is difficult of application, for the reason that the +president must obtain the preliminary consent of the Senate before +exercising it; moreover, this valuable right has been discredited by its +abuse by Marshal MacMahon in the campaign of the 16th of May 1877, on +which occasion he exercised his right of dissolution against a chamber, +the moderate but decidedly republican majority in which he was +re-elected by the country. + + + Reforms under the Third Republic. + + The religious congregations. + + Education. + + Separation of church and state. + +The legislative reforms carried out under the Third Republic are very +numerous. As to public law, it is only possible to mention here those of +a really organic character, chief among which are those which safeguard +and regulate the exercise of the liberties of the individual. The law of +the 30th of June 1881, modified in 1901, established the right of +holding meetings. Public meetings, whether for ordinary or electoral +purposes, may be held without preliminary authorization; the law of 1881 +prescribed a declaration made by a certain number of citizens enjoying +full civil and political rights, which is now remitted. The only really +restrictive provision is that which does not allow them to be held in +the public highway, but only in an enclosed space. But this is made +necessary by the customs of France. The law of the 21st of July 1881 on +the press is one of the most liberal in the world. By it all offences +committed by any kind of publication are submitted to a jury; the +punishment for the mere expression of obnoxious opinions is abolished, +the only punishment being for slander, libel, defamation, inciting to +crime, and in certain cases the publication of false news. The law of +the 1st of July 1901 established in France the right of forming +associations. It recognizes the legality of all associations strictly so +called, the objects of which are not contrary to law or to public order +or morality. On condition of a simple declaration to the administrative +authority, it grants them a civil status in a wide sense of the term. +Religious congregations, on the contrary, which are not authorized by a +law, are forbidden by this law. This was not a new principle, but the +traditional rule in France both before and after the Revolution, except +that under certain governments authorization by decree had sufficed. As +a matter of fact the unauthorized congregations had been tolerated for a +long time, although on various occasions, and especially in 1881, their +partial dissolution had been proclaimed by decrees. The law of 1901 +dissolved them all, and made it an offence to belong to such a +congregation. The members of unauthorized congregations, and later, in +1904, even those of the authorized congregations, were disqualified from +teaching in any kind of establishment. The liberty of primary education +was confirmed and reorganized by the law of the 30th of October 1886, +which simply deprived the clergy of the privileges granted them by the +law of 1850, though the latter remains in force with regard to the +liberty of secondary education. A law passed by the National Assembly +(July 12, 1875) established the liberty of higher education. It even +went beyond this, for it granted to students in private _facultes_ who +aspired to state degrees the right of being examined before a board +composed partly of private and partly of state professors. The law of +the 18th of March 1880 abolished this privilege. Another law, that of +the 22nd of March 1882, made primary education obligatory, though +allowing parents to send their children either to private schools or to +those of the state; the law of the 16th of June 1881 established secular +(_laique_) education in the case of the latter. The Third Republic also +organized secondary education for girls in lycees or special colleges +(_colleges de fille_). Finally, a law of the 10th of July 1896 dealing +with higher education and the faculties of the state reorganized the +universities, which form distinct bodies, enjoying a fairly wide +autonomy. A law of the 19th of December 1905, abrogating that of the +18th Germinal in the year X., which had sanctioned the Concordat, +proclaimed the separation of the church from the state. It is based on +the principle of the secular state (_etat laique_) which recognizes no +form of religion, though respecting the right of every citizen to +worship according to his beliefs, and it aimed at organizing +associations of citizens, the object of which was to collect the funds +and acquire the property necessary for the maintenance of worship, under +the form of _associations cultuelles_, differing in certain respects +from the associations sanctioned by the law of the 1st of July 1901, but +having a wider scope. It also handed over to these regularly formed +associations the property of the ecclesiastical establishments formerly +in existence, while taking precautions to ensure their proper +application, and allowed the associations the free use of the churches +and places of worship belonging to the state, the departments or the +communes. If no _association cultuelle_ was founded in a parish, the +property of the former _fabrique_ should devolve to the commune. But +this law was condemned by the papacy, as contrary to the church +hierarchy; and almost nowhere were _associations cultuelles_ formed, +except by Protestants and Jews, who complied with the law. After many +incidents, but no church having been closed, a new law of the 2nd of +January 1907 was enacted. It permits the public exercise of any cult, by +means of ordinary associations regulated by the law of the 1st of July +1901, and even of public meetings summoned by individuals. Failing all +associations, either _cultuelles_ or others, churches, with their +ornaments and furniture, are left to the disposition of the faithful and +ministers, for the purpose of exercising the cult; and, on certain +conditions, the long use of them can be granted as a free gift to +ministers of the cult. + + + Administrative changes. + +Among the organic laws concerning administrative affairs there are two +of primary importance; that of the 10th of August 1871, on the +_conseils generaux_, considerably increased the powers and independence +of these elective bodies, which have become important deliberative +assemblies, their sessions being held in public. The law of 1871 created +a new administrative organ for the departments, the _commission +departmentale_, elected by the council-general of the department from +among its own members and associated with the administration of the +prefect. The other law is the municipal law of the 5th of April 1884, +which effected a widespread decentralization; the _maires_ and their +_adjoints_ are elected by the municipal council. + + + Reorganization of the army. + +The war of 1870-71 necessarily led to a modification of the military +organization. The law of the 25th of July 1872 established the principle +of compulsory service for all, first in the standing army, the period of +service in which was fixed at five years, then in the reserve, and +finally in the territorial army. But the application of this principle +was by no means absolute, only holding good in time of war. Each annual +class was divided into two parts, by means of drawing lots, and in time +of peace one of these parts had only a year of service with the active +army. The previous exemptions, based either on the position of supporter +of the family (as in the case of the son of a widow or aged father, &c.) +or on equivalent services rendered to the state (as in the case of young +ecclesiastics or members of the teaching profession), were preserved, +but only held good for service in the active army in times of peace. +Finally, the system of conditional engagement for a year allowed young +men, for the purposes of study or apprenticeship to their profession, +only to serve a year with the active army in time of peace. By this +means it was sought to combine the advantages of an army of veterans +with those of a numerous and truly national army. But the conditional +volunteering (_volontariat conditionnel_) for a year was open to too +great a number of people, and so brought the system into discredit. As +those who profited by it had to be clothed and maintained at their own +expense, and the sum which they had to furnish for this purpose was +generally fixed at 1500 francs, it came to be considered the privilege +of those who could pay this sum. A new law of the 15th of July 1889 +lessened the difference between the two terms which it attempted to +reconcile. It reduced the term of service in the active army to three +years, and the exemptions, which were still preserved, merely reduced +the period to a year in times of peace. The same reduction was also +granted to those who were really pursuing important scientific, +technical or professional studies; the system was so strict on this +point that the number of those who profited by those exemptions did not +amount to 2000 in a year. This was a compromise between two opposing +principles; the democratic principle of equality, being the stronger, +was bound to triumph. The law of the 21st of March 1905 reduced the term +of service in the active army to two years, but made it equal for all, +admitting of no exemption, but only certain facilities as to the age at +which it had to be accomplished. + + + Justice and taxation. + +In 1883 the judicial _personnel_ was reorganized and reduced in number. +With the exception of a few modifications the main lines of judicial +organization remained the same. In 1879 the conseil d'etat was also +reorganized. The whole fabric of administrative jurisdiction was +carefully organized, and almost entirely separated from the active +administration. + +The system of taxation has remained essentially unaltered; we may +notice, however, the laws of 1897, 1898 and 1900, which abolished or +lessened the duties on so called _hygienic_ drinks (wine, beer, cider), +and the financial law of 1901, which rearranged and increased the +transfer fees, and established a system of progressive taxation in the +case of succession dues. + + + Labour legislation. + +The labour laws, which generally partook of the nature both of public +and of private law, are a sign of our times. Under the Third Republic +they have been numerous, the most notable being: the law of the 21st of +March 1884 on professional syndicates, which introduced the liberty of +association in matters of this kind before it became part of the common +law (see TRADE UNIONS); the law of the 9th of April 1898 on the +liability for accidents incurred during work, and those which have +completed it; that of the 22nd of December 1892 on conciliation and +arbitration in the case of collective disputes between employers and +workmen; that of the 29th of June 1893 on the hygiene and safeguarding +of workers in industrial establishments, and the laws which regulate the +work of children and women in factories; finally, that of the 15th of +July 1893 on free medical attendance (see LABOUR LEGISLATION). + + + Criminal law. + +As to criminal law, there have been more than fifty enactments, mostly +involving important modifications, due to more scientific ideas of +punishment, so that we may say that it has been almost entirely recast +since the establishment of the Third Republic. The separate system +applied in cases of preventive detention and imprisonment for short +periods; liberation before the expiry of the term of sentence, subject +to the condition that no fresh offence shall be committed within a given +time; transportation to the colonies of habitual offenders; the +remission of the penalty in the case of first offenders, and the lapsing +of the penalty when a certain time has gone by without a fresh +condemnation; greater facilities for the rehabilitation of condemned +persons, which now became simply a matter for the courts, and occurred +as a matter of course at the end of a certain time; such were the chief +results of this legislation. Finally, the law of the 8th of December +1897 completely altered the form of the preliminary examination before +the _juge d'instruction_, which had been the weakest point in the French +criminal procedure, though it was still held in private; the new law +made this examination really a hearing of both sides, and made the +appearance of counsel for the defence practically compulsory. + +As to private law, both civil and commercial, we could enumerate between +1871 and 1906 more than a hundred laws which have modified it, sometimes +profoundly, and have for the most part done very useful work without +attracting much attention. They are generally examined and drawn up by +commissions of competent men, and pass both chambers almost without +discussion. There have, however, been a few which aroused public +interest and even deep feeling. Firstly, there was the law of the 27th +of July 1884, and those which completed it; this law re-established +divorce, which had been abolished since 1816, but only permitted it for +certain definite causes determined by law. On the other hand, the law of +the 6th of February 1893 increased the liberty and independence of a +woman who was simply judicially separated, in order to encourage +separation, as opposed to divorce, when the conditions allowed it. The +law of the 25th of March 1896 on the succession of illegitimate +children, who were recognized by the parents, treated them not in the +same way as legitimate children, but gave them the title of heirs in the +succession of their father and mother, together with much greater rights +than they had possessed under the _Code Civil_. The law of the 24th of +July 1899, on the protection of children who are ill-treated or morally +neglected, also modified some of the provisions of the law as applied to +the family, with a view to greater justice and humanity. Finally, on the +occasion of the centenary of the _Code Civil_ (see CODE NAPOLEON), a +commission, composed of members of the chambers, magistrates, professors +of law, lawyers, political writers, and even novelists and dramatic +authors, was given the task of revising the whole structure of the code. + + See generally Adhemar Esmein, _Cours elementaire d'histoire du droit + francais_ (6th ed., 1906); J. Brissand, _Cours d'histoire generale du + droit francais public et prive_ (1904); Ernest Glasson, _Histoire du + droit et des institutions en France_ (1887-1904); Paul Viollet, + _Histoire des institutions politiques et administratives de la France_ + (3rd ed., 1903); Fustel de Coulanges, _Histoire des institutions + politiques de l'ancienne France_; Jacques Flach, _Les Origines de + l'ancienne France_ (1875-1889); Achille Luchaire, _Histoire des + institutions monarchiques de la France sous les premiers Capetiens_ + (2nd ed., 1900); Hippolyte Taine, _Les Origines de la France + contemporaine_ (1878-1894); Adhemar Esmein, _Elements de droit + constitutionnel francais et compare_ (4th ed., 1906); Leon Duguit et + Henry Monnier, _Les Constitutions et les principales lois politiques + de la France depuis 1789_ (1898). (J. P. E.) + + +FOOTNOTE: + + [1] _Political Science and Comparative Constitutional Law_ (Boston, + 1896). + + + + +FRANCESCHI, JEAN BAPTISTE, BARON (1766-1813), French general, was born +at Bastia on the 5th of December 1766 and entered the French service in +1793. He took part in the operations in Corsica in the following year, +and received a wound at the siege of San Fiorenzo. After this he left +the island and was appointed a field officer in the French Army of +Italy, with which he served from 1795 to 1799. He served as a general +officer in the campaign of Marengo, in the Naples campaign of 1805-1806, +and in the Peninsular War from 1807 to 1809. He was created a baron by +Napoleon. He commanded a Neapolitan brigade in the Russian War of 1812, +and after the retreat from Moscow took refuge, with the remnant of his +command, in Danzig, where in the course of the siege of 1813 he died on +the 19th of March. + +Two other generals of brigade in Napoleon's wars bore the name of +Franceschi, and the three have often been mistaken for each other. The +first was born at Lyons, JEAN BAPTISTE MARIE FRANCESCHI-DELONNE +(1767-1810), who served throughout the Revolutionary campaign on the +Rhine, took part in the campaign of Zuerich in 1799, and distinguished +himself very greatly by his escape from, and subsequent return to, +Genoa, when in 1800 Massena was closely besieged in that city. He became +a cavalry colonel in 1803, was promoted general of brigade on the field +of Austerlitz, and served in southern Italy and in Spain on the staff of +King Joseph Bonaparte. During the Peninsular War he won great +distinction as a cavalry general, and in 1810 Napoleon made him a baron. +At this time he was a prisoner in the hands of the Spaniards, into whose +hands he had fallen while bearing important despatches during the +campaign of Talavera. He was harshly treated by his captors, and died at +Carthagena on the 23rd of October 1810. The second was FRANCOIS +FRANCESCHI-LOSIO (1770-1810), born at Milan, who entered the French +Revolutionary army in 1795. He served through the Italian campaign of +1796-97, and subsequently, like Franceschi-Delonne, with Massena at +Zuerich and at Genoa, and at the headquarters of King Joseph in Italy and +Spain. He was killed in a duel by the Neapolitan colonel Filangieri in +1810. + + + + +FRANCESCHI, PIERO (or PIETRO) DE' (c. 1416-1492), Italian painter of the +Umbrian school. This master is generally named Piero della Francesca +(Peter, son of Frances), the tradition being that his father, a +woollen-draper named Benedetto, had died before his birth. This is not +correct, for the mother's name was Romana, and the father continued +living during many years of Piero's career. The painter is also named +Piero Borghese, from his birthplace, Borgo San Sepolcro, in Umbria. The +true family name was, as above stated, Franceschi, and the family still +exists under the name of Martini-Franceschi. + +Piero first received a scientific education, and became an adept in +mathematics and geometry. This early bent of mind and course of