intment to the General Staff,
the affair got greater notoriety. The scandal assumed national
proportions when it was found to involve the President's own son-in-law
Daniel Wilson, well known to be a shady and tricky politician, who had
the octogenarian President under his thumb. The matter reached the scale
of a Cabinet crisis, since it was by an overthrow of the Ministry that
the President could best be reached. Unfortunately, Grevy could not see
that the most dignified thing for him to do was to resign, even though
he was in no way involved in Wilson's misdemeanors. For days he tried to
persuade prominent men to form a Cabinet; he tried to argue his right
and duty to remain. But finally the Chamber and Senate brought actual
pressure upon him by voting to adjourn to specific hours in the
expectation of a presidential communication. He bowed to the inevitable
and retired from the Presidency with the reputation of a discredited old
miser, instead of the great statesman he had appeared on beginning his
term of office.

FOOTNOTES:

[9] Gambetta's former assistant during the national defence after the
first disasters; a brilliant organizer, but in general policy a
_nolonte_, to use the term Gambetta coined about him on the basis of the
word _volonte_. As Minister of Public Works he initiated at this period
great improvements in the internal development of France, especially in
the railways.

[10] Especially as to the unlimited revision of the constitution and the
_immediate_ separation of Church and State.

[11] Gambetta's contempt for the parochialism of the elections by
district was great. He felt that departmental tickets would favor the
choice of better men. One must remember how large a proportion of the
French Deputies are physicians to appreciate the scorn of Gambetta's
saying that the _scrutin d'arrondissement_ produced a lot of
_sous-veterinaires_, that is, men who were not even decent
"horse-doctors."

[12] M. Fallieres took the place of Duclerc as President of the Council
during the last days.

[13] The French claimed that a government official had been lured over
the frontier and illegally arrested.

CHAPTER VI

THE ADMINISTRATION OF SADI CARNOT

December, 1887, to June, 1894

The successor of Jules Grevy was Sadi Carnot, in many ways the best
choice. As has been seen, the transition was less easy than the two
ballots of the National Assembly seemed to indicate (December 3, 1887).
The intr