No. 226.
Mr. Hitt
to Mr. Evarts.
Paris, November 28, 1879. (Received December 10.)
Sir: Public attention in this city, and indeed throughout France, is chiefly drawn at this moment to the removal of the capital from Versailles to Paris, which was consummated and crowned yesterday by the meeting of the two chambers here for the first time for over nine years.
Timid and conservative people have been apprehensive of disturbance if the Parliament came back to Paris, and the reactionary journals have made the most of this feeling, prophesying all kinds of trouble. But all passed in perfect calm. There was talk of an illumination, but it was abandoned. The city is delighted to receive back the deliberative assemblies, and a large crowd gathered near the doors as the hour of meeting approached—a well behaved and orderly crowd—making no demonstration beyond a respectful recognition from time to time of some well-known statesman as he passed in. The chief interest was at the Chamber of Deputies, always the favorite of the people, and now the principal seat of political power, and the largest throng was there.
The Senate returns to its old chamber in the Luxembourg Palace, surrounded by a magnificent garden, which will recall Versailles. The deputies meet in the Bourbon Palace, where formerly sat the corps legislatif. As we watched the opening proceedings from the diplomatic tribune, Dr. Kern, the Swiss minister, who has been here more than twenty years, described to me the scenes of the last session held within these Avails, and contrasted their wild storm with the quiet of to-day. It was on the memorable 4th of September, 1870, the birthday of the Republic, the day the empire crumbled away and a mob, vast beyond the possibility of count, surged over the bridge in front of this chamber from the Place de la Concorde, and broke up the legislature.
The session of the Senate was brief. It is a grave body, though there are 300 members. There was the usual decorum and routine. Mr. Martel, the president of the Senate, being sick, his place was filled by Count Rampon, one of the vice-presidents, who delivered short eulogies upon the senators who had died during the vacation. The most notable of these was Valentin, the brave governor of besieged Strasburg, who penetrated the German lines by stratagem, and then swam the icy river under shot and shell until he reached his city. He was a warm friend of our country, a sturdy republican, of few words and high ability. He was well known at the legation and to American society here.
At the Chamber of Deputies there was great animation without and within; the crowd, gathered about the entrances and upon the quay, watched and chatted and laughed: the members, as they collected in the hall, exchanged greetings after their summer vacation. At precisely 2 o’clock, Mr. Gambetta, the president of the chamber, appeared, preceded by two sergeants-at-arms and followed by six secretaries, and ascended to the chair. The house was pretty well filled, and the galleries were thronged with distinguished personages and beautiful toilettes.
Mr. Gambetta said:
Gentlemen of the Chamber of Deputies: The second National Congress, in bringing back to Paris the public powers, has restored to our incomparable capital the legal title of which it had too long been deprived, without, however, diminishing its importance. The sovereign assembly by this act of reparation has drawn closer the ties of national unity; it has placed the seat of government and the chambers [Page 352] at the only point of our territory where the state can govern with authority. It wished, at length, to testify to the world the confidence of the nation in the patriotic population of Paris, which still, after so many trials, remains the head and the heart of France.
Released hereafter from fatiguing and daily journeys, we can now devote to the business of the country the hours which were thus wasted during former sessions. The great task of educational, financial, economic, military and political reforms which you have undertaken will receive a new impulse from your residence in this prodigious laboratory of Paris, where all intellectual resources are accumulated, into which pour all the living forces of society, all the means of knowledge in regard to internal and external policy, quickened into fecundity by a public spirit whose vivacity does not impair its just judgment and good sense.
Gentlemen, you have gathered together and prepared abundant material for reconstruction; you have elaborated many projects. They must be carried out. I adjure your committees to redouble their efforts to lay before us at the proper moment, which I trust will be soon, the results of their discussions in committee.
In the light of this great tribune, just ideas, ripe and practical reforms, will of themselves prevail, and the country, enlightened daily in regard to its affairs, will at last see its constancy rewarded. In the accomplishment of this work, while confining myself strictly to the special duties with which you have charged me, gentlemen, believe me, I will do my utmost to bring to their performance all the impartiality, all the activity, and all of the zeal of which I am capable.
