he law of July, 1872, establishing practically universal military
service. He affected to see in it France's desire for early revenge for
the loss of Alsace and Lorraine.

M. Thiers, the great leader, did not find his rule uncontested. Brought
into power as the indispensable man to guide the nation out of war, his
conceit was somewhat tickled and he wanted to remain necessary. Though
over seventy he had shown the energy and endurance of a man in his prime
joined to the wisdom and experience of a life spent in public service
and the study of history. Elected by an anti-Republican Assembly and
himself originally a Royalist, the formulator also of the Bordeaux
Compact, he began to feel, nevertheless, in all sincerity that a
conservative republic would be the best government, and his vanity made
him think himself its best leader. This conviction was intensified for
a while by his successful tactics in threatening to resign, when
thwarted, and thus bringing the Assembly to terms. But he tried the
scheme once too often.

The majority in the Assembly was not, in fact, anxious to give free rein
to Thiers, and it had wanted to avoid committing itself definitely to a
republic. It wanted also to insure its own continuation as long as
possible, contrary to the wishes of advanced Republicans like Gambetta,
who declared that the National Assembly no longer stood for the
expression of the popular will and should give way to a real constituent
assembly to organize a permanent republic.

The first endeavor of the Royalists was to bring about a restoration of
the monarchy. The princes of the Orleanist branch were readmitted to
France and restored to their privileges. A fusion between the two
branches of the house of Bourbon was absolutely necessary to accomplish
anything. The members of the younger or constitutionalist Orleans line,
and notably its leader, the comte de Paris, were disposed to yield to
the representative of the legitimist branch, the comte de Chambord. He
was an honorable and upright man, yet one who in statesmanship and
religion was unable to understand anything since the Revolution. He had
not been in France for over forty years, he was permeated with a
religious mystical belief not only in the divinity of royalty, but in
his own position as God-given (_Dieudonne_ was one of his names) and the
only saviour of France. Moreover, he could not forgive his cousins the
fact that their great-grandfather had voted for the exe