were placed in Notre Dame and the Panthéon, ready to blow up the buildings; and the whole city would have been involved in ruin if the national troops had not gained a last and crowning victory in the neighbourhood of La Roquette and Père-la-Chaise on the 28th of May. Besides the large number of insurgents who, taken in arms, were pitilessly shot, others were afterwards condemned to death, to penal servitude, to transportation; and the survivors only obtained their liberty by the decree of 1879.
From this double trial Paris emerged diminished and almost robbed of its dignity as capital; for the parliamentary assemblies and the government went to sit at Versailles. For a little it was thought that the city would not recover from the blow which had fallen on it. All came back, however confidence, prosperity, and, along with that, increasing growth of population and the execution of great public works. The Hôtel de Ville was rebuilt, the school of medicine adorned with an imposing façade, a vast school of pharmacy established in the old gardens of the Luxembourg, and boulevards completed. The exhibition of 1878 was more marvellous than those of 1855 and 1867, and left a lasting memorial — the palace of the Trocadéro. And the chambers in 1879 considered quiet sufficiently restored to take possession of their customary quarters in the Palais Bourbon and the Luxembourg.
The Universal Exhibition of 1878, destined to show Europe that France had recovered her material prosperity and moral power, attracted a large concourse. The number of admissions was about 13,000,000. A grand fête, full of gaiety and enthusiasm, was held on the 30th of June. This was the first public rejoicing since the war. The terrible winter of 1879-1880 was the severest of the century; the Seine, entirely frozen, resembled a sea of ice. The 14th of July, the anniversary of the taking of the Bastille, was adopted as the French national holiday and celebrated for the first time in 1880. A grand military review was held in the Bois de Boulogne, at which President Grévy distributed flags to all the regiments of the army. On the 17th of March 1881 a national loan of a thousand million francs was issued for the purpose of executing important public works. This loan was covered fifteen times, Paris alone subscribing for ten thousand millions. At the time of the legislative elections, on the 21st of August and the 4th of September 1881, several tumults occurred in the Belleville district, Gambetta, who was a candidate in the two wards of that district vainly tried to address the electors. The great orator died in the following year, on the 31st of December, from the effects of an accident, and his funeral, celebrated in Paris at the expense of the State, was attended by an immense gathering. A slight Legitimist agitation followed Gambetta's death. An unfortunate event occurred on the 29th of September 1883, the day when the king of Spain, Alphonso XII., returned from his visit to Berlin, where he had reviewed the 15th regiment of Prussian Uhlans, of which he was the honorary colonel. The cries of “Down with the Uhlan!” with which he was greeted by the Paris crowd, gave rise to serious diplomatic incidents. On the 26th of May 1885 the following decree was rendered: “The Panthéon is restored to its primitive and legal destination. The remains of the great men who have merited national recognition will be disposed therein.” But it was only on the 4th of August 1899 that the ashes of Lazare Carnot, Hoche, Marceau, Latour d'Auvergne and Baudin were solemnly transported to the Pantheon. Victor Hugo's funeral was celebrated on the 1st of June 1885, and by an urgency vote they were made national obsequies. It was decided that the corpse should be exposed one day and one night under the Arc de Triomphe, veiled with an immense crape. A few days before, upon the occasion of the anniversary of the fall of the Commune, a tumultuous political manifestation had been made in front of the tomb of the Communists buried in Père Lachaise cemetery.
In 1886 the Monarchists renewed their political demonstrations; the most important one was the reception given by the Count of Paris at the Galliera mansion on the occasion of the marriage of his daughter with the King of Portugal. The Count of Paris had invited to this reception all the foreign ambassadors, and some disturbance having taken place, the Chamber of Deputies, on the 11th of June 1886, voted a law interdicting sojourn upon French territory to the Orleanist and Bonapartist pretenders to the throne of France, and also to their direct heirs. At that epoch Paris was in a state of agitation and discontent, and various catastrophes occurred. First of all came the disastrous bankruptcy of a large financial concern called the Union Générale; then the scandal concerning the traffic in decorations, in which M. Wilson, son-in-law of M. Jules Grévy, was compromised, and which eventually led to the resignation of the President; finally the deplorable Panama affair profoundly enervated the Parisians, and made them feel the necessity of shouting for a military master, some adventurer who would promise them a revenge. All this led to Boulangism. It was by wild acclamations and frantic shouts that General Boulanger was greeted, first at the review of the army on the 14th of July, then two days later at the opening of the Military Club, afterwards at the Winter Circus, where the Patriots' League held a mass meeting under the presidency of Paul Déroulède, and finally, on the 8th of July, at an immense demonstration at the Lyons railway station, when “le brav' Général” left Paris to take command of the 13th army corps at Clermont Ferrand. Popular refrains were sung in the streets in the midst of immense excitement on the 27th of January 1889 at the time of the election of General Boulanger as deputy for the Seine department. A majority of 80,000 votes had invested him with an immense moral authority, and he appeared as though elected as the candidate of the entire country; but he lacked the necessary audacity to complete his triumph, and the Government having decided to prosecute him for conspiracy against the security of the state, before the Senate acting as a High Court of Justice, he fled with his accomplices, Rochefort and Dillon. All three were condemned by default, on the 14th of August, to imprisonment in a fortified enclosure.
Other events had also troubled this astonishing interlude of Boulangism. On the 23rd of February 1887 a terrible fire destroyed the Opéra Comique during a performance, and a great many of the audience perished in the flames. The first performance of Lohengrin, which took place at the Eden Theatre on the 1st of May 1887, was also the cause of street rioting. In 1888 there were several strikes. That of the day labourers, which lasted more than a month, occasioned violent scenes, owing to the sudden death of Émile Eudes, a Communist, while he was speaking in favour of the strike at a public meeting. On the 2nd of December there were manifestations in memory of Baudin, a representative of the people, killed upon the barricades in 1851 while fighting in the defence of the Republic. But a calm finally came, and then the Parisians thought only of celebrating the centenary of the Revolution of 1789 by a universal exhibition. This exhibition contained a profusion of marvels such as had never before been seen, and indicated what enormous industrial progress had been accomplished. Sadi Carnot, who had succeeded M. Jules Grévy as President of the Republic on the 3rd of December 1887, officially opened the exhibition on the 6th of May 1889. Numerous fêtes were held in the grounds while the exhibition lasted. The Eiffel Tower and the illuminated fountains enraptured the crowd of visitors, while the Rue du Caire, with its Egyptian donkey-drivers, obtained a prodigious success. Most of the nations were represented at this exhibition. Germany alone confined her co-operation to the display of some paintings. The Shah of Persia, in honour of whom splendid fêtes were organized, and the King of Greece, the Prince of Wales, the Lord Mayor of London, several Russian grand dukes, Annamite, Tunisian, Moorish, Egyptian and African princes successively visited the Exhibition. There were 30,000,000 visitors. On the 18th of August a banquet was given in the Palais de l'Industrie by the Paris Municipal Council to all the mayors in France, and 15,000 of these officials were present.
In 1890 the duke of Orleans, having attained his majority, came to Paris to draw for military service with the youngest conscripts of his class. He was arrested, and placed, first in
