No. 106.
Mr. Noyes
to Mr. Evarts.
Paris, November 30, 1877. (Received December 14.)
Sir: Everything indicates that the prolonged political crisis will speedily end by the Marshal’s taking a new ministry from the most distinguished moderate Republicans, such as Mr. Dufaure, Mr. Leon Say, Mr. Duclerc, Mr. Marcere, Mr. Waddington, Mr. Leon Renault. He has had interviews with several eminent gentlemen representing the prevailing ideas of the majority, notably with the Duke d’Audiffret Pasquier, president of the Senate, and Mr. Jules Grevy, the president of the Chamber of Deputies, who is now spoken of widely as the Republican candidate for the presidency at the next election. The Journal des Débats of this morning contains an account of the interview of the Duke d’Audiffret Pasquier and the President, and as the relations of this journal with some of the gentlemen above referred to and its high character give weight to its utterances, and the questions discussed are of the gravest importance, I send you, in translation, the substance of the statement.
At the outset of the interview, the Duke d’Audiffret Pasquier reminded the President that for three weeks he had not had the honor of seeing him, having held aloof from all that had passed during the ministerial crisis and the formation of the new cabinet, because the opinions which had predominated at the Elysée appeared to be in absolute opposition to the parliamentary ideas which had always been the basis of his political conduct. He repeated what he had before said within a few days to a high functionary, with a request that it be communicated to the President; that if the chamber were prorogued he should deem it his duty to come and stay in a public manner (ostensiblement) at Versailles, and that his colleague, the president of the Chamber of Deputies, and himself would feel themselves bound to take certain steps, as measures of prudence, in order to cover their responsibility as the presidents of the two chambers.
The Duke then begged the Marshal to return to parliamentary government. He spoke of the commercial and industrial crisis, of the complaints which the merchants had presented only yesterday, of the wish expressed on every side to see the marshal at last take the counsel of the moderate senators of the Republican party, and not hold relations solely with his friends of the right in the Senate and Chamber. The Duke advised him to talk especially with men like the eminent Mr. Dufaure, for whom he had shown so proper a regard; with Mr. Waddington, whose conciliatory character and political moderation he had long appreciated; with Mr. Berthauld, the mayor of Caen, whose welcome to him last summer in Normandy he could not forget. He told the Marshal that the chief of a state could not leave half of the country under interdict and care only for the sentiments of the other half. As in a family, the head should consult all the members before taking a resolution. He pointed [Page 165] out that the best way out of the present crisis was to return squarely to the irresponsibility of the President, as the constitution established it, and not to make himself simply a party chief. He reminded him that Charles X, Louis Philippe, and Napoleon III fell because, to the last moment, they took sides for their ministers without regard to the opinion of the country. On the contrary, the house of Hanover in England, by practically carrying out the irresponsibility of the chief of the state, as was besides its duty, had been able to pass through the most terrible crises.
After amplifying this remark, he referred to a second dissolution, and continued: “Much has been said of my friends of the center right, constitutionals, going through with the greatest reluctance to the last vote for a policy of extremes that may be demanded of them. Well, it is a calumny upon the patriotism of my friends. In voting the order of the day of the 19th of November (indorsing the ministry), to which they were opposed, they gave you a very great proof of their self-abnegation but I can, without going too far, declare to you that they cannot after this vote a second dissolution, no matter what may have been told you.”
The duke informed the Marshal that he could never lend his aid to an attempt to intervene by armed force against the representatives of the country. The Marshal answered that the duke ought not to fear the use of force (un coup de force) on his part, as he would never lend himself to it (y associerait lui-même).
The Duke, on taking leave, said, “Now that I have opened the door and window, it is for you to call them in.”
In an interview with Mr. Ferdinand de Lesseps, the same day, the Marshal said he was absolutely opposed to a coup de force.
I have, &c.,