U tNTIL 1899, the crucial year of the Dreyfus affair, the political history of the Third French Republic had been one of chronic instability. Ministries had followed each other in rapid succession. Attacks upon the republic had failed by the narrowest of margins. One financial scandal had followed another. No wonder, therefore, that French, as well as foreign, observers feared that the republican form of government was not destined to solve the political difficulties of France.1 Their fears, however, were unwarranted. In the decade following the year 1899 only five ministries held office in France, three of which resigned without having lost the confidence of the legislature. No great financial scandals were discovered involving the representatives of the nation. The attacks against the republic dwindled to harmless verbal battles. This astonishing change in the political life of France was brought about by the Bloc des Gauches, which was formed to defend the republic during the Dreyfus affair. The Delegation des Gauches, the steering committee of this coalition, gave coherence and stability to the Bloc, which otherwise might have disintegrated as rapidly as most political combinations in France. The Bloc differed from the republican coalitions of 1873, 1877, and 1889, which had also been founded to defend the republic against the attacks of the opposition, in that it was not merely a temporary coalition but one which prolonged its