Jules Ferry

Overview

Jules Ferry (1832–1893), republican statesman: Minister of Public Instruction from February 1879, président du Conseil in 1880–1881 and 1883–1885, the architect of the secular school laws and of French colonial expansion (Tonkin). On 15 March 1879 he tabled the bill on higher education whose Article 7 barred members of unauthorised religious congregations, above all the Jesuits, from teaching; the Chamber passed it, the Senate struck out Article 7, and the law of 18 March 1880 was passed without it (Encyclopædia Universalis, «Jules Ferry»; English Wikipedia, «Jules Ferry»).

Not the same as FERRY, the bootmaker: «Je suis allée chez Ferry» (085.0229) and «Jeandron (M. Ferry)» (085.0231), Marie's informant about the Acard family, belong to the shop.

Relevance to Marie

Marie follows the Ferry bill as a spectator in the Chamber gallery in 1879, on the Bonapartist side, and later sees Ferry as minister and prime minister.

• 1879-06-16 (085.0328): «Il s'agit comme vous le savez du projet de loi Jules Ferry», the sitting at which Cassagnac is censured and excluded; 085.0352: Cassagnac «ne pourra pas discuter les lois Ferry».
• 1879-09-14 (086.0282): «Huîtres Jules Ferry» on her satirical menu for a republican dinner.
• 1879-11-29 (086.0602): from the Chamber gallery she exchanges looks with Gambetta, and Antonin Proust and Jules Ferry, next to him, ogle her too.
• 1880-06-30 (089.0060): the expulsion of the Jesuits, «une mesquine revanche de M. Jules Ferry pour son article 7».
• 1883-06-22 (100.0190): artists going up for their medals «serrer la main de Jules Ferry, ministre».
• 1884-01-30 (103.0186): dinner talk of «Tonkin et Ferry».
• 1884-06-24 (104.0641): «Jules Ferry aura un regard pareil à celui de mon petit modèle âgé de six ans», on how men turn primitive before life and death.
• 1884-08-04 (105.0426): Ferry at the tribune of the Congress at Versailles on constitutional revision.

References in Diary

• First mentioned: 1879-06-16 (085.0328)
• Key entries: 086.0282, 086.0602, 089.0060, 100.0190, 103.0186, 105.0426