study +influenced to a large extent his development as a painter. He had more +science than either Paolo Uccello or Mantegna, both of them his +contemporaries, the former older and the latter younger. Skilful in +linear perspective, he fixed rectangular planes in perfect order and +measured them, and thus got his figures in true proportional height. He +preceded and excelled Domenico Ghirlandajo in projecting shadows, and +rendered with considerable truth atmosphere, the harmony of colours, and +the relief of objects. He was naturally therefore excellent in +architectural painting, and, in point of technique, he advanced the +practice of oil-colouring in Italy. + +The earliest trace that we find of Piero as a painter is in 1439, when +he was an apprentice of Domenico Veneziano, and assisted him in painting +the chapel of S. Egidio, in S. Maria Novella of Florence. Towards 1450 +he is said to have been with the same artist in Loreto; nothing of his, +however, can now be identified in that locality. In 1451 he was by +himself, painting in Rimini, where a fresco still remains. Prior to this +he had executed some extensive frescoes in the Vatican; but these were +destroyed when Raphael undertook on the same walls the "Liberation of St +Peter" and other paintings. His most extensive extant series of frescoes +is in the choir of S. Francesco in Arezzo,--the "History of the Cross," +beginning with legendary subjects of the death and burial of Adam, and +going on to the entry of Heraclius into Jerusalem after the overthrow of +Chosroes. This series is, in relation to its period, remarkable for +effect, movement, and mastery of the nude. The subject of the "Vision of +Constantine" is particularly vigorous in chiaroscuro; and a preparatory +design of the same composition was so highly effective that it used to +be ascribed to Giorgione, and might even (according to one authority) +have passed for the handiwork of Correggio or of Rembrandt. A noted +fresco in Borgo San Sepolcro, the "Resurrection," may be later than this +series; it is preserved in the Palazzo de' Conservatori. An important +painting of the "Flagellation of Christ," in the cathedral of Urbino, is +later still, probably towards 1470. Piero appears to have been much in +his native town of Borgo San Sepolcro from about 1445, and more +especially after 1454, when he finished the series in Arezzo. He grew +rich there, and there he died, and in October 1492 was buried. + + Two statements made by Vasari regarding "Piero della Francesca" are + open to much controversy. He says that Piero became blind at the age + of sixty, which cannot be true, as he continued painting some years + later; but scepticism need perhaps hardly go to the extent of + inferring that he was never blind at all. Vasari also says that Fra + Luca Pacioli, a disciple of Piero in scientific matters, defrauded his + memory by appropriating his researches without acknowledgment. This is + hard upon the friar, who constantly shows a great reverence for his + master in the sciences. One of Pacioli's books was published in 1509, + and speaks of Piero as still living. Hence it has been propounded that + Piero lived to the patriarchal age of ninety-four or upwards; but, as + it is now stated that he was buried in 1492, we must infer that there + is some mistake in relation to Pacioli's remark--perhaps the date of + writing was several years earlier than that of publication. Piero was + known to have left a manuscript of his own on perspective; this + remained undiscovered for a long time, but eventually was found by E. + Harzen in the Ambrosian library of Milan, ascribed to some + supposititious "Pietro, Pittore di Bruges." The treatise shows a + knowledge of perspective as dependent on the point of distance. + + In the National Gallery, London, are three paintings attributed to + Piero de' Franceschi. Another work, a profile of Isotta da Rimini, may + safely be rejected. The "Baptism of Christ," which used to be the + altar-piece of the Priory of the Baptist in Borgo San Sepolcro, is an + important example; and still more so the "Nativity," with the Virgin + kneeling, and five angels singing to musical instruments. This is a + very interesting and characteristic specimen, and has indeed been + praised somewhat beyond its deservings on aesthetic grounds. + + Piero's earlier style was energetic but unrefined, and to the last he + lacked selectness of form and feature. The types of his visages are + peculiar, and the costumes (as especially in the Arezzo series) + singular. He used to work assiduously from clay models swathed in real + drapery. Luca Signorelli was his pupil, and probably to some extent + Perugino; and his own influence, furthered by that of Signorelli, was + potent over all Italy. Belonging as he does to the Umbrian school, he + united with that style something of the Sienese and more of the + Florentine mode. + + Besides Vasari and Crowe & Cavalcaselle, the work by W.G. Waters, + _Piero della Francesca_ (1899) should be consulted. (W. M. R.) + + + + +FRANCESCHINI, BALDASSARE (1611-1689), Italian painter of the Tuscan +school, named, from Volterra the place of his birth, Il Volterrano, or +(to distinguish him from Ricciarelli) Il Volterrano Giuniore, was the +son of a sculptor in alabaster. At a very early age he learned from +Cosimo Daddi some of the elements of art, and he started as an assistant +to his father. This employment being evidently below the level of his +talents, the marquises Inghirami placed him, at the age of sixteen, +under the Florentine painter Matteo Rosselli. In the ensuing year he had +advanced sufficiently to execute in Volterra some frescoes, skilful in +foreshortening, followed by other frescoes for the Medici family in the +Valle della Petraia. In 1652 the marchese Filippo Niccolini, being +minded to employ Franceschini upon the frescoes for the cupola and +back-wall of his chapel in S. Croce, Florence, despatched him to various +parts of Italy to perfect his style. The painter, in a tour which lasted +some months, took more especially to the qualities distinctive of the +schools of Parma and Bologna, and in a measure to those of Pietro da +Cortona, whose acquaintance he made in Rome. He then undertook the +paintings commissioned by Niccolini, which constitute his most noted +performance, the design being good, and the method masterly. +Franceschini ranks higher in fresco than in oil painting. His works in +the latter mode were not unfrequently left unfinished, although numerous +specimens remain, the cabinet pictures being marked by much +sprightliness of invention. Among his best oil paintings of large scale +is the "St John the Evangelist" in the church of S. Chiara at Volterra. +One of his latest works was the fresco of the cupola of the Annunziata, +Florence, which occupied him for two years towards 1683, a production of +much labour and energy. Franceschini died of apoplexy at Volterra on the +6th of January 1689. He is reckoned among those painters of the decline +of art to whom the general name of "machinist" is applied. + +He is not to be confounded with another Franceschini of the same class, +and of rather later date, also of no small eminence in his time--the +Cavaliere Marcantonio Franceschini (1648-1729), who was a Bolognese. + + + + +FRANCHE-COMTE, a province of France from 1674 to the Revolution. It was +bounded on the E. by Switzerland, on the S. by Bresse and Bugey, on the +N. by Lorraine, and on the W. by the duchy of Burgundy and by Bassigny, +embracing to the E. of the Jura the valley of the Saone and most of that +of the Doubs. Under the Romans it corresponded to _Maxima Sequanorum_, +and after having formed part of the kingdom of Burgundy was in the early +part of the middle ages split up into the four countships of Portois, +Varais, Amons and Escuens. In the 10th century these four countships +were united to form a whole, which came to be called the countship of +Burgundy, and belonged at that time to the family of the counts of +Macon. + +The limits of the countship were definitely settled under Otto William, +son of Albert or Adalbert, king of Italy (+1027), who on the death of +his father-in-law, Henry (1002), tried to seize the duchy of Burgundy, +but without success. The countship, which formed a fief dependent on the +kingdom of Burgundy, passed to Renaud I., the second son of Otto +William. When the kingdom of Burgundy was joined to the Germanic empire, +he refused to pay homage to the emperor Henry III., whose suzerainty +over him never existed except in theory. William I., surnamed the Great +or Headstrong (1059-1087), still further added to the power of his house +by marrying Etiennette, heiress of the count of Vienne, and by acquiring +from his cousin Guy, when the latter became a monk at Cluny, the +countship of Macon. One of his sons, Guy, became pope, under the name of +Calixtus II. His grandson, Renaud III. (1097-1148), in his turn refused +to pay homage to the emperor Lothair, who retaliated by confiscating his +dominions and giving them to Conrad of Zaehringen. Renaud, however, +succeeded in maintaining until his death his possession of the +countships of Burgundy, Vienne and Macon. He left as sole heiress a +daughter, Beatrix, whom his brother William III. imprisoned, in order to +make an attempt on her inheritance; she was set free, however, by the +emperor Frederick Barbarossa, who married her in 1156. + +On the death of Beatrix (1185) the countship of Burgundy passed to Otto +I. (1190-1200), the youngest but one of her sons, who had to dispute its +possession with Stephen, count of Auxonne, the grandson of William III. +Beatrix, the daughter and heiress of Otto I. (1200-1231), married Otto, +duke of Meran (+1234), under whose government the inhabitants of +Besancon, which had been since the time of Frederick Barbarossa an +imperial city, formed themselves definitely into a _commune_. Alix, +daughter of Beatrix and of Otto of Meran, and heiress to the countship +of Burgundy, married Hugh of Chalon, son of John the Ancient or the Wise +(d. 1248), and a descendant of William III. and consequently of William +the Headstrong, thus bringing the countship back into the family of its +former lords. His son Otto IV. (1279-1303) engaged in war against the +bishop of Basel, and the German king Rudolph I., who supported the +latter, entered Franche-Comte and besieged Besancon, but without success +(1289). Otto, in fulfilment of the treaties of Ervennes and Vincennes +(1291-1295) gave Jeanne, his daughter by Mahaut of Artois, in marriage +to Philip, count of Poitiers, son of Philip the Fair. The latter took +over the administration of the countship in spite of strong opposition +from the nobles of the country, but their leader, John of Chalon-Arlay, +was compelled to make his submission. Another of Otto's daughters +married Charles IV., the Handsome, and both princesses, together with +their sister-in-law Margaret of Burgundy, were concerned in the +celebrated trial of the Tour de Nesle. Jeanne, however, continued to +govern her countship when Philip her husband became king of France +(Philip V., "the Long"). Jeanne, their daughter and heiress, married Odo +IV., duke of Burgundy (1330-1347), and her sister Margaret became the +wife of Louis II., count of Flanders. The countship returned to Margaret +at the death of Odo IV., who was succeeded in his duchy by his grandson +Philip of Rouvre. + +The marriage of Philip the Bold with Margaret, daughter of Louis of +Male, caused Franche-Comte to pass to the princes of the ducal house of +Burgundy, who kept it up till the death of Charles the Bold (1477). On +his death Louis XI. laid claim to the government of the countship as +well as of the duchy, as trustee for the property of the princess Mary, +who was closely related to him and destined to marry the dauphin (later +Charles VIII.). French garrisons occupied the principal towns, and the +lord of Craon was appointed governor of the country. In consequence of +his severity there was a general rising, and at the same time Mary +married Maximilian, archduke of Austria, to whom her father had formerly +betrothed her (Aug. 1477). The French were expelled from the fortified +towns and Craon beaten by the people of Dole. Charles of Amboise, who +took his place, reconquered the province, and even Besancon submitted to +the authority of the king of France, who promised to respect its +privileges. + +On the death of Louis XI. (1483), the estates of Franche-Comte +recognized as sovereign his son Charles, who was betrothed to the little +Margaret of Burgundy, daughter of Maximilian and Mary (d. 1482), but +when Charles VIII. refused Margaret's hand in order to marry Anne of +Brittany there was a fresh rising, and the French were again driven out. +The treaty of Senlis (23rd May 1483) put an end to the struggle: Charles +abandoned all his pretensions, and Maximilian was thus left in +possession of Franche-Comte, the sovereignty of which he handed on to +his son Philip and ultimately to the crown of Spain. He had, however, +constituted his daughter Margaret sovereign-governess of Franche-Comte +for life, and under the administration of this princess (who died in +1530), as under the rule of Charles V., the country enjoyed comparative +independence, paying a "_don gratuit_" of 200,000 livres every three +years, and being actually governed by the parliament of Dole, and by +governors chosen from the nobility of the country. It was Franche-Comte +which furnished Philip II. of Spain with one of his best counsellors, +Cardinal Perrenot de Granvella. + +In the 16th century the country was disturbed by the preaching of +Protestant doctrines, which gained adherents especially in the district +of Montbeliard, and later by the wars between France and Spain. In 1595 +the armies of Henry IV. levied contributions on Besancon and other +towns; but the people of Franche-Comte succeeded in obtaining special +terms of neutrality in order to shelter themselves from injury from +either of the parties in the war, and enjoyed a period of calm under the +government of the infanta Isabella Clara Eugenie and the archduke Albert +(1599-1621). But the country suffered greatly from the ravages of the +Thirty Years' War, from the presence of the army of the Condes, which +besieged Dole, from the devastation of the troops of Gallas, and later +of those of Bernard of Saxe-Weimar. The peace of Westphalia (1648) +confirmed Spain in the possession of Franche-Comte. In 1668 the French +again entered it, and the conquest, of which the foundations had been +laid by the intrigues of the abbot of Watteville and the French party +constituted by him, was easily accomplished by Conde and Luxemburg, +Louis XIV. directing the army in Franche-Comte for some time in person. +None the less, the country was restored to Spain at the peace of +Aix-la-Chapelle (1668), but in 1674 Louis headed another expedition +there. Besancon capitulated after a siege of twenty-seven days, and Dole +and Salins also fell into the hands of the invaders. + +In 1678 the treaty of Nijmwegen gave Franche-Comte to France (the +principality of Montbeliard remaining in the possession of the house of +Wuerttemberg, which had acquired it by marriage), and it was in +celebration of this conquest that the Arc de Triomphe of the Portes +Saint Denis and Saint Martin at Paris was erected. Franche-Comte became +a military government (_gouvernement_). The estates ceased to meet, and +the old "_don gratuit_" was replaced by a tax which became increasingly +heavy. Louis made Besancon, which Vauban fortified, into the capital of +the province, and transferred to it the parliament and the university, +the seat of which had hitherto been Dole. For purposes of +administration, the county was divided among the four great _bailliages_ +of Besancon, Dole, Amont (chief town Vesoul) and Aval (chief town +Salins). At the Revolution were formed from it the departments of Jura, +Doubs and Haute-Saone. + + See Dunod, _Histoire des Sequanois; Hist. du comte de Bourgogne_ + (Dijon, 1735-1740); E. Clerc, _Essai sur l'histoire de la + Franche-Comte_ (2nd ed., Besancon, 1870). (R. Po.) + + + + +FRANCHISE (from O. Fr. _franchise_, freedom, _franc_, free), in English +law, a royal privilege or branch of the crown's prerogative subsisting +in the hands of a subject. A franchise is an incorporeal hereditament, +and arises either from royal grants or from prescription which +presupposes a grant. Such franchises are bodies corporate, the right to +hold a fair, market, ferry, free fishery, &c. The term is also applied +to the right of voting at elections and the qualifications upon which +that right is based (see REGISTRATION; REPRESENTATION; VOTE). In the +United States the term is especially applied to the right or powers of +partial appropriation of public property by exclusive use, or to a +privilege of a public nature conferred on a corporation created for the +purpose. + + + + +FRANCIA (c. 1450-1517), a Bolognese painter, whose real name was +Francesco Raibolini, his father being Marco di Giacomo Raibolini, a +carpenter, descended from an old and creditable family, was born at +Bologna about 1450. He was apprenticed to a goldsmith currently named +Francia, and from him probably he got the nickname whereby he is +generally known; he moreover studied design under Marco Zoppo. The youth +was thus originally a goldsmith, and also an engraver of dies and +niellos, and in these arts he became extremely eminent. He was +particularly famed for his dies for medals; he rose to be mint-master at +Bologna, and retained that office till the end of his life. A famous +medal of Pope Julius II. as liberator of Bologna is ascribed to his +hand, but not with certainty. As a type-founder he made for Aldus +Manutius the first italic type. + +At a mature age--having first, it appears, become acquainted with +Mantegna--he turned his attention to painting. His earliest known +picture is dated 1494 (not 1490, as ordinarily stated). It shows so much +mastery that one is compelled to believe that Raibolini must before then +have practised painting for some few years. This work is now in the +Bologna gallery,--the "Virgin enthroned, with Augustine and five other +saints." It is an oil picture, and was