the survival of the
Republic was for the time determined.[456]

[Footnote 455: Anderson, Constitutions, 622-627; A.
Lefevre Pontalis, L'Assemblee nationale et M.
Thiers, in _Le Correspondant_, Feb. 10, 1879; A.
Thiers, Notes et Souvenirs de 1870 a 1873 (Paris,
1903); J. Simon, Le gouvernement de M. Thiers
(Paris, 1878); E. de Marcere, L'Assemblee nationale
de 1871 (Paris, 1904).]

[Footnote 456: Marquis de Castallane, Le dernier
essai de restauration monarchique de 1873, in
_Nouvelle Revue_, Nov. 1, 1895.]

In the hope that eventually they might gain sufficient strength to
place their candidate on the throne without the co-operation of the
Legitimists, the Orleanists joined with the Bonapartists and the
republicans, November 20, 1873, in voting to fix the term of President
MacMahon definitely at seven years.[457] By the Orleanists it was
assumed that if within that period an opportunity should be presented
for the establishment of the Count of Paris upon the throne, the
President would clear the way by retiring. The opportunity, however,
never came, and the septennial period for the French presidency,
established thus by monarchists in their own interest, was destined to
pass into the permanent mechanism of a republican state.

[Footnote 457: Duguit et Monnier, Les
Constitutions, 319; Anderson, Constitutions, 630.]

VI. THE CONSTITUTION OF TO-DAY

*329. Circumstances of Formation.*--Meanwhile the way was opening for
France to acquire what for some years she had lacked completely, i.e.,
a constitution. May 19, 1873, the minister Dufaure, in behalf of
the Government, laid before the Assembly _projets_ of two organic
measures, both of which, in slightly amended form, passed in 1875 into
the permanent constitution of the Republic. May 24 occurred the
retirement of President Thiers, and likewise that of Dufaure, but in
the Assembly, the two proposed measures were none the less referred to
a commission of thirty. Consideration in committee was sluggish, and
the Assembly itself was not readily roused to action. During the
twelvemonth that followed several _projets_ were brought forward, and
there was desultory discussion, but no progress. In the summer of (p. 305)
1874 a new commission of thi