Let us, then, all go resolutely to our work; let us rise above private interests and avoid fruitless or passionate incidents; let us concentrate all our faculties upon one supreme aim—the greatness of our country and the strengthening of the republic.
He was applauded again and again, and then the house proceeded at once to business in the most practical manner. The ministers introduced a large number of bills which they had prepared during the recess. A debate sprang up on a question put to the minister of agriculture, Mr. Tirard, by Mr. Haenuens, a Bonapartist deputy, but the house put his proposition aside by voting to proceed with the regular order 5 and after a session of two hours adjourned until Saturday. So the work of legislation is now once more begun and definitely fixed at Paris.
The change from Versailles has been made with difficulty and gradually. The constitution of 1875, which was framed by a timid, conservative assembly that disliked Paris, and remembered the Commune with horror, contained an express provision that the seat of the executive and the two chambers should be Versailles. The very first amendment that has since been made, and the only one so far, was to strike out this provision, leaving the Parliament free to sit where it deems best. At the last session a law was passed providing that it shall meet hereafter at Paris.
As a matter of fact, Versailles had long ceased to be the seat of the Executive, though the forms were still observed. There was a nominal residence of the President there, but he actually lived at Paris, in the Elysée Palace. There were rooms in the immense Versailles Palace bearing in great gilt letters over the doors the names of the different departments or cabinet ministers, but they were all in Paris, with the thousands of government clerks, comfortably installed in the old ministry buildings which had always been devoted to the interior, navy, war, and other departments. The two chambers remained in obedience to the constitution, but most of the members had their residences in Paris, and went, day after day, fourteen miles by rail, to Versailles to attend the sessions. These incessant journeys consumed many hours of time that were valuable, and they were wearisome and painful to the aged and infirm, of whom there are many among the 835 Senators and Deputies. It was found difficult to get the committee-work done. Committees usually meet in the morning; the chambers at two o’clock. A member did not always feel disposed to hurry from home at an early hour in order to reach the committee-room in Versailles at ten o’clock, where [Page 353] the business pending, perhaps, did not interest him. Willing members were loaded unduly with dry work, which was discharged from a sense of duty. I have repeatedly heard it remarked by members that the irksomeness of the journey from Paris and back increased the difficulty of getting through legislative work and furnished an excuse to those who did not care to attend the committee meetings.
The many reasons of public interest and personal convenience at last overcame the dread of Paris, and even the conservative Senate consented to the change.
Both branches of the assembly are now better and more conveniently housed than they were at Versailles, except in the one fact that they are now a mile apart, while at Versailles they were close together and connected by a gallery, which made communication almost as easy as it is between the two wings of the Capitol at Washington. The Senate used to sit in the old theater of the palace, which was inconvenient, badly adapted for hearing, and did not give sufficient room. The Deputies sat in a building which had been erected for them at the other end of the palace, but it did not give much better satisfaction.
The Senate chamber at Paris is an imposing and elegant structure, which was erected, as an extension of the Luxembourg Palace, by Louis Philippe. There are abundant rooms tor committees and other legislative purposes. This is an excellent utilization of part of an immense, costly building, most of which has long been idle.
The Deputies sit in the Bourbon Palace—a vast and splendid pile, facing streets on three sides and a garden on the fourth. The north front is a majestic Greek portico, of twelve columns, looking across the river upon the Place de la Concorde. It is one of the first objects that strikes a stranger, forming part of the matchless architectural effect of palaces, temples, and arches as seen from the obelisk of Luxor, in the center of the Place. The palace was erected 170 years ago by one of Louis XIV’s bastard children, the duchess of Bourbon. She also constructed in the garden a fine residence for her lover, De Lassay. Over $3,000,000 were expended in this way by these profligates when money was more valuable than it is now. During the revolution it was confiscated, the prince to whom it belonged having “emigrated,” joined the enemy. It was made the place of meeting of the Council of Five Hundred in 1798, when a hall was constructed in it for that purpose. Since then it has been used most of the time for the French deliberative assemblies, which have borne various names. The Greek facade was erected by Napoleon in 1807.