originally painted for the church +of S. Maria della Misericordia, at the desire of the Bentivoglio family, +the rulers of Bologna. The same patrons employed him upon frescoes in +their own palace; one of "Judith and Holophernes" is especially noted, +its style recalling that of Mantegna. Francia probably studied likewise +the works of Perugino; and he became a friend and ardent admirer of +Raphael, to whom he addressed an enthusiastic sonnet. Raphael cordially +responded to the Bolognese master's admiration, and said, in a letter +dated in 1508, that few painters or none had produced Madonnas more +beautiful, more devout, or better portrayed than those of Francia. If we +may trust Vasari--but it is difficult to suppose that he was entirely +correct--the exceeding value which Francia set on Raphael's art brought +him to his grave. Raphael had consigned to Francia his famous picture of +"St Cecilia," destined for the church of S. Giovanni in Monte, Bologna; +and Francia, on inspecting it, took so much to heart his own +inferiority, at the advanced age of about sixty-six, to the youthful +Umbrian, that he sickened and shortly expired on the 6th of January +1517. A contemporary record, after attesting his pre-eminence as a +goldsmith, jeweller and painter, states that he was "most handsome in +person and highly eloquent." + +Distanced though he may have been by Raphael, Francia is rightly +regarded as the greatest painter of the earlier Bolognese school, and +hardly to be surpassed as representing the art termed "antico-moderno," +or of the "quattrocento." It has been well observed that his style is a +medium between that of Perugino and that of Giovanni Bellini; he has +somewhat more of spontaneous naturalism than the former, and of abstract +dignity in feature and form than the latter. The magnificent portrait in +the Louvre of a young man in black, of brooding thoughtfulness and +saddened profundity of mood, would alone suffice to place Francia among +the very great masters, if it could with confidence be attributed to his +hand, but in all probability its real author was Franciabigio; it had +erewhile passed under the name of Raphael, of Giorgione, or of Sebastian +del Piombo. The National Gallery, London, contains two remarkably fine +specimens of Francia, once combined together as principal picture and +lunette,--the "Virgin" and "Child and St Anna" enthroned, surrounded by +saints, and (in the lunette) the "Pieta," or lamentation of angels over +the dead Saviour. They come from the Buonvisi chapel in the church of S. +Frediano, Lucca, and were among the master's latest paintings. Other +leading works are--in Munich, the "Virgin" sinking on her knees in +adoration of the Divine Infant, who is lying in a garden within a rose +trellis; in the Borghese gallery, Rome, a Peter Martyr; in Bologna, the +frescoes in the church of St Cecilia, illustrating the life of the +saint, all of them from the design of Raibolini, but not all executed by +himself. His landscape backgrounds are of uncommon excellence. Francia +had more than 200 scholars. Marcantonio Raimondi, the famous engraver, +is the most renowned of them; next to him Amico Aspertini, and Francia's +own son Giacomo, and his cousin Julio. Lorenzo Costa was much associated +with Francia in pictorial work. + + Among the authorities as to the life and work of Francia may be + mentioned J.A. Calvi, _Memorie della vita di Francesco Raibolini_ + (1812), and especially G.C. Williamson, _Francia_ (1900). + (W. M. R.) + + + + +FRANCIA, JOSE GASPAR RODRIGUEZ (c. 1757-1840), dictator of Paraguay, was +born probably about 1757. According to one account he was of French +descent; but the truth seems to be that his father, Garcia Rodriguez +Francia, was a native of S. Paulo in Brazil, and came to Paraguay to +take charge of a plantation of black tobacco for the government. He +studied theology at the college of Cordova de Tucuman, and is said to +have been for some time a professor in that faculty; but he afterwards +turned his attention to the law, and practised in Asuncion. Having +attained a high reputation at once for ability and integrity, he was +selected for various important offices. On the declaration of Paraguayan +independence in 1811, he was appointed secretary to the national junta, +and exercised an influence on affairs greatly out of proportion to his +nominal position. When the congress or junta of 1813 changed the +constitution and established a duumvirate, Dr Francia and the Gaucho +general Yegres were elected to the office. In 1814 he secured his own +election as dictator for three years, and at the end of that period he +obtained the dictatorship for life. In the accounts which have been +published of his administration we find a strange mixture of capacity +and caprice, of far-sighted wisdom and reckless infatuation, strenuous +endeavours after a high ideal and flagrant violations of the simplest +principles of justice. He put a stop to the foreign commerce of the +country, but carefully fostered its internal industries; was disposed to +be hospitable to strangers from other lands, and kept them prisoners for +years; lived a life of republican simplicity, and punished with +Dionysian severity the slightest want of respect. As time went on he +appears to have grown more arbitrary and despotic. Deeply imbued with +the principles of the French Revolution, he was a stern antagonist of +the church. He abolished the Inquisition, suppressed the college of +theology, did away with the tithes, and inflicted endless indignities on +the priests. He discouraged marriage both by precept and example, and +left behind him several illegitimate children. For the extravagances of +his later years the plea of insanity has been put forward. On the 20th +of September 1840 he was seized with a fit and died. + + The first and fullest account of Dr Francia was given to the world by + two Swiss surgeons, Rengger and Longchamp, whom he had detained from + 1819 to 1825--_Essai historique sur la revolution de Paraguay et la + gouvernement dictatorial du docteur Francia_ (Paris, 1827). Their work + was almost immediately translated into English under the title of _The + Reign of Doctor Joseph G.R. De Francia in Paraguay_ (1827). About + eleven years after there appeared at London _Letters on Paraguay_, by + J.P. and W.P. Robertson, two young Scotsmen whose hopes of commercial + success had been rudely destroyed by the dictator's interference. The + account which they gave of his character and government was of the + most unfavourable description, and they rehearsed and emphasized their + accusations in _Francia's Reign of Terror_ (1839) and _Letters on + South America_ (3 vols., 1843). From the very pages of his detractors + Thomas Carlyle succeeded in extracting materials for a brilliant + defence of the dictator "as a man or sovereign of iron energy and + industry, of great and severe labour." It appeared in the _Foreign + Quarterly Review_ for 1843, and is reprinted in his _Critical and + Miscellaneous Essays_. Sir Richard F. Burton gives a graphic sketch of + Francia's life and a favourable notice of his character in his + _Letters from the Battlefields of Paraguay_ (1870), while C.A. + Washburn takes up a hostile position in his _History of Paraguay_ + (1871). + + + + +FRANCIABIGIO (1482-1525), Florentine painter. The name of this artist is +generally given as Mercantonio Franciabigio; it appears, however, that +his only real ascertained name was Francesco di Cristofano; and that he +was currently termed Francia Bigio, the two appellatives being distinct. +He was born in Florence, and studied under Albertinelli for some months. +In 1505 he formed the acquaintance of Andrea del Sarto; and after a +while the two painters set up a shop in common in the Piazza del Grano. +Franciabigio paid much attention to anatomy and perspective, and to the +proportions of his figures, though these are often too squat and puffy +in form. He had a large stock of artistic knowledge, and was at first +noted for diligence. As years went on, and he received frequent +commissions for all sorts of public painting for festive occasions, his +diligence merged in something which may rather be called workmanly +offhandedness. He was particularly proficient in fresco, and Vasari even +says that he surpassed all his contemporaries in this method--a judgment +which modern connoisseurship does not accept. In the court of the +Servites (or cloister of the Annunziata) in Florence he painted in 1513 +the "Marriage of the Virgin," as a portion of a series wherein Andrea +del Sarto was chiefly concerned. The friars having uncovered this work +before it was quite finished, Franciabigio was so incensed that, seizing +a mason's hammer, he struck at the head of the Virgin, and some other +heads; and the fresco, which would otherwise be his masterpiece in that +method, remains thus mutilated. At the Scalzo, in another series of +frescoes on which Andrea was likewise employed, he executed in 1518-1519 +the "Departure of John the Baptist for the Desert," and the "Meeting of +the Baptist with Jesus"; and, at the Medici palace at Poggio a Caiano, +in 1521, the "Triumph of Cicero." Various works which have been ascribed +to Raphael are now known or reasonably deemed to be by Franciabigio. +Such are the "Madonna del Pozzo," in the Uffizi Gallery; the half figure +of a "Young Man," in the Louvre (see also FRANCIA); and the famous +picture in the Fuller-Maitland collection, a "Young Man with a Letter." +These two works show a close analogy in style to another in the Pitti +gallery, avowedly by Franciabigio, a "Youth at a Window," and to some +others which bear this painter's recognized monogram. The series of +portraits, taken collectively, placed beyond dispute the eminent and +idiosyncratic genius of the master. Two other works of his, of some +celebrity, are the "Calumny of Apelles," in the Pitti, and the "Bath of +Bathsheba" (painted in 1523), in the Dresden gallery. + + + + +FRANCIS (Lat. _Franciscus_, Ital. _Francesco_, Span. _Francisco_, Fr. +_Francois_, Ger. _Franz_), a masculine proper name meaning "Frenchman." +As a Christian name it originated with St Francis of Assisi, whose +baptismal name was Giovanni, but who was called Francesco by his father +on returning from a journey in France. The saint's fame made the name +exceedingly popular from his day onwards. + + + + +FRANCIS I. (1708-1765), Roman emperor and grand duke of Tuscany, second +son of Leopold Joseph, duke of Lorraine, and his wife Elizabeth +Charlotte, daughter of Philip, duke of Orleans, was born on the 8th of +December 1708. He was connected with the Habsburgs through his +grandmother Eleanore, daughter of the emperor Ferdinand III., and wife +of Charles Leopold of Lorraine. The emperor Charles VI. favoured the +family, who, besides being his cousins, had served the house of Austria +with distinction. He had designed to marry his daughter Maria Theresa to +Clement, the elder brother of Francis. On the death of Clement he +adopted the younger brother as her husband. Francis was brought up at +Vienna with Maria Theresa on the understanding that they were to be +married, and a real affection arose between them. At the age of fifteen, +when he was brought to Vienna, he was established in the Silesian duchy +of Teschen, which had been mediatized and granted to his father by the +emperor in 1722. He succeeded his father as duke of Lorraine in 1729, +but the emperor, at the end of the Polish War of Succession, desiring to +compensate his candidate Stanislaus Leszczynski for the loss of his +crown in 1735, persuaded Francis to exchange Lorraine for the reversion +of the grand duchy of Tuscany. On the 12th of February 1736 he was +married to Maria Theresa, and they went for a short time to Florence, +when he succeeded to the grand duchy in 1737 on the death of John +Gaston, the last of the ruling house of Medici. His wife secured his +election to the Empire on the 13th of September 1745, in succession to +Charles VII., and she made him co-regent of her hereditary dominions. +Francis was well content to leave the reality of power to his able wife. +He had a natural fund of good sense and some business capacity, and was +a useful assistant to Maria Theresa in the laborious task of governing +the complicated Austrian dominions, but his functions appear to have +been of a purely secretarial character. He died suddenly in his carriage +while returning from the opera at Innsbruck on the 18th of August 1765. + + See A. von Arneth, _Geschichte Maria Theresias_ (Vienna, 1863-1879). + + + + +FRANCIS II. (1768-1835), the last Roman emperor, and, as Francis I., +first emperor of Austria, was the son of Leopold II., grand-duke of +Tuscany, afterwards emperor, and of his wife Maria Louisa, daughter of +Charles III. of Spain. He was born at Florence on the 12th of February +1768. In 1784 he was brought to Vienna to complete his education under +the eye of his uncle the emperor Joseph II., who was childless. Joseph +was repelled by the frigid and retiring character of his nephew, and is +said to have treated him with an impatient contempt which confirmed his +natural timidity; but after the marriage of Francis to Elizabeth of +Wuerttemberg (1788) their relations improved. At the close of his uncle's +reign he saw some service in the ill-conducted war with Turkey, and kept +a careful diary of his experiences. The death of his wife in childbirth +on the 18th of February 1790 was followed by the death of his uncle on +the 20th; and Francis acted as regent with Prince Kaunitz until his +father came from Florence. On the 19th of September he married his first +cousin Maria Theresa, daughter of Ferdinand, king of Naples, by whom he +was the father of his successor Ferdinand I., of Maria Louisa, wife of +Napoleon, and of the archduke Francis, father of the emperor Francis +Joseph. After her death (1807) he married Maria Ludovica Beatrix of Este +(1808), and when she died he made a fourth marriage with Carolina +Augusta of Bavaria (1816). + +He succeeded to the Austrian dominions and the empire on the death of +his father on the 1st of March 1792. The position was a trying one for a +young prince twenty-four years of age. The dominions of the house of +Austria, widely scattered in the Low Countries, Germany and Italy, were +exposed to the attacks of the French revolutionary governments and of +Napoleon. He was dragged into all the coalitions against France, and in +the early days of his reign he had to guard against the ambition of +Prussia, and the aggressions of Russia in Poland and Turkey. For long +he had no adviser save such diplomatists as Prince Kaunitz and Thugut, +who had been trained in the old Austrian diplomacy. His own best quality +was an invincible patience supported by reliance on the loyalty of his +subjects, and a sense of his duty to the state. (For the general events +of this reign till 1815 see EUROPE, AUSTRIA, NAPOLEON, FRENCH +REVOLUTIONARY WARS, &c.) The emperor's firmness averted what would have +been an irreparable loss of position. Seeing that the Empire was in the +last stage of dissolution, and that, even were it to survive, it would +pass from the house of Habsburg to that of Bonaparte, he in 1804 assumed +the title of hereditary emperor of Austria. The object of this prudent +measure was double. In the first place, he guarded against the danger +that his house should sink to a lower rank than the Russian or the +French. In the second place, he gave some semblance of unity to his +complex dominions in Germany, Bohemia, Hungary and Italy, by providing a +common title for the supreme ruler. His action was justified when, in +1806, the establishment of the Confederation of the Rhine forced him to +abdicate the empty title of Holy Roman emperor. + +In 1805 he made an important change in the working of his +administration. He had hitherto been assisted by a cabinet minister who +was in direct relation with all the "chanceries" and boards which formed +the executive government, and who acted as the channel of communication +between them and the emperor, and was in fact a prime minister. In 1805 +Napoleon insisted on the removal of Count Colloredo, who held the post. +From that time forward the emperor Francis acted as his own prime +minister, superintending every detail of his administration. In foreign +affairs after 1809 he reposed full confidence in Prince Metternich. But +Metternich himself declared at the close of his life that he had +sometimes held Europe in the palm of his hand, but never Austria. +Francis was sole master, and is entitled to whatever praise is due to +his government. It follows that he must bear the blame for its errors. +The history of the Austrian empire under his rule and since his death +bears testimony to both his merits and his limitations. His indomitable +patience and loyalty to his inherited task enabled him to triumph over +Napoleon. By consenting to the marriage of his daughter, Marie Louise, +to Napoleon in 1810, he gained a respite which he turned to good +account. By following the guidance of Metternich in foreign affairs he +was able to intervene with decisive effect in 1813. The settlement of +Europe in 1815 left Austria stronger and more compact than she had been +in 1792, and that this was the case was largely due to the emperor. + +During the twenty years which preceded his death in 1835, Francis +continued to oppose the revolutionary spirit. He had none of the +mystical tendencies of the tsar Alexander I., and only adhered to the +half fantastic Holy Alliance of 1815 out of pure politeness. But he was +wholly in sympathy with the policy of "repression" which came, in +popular view, to be identified with the Holy Alliance; and though +Metternich was primarily responsible for the part played by Austria in +the "policing" of Europe, Francis cannot but be held personally +responsible for the cruel and impolitic severities, associated +especially with the sinister name of the fortress prison of the +Spielberg, which made so many martyrs to freedom. It is not surprising +that Francis was denounced by Liberals throughout Europe as a tyrant and +an obscurantist. But though at home, as abroad, he met all suggestions +of innovation by a steady refusal