No. 109.
Mr. Noyes
to Mr. Evarts
.
Paris , December 14, 1877. (Received December 27.)
Sir: The President last evening signed the decree naming an entire new ministry, and it appears this morning in the Journal Official, as follows:
- Mr. Dufaure, minister of justice, president of the council.
- Mr. de Mar cere, minister of the interior.
- Mr. Waddington, minister of foreign affairs.
- Mr. Leon Say, minister of finances.
- Mr. Bardoux, minister of public instruction.
- General Borel, minister of war.
- Admiral Pothnan, minister of marine.
- Mr. de Freycinet, minister of public works.
- Mr. Teisserenc de Bort, Minister of commerce and agriculture.
Thus, the crisis, after many changes of aspect, and vain attempts at solution, has come to an end, which it could be foreseen was ultimately inevitable, by the choice of a ministry of the character described in my dispatch of last Friday, No. 37, the gentlemen therein named being all included in the present cabinet. At times, during the uncertainties of the last few weeks, there have been fears that there would soon be violence, that a reactionary ministry would attempt to carry on the government without the budget being voted by the Chamber of Deputies, and that confusion and disaster would ensue. It was on this precise point that the efforts to form a ministry of the right by Mr. Batbie failed; for no statesman seemed willing to undertake the portfolio of minister of finances with this prospect in view.
The present solution by the formation of a cabinet in accord with the [Page 168] will of France, as declared at the election of the 14th October last by a great majority, will rejoice every friend of republican institutions. All the present ministers are moderate Republicans. The choice of Mr. Waddington for the foreign office is particularly gratifying; he is a gentleman whom I have already, by personal acquaintance, learned to esteem as in every way worthy of his high reputation as an able and experienced statesman, very kindly disposed toward our country and its institutions. His accomplished and beautiful wife is an American lady, being a daughter of the late Dr. Charles King, president of Columbia College.
I have, &c.,