FRANCE. 



347 



Proceedings of the Chambers. In the first bal- 

 lot for a President of the Chamber to succeed 

 M. Floquet, M. Brisson received the most 

 votes, the others being divided between M. 

 Clemenceau, leader of the Extreme Left, and 

 M. Andrieux. ex-Prelect of Police. The latter 

 withdrew, and M. Clemeneeau led on the sec- 

 ond ballot. On the following morning, when 

 the voting was resumed, the Moderates put 

 forward M. Meline, ex-Minister of Agriculture 

 and leader of the Protectionists, as their can- 

 didate, but M. Brisson refused to retire, which 

 made the vote a tie between Meline and Cle- 

 meneeau, giving the election to the former by 

 right of seniority in age. 



When Parliament re-assembled after the 

 Easter holidays, M. Floquet said that the Gov- 

 ernment desired strength to deal with pre- 

 tenders, whether draping themselves in the 

 flag or speaking in plebiscitary enigmas, and 

 on being challenged to say whether revision, 

 that is, the Radical scheme of the election of 

 the Senate by universal suffrage, were post- 

 poned indefinitely, asked the Chamber to wait 

 until the call for revision ceased to be a Roy- 

 alist snare or a cloak for conspiring dictators. 

 The order of the day was then carried by 379 

 to ITT votes. 



The sugar bounties, which transfer to the 

 coffers of the sugar manufactures from 70,000,- 

 000 to 90,000.000 francs annually that are 

 raised by general taxation and make French 

 sugar three times as dear in France as in Eng- 

 land, were reduced by a bill that passed the 

 Senate on July IT. The surtax of forty francs 

 on foreign alcohol was continiu-d for an indefi- 

 nite period. In the discussion of a bill to ex- 

 act compensation for accidents to workmen it 

 was proposed that the family of a foreign 

 workman should not be entitled to compensa- 

 tion from employers in case of death by acci- 

 dent unless resident in France, until it was 

 pointed out that this would make the labor of 

 foreigners more desirable to employers. A 

 bill was pased regulating the employment of 

 women and children in factories. 



The ministerial budget scheme was rejected 

 by the budget committee, the majority of the 

 members being Moderate Republicans, owing 

 to the practice of the Reactionaries of aiding 

 in the election of a committee hostile to the 

 Government of the day. The Government 

 proposed an increase of 60,000,000 francs in 

 the ordinary expenditure for 1889, and of 

 90,000,000 francs in special military and naval 

 expenditure. M. Peytral expected an increase 

 of 12,000,000 francs in the revenue through 

 the Universal Exposition and 25,000,000 francs 

 from the readjustment of the sugar duties. 

 The deficit he proposed to cover by issuing 

 treasury bonds for 100,000,000 francs. 



The Government was Qensnred by the Sen- 

 ate on July 1 for not dismissing the mairie of 

 Carcassonne, who had been convicted of an 

 election fraud that was intended, not to alter 

 the result, but to save the necessity of a sec- 



ond ballot. Appealing to the Chamber, the 

 ministers obtained a vote of confidence, which 

 was pas>fd by :326 votes against 1T.'3. Charges 

 against the monks of a reformatory at Citeaux 

 led to the passing of a bill to suppress ail male 

 religious orders, which was defeated in tlie 

 Senate. It was decided to improve the naval 

 defenses of Brest and Cherbourg. The army 

 bill, reducing the term of military service to 

 three years, while making the obligation uni- 

 versal, including seminarists and students of 

 the liberal professions, who have, however, to 

 serve only one year with the colors, has been 

 before the Chambers for several years, and 

 has been remodeled by different ministers of 

 war. In 1888 it finally passed the Senate. 



The session closed in the middle of July, 

 and the new session opened on October 1~>. 

 M. Floquet presented his revision .proposals, 

 which did not involve the abolition of the Sen- 

 ate, but restricted its control over legislation 

 to the right of remonstrance and postpone- 

 ment, and did not touch the presidential 

 power, which the extreme Radicals wished to 

 do away with altogether. 



The revision scheme proposes that one third 

 both of the Senate and the Chamber shall re- 

 tire every second year, the two sets of elec- 

 tions being held simultaneously. Between the 

 Radical demand of direct election of senators 

 and the present system a compromise is made 

 by having the delegates nominated by the com- 

 munes, instead of by the municipalities, which 

 is indirect election in two degrees, in the place 

 of three. It proposes that the Council of 

 State shall be nominated partly by Parliament 

 and partly by chambers of commerce and 

 trade-unions. It is to be given a consultative 

 voice in legislation from a judicial point of 

 view, and be divided into technical section?, 

 qualified to advise on questions affecting labor, 

 commerce, agriculture, and the arts. The 

 council shall frame bills at the instance of the 

 Government, and its commissaries v\ ill take 

 part in their discussion in Parliament. Bills 

 will be first introduced in the Chamber, and 

 after it has passed them the Senate will have 

 only a suspensive veto, leaving the question to 

 be decided by the next biennial election. The 

 Senate can send back to the Chamber amend- 

 ments to the budget, but the vote of the 

 Chamber on these shall be final. The power 

 of the President and the Senate to dissolve 

 the Chamber is to be abolished. The stabil- 

 ity of ministries, of which there had been 

 twenty-three since the foundation of the re- 

 public, was promoted by providing that they 

 can only be removed by the President after a 

 formal vote of want of confidence. 



Bonlangism. When Gen. Boulanger was pre- 

 sented for the first time as a candidate for the 

 Chamber in four departments. Gen. Logerot, 

 Minister of "War, sought an interview with 

 him, and, after receiving his positive denial 

 that he had taken any part in the election 

 manoeuvres, told him to return to Clermont, 



