ABSTRACT
The political opposition to the Second Empire which developed during the 1860s was, to a considerable extent, an urban, and particularly a Parisian, phenomenon. The surrender at Sedan and the proclamation of the Third Republic had thrown Bonapartists into disarray. In contrast, Legitimists, galvanized by the prospect of social upheaval, had begun active electoral preparations after the Government of National Defence had announced the convocation of a National Assembly on 8 September 1870. The Republic exists, it is the legal government of the country: to want anything else would involve a new revolution and the most fearsome of all revolutions. Republicans believed that the young should be exposed to republican values at school and that the interests of social justice required that all children should receive primary education. It was also argued that one of the reasons for France's defeat in 1870–1 was the superiority of German over French education, and that national survival required a modern educational system.
