A Ministerial Crisis in France, iS~6 769 sensible adviser, an ex-member of the National Assembly, had always insisted upon that with him ; but in the case of General Berthaut it was quite another thing. Here there was a real point of honor. It was im- possible to abandon him. First of all, one could not change a Minister of War every six months, for if foreign affairs became complicated, it would be most dangerous. Finally the Marshal strongly insisted upon knowing whether or not they refused to allow him to make overtures to M. Simon. M. Christophle thought that it would probably be useless, but all the other ministers did not share this opinion. M. Teisserenc remarked that there had been a question of inviting M. Bardoux to a seat in the cabinet, and that it was also very necessary to make an offer to him. The Marshal said that he would write to that effect to M. Dufaure without delay. M. Leon Say remarked that there was a point which affected him personally, and which had not been touched upon. The Marshal had said that Cleneral Berthaut and M. de Marcere could not remain together in the same cabinet on account of what had taken place at the sitting of December 2. It was necessary that the Marshal should know what took place at that sitting. There were only three ministers on the ministerial bench. M. Christophle was at one extremity surrounded by his general- advisers ; at the other extremity were seated M. de Marcere and M. Leon Say. When M. Laussedat presented his order of the day, M. de Marcere learned towards M. Leon Say to ask his opinion. M. Leon Say's advice had been to accept it. If therefore to-day M. de Marcere went out of the cabinet because he had accepted this order of the day, it would be difficult to understand why M. Leon Say should remain. The Marshal replied that there was nothing official in that, that no one need know whether there had been any understanding between them or not, and that after all M. Leon Say could not go out of the cabinet, because M. Dufaure had said that he would not remain in it without him. The council broke up at eleven o'clock, and was adjourned until the result of the interviews with M. Dufaure and M. Jules Simon should be known.
