Another Sedan

France's constitutional crisis of 1877—President MacMahon's monarchist *coup de seize mai* versus the republican parliamentary majority—arrives here as a palanquin being upended. MacMahon, in military uniform, tumbles out of the sedan-chair while a papal-crowned figure clutches a scepter inside; an imperial eagle perches on the roof. Léon Gambetta is caricatured as a *sans-culotte*, physically tilting the vehicle alongside Marianne, France personified as a bourgeois woman. Wall posters read *Vive la République* and *Manifesto*, referencing Gambetta's Lille speech demanding MacMahon submit or resign. The caption quotes that ultimatum directly. Nast depicts republican pressure against the Church-military alliance through the overturning of the sedan-chair.