to depart from old ways, he was always +popular among the mass of his subjects, who called him "our good Kaiser +Franz." In truth, if in the spirit of the traditional _Landesvater_ he +chastised his disobedient children mercilessly, he was essentially a +well-meaning ruler who forwarded the material and moral good of his +subjects according to his lights. But he held that, by the will of God, +the whole sovereign authority resided in his person, and could not be +shared with others without a dereliction of duty on his part and +disastrous consequences; and his capital error as a ruler of Austria was +that he persisted in maintaining a system of administration which +depended upon the indefatigable industry of a single man, and was +entirely outgrown by the modern development of his subjects. Before his +death, government in Austria was almost choked, and it broke down under +a successor who had not his capacity for work. Like his ancestor Philip +II. of Spain, Francis carried caution, and a disposition to sleep upon +every possible proposal, to a great length. He died on the 2nd of March +1835. + + See Baron J.A. Helfert, _Kaiser Franz und die oesterreichischen + Befreiungs-Kriege_ (Vienna, 1867). Ample bibliographies will be found + in Krones von Marchland's _Grundriss der oesterreichischen Geschichte_ + (Berlin, 1882). + + + + +FRANCIS I. (1494-1547), king of France, son of Charles of Valois, count +of Angouleme, and Louise of Savoy, was born at Cognac on the 12th of +September 1494. The count of Angouleme, who was the great-grandson of +King Charles V., died in 1496, and Louise watched over her son with +passionate tenderness. On the accession of Louis XII. in 1498, Francis +became heir-presumptive. Louis invested him with the duchy of Valois, +and gave him as tutor Marshal de Gie, and, after Gie's disgrace in 1503, +the sieur de Boisy, Artus Gouffier. Francois de Rochefort, abbot of St +Mesmin, instructed Francis and his sister Marguerite in Latin and +history; Louise herself taught them Italian and Spanish; and the library +of the chateau at Amboise was well stocked with romances of the Round +Table, which exalted the lad's imagination. Francis showed an even +greater love for violent exercises, such as hunting, which was his +ruling passion, and tennis, and for tournaments, masquerades and +amusements of all kinds. His earliest gallantries are described by his +sister in the 25th and 42nd stories of the _Heptameron_. In 1507 Francis +was betrothed to Claude, the daughter of Louis XII., and in 1508 he came +to court. In 1512 he gained his first military experience in Guienne, +and in the following year he commanded the army of Picardy. He married +Claude on the 18th of May 1514, and succeeded Louis XII. on the 1st of +January 1515. Of noble bearing, and, in spite of a very long and large +nose, extremely handsome, he was a sturdy and valiant knight, affable, +courteous, a brilliant talker and a facile poet. He had a sprightly wit, +some delicacy of feeling, and some generous impulses which made him +amiable. These brilliant qualities, however, were all on the surface. At +bottom the man was frivolous, profoundly selfish, unstable, and utterly +incapable of consistency or application. The ambassadors remarked his +negligence, and his ministers complained of it. Hunting, tennis, jewelry +and his gallantry were the chief preoccupations of his life. + +His character was at once authoritative and weak. He was determined to +be master and to decide everything himself, but he allowed himself to be +dominated and easily persuaded. Favourites, too, without governing +entirely for him, played an important part in his reign. His capricious +humour elevated and deposed them with the same disconcerting suddenness. +In the early years of his reign the conduct of affairs was chiefly in +the hands of Louise of Savoy, Chancellor Antoine Duprat, Secretary +Florimond Robertet, and the two Gouffiers, Boisy and Bonnivet. The royal +favour then elevated Anne de Montmorency and Philippe de Chabot, and in +the last years of the reign Marshal d'Annebaud and Cardinal de Tournon. +Women too had always a great influence over Francis--his sister, +Marguerite d'Angouleme, and his mistresses. Whatever the number of +these, he had only two titular mistresses--at the beginning of the reign +Francoise de Chateaubriant, and from about 1526 to his death Anne de +Pisseleu, whom he created duchesse d'Etampes and who entirely dominated +him. It has not been proved that he was the lover of Diane de Poitiers, +nor does the story of "La belle Ferronniere" appear to rest on any +historical foundation.[1] + +Circumstances alone gave a homogeneous character to the foreign policy +of Francis. The struggle against the emperor Charles V. filled the +greater part of the reign. In reality, the policy of Francis, save for +some flashes of sagacity, was irresolute and vacillating. Attracted at +first by Italy, dreaming of fair feats of prowess, he led the triumphal +Marignano expedition, which gained him reputation as a knightly king and +as the most powerful prince in Europe. In 1519, in spite of wise +counsels, he stood candidate for the imperial crown. The election of +Charles V. caused an inevitable rivalry between the two monarchs which +accentuated still further the light and chivalrous temper of the king +and the cold and politic character of the emperor. Francis's personal +intervention in this struggle was seldom happy. He did not succeed in +gaining the support of Henry VIII. of England at the interview of the +Field of the Cloth of Gold in 1520; his want of tact goaded the +Constable de Bourbon to extreme measures in 1522-1523; and in the +Italian campaign of 1525 he proved himself a mediocre, vacillating and +foolhardy leader, and by his blundering led the army to the disaster of +Pavia (the 25th of February 1525), where, however, he fought with great +bravery. "Of all things," he wrote to his mother after the defeat, +"nothing remains to me but honour and life, which is safe"--the +authentic version of the legendary phrase "All is lost save honour." He +strove to play the part of royal captive heroically, but the prison life +galled him. He fell ill at Madrid and was on the point of death. For a +moment he thought of abdicating rather than of ceding Burgundy. But this +was too great a demand upon his fortitude, and he finally yielded and +signed the treaty of Madrid, after having drawn up a secret protest. +After Madrid he wavered unceasingly between two courses, either that of +continuing hostilities, or the policy favoured by Montmorency of peace +and understanding with the emperor. At times he had the sagacity to +recognize the utility of alliances, as was shown by those he concluded +with the Porte and with the Protestant princes of Germany. But he could +never pledge himself frankly in one sense or the other, and this +vacillation prevented him from attaining any decisive results. At his +death, however, France was in possession of Savoy and Piedmont. + +In his religious policy Francis showed the same instability. Drawn +between various influences, that of Marguerite d'Angouleme, the du +Bellays, and the duchesse d'Etampes, who was in favour of the +Reformation or at least of toleration, and the contrary influence of the +uncompromising Catholics, Duprat, and then Montmorency and de Tournon, +he gave pledges successively to both parties. In the first years of the +reign, following the counsels of Marguerite, he protected Jacques +Lefevre of Etaples and Louis de Berquin, and showed some favour to the +new doctrines. But the violence of the Reformers threw him into the arms +of the opposite party. The affair of the Placards in 1534 irritated him +beyond measure, and determined him to adopt a policy of severity. From +that time, in spite of occasional indulgences shown to the Reformers, +due to his desire to conciliate the Protestant powers, Francis gave a +free hand to the party of repression, of which the most active and most +pitiless member was Cardinal de Tournon; and the end of the reign was +sullied by the massacre of the Waldenses (1545). + +Francis introduced new methods into government. In his reign the +monarchical authority became more imperious and more absolute. His was +the government "_du bon plaisir_." By the unusual development he gave to +the court he converted the nobility into a brilliant household of +dependants. The Concordat brought the clergy into subjection, and +enabled him to distribute benefices at his pleasure among the most +docile of his courtiers. He governed in the midst of a group of +favourites, who formed the _conseil des affaires_. The states-general +did not meet, and the remonstrances of the parlement were scarcely +tolerated. By centralizing the financial administration by the creation +of the _Tresor de l'Epargne_, and by developing the military +establishments, Francis still further strengthened the royal power. His +government had the vices of his foreign policy. It was uncertain, +irregular and disorderly. The finances were squandered in gratifying the +king's unbridled prodigality, and the treasury was drained by his +luxurious habits, by the innumerable gifts and pensions he distributed +among his mistresses and courtiers, by his war expenses and by his +magnificent buildings. His government, too, weighed heavily upon the +people, and the king was less popular than is sometimes imagined. + +Francis owes the greater measure of his glory to the artists and men of +letters who vied in celebrating his praises. He was pre-eminently the +king of the Renaissance. Of a quick and cultivated intelligence, he had +a sincere love of letters and art. He holds a high place in the history +of humanism by the foundation of the College de France; he did not found +an actual college, but after much hesitation instituted in 1530, at the +instance of Guillaume Bude (Budaeus), _Lecteurs royaux_, who in spite of +the opposition of the Sorbonne were granted full liberty to teach +Hebrew, Greek, Latin, mathematics, &c. The humanists Bude, Jacques Colin +and Pierre Duchatel were the king's intimates, and Clement Marot was his +favourite poet. Francis sent to Italy for artists and for works of art, +but he protected his own countrymen also. Here, too, he showed his +customary indecision, wavering between the two schools. At his court he +installed Benvenuto Cellini, Francesco Primaticcio and Rosso del Rosso, +but in the buildings at Chambord, St Germain, Villers-Cotterets and +Fontainebleau the French tradition triumphed over the Italian. + +Francis died on the 31st of March 1547, of a disease of the urinary +ducts according to some accounts, of syphilis according to others. By +his first wife Claude (d. 1524) he had three sons and four daughters: +Louise, who died in infancy; Charlotte, who died at the age of eight; +Francis (d. 1536); Henry, who came to the throne as Henry II.; +Madeleine, who became queen of Scotland; Charles (d. 1545); and +Margaret, duchess of Savoy. In 1530 he married Eleanor, the sister of +the emperor Charles V. + + AUTHORITIES.--For the official acts of the reign, the _Catalogue des + actes de Francois I^er_, published by the Academie des Sciences + morales et politiques (Paris, 1887-1907), is a valuable guide. The + _Bibliotheque Nationale_, the _National Archives_, &c., contain a mass + of unpublished documents. Of the published documents, see N. Camuzat, + _Meslanges historiques_ ... (Troyes, 1619); G. Ribier, _Lettres et + memoires d'estat_ (Paris, 1666); _Letters de Marguerite d'Angouleme_, + ed. by F. Genin (Paris, 1841 and 1842); the _Correspondence of + Castillon and Marillac_ (ed. by Kaulek, Paris, 1885), of _Odet de + Selve_ (ed. by Lefevre-Pontalis, Paris, 1888), and of _Guillaume + Pellicier_ (ed. by Tausserat-Radel, Paris, 1900); _Captivite du roi + Francois I^er_, and _Poesies de Francois I^er_ (both ed. by + Champollion-Figeac, Paris, 1847, of doubtful authenticity); _Relations + des ambassadeurs venitiens_, &c. Of the memoirs and chronicles, see + the journal of Louise of Savoy in S. Guichenon's _Histoire de la + maison de Savoie_, vol. iv. (ed. of 1778-1780); _Journal de Jean + Barillon_, ed. by de Vaissiere (Paris, 1897-1899); _Journal d'un + bourgeois de Paris_, ed. by Lalanne (Paris, 1854); _Cronique du roy + Francois I^er_, ed. by Guiffrey (Paris, 1868); and the memoirs of + Fleuranges, Montluc, Tavannes, Vieilleville, Brantome and especially + Martin du Bellay (coll. Michaud and Poujoulat). Of the innumerable + secondary authorities, see especially Paulin Paris, _Etudes sur le + regne de Francois I^er_ (Paris, 1885), in which the apologetic + tendency is excessive; and H. Lemonnier in vol. v. (Paris, 1903-1904) + of E. Lavisse's _Histoire de France_, which gives a list of the + principal secondary authorities. There is a more complete + bibliographical study by V.L. Bourrilly in the _Revue d'histoire + moderne et contemporaine_, vol. iv. (1902-1903). The printed sources + have been catalogued by H. Hauser, _Les Sources de l'histoire de + France, XVI^e siecle_, tome ii. (Paris, 1907). (J. I.) + + +FOOTNOTE: + + [1]On this point see Paulin Paris, _Etudes sur le regne de Francois + I^er_. + + + + +FRANCIS II. (1544-1560), king of France, eldest son of Henry II. and of +Catherine de' Medici, was born at Fontainebleau on the 19th of January +1544. He married the famous Mary Stuart, daughter of James V. of +Scotland, on the 25th of April 1558, and ascended the French throne on +the 10th of July 1559. During his short reign the young king, a sickly +youth and of feeble understanding, was the mere tool of his uncles +Francis, duke of Guise, and Charles, cardinal of Lorraine, into whose +hands he virtually delivered the reins of government. The exclusiveness +with which they were favoured, and their high-handed proceedings, +awakened the resentment of the princes of the blood, Anthony king of +Navarre and Louis prince of Conde, who gave their countenance to a +conspiracy (conspiracy of Amboise) with the Protestants against the +house of Guise. It was, however, discovered shortly before the time +fixed for its execution in March 1560, and an ambush having been +prepared, most of the conspirators were either killed or taken +prisoners. Its leadership and organization had been entrusted to Godfrey +de Barri, lord of la Renaudie (d. 1560); and the prince of Conde, who +was not present, disavowed all connexion with the plot. The duke of +Guise was now named lieutenant-general of the kingdom, but his Catholic +leanings were somewhat held in check by the chancellor Michel de +l'Hopital, through whose mediation the edict of Romorantin, providing +that all cases of heresy should be decided by the bishops, was passed in +May 1560, in opposition to a proposal to introduce the Inquisition. At a +meeting of the states-general held at Orleans in the December following, +the prince of Conde, after being arrested, was condemned to death, and +extreme measures were being enacted against the Huguenots; but the +deliberations of the Assembly were broken off, and the prince was saved +from execution, by the king's somewhat sudden death, on the 5th of the +month, from an abscess in the ear. + + PRINCIPAL AUTHORITIES.--"Lettres de Catherine de Medicis," edited by + Hector de la Ferriere (1880 seq.), and "Negociations ... relatives au + regne de Francois II," edited by Louis Paris (1841), both in the + _Collection de documents inedits sur l'histoire de France_; notice of + Francis, duke of Guise, in the _Nouvelle Collection des memoires pour + servir a l'histoire de France_, edited by J.F. Michaud and J.J.F. + Poujoulat, series i. vol. vi. (1836 seq.); _Memoires de Conde servant + d'eclaircissement ... a l'histoire de M. de Thou_, vols. i and ii. + (1743); Pierre de la Place, _Commentaires de l'estat de la religion et + de la republique sous les rois Henri II, Francois II, Charles IX_ + (1565); and Louis Regnier de la Planche, _Histoire de l'estat de + France ... sous ... Francois II (Pantheon litteraire_, new edition, + 1884). See also Ernest Lavisse, _Histoire de France_ (vol. vi. by J.H. + Mariejol, 1904), which contains a bibliography. + + + + +FRANCIS I. (1777-1830), king of the Two Sicilies, was the son of +Ferdinand IV. (I.) and Maria Carolina of Austria. He married Clementina, +daughter of the emperor Leopold II. of Austria, in 1796, and at her +death Isabella, daughter of Charles IV. of Spain. After the Bourbon +family fled from Naples to Sicily in 1806, and Lord William Bentinck, +the British resident, had established a constitution and deprived +Ferdinand IV. of all power, Francis was appointed regent (1812). On the +fall of Napoleon his father returned to Naples and suppressed the +Sicilian constitution and autonomy, incorporating his two kingdoms into +that of the Two Sicilies (1816); Francis then assumed the revived title +of duke of Calabria. While still heir-apparent he professed liberal +ideas, and on the outbreak of the revolution of 1820 he accepted the +regency apparently in a friendly spirit towards the new constitution. +But he was playing a double game and proved to be the accomplice of his +father's treachery. On succeeding to the throne in 1825 he cast aside +the mask of liberalism and showed himself as reactionary as his father. +He took little part in the government, which he left in the hands of +favourites and police officials, and lived with his mistresses, +surrounded by soldiers, ever in dread of assassination. During his reign +the only revolutionary movement was the outbreak on the Cilento (1828), +savagely repressed by the marquis Delcarretto, an ex-Liberal turned +reactionary. + + See Nisco, _Il Reame di Napoli sotto Francesco I_ (Naples, 1893). + + + + +FRANCIS II. (1836-1894), king of the Two Sicilies, son of Ferdinand II. +and Maria Cristina of Savoy, was the last of the Bourbon kings of +Naples. His education had been much neglected and he proved a man of +weak character, greatly influenced by his stepmother Maria Theresa of +Austria, by the priests, and by the _Camarilla_, or reactionary court +set. He ascended the throne on the death of his father (22nd of May +1859). As prime minister he at once appointed Carlo Filangieri, who, +realizing the importance of the Franco-Piedmontese victories