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-BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD
S.A. Bent, comp. Familiar Short Sayings of Great Men. 1887.
Jules Ferry
[A French statesman; born at St. Dié, April 5, 1832; admitted to the bar of Paris; elected to the Corps Législatif, 1863, and opposed the second empire; member of the government of National Defence, 1870, and administered the Department of the Seine; member of the Assembly; minister of public instruction, 1879 and 1882; prime minister, 1880–81, and again in 1883.]
Ni révision, ni division.
An expression first used in a speech at Epinal as the motto of the administration or moderate wing of the republican party in the legislative elections of 1881, neither a revision of the constitution, nor a division of the party. The result of the elections, although favorable to the republicans, did not secure a majority to the Ferry cabinet, which resigned in November of that year.A similarly alliterative expression may be found in the mot d’ordre given by Pope Pius IX. to the Italian clericals: “Nè elettori nè eletti” (Neither electors nor elected); in other words, the supporters of the temporal power of the Pope should not recognize the Italian government after the occupation of Rome in 1870, by voting in the municipal and parliamentary elections, or being candidates for office. The prohibition, so far as municipal elections were concerned, was relaxed in 1881.
