294 



PRANCE. 



geria and Tuni? and making them a part of a 

 cnlonial army. After a memorable debate the 

 Chamber, by a majority of 286 to 270 on March 26, 

 approved the substitution for the house tax of a 

 general tax on income, with graduated exemption 

 of incomes below a certain sum, leaving the ques- 

 tion of personal declarations and of the basis of 

 taxation to be discussed between the Budget Com- 

 mittee and the ministry. On March 28 M. Berthe- 

 lot, whose manner of conducting negotiations with 

 England respecting the Soudan expedition had 

 given occasion for various criticisms, resigned his 

 portfolio on the plea of ill health. His threatening 

 note of March 17 was brought up against him, and 

 he was censured for rashly and undiplomatically 

 inviting a serious conflict without having sounded 

 other governments, and thereby reconstructing the 

 triple alliance to the advantage of England. M. 

 Bourgeois assumed the direction of the Ministry of 

 Foreign Affairs, transferring the portfolio of the 

 Interior to M. Doumer. M. Sarrien on March 30 

 accepted the Ministry of the Interior, a post that 

 he filled under M. Brisson in 1885 and later in the 

 Goblet and Tirard Cabinets. On March 31 M. 

 Bourgeois replied in the Senate to interrogations 

 of M. Bardoux on the foreign policy of the Govern- 

 ment, denying that there had been any loss of French 

 influence in China, declaring that Madagascar had 

 not been annexed, but that the sovereignty of the 

 Queen and the foreign relations of Madagascar were 

 controlled by France, and affirming that Russia 

 shared the views of France in regard to Egypt. 

 When similar questions were put in the Chamber 

 on April 2, the minister made no revelations, de- 

 claring that delicate negotiations were going on, 

 on the strength of which statement he obtained a 

 vote of confidence. On the day following an inter- 

 pellation was moved in the Senate by M. Milliard, 

 who said it was impossible to approve the position 

 to which France had been reduced in Egypt and in 

 Madagascar, and when M. Bourgeois declared that 

 he should make no reply the Senate passed, by 155 

 votes to 85, an order of the day pronouncing the 

 ministerial explanations inadequate and refusing 

 its confidence to the Government, and then ad- 

 journed till April 21 without discussing the Mada- 

 gascar credits. The Cabinet met and decided 

 unanimously that the vote of confidence adopted 

 by the Chamber made it the duty of the min- 

 isters to remain in office. The action of the de- 

 partmental assemblies, two thirds of which con- 

 demned the scheme of an income tax proposed by 

 the Government, confirmed the Senators in their 

 resistance to the Cabinet. When the Senate reas- 

 sembled M. Demole presented a motion approved 

 by the Republican groups, that, having three times 

 refused its confidence to the ministry, which per- 

 sisted nevertheless in remaining in office in viola- 

 tion of the Constitution, the Senate, while disclaim- 

 ing any intention of haggling over credits necessary 

 to soldiers defending in distant French possessions 

 the honor and the Hag of France, postpone the vot- 

 ing of the credits until it has before it a constitu- 

 tional minister possessing the confidence of both 

 chambers. M. Bourgeois simply challenged the 

 statement that his ministry existed in violation of 

 the Constitution, and protested that the interpreta- 

 tion of the Constitution was not the prerogative of 

 one chamber, but belonged to Parliament as a 

 whole. The motion was carried by 171 votes to 90. 

 The Cabinet announced the intention of resigning 

 as soon as the Chamber of Deputies reassembled, 

 being no longer able to guarantee the direction of 

 affairs since the Senate's refusal to vote credits had 

 the result of obstructing the maintenance and relief 

 of the troops in Madagascar. When the Chamber 

 came together on April 23 the Premier tendered the 



resignation of the Cabinet to the President, and it, 

 was accepted. In his declaration to the Chamber 

 M. Bourgeois reaffirmed the doctrine that the initia- 

 tive and general direction of politics belongs to the 

 body issuing directly from universal suffrage. The 

 resolution submitted by M. Ricard, declaring that 

 the Chamber affirms once more the preponderance 

 of the elect of universal suffrage and its resolve to 

 continue a policy of democratic reforms was car- 

 ried by 258 votes, no one voting in the negative. 

 Before a new ministry was appointed the Senate 

 held a special meeting and adopted unanimously 

 the Madagascar credits. President Faure asked M. 

 Sarrien to undertake the formation of a minis- 

 try. Having consulted with politicians as to the 

 prospects of forming a conciliation Cabinet, he de- 

 clined the task on finding the Radicals bent on 

 demanding revision and on thus prolonging the 

 conflict with the Senate. On April 27 M. Meline, 

 the Protectionist leader, was summoned by the 

 President and intrusted with the formation of a 

 Cabinet, although he had been prominent in the 

 minority that opposed the income tax as proposed 

 by the Bourgeois Cabinet. 



The Meline Cabinet. M. Meline formed a 

 Cabinet composed exclusively of Moderate Repub- 

 licans, Radicals having refused to join, just as Mod- 

 erates had declined to join M. Bourgeois when he 

 attempted to form a mixed Cabinet. The new 

 ministry was constituted on April 28 as follows : 

 Premier and Minister of Agriculture, Felix Jules 

 Meline ; Minister of Foreign Affairs, M. Ilanotaux ; 

 Minister of Finance, Georges Cochery: Minister of 

 Justice, M. Darlan ; Minister of the Interior, M. 

 Barthoii: Minister of War, Gen. Billot ; Minister of 

 Marine, Admiral Besnard ; Minister of Public In- 

 struction and Worship, A. Rambaud ; Minister of 

 Commerce, Henri Boucher; Minister of the Colo- 

 nies, Andre Lebon ; Minister of Public Works, M. 

 Turrel. The new Premier was born in the Vosges 

 in 1838, entered the Chamber in 1876, was Minis- 

 ter of Agriculture under Jules Ferry from 1883 to 

 1885, President of the Chamber in 1889, and since 

 then has been chairman of the Tariff Committee. 

 Of his colleagues, M. Ilanotaux was Minister of 

 Foreign Affairs in the Casimir-Perier, Dupuy, and 

 Ribot Cabinets; Gen. Billot was Minister of War 

 in 1882 in the Freycinet and Duclerc Cabinets: M. 

 Barthou was Minister of Public Works under Du- 



Siy ; M. Lebon was Minister of Commerce in the 

 ibot Cabinet; and Admiral Besnard was Minister 

 of Marine in the Ribot Cabinet. 



The first aim of the new ministry was declared in 

 the ministerial statement to be the re-establishment 

 of the indispensable harmony between the public 

 bodies, securing preponderant action in the general 

 direction of politics to the Chamber of Deputies, 

 based directly on universal suffrage, but recogniz- 

 ing that it is impossible to legislate and to govern 

 without the co-operation of the Senate, The bills 

 that interest the working classes and the reform 

 of the drink duties and that of the death duties, 

 already before the Senate, would be prosecuted, and 

 as for direct taxes the budget for 1897 would con- 

 tain a system of reforms which, without vexatious, 

 inquisitorial, or arbitrary measures, would insure a 

 better division of taxation, relieve small taxpayers, 

 take into consideration family burdens, and relieve 

 agriculture. The interests of agriculture would re- 

 ceive special attention. The colonial army would 

 finally be organized. Bills would be pushed relat- 

 ing to the regulation of the hours of labor, to re- 

 sponsibility in case of accidents, and to the devel- 

 opment of provident and benefit societies. The 

 organization of workingmcn's superannuation funds 

 by the co-operation of the state and individual in- 

 itiative would also receive attention. The minis- 



