The defence of the Government was entrusted solely to M.
Challemel-Laconr and M. Ferry. The line taken by the former was that France had originally entered Anam fairly, to punish a massacre of Roman Catholics, which is true ; that Anam is an independent State, which is not true ; that Tonquin is part of Anam, and that the King there- fore had a right to sign the Treaty of Hue. He utterly denied the suzerainty of China, and doubted all through the reality of Chinese menaces. M. Ferry took up the same ground, deny- ing that China would fight, alleging that Li Hung Chang had disavowed the Chinese Ambassador—a.statement ridiculed by the Marquis Tseng in phrases intended to hint that the tele- gram was manufactured for the debate—and adding some most significant sentences about the value of the province. All manu- facturing nations, he averred, were possessing themselves of the unexplored markets, and why should not France draw near to China, with its four hundred millions of purchasers? "One must think for the future positions of the sons of honest Frenchmen." A more cynical avowal of a rapacious motive was never made ; but it was applauded, as was the statement that France had been "aggrandised" by the occupation of Tunis. Finally, after two days of very thin and lifeless de- bating, the vote of confidence proposed by M. Paul Bert was passed by 330 to 160.