in +Lombardy, advised Francis to accept the alliance with Piedmont proposed +by Cavour. On the 7th of June a part of the Swiss Guard mutinied, and +while the king mollified them by promising to redress their grievances, +General Nunziante collected other troops, who surrounded the mutineers +and shot them down. The incident resulted in the disbanding of the whole +Swiss Guard, the strongest bulwark of the dynasty. Cavour again proposed +an alliance to divide the papal states between Piedmont and Naples, the +province of Rome excepted, but Francis rejected an idea which to him +savoured of sacrilege. Filangieri strongly advocated a constitution as +the only measure which might save the dynasty, and on the king's refusal +he resigned. Meanwhile the revolutionary parties were conspiring for the +overthrow of the Bourbons in Calabria and Sicily, and Garibaldi was +preparing for a raid in the south. A conspiracy in Sicily was discovered +and the plotters punished with brutal severity, but Rosalino Pilo and +Francesco Crispi had organized the movement, and when Garibaldi landed +at Marsala (May 1860) he conquered the island with astonishing ease. +These events at last frightened Francis into granting a constitution, +but its promulgation was followed by disorders in Naples and the +resignation of ministers, and Liborio Romano became head of the +government. The disintegration of the army and navy proceeded apace, and +Cavour sent a Piedmontese squadron carrying troops on board to watch +events. Garibaldi, who had crossed the straits of Messina, was advancing +northwards and was everywhere received by the people as a liberator. +Francis, after long hesitations and even an appeal to Garibaldi himself, +left Naples (6th of September) with his wife Maria Sophia, the court, +the diplomatic corps (the French and English ministers excepted), and +went by sea to Gaeta, where a large part of the army was concentrated. +The next day Garibaldi entered Naples, was enthusiastically welcomed, +and formed a provisional government. King Victor Emmanuel had decided on +the invasion of the papal states, and after occupying Romagna and the +Marche entered the Neapolitan kingdom. Garibaldi's troops defeated the +Neapolitan royalists on the Volturno (1st and 2nd of October), while the +Piedmontese captured Capua. Only Gaeta, Messina, and Civitella del +Tronto still held out, and the siege of the former by the Piedmontese +began on the 6th of November 1860. Both Francis and Maria Sophia behaved +with great coolness and courage, and even when the French fleet, whose +presence had hitherto prevented an attack by sea, was withdrawn, they +still resisted; it was not until the 12th of February 1861 that the +fortress capitulated. Thus the kingdom of Naples was incorporated in +that of Italy, and the royal pair from that time forth led a wandering +life in Austria, France and Bavaria. Francis died on the 27th of +December 1894 at Arco in Tirol. His widow survived him. + +Francis II. was weak-minded, stupid and vacillating, but, although his +short reign was stained with some cruel massacres and persecutions, he +was less of a tyrant than his father. The courage and dignity he +displayed during his reverses inspired pity and respect. But the fact +that he protected brigandage in his former dominions and countenanced +the most abominable crimes in the name of legitimism greatly diminished +the sympathy which was felt for the fallen monarch. + + BIBLIOGRAPHY.--R. de Cesare, _La Fine d'un regno_, vol. ii. (Citta di + Castello, 1900) gives a detailed account of the reign of Francis II., + while H.R. Whitehouse's _Collapse of the Kingdom of Naples_ (New York, + 1899) may be recommended to English readers; Nisco's _Francesco II_ + (Naples, 1887) should also be consulted. See under NAPLES; GARIBALDI; + BIXIO; CAVOUR; ITALY; FILANGIERI; &c. (L. V.*) + + + + +FRANCIS IV. (1779-1846) duke of Modena, was the son of the archduke +Ferdinand, Austrian governor of Lombardy, who acquired the duchy of +Modena through his wife Marie Beatrice, heiress of the house of Este as +well as of many fiefs of the Malaspina, Pio da Carpi, Pico della +Mirandola, Cibo, and other families. At the time of the French invasion +(1796) Francis was sent to Vienna to be educated, and in 1809 was +appointed governor of Galicia. Later he went to Sardinia, where the +exiled King Victor Emmanuel I. and his wife Maria Theresa were living in +retirement. The latter arranged a marriage between her daughter Marie +Beatrice and Francis, and a secret family compact was made whereby if +the king and his two brothers died without male issue, the Salic law +would be changed so that Francis should succeed to the kingdom instead +of Charles Albert of Carignano (N. Bianchi, _Storia della diplomazia +europea in Italia_, i. 42-43). On the fall of Napoleon in 1814 Francis +received the duchy of Modena, including Massa-Carrara and Lunigiana; his +mother's advice was "to be above the law ... never to forgive the +Republicans of 1796, nor to listen to the complaints of his subjects, +whom nothing satisfies; the poorer they are the quieter they are" +(Silingardi, "Ciro Menotti," in _Rivista europea_, Florence, 1880). + +The duke was well received at Modena; inordinately ambitious, +strong-willed, immensely rich, avaricious but not unintelligent, he soon +proved one of the most reactionary despots in Italy. He still hoped to +acquire either Piedmont or some other part of northern Italy, and he was +in touch with the Sanfedisti and the Concistoro, reactionary Catholic +associations opposed to the Carbonari, but not always friendly to +Austria. Against the Carbonari and other Liberals he issued the severest +edicts, and although there was no revolt at Modena in 1821 as in +Piedmont and Naples, he immediately instituted judicial proceedings +against the supposed conspirators. Some 350 persons were arrested and +tortured, 56 being condemned to death (only a few of them were executed) +and 237 to imprisonment; a large number, however, escaped, including +Antonio Panizzi (afterwards director of the British Museum). The +ferocious police official Besini who conducted the trials was afterwards +murdered. The duke actually proposed to Prince Metternich, the Austrian +chancellor, an agreement whereby the various Italian rulers were to +arrest every Liberal in the country on a certain day, but the project +fell through owing to opposition from the courts of Florence and Rome. +At the congress of Verona Metternich made another attempt to secure the +Piedmontese succession for Francis, but without success. The duke became +ever more despotic; Modena swarmed with spies and informers, education +was hampered, feudalism strengthened; for the duke hoped to consolidate +his power by means of the nobility, and the least expression of +liberalism, or even failure to denounce a Carbonaro, involved arrest and +imprisonment. But strange to say, in 1830 we find Francis actually +coquetting with revolution. Having lost all hope of acquiring the +Piedmontese throne, he entered into negotiations with the French +Orleanist party with a view to obtaining its support in his plans for +extending his dominions. He was thus brought into touch with Ciro +Menotti (1798-1831) and the Modenese Liberals; what the nature of the +connexion was is still obscure, but it was certainly short-lived and +merely served to betray the Carbonari. As soon as Francis learned that a +conspiracy was on foot to gain possession of the town, he had Menotti +and several other conspirators arrested on the night of the 3rd of +February 1831, and sent the famous message to the governor of Reggio: +"The conspirators are in my hands; send me the hangman" (there is some +doubt as to the authenticity of the actual words). But the revolt broke +out in other parts of the duchy and in Romagna, and Francis retired to +Mantua with Menotti. A provisional government was formed at Modena which +proclaimed that "Italy is one," but the duke returned a few weeks later +with Austrian troops, and resistance was easily quelled. Then the +political trials began; Menotti and two others were executed, and +hundreds condemned to imprisonment. The population was now officially +divided into four classes, viz. "very loyal, loyal, less loyal, and +disloyal," and the reaction became worse than ever, the duke interfering +in the minutest details of administration, such as hospitals, schools, +and roads. New methods of procedure were introduced to deal with +political trials, but the ministerial cabal by which the country was +administered intrigued and squabbled to such an extent that it had to be +dismissed. + +On the 20th of February 1846 Francis died. Although he had many domestic +virtues and charming manners, was charitable in times of famine, and was +certainly the ablest of the Italian despots, Liberalism was in his eyes +the most heinous of crimes, and his reign is one long record of +barbarous persecution. (L. V.*) + + + + +FRANCIS V. (1819-1875), duke of Modena, son of Francis IV., succeeded +his father in 1846. Although less cruel and also less intelligent than +his father, he had an equally high opinion of his own authority. His +reign began with disturbances at Fivizzano and Pontremoli, which Tuscany +surrendered to him according to treaty but against the wishes of the +inhabitants (1847), and at Massa and Carrara, where the troops shot down +the people. Feeling his position insecure, the duke asked for and +obtained an Austrian garrison, but on the outbreak of revolution +throughout Italy and at Vienna in 1848, further disorders occurred in +the duchy, and on the 20th of March he fled with his family to Mantua. A +provisional government was formed, and volunteers were raised who fought +with the Piedmontese against Austria. But after the Piedmontese defeat +Francis returned to Modena, with Austrian assistance, in August and +conferred many appointments on Austrian officers. Like his father, he +interfered in the minutest details of administration, and instituted +proceedings against all who were suspected of Liberalism. Not content +with the severity of his judges, he overrode their sentences in favour +of harsher punishments. The disturbances at Carrara were ruthlessly +suppressed, and the prisons filled with politicals. In 1859 numbers of +young Modenese fled across the frontier to join the Piedmontese army, as +war with Austria seemed imminent; and after the Austrian defeat at +Magenta the duke left Modena to lead his army in person against the +Piedmontese, taking with him the contents of the state treasury and many +valuable books, pictures, coins, tapestries and furniture from the +palace. The events of 1859-1860 made his return impossible; and after a +short spell of provisional government the duchy was united to Italy. He +retired to Austria, and died at Munich in November 1875. + + BIBLIOGRAPHY.--N. Bianchi, _I Ducati Estensi_ (Turin, 1852); Galvani, + _Memorie di S.A.R. Francesco IV_ (Modena, 1847); _Documenti + riguardanti il governo degli Austro-Estensi in Modena_ (Modena, 1860); + C. Tivaroni, _L'Italia durante il dominio austriaco_, i. 606-653 + (Turin, 1892), and _L'Italia degli Italiani_, i. 114-125 (Turin, + 1895); Silingardi, "Ciro Menotti," in the _Rivista europea_ (Florence, + 1880); F.A. Gualterio, _Gli ultimi rivolgimenti italiani_ (Florence, + 1850); Bayard de Volo, _Vita di Francesco V_ (4 vols., Modena, + 1878-1885). (L. V.*) + + + + +FRANCIS OF ASSISI, ST. (1181 or 1182-1226), founder of the Franciscans +(q.v.), was born in 1181 or 1182 at Assisi, one of the independent +municipal towns of Umbria. He came from the upper middle class, his +father, named Pietro Bernardone, being one of the larger merchants of +the city. Bernardone's commercial enterprises made him travel abroad, +and it was from the fact that the father was in France at the time of +his son's birth that the latter was called Francesco. His education +appears to have been of the slightest, even for those days. It is +difficult to decide whether words of the early biographers imply that +his youth was not free from irregularities; in any case, he was the +recognized leader of the young men of the town in their revels; he was, +however, always conspicuous for his charity to the poor. When he was +twenty (1201) the neighbouring and rival city of Perugia attempted to +restore by force of arms the nobles who had been expelled from Assisi by +the burghers and the populace, and Francis took part in the battle +fought in the plain that lies between the two cities; the men of Assisi +were defeated and Francis was among the prisoners. He spent a year in +prison at Perugia, and when peace was made at the end of 1202 he +returned to Assisi and recommenced his old life. + +Soon a serious and prolonged illness fell upon him, during which he +entered into himself and became dissatisfied with his way of life. On +his recovery he set out on a military expedition, but at the end of the +first day's march he fell ill, and had to stay at Spoleto and return to +Assisi. This disappointment brought on again the spiritual crisis he had +experienced in his illness, and for a considerable time the conflict +went on within him. One day he gave a banquet to his friends, and after +it they sallied forth with torches, singing through the streets, Francis +being crowned with garlands as the king of the revellers; after a time +they missed him, and on retracing their steps they found him in a trance +or reverie, a permanently altered man. He devoted himself to solitude, +prayer and the service of the poor, and before long went on a pilgrimage +to Rome. Finding the usual crowd of beggars before St Peter's, he +exchanged his clothes with one of them, and experienced an overpowering +joy in spending the day begging among the rest. The determining episode +of his life followed soon after his return to Assisi; as he was riding +he met a leper who begged an alms; Francis had always had a special +horror of lepers, and turning his face he rode on; but immediately an +heroic act of self-conquest was wrought in him; returning he alighted, +gave the leper all the money he had about him, and kissed his hand. From +that day he gave himself up to the service of the lepers and the +hospitals. To the confusion of his father and brothers he went about +dressed in rags, so that his old companions pelted him with mud. Things +soon came to a climax with his father: in consequence of his profuse +alms to the poor and to the restoration of the ruined church of St +Damian, his father feared his property would be dissipated, so he took +Francis before the bishop of Assisi to have him legally disinherited; +but without waiting for the documents to be drawn up, Francis cast off +his clothes and gave them back to his father, declaring that now he had +better reason to say "Our Father which art in heaven," and having +received a cloak from the bishop, he went off into the woods of Mount +Subasio singing a French song; some brigands accosted him and he told +them he was the herald of the great king (1206). + +The next three years he spent in the neighbourhood of Assisi in abject +poverty and want, ministering to the lepers and the outcasts of society. +It was now that he began to frequent the ruined little chapel of St Mary +of the Angels, known as the Portiuncula, where much of his time was +passed in prayer. One day while Mass was being said therein, the words +of the Gospel came to Francis as a call: "Everywhere on your road preach +and say--The kingdom of God is at hand. Cure the sick, raise the dead, +cleanse the lepers, drive out devils. Freely have you received, freely +give. Carry neither gold nor silver nor money in your girdles, nor bag, +nor two coats, nor sandals, nor staff, for the workman is worthy of his +hire" (Matt. x. 7-10). He at once felt that this was his vocation, and +the next day, layman as he was, he went up to Assisi and began to preach +to the poor (1209). Disciples joined him, and when they were twelve in +number Francis said: "Let us go to our Mother, the holy Roman Church, +and tell the pope what the Lord has begun to do through us, and carry it +out with his sanction." They obtained the sanction of Innocent III., and +returning to Assisi they gave themselves up to their life of apostolic +preaching and work among the poor. + +The character and development of the order are traced in the article +FRANCISCANS; here the story of Francis's own life and the portrayal of +his personality will be attempted. To delineate in a few words the +character of the Poverello of Assisi is indeed a difficult task. There +is such a many-sided richness, such a tenderness, such a poetry, such an +originality, such a distinction revealed by the innumerable anecdotes in +the memoirs of his disciples, that his personality is brought home to us +as one of the most lovable and one of the strongest of men. It is +probably true to say that no one has ever set himself so seriously to +imitate the life of Christ and to carry out so literally Christ's work +in Christ's own way. This was the secret of his love of poverty as +manifested in the following beautiful prayer which he addressed to our +Lord: "Poverty was in the crib and like a faithful squire she kept +herself armed in the great combat Thou didst wage for our redemption. +During Thy passion she alone did not forsake Thee. Mary Thy Mother +stopped at the foot of the Cross, but poverty mounted it with Thee and +clasped Thee in her embrace unto the end; and when Thou wast dying of +thirst, as a watchful spouse she prepared for Thee the gall. Thou didst +expire in the ardour of her embraces, nor did she leave Thee when dead, +O Lord Jesus, for she allowed not Thy body to rest elsewhere than in a +borrowed grave. O poorest Jesus, the grace I beg of Thee is to bestow on +me the treasure of the highest poverty. Grant that the distinctive mark +of our Order may be never to possess anything as its own under the sun +for the glory of Thy name, and to have no other patrimony than begging" +(in the _Legenda 3 Soc._). This enthusiastic love of poverty is +certainly the keynote of St Francis's spirit; and so one of his +disciples in an allegorical poem (translated into English as _The Lady +of Poverty_ by Montgomery Carmichael, 