The government of the country was hence forth to be that of a parliamentary Republic based on universal suffrage. The victory of the Republicans however was not complete. A coup d'etat was soon to be attempted: fortu nately it failed in its results.
•MacMahon, as well as the Senate, belonged to the Conservative party. On 16 May 1876 the President, with the sanction of the Senate, dissolved the Chamber of Deputies. This was really a coup d'etat, as there was no proper reason for a dissolution except that the repub lican minority was becoming more and more powerful.
MacMahon and the Senate were, however, frustrated in their designs : the elections stint to the Chamber a greater number of Repub licans whose policy was to apply in a strict manner the Constitutional Laws of 1875. Be fore the opposition of the new Chamber, Mac Mahon had to retire from the Presidency and was succeeded by a politician belonging to a modest family, a cautious, clever lawyer who had no intention to resign his post in favor of any king or emperor, being only too glad to keep it for himself. Jules Grevy was Presi dent of the Republic from 1879 to 1887.
No serious attempt was made from that time to disturb the internal peace of the country and France could after many revolutions and changes of governments devote herself to the The two internal incidents of real import ance and the results of which might have been disastrous had they not been checked in time were the agitation of the Boulanginne and the Dreyfus affair.
General Boulanger was very popular in the army and among the French people as a whole. Monarchists, Bonapartists and a fraction of the Republican party persuaded him to take ad vantage of his popularity in order to overthrow the Republic and to restore something like the Empire or the Monarchy under the name of a development of her trade, her industries and her democratic institutions. All political liber ties as regards press, meetings, associations, universal suffrage, etc., have been absolutely confirmed.
As regards the Church, the Republic has very much reduced its power, by disestablishing it and confiscating all the private estates which belonged to it. (See articles on CHURCH AND STATE). Social legislation has been passed which authorizes strikes, trade-unions, regulates the work of women and children in the fac tories, limits the working hours, obliges the em ployers to insure their staff against accidents, etc.
uPlebiscitary Republic." At that time (1887 89) the plurinominal ballot made it possible for the candidates to stand in all the voting districts at one and the same time. For General Bou langer, who was extremely popular throughout France, this amounted to trying a plebiscite. The general had an immense success, but he be longed to a class of romantic visionaries who lack the qualities essential for any man of ac tion: energy and quick decision of mind. The national hero did not take the tide at its flood; he hesitated and lost his venture. On the other hand the government checked the movement by restoring the Uninominal ballot, by which no candidate could stand for more than one constituency at a time, thereby frustrating all further attempts to a plebiscite; finally the leaders of the Boulangisme were tried for high treason before the Senate. Boulanger himself died in exile at Brussels where he shot himself through the head.
The Dreyfus affair had very important political consequences. Alfred Dreyfus was an artillery officer accused and convicted of high treason. He was sentenced to perpetual trans portation by a mili ary tribunal. A new trial reduced the punishment to 10 years. Finally the Cour de Cassation released him entirely. The question whether Dreyfus was or was not guilty was most passionately discussed in the press, in public and private meetings; and it is literally true to say that for a certain period of time there was no possible gathering of three or four people without a passionate discussion on the uaffaire.B By degrees however the per sonality of Dreyfus disappeared and the point whether he was or was not guilty was totally forgotten as soon as the contending parties were able to divide themselves into two opposite groups: the Nationalists — recruited from among the Monarchists, the Anti-Semites (Dreyfus was a Jew), and some Republicans, very moderate, called the Progressives, rely ing for their support on the conservative and reactionary forces of the nation: army, capital, religion. On the other side, the Radicals, Socialists and Republicans of more aggressive temper united into a multifarious party, which was called the bloc, in opposition to the con servative forces, and claiming to fight for in dividual right and justice. The political life of the country was greatly intensified.