FRANCE. 



295 



try looked to the Republican majority to set aside 



irritating and sterile discussions ami devote its en- 



f democratic reforms long 



ripe and immediately feasible, for working France 

 was weary of agitation and thirsting for peace and 

 tranquillity. The Chamber rejected Radical mo- 

 tion- demanding revision of the Constitution and 

 one from 31. Goblet protesting against the exist- 

 ence of a ministry formed from the minority. 

 adopted a resolution afiirming the sovereignty of 

 universal suffrage, approved the declaration of the 

 Government by a vote of 231 to 196. voted the order 

 of the day by 2! ill to 25i>. and then adjourned from 

 April 30 until May 28. The Senate rejected a Uad- 

 ical resolution for revision by 214 to 42 votes. In- 

 asmuch as not only the Rallied Republicans, but the 

 Monarchists of the Chamber voted for the Cabinet, 

 the Radicals denounced the Cabinet as reactionary, 

 just as the fallen ministry had been accused of 

 being socialistic. 



The municipal elections held in the beginning of 

 May showed little alteration in the strength of 

 parties. In Paris 11 Conservatives. 13 Moderates, 

 and 45 Ultras and Socialists were elected. Con- 

 servatives gained a majority in 17 of the principal 

 towns. Rallied Republicans in 3. Moderates in 234. 

 Radicals in 64. Ultra-Radicals in 15. and Socialists 

 in Marseilles. Toulon, Dijon, and 3 others, but in 

 Lyons they lost the ascendency. M. Cochery pre- 

 sented his plan for satisfying the popular demand 

 for an income tax. Under another name France 

 already had a partial income tax. a heavy one of 4 

 per cent, levied on French railroad bonds and 

 shares and on all French industrial undertakings 

 and every dividend of a French company, but none 

 was levied on French Government stock or on for- 

 eign coupons or dividends. In lieu of the existing 

 tax on French companies alone. M. Cochery pro- 

 posed one of 44 per cent, on all coupons or divi- 

 dends. French or foreign, including French rentes. 

 from which he expected to obtain 30,000.000 franc-. 

 while French companies would yield 7.000.000 

 francs and foreign stocks 18,000.000 francs. Houses 

 would have to pay 44 instead of 3 per cent., pro- 

 ducing 18.000.000 francs : an equal tax on the inter- 

 est on mortgages, the debtor deducting the tax. 

 would yield an equal sum ; and 91,000,000 francs 

 would be raised by a tax on rent, servants, and 

 hordes, varying in different towns according to pop- 

 ulation. The existing house and furniture taxes 

 and the door and window tax were abolished, the 

 tax on land not built upon was reduced, and mort- 

 gaged property was released from taxation to the ex- 

 tent of the mortgage in order to avoid double taxa- 

 tion. These remissions amounted to as much as the 

 new taxes would produce. The new house tax was 

 graduated according to the size of families, and for 

 unmarried householders the rent limit of exemption 

 was fixed 50 per cent, higher than for married. 

 The substitution of a tax on the outward signs of 

 wealth for the taxes on doors, windows, and furni- 

 ture, and the exemption of dwellings renting for 

 less than 400 francs a year in Paris and 30 francs 

 in the country relieved 6.000,000 of the 10.500,000 

 households in France from taxation and removed 

 from the working classes the motive for excluding 

 air and sunlight and reducing to a minimum their 

 household implements and comforts. The tax on 

 the higher rentals was to be increased by 5 per 

 cent, for every female servant. 10 per cent, for 

 every male servant, and 10 per cent, for every car- 

 riage or riding horse. A law to make marriage 

 easier was promulgated on June 24. by virtue of 

 which a man over twenty-five or a woman over 

 twenty-one may marry without the consent of 

 parents after having given formal notice a month 

 beforehand to the unwilling parents, whereas previ- 



oii-ly the a ire of free disposition was thirty for men 

 and twenty-five for women, and thn 

 spect fid notifications were necessary. The fir-t pro- 

 tectionist measure proposed by the Meline ministry, 

 a duty on lead, was rejected by a majority of 26 in 

 the Chamber. The Radicals carried a motion in 

 favor of an early discussion of revision, for Bona- 

 partists. Boulangists. and Royalists al.-o demand 

 revision f..r their various ends, desiring especially 

 to have the President of the republic elected by 

 universal .suffrage. The Duke of Orleans, chafing 

 under the inaction of the Orleanist party, contem- 

 plated bringing his cause before the eye- of the 

 public by having working-class voters of Cholet, a 

 constituency in Maine-et-Loire. cast complimentary 

 ballots for him as Deputy. The Royalist commit- 

 tee on hearing of the project showed disapproba- 

 tion, whereupon the pretender, on May 5. add) 

 a caustic letter to the Due d'Audriffet-Pasquicr. 

 president of the committee, declaring that he meant 

 and knew how to do his entire duty and was him- 

 self the judge of royal dignity, which could not be 

 impaired if in the humblest of the French vill 

 for all were alike dear, the electors should designate 

 him to serve his country. He desired no longer to 

 play at monarchy, but to make it a reality, which 

 could not be done by the affectation of inert and 

 expectant dignity, standing motionless on distant 

 shores because of the greatness of its traditions and 

 deeming itself too lofty to mix with men and things. 

 He was unable to justify the absurd tradition of an 

 alleged incompatibility between monarchical and 

 elective right, deeming that the two principles tend 

 constantly to blend in a system of compromise. In 

 the same spirit he rejected the advice of those who 

 exhorted him to disavow his cousin. Henri of Or- 

 leans, because that prince had accepted from the 

 republic the cross of the Legion of Honor given for 

 his explorations, which would furnish a precedent 

 for good citizens who had been or still were Re- 

 publicans refusing to receive at his hands, if he 

 were the head of the country, the recompen- 

 their merits and services. The harsh rebuke of the 

 young pretender drove the veteran chief of the 

 Royalist organization to resign his office. The 

 first attack upon the Meline Cabinet, which was de- 

 feated by a majority of 53, was occasioned by the 

 Royalist utterances of Bishop Mathieu. of A users. 

 who in confirming the Due de Montpensier. brother 

 of Philippe d'Orleans, the pretender, said that 

 France banished its kings and killed its prophets. 

 A second attack made by the Socialists, on the oc- 

 casion of the removal of the prefect of Tarn that 

 the Bourgeois ministry had appointed to satisfy the 

 Carmaux strikers, was defeated by a majority of 80. 

 M. Doumer's project of an income tax was brought 

 to a vote on July 7, and was rejected by a majority 

 of 283 to 254. M. Meline having previously an- 

 nounced that its adoption wotdd be tantamount to 

 a vote of no confidence. The proposal to tax 

 French rente* was subjected to as vigorous an on- 

 slaught by M. Roiivier. M. Ribot. and other Moder- 

 ate- as the progressive income tax ever was. The 

 assailants argued that it was a breach of public 

 faith, because ever since the revolution rentes had 

 been regarded as exempt from taxation ; that it was 

 a financial blunder, defeating the future conversion 

 of 3-i-per-cent. into 3-per-cent. rentes, and the 3 per 

 cents, into 2f per cents., and depreciating the Gov- 

 ernment credit when additional loans were in pros- 

 pect, the very announcement having caused a fall 

 in rentes of 640.000.000 francs at a time when Gov- 

 ernment bonds were rising: and that it was impol- 

 itic and likely to turn 2.500.000 small holders against 

 the republic. The majority of the Chamber wa- 

 against the scheme, and though Radicals and So- 

 cialists affected to support it in order to force the 