1901), and Giotto in one of the +frescoes at Assisi, celebrated the "holy nuptials of Francis with Lady +Poverty." + +Another striking feature of Francis's character was his constant +joyousness; it was a precept in his rule, and one that he enforced +strictly, that his friars should be always rejoicing in the Lord. He +retained through life his early love of song, and during his last +illness he passed much of his time in singing. His love of nature, +animate and inanimate, was very keen and manifested itself in ways that +appear somewhat naive. His preaching to the birds is a favourite +representation of St Francis in art. All creatures he called his +"brothers" or "sisters"--the chief example is the poem of the "Praises +of the Creatures," wherein "brother Sun," "sister Moon," "brother Wind," +and "sister Water" are called on to praise God. In his last illness he +was cauterized, and on seeing the burning iron he addressed "brother +Fire," reminding him how he had always loved him and asking him to deal +kindly with him. It would be an anachronism to think of Francis as a +philanthropist or a "social worker" or a revivalist preacher, though he +fulfilled the best functions of all these. Before everything he was an +ascetic and a mystic--an ascetic who, though gentle to others, wore out +his body by self-denial, so much so that when he came to die he begged +pardon of "brother Ass the body" for having unduly ill treated it: a +mystic irradiated with the love of God, endowed in an extraordinary +degree with the spirit of prayer, and pouring forth his heart by the +hour in the tenderest affections to God and our Lord. St Francis was a +deacon but not a priest. + +From the return of Francis and his eleven companions from Rome to Assisi +in 1209 or 1210, their work prospered in a wonderful manner. The effect +of their preaching, and their example and their work among the poor, +made itself felt throughout Umbria and brought about a great religious +revival. Great numbers came to join the new order which responded so +admirably to the needs of the time. In 1212 Francis invested St Clara +(q.v.) with the Franciscan habit, and so instituted the "Second Order," +that of the nuns. As the friars became more and more numerous their +missionary labours extended wider and wider, spreading first over Italy, +and then to other countries. Francis himself set out, probably in 1212, +for the Holy Land to preach the Gospel to the Saracens, but he was +shipwrecked and had to return. A year or two later he went into Spain to +preach to the Moors, but had again to return without accomplishing his +object (1215 probably). After another period of preaching in Italy and +watching over the development of the order, Francis once again set out +for the East (1219). This time he was successful; he made his way to +Egypt, where the crusaders were besieging Damietta, got himself taken +prisoner and was led before the sultan, to whom he openly preached the +Gospel. The sultan sent him back to the Christian camp, and he passed on +to the Holy Land. Here he remained until September 1220. During his +absence were manifested the beginnings of the troubles in the order that +were to attain to such magnitude after his death. The circumstances +under which, at an extraordinary general chapter convoked by him shortly +after his return, he resigned the office of minister-general (September +1220) are explained in the article FRANCISCANS: here, as illustrating +the spirit of the man, it is in place to cite the words in which his +abdication was couched: "Lord, I give Thee back this family which Thou +didst entrust to me. Thou knowest, most sweet Jesus, that I have no more +the power and the qualities to continue to take care of it. I entrust +it, therefore, to the ministers. Let them be responsible before Thee at +the Day of Judgment, if any brother by their negligence, or their bad +example, or by a too severe punishment, shall go astray." These words +seem to contain the mere truth: Francis's peculiar religious genius was +probably not adapted for the government of an enormous society spread +over the world, as the Friars Minor had now become. + +The chief works of the next years were the revision and final redaction +of the Rule and the formation or organization of the "Third Order" or +"Brothers and Sisters of Penance," a vast confraternity of lay men and +women who tried to carry out, without withdrawing from the world, the +fundamental principles of Franciscan life (see TERTIARIES). + +If for no other reason than the prominent place they hold in art, it +would not be right to pass by the Stigmata without a special mention. +The story is well known; two years before his death Francis went up +Mount Alverno in the Apennines with some of his disciples, and after +forty days of fasting and prayer and contemplation, on the morning of +the 14th of September 1224 (to use Sabatier's words), "he had a vision: +in the warm rays of the rising sun he discerned suddenly a strange +figure. A seraph with wings extended flew towards him from the horizon +and inundated him with pleasure unutterable. At the centre of the vision +appeared a cross, and the seraph was nailed to it. When the vision +disappeared Francis felt sharp pains mingling with the delights of the +first moment. Disturbed to the centre of his being he anxiously sought +the meaning of it all, and then he saw on his body the Stigmata of the +Crucified." The early authorities represent the Stigmata not as bleeding +wounds, the holes as it were of the nails, but as fleshy excrescences +resembling in form and colour the nails, the head on the palm of the +hand, and on the back as it were a nail hammered down. In the first +edition of the _Vie_, Sabatier rejected the Stigmata; but he changed his +mind, and in the later editions he accepts their objective reality as an +historically established fact; in an appendix he collects the evidence: +there exists what is according to all probability an autograph of Br. +Leo, the saint's favourite disciple and companion on Mount Alverno at +the time, which describes the circumstances of the stigmatization; Elias +of Cortona (q.v.), the acting superior, wrote on the day after his death +a circular letter wherein he uses language clearly implying that he had +himself seen the Stigmata, and there is a considerable amount of +contemporary authentic second hand evidence. On the strength of this +body of evidence Sabatier rejects all theories of fraud or +hallucination, whatever may be the explanation of the phenomena. + +Francis was so exhausted by the sojourn on Mount Alverno that he had to +be carried back to Assisi. The remaining months of his life were passed +in great bodily weakness and suffering, and he became almost blind. +However, he worked on with his wonted cheerfulness and joyousness. At +last, on the 3rd of October 1226, he died in the Portiuncula at the age +of forty-five. Two years later he was canonized by Gregory IX., whom, as +Cardinal Hugolino of Ostia, he had chosen to be the protector of his +order. + +The works of St Francis consist of the Rule (in two redactions), the +Testament, spiritual admonitions, canticles and a few letters. They were +first edited by Wadding in 1623. Two critical editions were published in +1904, one by the Franciscans of Quaracchi near Florence, the other (in a +longer and a shorter form) by Professor H. Boehmer of Bonn. Sabatier and +Goetz (see below) have investigated the authenticity of the several +works; and the four lists, while exhibiting slight variations, are in +substantial accord. Besides the works, properly so called, there is a +considerable amount of traditional matter--anecdotes, sayings, +sermons--preserved in the biographies and in the _Fioretti_;[1] a great +deal of this matter is no doubt substantially authentic, but it is not +possible to subject it to any critical sifting. + + _Note on Sources._--The sources for the life of St Francis and early + Franciscan history are very numerous, and an immense literature has + grown up around them. Any attempt to indicate even a selection of this + literature would here be impossible and also futile; for the discovery + of new documents has by no means ceased, and the criticism of the + materials is still in full progress, nor can it be said that final + results have yet emerged from the discussion. Students will find the + chief materials in the following collections: _Archiv fuer Litteratur + und Kirchengeschichte des Mittelalters_ (ed. by Ehrle and Denifle, + 1885, &c.); publications of the Franciscans of Quaracchi (list to be + obtained from Herder, Freiburg im Breisgau); and the two series edited + by Paul Sabatier, _Collection d'etudes et de documents sur l'histoire + religieuse et litteraire du moyen age_ (5 vols. published up to 1906) + and _Opuscules de critique historique_ (12 fascicules): the easiest + and most consecutive way of following the controversy is by the aid of + the "Bulletin Hagiographique" in _Analecta Bollandiana_. Relatively + popular accounts of the most important sources are supplied in the + introductory chapters of Sabatier's _Vie de S. Francois_ and _Speculum + perfectionis_, and Lempp's _Frere Elie de Cortone_. + + Concerning the life of St Francis and the beginnings of the order, the + chief documents that come under discussion are: the two _Lives_ by + Thomas of Celano (1228 and 1248 respectively; Eng. trans. with + introduction by A.G. Ferrers Howell, 1908), of which the only critical + edition is that of Friar Ed. d'Alencon (1906); the so-called _Legenda + trium sociorum_; the _Speculum perfectionis_, discovered by Paul + Sabatier and edited in 1898 (Eng. trans. by Sebastian Evans, _Mirror + of Perfection_, 1899). Sabatier's theory as to the nature of these + documents was, in brief, that the _Speculum perfectionis_ was the + first of all the Lives of the saint, written in 1227 by Br. Leo, his + favourite and most intimate disciple, and that the _Legenda 3 Soc._ is + what it claims to be--the handiwork of Leo and the two other most + intimate companions of Francis, compiled in 1246; these are the most + authentic and the only true accounts, Thomas of Celano's Lives being + written precisely in opposition to them, in the interests of the + majority of the order that favoured mitigations of the Rule especially + in regard to poverty. For ten years the domain of Franciscan origins + was explored and discussed by a number of scholars; and then the whole + ground was reviewed by Professor W. Goetz of Munich in a study + entitled _Die Quellen zur Geschichte des hl. Franz von Assisi_ (1904). + His conclusions are substantially the same as those of Pere van + Ortroy, the Bollandist, and Friar Lemmens, an Observant Franciscan, + and are the direct contrary of Sabatier's: the _Legenda 3 Soc._ is a + forgery; the _Speculum perfectionis_ is a compilation made in the 14th + century, also in large measure a forgery, but containing an element + (not to be precisely determined) derived from Br. Leo; on the other + hand, Thomas of Celano's two Lives are free from the "tendencies" + ascribed to them by Sabatier, and that of 1248 was written with the + collaboration of Leo and the other companions; thus the best sources + of information are those portions of the _Speculum_ that can with + certainty be carried back to Br. Leo, and the Lives by Thomas of + Celano, especially the second _Life_. Goetz's criticism of the + documents is characterized by exceeding carefulness and sobriety. Of + course he does not suppose that his conclusions are in all respects + final; but his investigations show that the time has not yet come when + a biography of St Francis could be produced answering to the demands + of modern historical criticism. The official life of St Francis is St + Bonaventura's _Legenda_, published in a convenient form by the + Franciscans of Quaracchi (1898); Goetz's estimate of it (op. cit.) is + much more favourable than Sabatier's. + + Paul Sabatier's fascinating and in many ways sympathetic _Vie de S. + Francois_ (1894; 33rd ed., 1906; Eng. trans, by L.S. Houghton, 1901) + will probably for a long time to come be accepted by the ordinary + reader as a substantially correct portrait of St Francis; and yet + Goetz declares that the most competent and independent critics have + without any exception pronounced that Sabatier has depicted St Francis + a great deal too much from the standpoint of modern religiosity, and + has exaggerated his attitude in face of the church (op. cit. p. 5). In + articles in the _Hist. Vierteljahrsschrift_ (1902, 1903) Goetz has + shown that Sabatier's presentation of St Francis's relations with the + ecclesiastical authority in general, and with Cardinal Hugolino + (Gregory IX.) in particular, is largely based on misconception; that + the development of the order was not forced on Francis against his + will; and that the differences in the order did not during Francis's + lifetime attain to such a magnitude as to cause him during his last + years the suffering depicted by Sabatier. This from a Protestant + historian like Goetz is most valuable criticism. In truth Sabatier's + St Francis is an anachronism--a man at heart, a modern pietistic + French Protestant of the most liberal type, with a veneer of 13th + century Catholicism. + + Of lives of St Francis in English may be mentioned those by Mrs + Oliphant (2nd ed., 1871) and by Canon Knox Little (1897). For general + information and references to the literature of the subject, see Otto + Zoeckler, _Askese und Moenchtum_ (1897), ii. 470-493, and his article in + Herzog's _Realencyklopaedie_ (ed. 3), "Franz von Assisi" (1899); also + Max Heimbucher, _Orden und Kongregationen_ (1896), i. Sec. 38. The + chapter on St Francis in Emile Gebhart's _Italie mystique_ (ed. 3, + 1899) is very remarkable; indeed, though this writer is as little + ecclesiastically-minded as Sabatier himself, his general picture of + the state of religion in Italy at the time is far truer; here also + Sabatier has given way to the usual temptation of biographers to exalt + their hero by depreciating everybody else. (E. C. B.) + + +FOOTNOTE: + + [1] _The Little Flowers of St Francis._ + + + + +FRANCIS OF MAYRONE [FRANCISCUS DE MAYRONIS] (d. 1325), scholastic +philosopher, was born at Mayrone in Provence. He entered the Franciscan +order and subsequently went to Paris, where he was a pupil of Duns +Scotus. At the Sorbonne he acquired a great reputation for ability in +discussion, and was known as the _Doctor Illuminatus_ and _Magister +Acutus_. He became a professor of philosophy, and took part in the +discussions on the nature of Universals. Following Duns Scotus, he +adopted the Platonic theory of ideas, and denied that Aristotle had made +any contribution to metaphysical speculation. It is a curious commentary +on the theories of Duns Scotus that one pupil, Francis, should have +taken this course, while another pupil, Occam, should have used his +arguments in a diametrically opposite direction and ended in extreme +Nominalism. + + His works were collected and published at Venice in 1520 under the + title _Praeclarissima ac multum subtilia scripta Illuminati Doctoris + Francisci de Mayronis, &c._ + + + + +FRANCIS OF PAOLA (or PAULA), ST, founder of the Minims, a religious +order in the Catholic Church, was born of humble parentage at Paola in +Calabria in 1416, or according to the Bollandists 1438. As a boy he +entered a Franciscan friary, but left it and went to live as a hermit in +a cave on the seashore near Paola. Soon disciples joined him, and with +the bishop's approval he built a church and monastery. At first they +called themselves "Hermits of St Francis"; but the object they proposed +to themselves was to go beyond even the strict Franciscans in fasts and +bodily austerities of all kinds, in poverty and in humility; and +therefore, as the Franciscans were the Minors (_minores_, less), the new +order took the name of Minims (_minimi_, least). By 1474 a number of +houses had been established in southern Italy and Sicily, and the order +was recognized and approved by the pope. In 1482 Louis XI. of France, +being on his deathbed and hearing the reports of the holiness of +Francis, sent to ask him to come and attend him, and at the pope's +command he travelled to Paris. On this occasion Philip de Comines in his +_Memoirs_ says: "I never saw any man living so holily, nor out of whose +mouth the Holy Ghost did more manifestly speak." He remained with Louis +till his death, and Louis' successor, Charles VIII., held him in such +high esteem that he kept him in Paris, and enabled him to found various +houses of his order in France; in Spain and Germany, too, houses were +founded during Francis's lifetime. He never left France, and died in +1507 in the monastery of his order at Plessis-les-Tours. + +The Rule was so strict that the popes long hesitated to confirm it in +its entirety; not until 1506 was it finally sanctioned. The most special +feature is an additional vow to keep a perpetual Lent of the strictest +kind, not only flesh meat but fish and all animal products--eggs, milk, +butter, cheese, dripping--being forbidden, so that the diet was confined +to bread, vegetables, fruit and oil, and water was the only drink. Thus +in matter of diet the Minims surpassed in austerity all orders in the +West, and probably all permanently organized orders in the East. The +strongly ascetical spirit of the Minims manifested itself in the title +borne by the superiors of the houses--not abbot (father), or prior, or +guardian, or minister, or rector, but corrector; and the general +superior is the corrector general. Notwithstanding its extreme severity +the order prospered. At the death of the founder it had five +provinces--Italy, France, Tours, Germany, Spain. Later there were as +many as 450 monasteries, and some missions in India. There never was a +Minim house in England or Ireland. It ranks as one of the Mendicant +orders. In 1909 there were some twenty monasteries, mostly in Sicily, +but one in Rome (S. Andrea delle Fratte), and one in Naples, in +Marseilles and in Cracow. There have been Minim nuns (only one convent +has survived, till recently at Marseilles) and Minim Tertiaries, in +imitation of the Franciscan