vier, the
prime minister. He was outvoted in the Chamber on some insignificant
question; and having no parliamentary majority, he was forced to
resign. By no efforts could M. Grevy get anyone to take his place.
Once he thought he had persuaded M. Clemenceau, a Radical leader,
to form a ministry; but his party gave him to understand that they
would not support him.

The president, then seventy-five years of age, was in a position
in which anyone but a partisan political opponent must have been
moved to pity him. He had been so long and so loudly extolled for
his extreme respectability and his austere virtues that he had
never dreamed that public opinion on such a point as this could turn
against him. He could not endure the idea of being dismissed with
contempt less than two years after his re-election to the presidency
by the unanimous vote of all Republicans. He was willing to go,
but he did not choose to be forced to go by the brutal summons of
an infuriated public. Yet France, pending his decision, was without
a government. Something had to be done. He employed every device to
gain time. He had interviews with men of various parties. He grew
more and more care-worn and aged. His troubles showed themselves in
his carriage and his face. "By turns he was insinuating, eloquent,
lively, pathetic. He showed a suppleness and a tenacity of purpose
that amazed those brought into contact with him. If he could but
gain time, he hoped that the Republicans would disagree about his
successor, and decide to rally round him; but at last he was forced
to send in his resignation. He did so Dec. 1, 1887, in a message
which, by the confusion of its language, betrayed the anguish of
his mind." A few days after giving up his quarters at the Elysee
as president of the Republic, he was stricken down by paralysis.

When the resignation of M. Grevy had been accepted, came the question,
Who should succeed him? If the Republican party split and failed to
choose a president, the Monarchists might seize their opportunity.
The candidate most acceptable to the Moderate Republicans was M.
Jules Ferry, but he was unpopular with the Radicals. He had belonged
to the Committee of Defence and the Government of Versailles which
had put down the Commune. His colonial policy had not been a success,
and he was known to have no toleration for the Reds. Mobs collected
in the streets shouting "A bas Ferry!" He was accused of being
the candidate of the Comte