. With the consent of the Senate he could dissolve
the Chamber, but this restriction made the privilege almost inoperative
in practice. He was irresponsible, the nominal executive and figurehead
of the State, but all his acts had to be countersigned by a responsible
Minister, by which his initiative was greatly reduced. In fact the
President had really less power than a constitutional king.

The real executive authority was in the hands of the Cabinet, headed by
a Premier or _President du conseil_.[6] The Ministry was responsible to
the Senate and Chamber (in practice, as we have seen, to the Chamber),
and was expected to resign as a whole if put by a vote in the minority.
By custom the President selects the Premier from the majority and the
latter selects his colleagues in the Cabinet, trying to make them
representatives of the wishes of the Parliament. The French Republic is
therefore managed by a parliamentary government.

The first elections under the new constitution resulted very much as
might be expected: the Senate became in personnel the true successor of
the Assembly, the Chamber of Deputies contained most of the new men. The
Senate was conservative and monarchical, the Chamber was republican.
Therefore, the President of the Republic entrusted the formation of a
Ministry to M. Jules Dufaure, of the Left Centre, the views of which
group differed hardly at all from those of the Right Centre, except in a
full acceptance of the new conditions. Unfortunately, M. Dufaure found
it impossible to ride two horses at once and to satisfy both the
conservative Senate and the majority in the Chamber of more advanced
Republicans than himself. He mistrusted the Republican leader Gambetta,
though the latter was now far more moderate, and he sympathized too much
with the Clericals to suit the new order of things. So his Cabinet
resigned (December 2, 1876), less than nine months after its
appointment, and the marechal de Mac-Mahon felt it necessary, very much
against his will, to call to power Jules Simon. He had previously tried
unsuccessfully to form a Cabinet from the Right Centre under the duc de
Broglie.

The duc de Broglie remained, however, the power behind the throne. The
President was under the political advice of the conservative set, whose
firm conviction he shared, that the new Republic was advancing headlong
into irreligion. The course of political events now took on a strong
religious flavor. Jules Simon was a li