Tertiaries. The habit of the Minims is +black. + + See Helyot, _Hist. des ordres religieux_ (1714), vii. c. 56; Max + Heimbucher, _Orden und Kongregationen_ (1896), i. Sec. 52; the article + "Franz von Paula" in Wetzer und Welte, _Kirchenlexicon_ (ed. 2), and + in Herzog, _Realencyklopaedie_ (ed. 3); Catholic _Dictionary_, art. + "Minims." (E. C. B.) + + + + +FRANCIS (FRANCOIS) OF SALES, ST (1567-1622), bishop of Geneva and doctor +of the Church (1877), was born at the castle of Sales, near Annecy, +Savoy. His father, also Francois, comte de Sales, but better known as M. +de Boisy, a nobleman and soldier, had been employed in various affairs +of state, but in 1560, at the age of thirty-eight, settled down on his +ancestral estates and married Francoise de Sionnay, a Savoyard like +himself, and an heiress. St Francis, the first child of this union, was +born in August 1567 when his mother was in her fifteenth year. M. de +Boisy was renowned for his experience and sound judgment, and both +parents were distinguished by piety, love of peace, charity to the poor, +qualities which early showed themselves in their eldest son. + +He received his education first at La Roche, in the Arve valley, then at +the college of Annecy, founded by Eustace Chappius, ambassador in England +of Charles V., in 1549. At the age of thirteen or fourteen he went to the +Jesuit College of Clermont at Paris, where he stayed till the summer of +1588, and where he laid the foundations of his profound knowledge, while +perfecting himself in the exercises of a young nobleman and practising a +life of exemplary virtue. At this time also he developed an ardent love +of France, a country which was politically in antagonism with his own, +though so closely linked to it geographically, socially and by language. +At the end of 1588 he went to Padua, to take his degree in canon and +civil law, a necessary prelude in Savoy at that time to distinction in a +civil career. His heart, however, especially from the date of his +receiving the tonsure (1578), was already turned towards the Church, and +he gave his attention even more to theology, under the great masters +Antonio Possevino, S.J., and Gesualdo, afterwards general of the Friars +Minor, than to his legal course. "At Padua," he said to a friend, "I +studied law to please my father, and theology to please myself." In that +licentious university Francis found the greatest difficulty in resisting +attacks on his virtue, and once at least had to draw his sword to defend +his personal safety against a band of ruffians. The gentleness for which +he was already renowned was not that of a weak, but of a strong +character. He returned to Savoy in 1592, and, while seeking the occasion +to overcome his father's resistance to his resolution of embracing the +ecclesiastical profession, took the diploma of advocate to the senate. +Meantime, without his knowledge, his friends procured for him the post of +provost of the chapter of Geneva, an honour which reconciled M. de Boisy +to the sacrifice of more ambitious hopes. After a year of zealous work as +preacher and director he was sent by the bishop, Claude de Granier, to +try and win back the province of Chablais, which had embraced Calvinism +when usurped by Bern in 1535, and had retained it even after its +restitution to Savoy in 1564. At first the people refused to listen to +him, for he was represented to them as an instrument of Satan, and all +who had dealings with him were threatened with the vengeance of the +consistory. He therefore wrote out his message on sheets which were +passed from hand to hand, and these, with the spectacle of his virtues +and disinterestedness, soon produced a strong effect. The sheets just +spoken of still exist in the Chigi library at Rome, and were published, +though with many alterations, in 1672, under the title of _Les +Controverses_. This must be considered the first work of St Francis. + +The re-erection of a wayside cross in Annemasse, at the gates of Geneva, +amid an enormous concourse of converts, an event which closed the three +years of his apostolate, led to the composition of the _Defense ... de +la Croix_, published in 1600. An illness brought on by toil and +privation forced him to leave his work to others for nearly a year, but +in August 1598 he returned to his field of labour, and in October of +that year practically the whole country was Catholic again. Up to that +time preaching and conference had been the only weapons employed. The +stories of the use of soldiers to produce simulated conversions are +incorrect.[1] Possibly the lamentable events of the campaigns of 1589 in +Gex and Chablais have been applied to the period 1594-1598. In October +of this last year, however, the duke of Savoy, who came then to assist +in person at the great religious feasts which celebrated the return of +the country to unity of faith, expatriated such of the leading men as +obstinately refused even to listen to the Catholic arguments. He also +forbade Calvinist ministers to reside in the Chablais, and substituted +Catholic for Huguenot officials. St Francis concurred in these measures, +and, three years later, even requested that those who, as he said, +"follow their heresy, rather as a party than a religion," should be +ordered either to conform or to leave their country, with leave to sell +their goods. His conduct, judged not by a modern standard, but by the +ideas of his age, will be found compatible with the highest Christian +charity, as that of the duke with sound political prudence. At this time +he was nominated to the pope as coadjutor of Geneva,[2] and after a +visit to Rome he assisted Bishop de Granier in the administration of the +newly converted countries and of the diocese at large. + +In 1602 he made his second visit to the French capital, when his +transcendent qualities brought him into the closest relations with the +court of Henry IV., and made him the spiritual father of that circle of +select souls who centred round Madame Acarie. Among the celebrated +personages who became his life friends from this time were Pierre de +Berulle, founder of the French Oratorians, Guillaume Duval, the scholar, +and the duc de Bellegarde, the latter a special favourite of the king, +who begged to be allowed to share the Saint's friendship. At this time +also his gift as a preacher became fully recognized, and de Sanzea, +afterwards bishop of Bethlehem, records that Duval exhorted all his +students of the Sorbonne to listen to him and to imitate this, "the true +and excellent method of preaching." His principles are expressed in the +admirable letter to Andre Fremyot of October 1604. + +De Granier died in September 1602, and the new bishop entered on the +administration of his vast diocese, which, as a contemporary says, "he +found brick and left marble." His first efforts were directed to +securing a virtuous and well-instructed clergy, with its consequence of +a people worthy of their pastors. All his time was spent in preaching, +confessing, visiting the sick, relieving the poor. His zeal was not +confined to his diocese. In concert with Jeanne Francoise Fremyot +(1572-1641), widow of the baron de Chantal, whose acquaintance he made +while preaching through Lent at Dijon in 1604, he founded the order of +the Visitation, in favour of "strong souls with weak bodies," as he +said, deterred from entering the orders already existing, by their +inability to undertake severe corporal austerities. The institution +rapidly spread, counting twenty houses before his death and eighty +before that of St Jeanne. The care of his diocese and of his new +foundation were not enough for his ardent charity, and in 1609 he +published his famous _Introduction to a Devout Life_, a work which was +at once translated into the chief European languages and of which he +himself published five editions. In 1616 appeared his _Treatise on the +Love of God_, which teaches that perfection of the spiritual life to +which the former work is meant to be the "Introduction." + +The important Lents of 1617 and 1618 at Grenoble were a prelude to a +still more important apostolate in Paris, "the theatre of the world," as +St Vincent de Paul calls it. This third visit to the great city lasted +from the autumn of 1618 to that of 1619; the direct object of it was to +assist in negotiating the marriage of the prince of Piedmont with +Chretienne of France, but nearly all his time was spent in preaching and +works of mercy, spiritual or corporal. He was regarded as a living +saint. St Vincent scarcely left him, and has given the most +extraordinary testimonies (as yet unpublished) of his heroic virtues. +Mere Angelique Arnaud, who at this time put herself under his direction +and wished to join the Order of the Visitation, attracted by its +humility and sweetness, may be named as the most interesting of his +innumerable penitents of this period. He returned to Savoy, and after +three years more of unwearying labour died at Lyons on the 28th of +December 1622. A universal outburst of veneration followed; indeed his +cult had already begun, and after an episcopal inquiry the pontifical +commission in view of his beatification was instituted by decree of the +21st of July 1626, a celerity unique in the annals of the Congregation +of Rites. The depositions of witnesses were returned to Rome in 1632, +but meantime the forms of the Roman chancery had been changed by Urban +VIII., and the advocates could not at once continue their work. +Eventually a new commission was issued in 1656, and on its report, into +which were inserted nineteen of the former depositions, the "servant of +God" was beatified in 1661. The canonization took place in 1665. + + Besides the works which we have named, there were published + posthumously his _Entretiens_, i.e. a selection of the lectures given + to the Visitation, reported by the sisters who heard them, some of his + sermons, a large number of his letters, various short treatises of + devotion. The first edition of his united or so-called "Complete" + works was published at Toulouse in 1637. Others followed in 1641, + 1647, 1652, 1663, 1669, 1685. The _Lettres_ and _Opuscules_ were + republished in 1768. + + The only modern editions of the complete works which it is worth while + to name are those of Blaise (1821), Vires (1856-1858), Migne (1861), + and the critical edition published by the Visitation of Annecy, of + which the 14th volume appeared in 1905. + + The biography of St Francis de Sales was written immediately after his + death by the celebrated P. de La Riviere and Dom John de St Francois + (Goulu), as well as by two other authors of less importance. The + saint's nephew and successor, Charles Auguste de Sales, brought out a + more extended life, Latin and French, in 1635. The lives of Giarda + (1650), Maupas du Tour (1657) and Cotolendi (1687) add little to + Charles Auguste. Marsollier's longer life, in two volumes (1700), is + quite untrustworthy; still more so that by Loyau d'Amboise (1833), + which is rather a romance than a biography. The lives by Hamon (1856) + and Perennes (1860), without adding much to preceding biographies, are + serious and edifying. A complete life, founded on the lately + discovered process of 1626 and the new letters, was being prepared by + the author of the present article at the time of his death. With the + Lives must be mentioned the _Esprit du B.F. de Sales_ by Camus, bishop + of Belley, who, amid innumerable errors, gives various interesting + traits and sayings of his saintly friend. Among the very numerous + modern studies may be named an essay by Leigh Hunt entitled "The + Gentleman Saint" (_The Seer_, pt. ii. No. 41); a remarkable _causerie_ + by Sainte-Beuve (_Lundis_, 3rd Jan. 1853); _Le Reveil du sentiment + religieux en France au XVII^e siecle_, by Strowski (Paris, 1898); + _Four Essays on S. F. de S._ and _Three Essays on S. F. de S. as + Preacher_, by Canon H.B. Mackey. (H. B. M.) + + +FOOTNOTES: + + [1] This, at least, is the account given by Catholic authorities. + Less favourable is the view taken by non-Catholic historians, which + seems in some measure to be confirmed by St Francis himself. + According to this, Duke Charles Emmanuel of Savoy, who succeeded his + more tolerant father in 1580, was determined to reduce the Chablais + to the Catholic religion, by peaceful means if possible, by force if + necessary. After two years of preaching Francis wrote to the duke + (_Oeuvres compl._ ii. p. 551): "During 27 months I have scattered the + seed of the Word of God in this miserable land; shall I say among + thorns or on stony ground? Certainly, save for the conversion of the + seigneur d'Avully and the advocate Poncet, I have little to boast + of." In the winter of 1596-1597 Francis was at Turin, and at his + suggestion the duke decided on a regular plan for the coercion of the + refractory Protestants. This plan anticipated that employed later by + Louis XIV. against the Huguenots in France. The Calvinist ministers + were expelled; Protestant books were confiscated and destroyed; the + acts of Protestant lawyers and officials were declared invalid. The + country was flooded with Jesuits and friars, whose arguments were + reinforced by quartering troops, veterans of the Indian wars in + Mexico, on the refractory inhabitants. Those whose stubborn + persistence in error survived all these inducements to repent were + sent into exile. See the article "Franz von Sales" by J. Ehni in + Herzog-Hauck, _Realencyklopaedie_ (3rd ed., Leipzig, 1899). + (W. A. P.) + + [2] With the title of Nicopolis _in partibus_.--ED. + + + + +FRANCIS, SIR PHILIP (1740-1818), English politician and pamphleteer, the +supposed author of the _Letters of Junius_, and the chief antagonist of +Warren Hastings, was born in Dublin on the 22nd of October 1740. He was +the only son of Dr Philip Francis (c. 1708-1773), a man of some literary +celebrity in his time, known by his translations of Horace, Aeschines +and Demosthenes. He received the rudiments of an excellent education at +a free school in Dublin, and afterwards spent a year or two (1751-1752) +under his father's roof at Skeyton rectory, Norfolk, and elsewhere, and +for a short time he had Gibbon as a fellow-pupil. In March 1753 he +entered St Paul's school, London, where he remained for three years and +a half, becoming a proficient classical scholar. In 1756, immediately on +his leaving school, he was appointed to a junior clerkship in the +secretary of state's office by Henry Fox (afterwards Lord Holland), with +whose family Dr Francis was at that time on intimate terms; and this +post he retained under the succeeding administration. In 1758 he was +employed as secretary to General Bligh in the expedition against +Cherbourg; and in the same capacity he accompanied the earl of Kinnoul +on his special embassy to the court of Portugal in 1760. + +In 1761 he became personally known to Pitt, who, recognizing his ability +and discretion, once and again made use of his services as private +amanuensis. In 1762 he was appointed to a principal clerkship in the war +office, where he formed an intimate friendship with Christopher D'Oyly, +the secretary of state's deputy, whose dismissal from office in 1772 was +hotly resented by "Junius"; and in the same year he married Miss +Macrabie, the daughter of a retired London merchant. His official duties +brought him into direct relations with many who were well versed in the +politics of the time. In 1763 the great constitutional questions arising +out of the arrest of Wilkes began to be sharply canvassed. It was +natural that Francis, who from a very early age had been in the habit of +writing occasionally to the newspapers, should be eager to take an +active part in the discussion, though his position as a government +official made it necessary that his intervention should be carefully +disguised. He is known to have written to the _Public Ledger_ and +_Public Advertiser_, as an advocate of the popular cause, on many +occasions about and after the year 1763; he frequently attended debates +in both Houses of Parliament, especially when American questions were +being discussed; and between 1769 and 1771 he is also known to have been +favourable to the scheme for the overthrow of the Grafton government and +afterwards of that of Lord North, and for persuading or forcing Lord +Chatham into power. In January 1769 the first of the _Letters of Junius_ +appeared, and the series was continued till January 21, 1772. They had +been preceded by others under various signatures such as, "Candor," +"Father of Candor," "Anti-Sejanus," "Lucius," "Nemesis," which have all +been attributed, some of them certainly in error, to one and the same +hand. The authorship of the _Letters of Junius_ has been assigned to +Francis on a variety of grounds (see JUNIUS). + +In March 1772 Francis finally left the war office, and in July of the +same year he left England for a tour through France, Germany and Italy, +which lasted until the following December. On his return he was +contemplating emigration to New England, when in June 1773 Lord North, +on the recommendation of Lord Barrington, appointed him a member of the +newly constituted supreme council of Bengal at a salary of L10,000 per +annum. Along with his colleagues Monson and Clavering he reached +Calcutta in October 1774, and a long struggle with Warren Hastings, the +governor-general, immediately began. These three, actuated probably by +petty personal motives, combined to form a majority of the council in +harassing opposition to the governor-general's policy; and they even +accused him of corruption, mainly on the evidence of Nuncomar. The death +of Monson in 1776, and of Clavering in the following year, made Hastings +again supreme in the council. But a dispute with Francis, more than +usually embittered, led in August 1780 to a minute being delivered to +the council board by Hastings, in which he stated that "he judged of the +public conduct of Mr Francis by his experience of his private, which he +had found to be void of truth and honour." A duel was the consequence, +in which Francis received a dangerous wound (see HASTINGS, WARREN). +Though his recovery was rapid and complete, he did not choose to prolong +his stay