his
actions to the Chamber often with a flippancy which seemed out of place
and did not help the prestige of parliamentary government.

Apart from the diplomatic tension with Germany, which was not settled by
the Act of Algeciras, the history of the Fallieres Administration is
largely taken up with the final disposition of the religious controversy
and with labor questions. The constant advance toward radicalism and
socialism, the lack of great statesmen in Parliament and the presence of
professional politicians, the progress of anti-militarism and the
relegation of the question of Alsace-Lorraine to the background, left a
free field for the growth of social unrest. The tendency was encouraged
by the elections for the renewal of the Chamber of Deputies in May,
1906. To the religious disturbances and the efforts of the Conservatives
to prove themselves persecuted, the country answered at the polls by an
increased anti-Clerical majority.

In 1906 the Dreyfus case was at last settled. The Cour de Cassation
finally annulled the verdict of the Rennes court-martial. In consequence
Dreyfus was restored to the army with the rank of Major which he would
normally have reached had it not been for his great ordeal. Colonel
Picquart, to whom more than to any one he owed his rehabilitation, who
had been driven from the army in 1898, was now made Brigadier-General.
Promoted a few weeks later to Major-General, he became Minister of War
in Clemenceau's Cabinet. The remains of Emile Zola were also transferred
to the Pantheon. Such were the dramatic changes wrought in half a dozen
years.

The troubles over the application of the law for the disestablishment of
the Church lasted more than two years. The Vatican was determined to
make itself a martyr. It would undoubtedly have been glad to see a
forcible closing of the churches in order to cause a reaction in its
favor. Moreover, it objected to the diminution of priestly power and the
participation of the laity as prescribed in the formation of the new
_associations cultuelles_. The Ministry, and particularly Briand, were
just as determined not to give it an opportunity to raise the cry of
persecution.

The first opportunity for a conflict came when the Government tried to
make inventories of religious property, including valuables. This
measure was for the protection of the Church, but the Clericals chose to
call it inquisitorial and a first step to confiscation. In some parts
of Fra