The whole cost of the building, with the successive additions and changes, has been over $8,000,000. The House wing of our Capitol, which is vastly superior in beauty, compares favorably in cost, and has not such unsavory souvenirs of its beginning. The committee rooms are commodious, and there is a good legislative library of 120,000 volumes. The mansion erected for De Lassay is now the official residence of the president of the chamber, and is connected with the main building by a fine glazed gallery. It is a more sumptuous mansion than the White House. From 1815 until the 2d of December, 1851, this chamber was the center of political interest in France. It was the scene of the parliamentary glories of Casimir Perier, Guizot, Lamartine, Thiers, Berryer, Ledru Rollin, Victor Hugo, and the beginnings of Gambetta. For nine years it has been entirely deserted and silent.
The chamber itself, as it now exists, was constructed in 1832, the old one having fallen into a sad condition. It is semicircular, lofty, and elegant, lighted from above by an immense fan-shaped window in the [Page 354] ceiling, just over the chair of the presiding officer. The seats in concentric rows rise rapidly in amphitheatre. The central or front row is assigned to the ten ministers. The different political parties and groups derive their names from their positions as to the president, beginning on his left with the members of the Extreme Left and Independents, about 60 strong, including such men as Louis Blanc, Clemenceau, Floquet, Raspail. Then comes the Republican Union, 132 in number, among them Gambetta and Girardin; further on, the Republican Left, 158, the largest of the groups, and, last of the Republicans, the Left Center, now only 41, a body of able, moderate men, who count among them Leon Renault, De Marcére, Ribot. The Right Center numbers 15, the Legitimists 34, the Bonapartists 93, and there are a few on both sides who are uncertain. The groups of the left, or Republicans, it will be seen, far outnumber the Monarchists of all the groups on the right combined. Including the advanced radicals on the extreme left, and going round to the Left Center, there are in all about 385 Republicans, while the whole Right only amounts to, say, 145. The rapid increase of the Republicans of late years has so altered places that names are no longer accurate; and the Left Center has pushed far over to the right of the president, or of the orator who speaks from the tribune in front of and below the president’s chair.
At first glance the hall seems small for its requirements; to the eye it does not produce near the effect of size of the House of Representatives, yet 535 members are comfortably seated. A handsome range of 20 Ionic columns, of Carrara marble, runs around the chamber; between and behind these columns are the galleries, in two tiers, divided into sections or tribunes. The diplomatic tribune is directly in front of the speaker, and well placed for hearing, but there are only 28 places in it, at the utmost, and there are 35 missions at Paris.
The gallery allotted to the press is high up, in the second tier, and those gentlemen complain that they have not room enough, and cannot hear nor see to write. Their task is not an easy one. French Deputies do not speak in as clearly articulated and sonorous phrase as is heard in America. They have not had the experience of large public meetings where speakers must make themselves heard and understood by the whole crowd.
French oratory partakes much of the nature of excited conversation; the voice rises and falls rapidly; the gestures are short, quick, and feeble; the ideas and expressions often brilliant—rarely along-sustained argument. I have heard it said that there is a change in the manner of speaking now gradually going on, owing to the enlarging freedom and greater frequency of public meetings, especially in the cities.
The debates are generally practical. The ministers take a prominent and authoritative part in almost every discussion; they have the privilege of the floor in preference to members, and are listened to when nobody else receives attention. This deference to authority is still more evident when we turn to the presiding officer. He governs every detail of the proceedings, reproving or encouraging, expostulating, protesting, explaining difficulties; he watches every step and directs it. The personal greatness of Mr. Gambetta, who is not only the presiding officer bat the foremost man in France, adds immensely to the authority of the post he fills. And admirably he fills it. He is the child of the chamber, and he is its master. His voice will dominate disorder; his quick rebuke or repartee is always dreaded; his good sense and long experience enable him to cut through a cloud of words to the pith of the question and bring it to a solution.
[Page 355]The assembly thus resumes its sessions in Paris. The friends of republicanism will for some time regard the change with apprehension, remembering the many revolutions in which this population has always taken the foremost part, but with greater hope than ever before that the republic will stand, knowing the rapid extension of political education that has lately taken place, the increasing capacity of self-restraint in the French people, and the growing disposition to await the result of inquiry and discussion instead of resorting to violence.
I have, &c.,