abroad. He arrived in England in October 1781, and was received +with little favour. + +Little is known of the nature of his occupations during the next two +years, except that he was untiring in his efforts to procure first the +recall, and afterwards the impeachment of his hitherto triumphant +adversary. In 1783 Fox produced his India Bill, which led to the +overthrow of the coalition government. In 1784 Francis was returned by +the borough of Yarmouth, Isle of Wight; and although he took an +opportunity to disclaim every feeling of personal animosity towards +Hastings, this did not prevent him, on the return of the latter in 1785, +from doing all in his power to bring forward and support the charges +which ultimately led to the impeachment resolutions of 1787. Although +excluded by a majority of the House from the list of the managers of +that impeachment, Francis was none the less its most energetic promoter, +supplying his friends Burke and Sheridan with all the materials for +their eloquent orations and burning invectives. At the general election +of 1790 he was returned member for Bletchingley. He sympathized warmly +and actively with the French revolutionary doctrines, expostulating with +Burke on his vehement denunciation of the same. In 1793 he supported +Grey's motion for a return to the old constitutional system of +representation, and so earned the title to be regarded as one of the +earliest promoters of the cause of parliamentary reform; and he was one +of the founders of the "Society of the Friends of the People." The +acquittal of Hastings in April 1795 disappointed Francis of the +governor-generalship, and in 1798 he had to submit to the additional +mortification of a defeat in the general election. He was once more +successful, however, in 1802, when he sat for Appleby, and it seemed as +if the great ambitions of his life were about to be realized when the +Whig party came into power in 1806. His disappointment was great when +the governor-generalship was, owing to party exigencies, conferred on +Sir Gilbert Elliot (Lord Minto); he declined, it is said, soon +afterwards the government of the Cape, but accepted a K.C.B. Though +re-elected for Appleby in 1806, he failed to secure a seat in the +following year; and the remainder of his life was spent in comparative +privacy. + +Among the later productions of his pen were, besides the _Plan of a +Reform in the Election of the House of Commons_, pamphlets entitled +_Proceedings in the House of Commons on the Slave Trade_ (1796), +_Reflections on the Abundance of Paper in Circulation and the Scarcity +of Specie_ (1810), _Historical Questions Exhibited_ (1818), and a +_Letter to Earl Grey on the Policy of Great Britain and the Allies +towards Norway_ (1814). His first wife, by whom he had six children, +died in 1806, and in 1814 he married his second wife, Emma Watkins, who +long survived him, and who left voluminous manuscripts relating to his +biography. Francis died on the 23rd of December 1818. In his domestic +relations he was exemplary, and he lived on terms of mutual affection +with a wide circle of friends. He was, however, full of vindictiveness, +dissimulation and treachery, and there can be little doubt that in his +historic conflict with Warren Hastings unworthy personal motives played +a leading part. + + BIBLIOGRAPHY.--For the evidence identifying Francis with Junius see + the article Junius, and the authorities there cited. See also _Memoirs + of Sir Philip Francis, with Correspondence and Journals_, by Joseph + Parkes and Herman Merivale (2 vols., London, 1867); _The Francis + Letters_, edited by Beata Francis and Eliza Keary (2 vols., London, + 1901); Sir J.F. Stephen, _The Story of Nuncomar and the Impeachment of + Sir E. Impey_ (2 vols., London, 1885); Lord Macaulay's _Essay_ on + "Warren Hastings"; G.B. Malleson, _Life of Warren Hastings_ (London, + 1894); G.W. Forrest, _The Administration of Warren Hastings, + 1772-1785_ (Calcutta, 1892); Sir Leslie Stephen's article on Francis + in _Dict. of Nat. Biog._ vol. xx. + + + + +FRANCIS JOSEPH I. (1830- ), emperor of Austria, king of Bohemia, and +apostolic king of Hungary, was the eldest son of the archduke Francis +Charles, second son of the reigning emperor Francis I., being born on +the 18th of August 1830. His mother, the archduchess Sophia, was +daughter of Maximilian I., king of Bavaria. She was a woman of great +ability and strong character, and during the years which followed the +death of the emperor Francis was probably the most influential personage +at the Austrian court; for the emperor Ferdinand, who succeeded in 1835, +was physically and mentally incapable of performing the duties of his +office; as he was childless, Francis Joseph was in the direct line of +succession. During the disturbances of 1848, Francis Joseph spent some +time in Italy, where, under Radetzky, at the battle of St Lucia, he had +his first experience of warfare. At the end of that year, after the +rising of Vienna and capture of the city by Windischgraetz, it was +clearly desirable that there should be a more vigorous ruler at the head +of the empire, and Ferdinand, now that the young archduke was of age, +was able to carry out the abdication which he and his wife had long +desired. All the preparations were made with the utmost secrecy; on the +2nd of December 1848, in the archiepiscopal palace at Olmuetz, whither +the court had fled from Vienna, the emperor abdicated. His brother +resigned his rights of succession to his son, and Francis Joseph was +proclaimed emperor. Ferdinand retired to Prague, where he died in 1875. + +The history of the Dual Monarchy during his reign is told under the +heading of AUSTRIA-HUNGARY, and here it is only necessary to deal with +its personal aspects. The young emperor was during the first years of +his reign completely in the hands of Prince Felix Schwarzenberg, to +whom, with Windischgraetz and Radetzky, he owed it that Austria had +emerged from the revolution apparently stronger than it had been before. +The first task was to reduce Hungary to obedience, for the Magyars +refused to acknowledge the validity of the abdication in so far as it +concerned Hungary, on the ground that such an act would only be valid +with the consent of the Hungarian parliament. A further motive for their +attitude was that Francis Joseph, unlike his predecessor, had not taken +the oath to observe the Hungarian constitution, which it was the avowed +object of Schwarzenberg to overthrow. In the war which followed the +emperor himself took part, but it was not brought to a successful +conclusion till the help of the Russians had been called in. Hungary, +deprived of her ancient constitution, became an integral part of the +Austrian empire. The new reign began, therefore, under sinister omens, +with the suppression of liberty in Italy, Hungary and Germany. In 1853 a +Hungarian named Lebenyi attempted to assassinate the emperor, and +succeeded in inflicting a serious wound with a knife. With the death of +Schwarzenberg in 1852 the personal government of the emperor really +began, and with it that long series of experiments of which Austria has +been the subject. Generally it may be said that throughout his long +reign Francis Joseph remained the real ruler of his dominions; he not +only kept in his hands the appointment and dismissal of his ministers, +but himself directed their policy, and owing to the great knowledge of +affairs, the unremitting diligence and clearness of apprehension, to +which all who transacted business with him have borne testimony, he was +able to keep a very real control even of the details of government. + +The recognition of the separate status of Hungary, and the restoration +of the Magyar constitution in 1866, necessarily made some change in his +position, and so far as concerns Hungary he fully accepted the doctrine +that ministers are responsible to parliament. In the other half of the +monarchy (the so-called Cisleithan) this was not possible, and the +authority and influence of the emperor were even increased by the +contrast with the weaknesses and failures of the parliamentary system. +The most noticeable features in his reign were the repeated and sudden +changes of policy, which, while they arose from the extreme difficulty +of finding any system by which the Habsburg monarchy could be governed, +were due also to the personal idiosyncrasies of the emperor. First we +have the attempt at the autocratic centralization of the whole monarchy +under Bach; the personal influence of the emperor is seen in the +conclusion of the Concordat with Rome, by which in 1855 the work of +Joseph II. was undone and the power of the papacy for a while restored. +The foreign policy of this period brought about the complete isolation +of Austria, and the "ingratitude" towards Russia, as shown during the +period of the Crimean War, which has become proverbial, caused a +permanent estrangement between the two great Eastern empires and the +imperial families. The system led inevitably to bankruptcy and ruin; the +war of 1859, by bringing it to an end, saved the monarchy. After the +first defeat Francis Joseph hastened to Italy; he commanded in person at +Solferino, and by a meeting with Napoleon arranged the terms of the +peace of Villafranca. The next six years, both in home and foreign +policy, were marked by great vacillation. In order to meet the universal +discontent and the financial difficulties constitutional government was +introduced; a parliament was established in which all races of the +empire were represented, and in place of centralized despotism was +established Liberal centralization under Schmerling and the German +Liberals. But the Magyars refused to send representatives to the central +parliament; the Slavs, resenting the Germanizing policy of the +government, withdrew; and the emperor had really withdrawn his +confidence from Schmerling long before the constitution was suspended in +1865 as a first step to a reconciliation with Hungary. In the +complicated German affairs the emperor in vain sought for a minister on +whose knowledge and advice he could depend. He was guided in turn by the +inconsistent advice of Schmerling, Rechberg, Mensdorff, not to mention +more obscure counsellors, and it is not surprising that Austria was +repeatedly outmatched and outwitted by Prussia. In 1863, at the +_Fuerstentag_ in Frankfort, the emperor made an attempt by his personal +influence to solve the German question. He invited all the German +sovereigns to meet him in conference, and laid before them a plan for +the reconstruction of the confederation. The momentary effect was +immense; for some of the halo of the Holy Empire still clung round the +head of the house of Habsburg, and Francis Joseph was welcomed to the +ancient free city with enthusiasm. In spite of this, however, and of the +skill with which he presided over the debates, the conference came to +nothing owing to the refusal of the king of Prussia to attend. + +The German question was settled definitively by the battle of Koeniggraetz +in 1866; and the emperor Francis Joseph, with characteristic Habsburg +opportunism, was quick to accommodate himself to the new circumstances. +Above all, he recognized the necessity for reconciling the Magyars to +the monarchy; for it was their discontent that had mainly contributed to +the collapse of the Austrian power. He had already, in 1859, as the +result of a visit to Budapest, made certain modifications in the Bach +system by way of concession to Magyar sentiment, and in 1861 he had had +an interview with Deak, during which, though unconvinced by that +statesman's arguments, he had at least assured himself of his loyalty. +He now made Beust, Bismarck's Saxon antagonist, the head of his +government, as the result of whose negotiations with Deak the +Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867 was agreed upon. A law was passed by +the Hungarian diet regularizing the abdication of Ferdinand; at the +beginning of June Francis Joseph signed the inaugural diploma and took +the oath in Magyar to observe the constitution; on the 8th he was +solemnly crowned king of Hungary. The traditional coronation gift of +100,000 florins he assigned to the widows and orphans of those who had +fallen in the war against Austria in 1849. + +Once having accepted the principle of constitutional government, the +emperor-king adhered to it loyally, in spite of the discouragement +caused by party struggles embittered by racial antagonisms. If in the +Cisleithan half of the monarchy parliamentary government broke down, +this was through no fault of the emperor, who worked hard to find a +_modus vivendi_ between the factions, and did not shrink from +introducing manhood suffrage in the attempt to establish a stable +parliamentary system. This expedient, indeed, probably also conveyed a +veiled threat to the Magyar chauvinists, who, discontented with the +restrictions placed upon Hungarian independence under the Compromise, +were agitating for the complete separation of Austria and Hungary under +a personal union only; for universal suffrage in Hungary would mean the +subordination of the Magyar minority to the hitherto subject races. For +nearly forty years after the acceptance of the Compromise the attitude +of the emperor-king towards the Magyar constitution had been +scrupulously correct. The agitation for the completely separate +organization of the Hungarian army, and for the substitution of Magyar +for German in words of command in Hungarian regiments, broke down the +patience of the emperor, tenacious of his prerogative as supreme "war +lord" of the common army. A Hungarian deputation which came to Vienna in +September 1905 to urge the Magyar claims was received ungraciously by +the emperor, who did not offer his hand to the members, addressed them +in German, and referred them brusquely to the chancellor, Count +Goluchowski. This incident caused a considerable sensation, and was the +prelude to a long crisis in Hungarian affairs, during which the +emperor-king, while quick to repair the unfortunate impression produced +by his momentary pique, held inflexibly to his resolve in the matter of +the common army. + +In his relations with the Slavs the emperor displayed the same +conciliatory disposition as in the case of the Magyars; but though he +more than once held out hopes that he would be crowned at Prague as king +of Bohemia, the project was always abandoned. In this, indeed, as in +other cases, it may be said that the emperor was guided less by any +abstract principles than by a common-sense appreciation of the needs and +possibilities of the moment. Whatever his natural prejudices or natural +resentments, he never allowed these to influence his policy. The German +empire and the Italian kingdom had been built up out of the ruins of +immemorial Habsburg ambitions; yet he refused to be drawn into an +alliance with France in 1869 and 1870, and became the mainstay of the +Triple Alliance of Austria-Hungary, Germany and Italy. His reputation as +a consistent moderating influence in European policy and one of the +chief guarantors of European peace was indeed rudely shaken in October +1908, the year in which he celebrated his sixty years' jubilee as +emperor, by the issue of the imperial recript annexing Bosnia and +Herzegovina to the Habsburg dominions, in violation of the terms of the +treaty of Berlin. But his opportunism was again justified by the result. +Europe lost an ideal; but Austria gained two provinces. + +In his private life the emperor was the victim of terrible +catastrophes--his wife, his brother and his only son having been +destroyed by sudden and violent deaths. He married in 1854 Elizabeth, +daughter of Maximilian Joseph, duke of Bavaria, who belonged to the +younger and non-royal branch of the house of Wittelsbach. The empress, +who shared the remarkable beauty common to all her family, took little +part in the public life of Austria. After the first years of married +life she was seldom seen in Vienna, and spent much of her time in +travelling. She built a castle of great beauty and magnificence, called +the Achilleion, in the island of Corfu, where she often o resided. In +1867 she accompanied the emperor to Budapest, and took much interest in +the reconciliation with the Magyars. She became a good Hungarian +scholar, and spent much time in Hungary. An admirable horsewoman, in +later years she repeatedly visited England and Irland for the hunting +season. In 1897 she was assassinated at Geneva by an Italian anarchist; +previous attempts had been made on her and on her husband during a visit +to Trieste. + +There was one son of the marriage, the crown prince Rudolph (1857-1889). +A man of much ability and promise, he was a good linguist, and showed +great interest in natural history. He published two works, _Fifteen Days +on the Danube_ and _A Journey in the East_, and also promoted +illustrated work giving a full description of the whole Austro-Hungarian +monarchy; he personally shared the labours of the editorial work. In +1881 he merried Stephanie, daughter of the king of the Belgians. On 30th +January 1889 he commited suicide at Mayerling, a country house near +Vienna. He left one daughter, Elizabeth, who was betrothed to Count +Alfred Windischgraetz in 1901. In 1900 his widow, the crown princess +Stephanie, married Count Lonyay; by this she sacrificed her rank and +position within the Austrian monarchy. Besides the crown prince the +empress gave birth to three daughters, of whom two survive: Gisela (born +1857), who married a son of the prince regent of Bavaria; and Marie +Valerie (born 1868), who married the archduke Franz Salvator of Tuscany. + + See J. Emmer. _Kaisser Franz Joseph_ (2 vols., Vienna, 1898); J. + Schnitzer, _Franz Joseph I. und seine Zeit_ (2 vols., _ib._, 1899); + _Viribis unitis. Das Buch vom Kaiser_, with introduction by J.A. v. + Halfert, ed. M. Herzig (_ib._, 1898); R. Rostok, _Die Regierungszeit + des K. u. K. Franz Joseph I._ (3rd ed. _ib._, 1903). + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th +Edition, Volume 10, Slice 8, by Various + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ENCYC. 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