FRANCE. 



377 



the Chamber by only 243 votes to 235, and 

 was rejected by the Senate. In the final vote 

 on the new bill in the Chamber, on March 24, 

 a majority of 402 to 91 was recorded. The 

 two main arguments in favor of scrutin de 

 liste were that it would strengthen the hold 

 of the republic upon the constituencies, and 

 that it would put an end to interested politics 

 and the degrading services that constituents 

 expect deputies to perform for their private 

 or local advantage. The bill provided that no 

 elections should take place before the general 

 election, in order to avoid the necessity of fill- 

 ing the thirty seats vacated by the election of 

 deputies to the Senate within three months as 

 the existing law prescribed. Princes of fami- 

 lies that have reigned in France are declared 

 ineligible in a Senate amendment. 



Tariff Legislation. Notwithstanding the pro- 

 tests of free-traders, of the mercantile and in- 

 dustrial classes, and of the Boards of Trade in 

 all the large cities, the proposed protective 

 duties were laid on grain and meat by laws 

 passed March 28, 1885. 



The new tariff on cereals imposes the fol- 

 lowing rates of duty per 100 kilogrammes on 

 foreign grain and flour : on wheat, spelt, and 

 maslin, 3 francs; on wheat or rye flour, 6 

 francs ; on oats, rye, or barley, 1 franc and 50 

 centimes; on malt, 1 franc and 90 centimes. 

 Products from extra-European countries im- 

 ported from European bonded warehouses pay 

 a sur-tax of 3 francs and 60 centimes on the 

 metric quintal. On sea biscuit, groats, oat- 

 meal, and pearled or hulled grain, a duty of 5 

 francs and 50 centimes is imposed, and on 

 these articles also the sur-taxe d? entrepot is col- 

 lected when not imposed directly. 



The new tariff on animals and animal prod- 

 ucts imposes the following rates of duty per 

 head on live animals: on oxen, 25 francs; on 

 cows, 12 francs; on bulls, 12 francs; on young 

 bullocks, balls, and heifers, 8 francs ; on calves, 

 4 francs; on sheep, 3 francs; on lambs, 1 

 franc; on goats, 1 franc; on hogs, 6 francs; 

 on sucking-pigs, 1 franc. On fresh meat a 

 duty of 7 francs per 100 kilos is laid, and on 

 salted meat one of 8 francs and 50 centimes, 

 skins paying duty at the same rates. 



The committee of the House of Deputies 

 voted at first in favor of a remission of the 

 land-tax for the relief of agriculture and a tax 

 on spirits to restore the equilibrium of the 

 budget in the place of the proposed corn-tax ; 

 bat upon reconsideration decided in favor of 

 the original bill. The price of bread, which 

 the advocates of the corn law argued would 

 not be affected, advanced before the act passed 

 the Senate in consequence of a rise in the prices 

 of ^ wheat and rye. The Paris Municipality 

 rejected a proposition to revive the assize of 

 bread, but the Lyons authorities reintroduced 

 the custom of fixing the price for the bakers. 



Tariff War with Roumania. The opponents of 

 these protective measures, to which the Gov- 

 ernment was driven by financial stress to re- 



sort, warned the legislature of the disastrous 

 consequences to French commerce and indus- 

 try if the United States should place retaliatory 

 duties on French manufactures. Ketaliation 

 actually came from Roumania, whose commer- 

 cial treaty with France expired in 1876. The 

 most-favored-nation treatment with states con- 

 ducting negotiations for commercial treaties 

 was enacted by the Roumanian legislature in 

 1878. On March 18, 1885, this concession to 

 France was recalled, and the Government em- 

 powered to levy duties of 50 per cent, ad valo- 

 rem on French products by the restoration of 

 the autonomous tariff of 1876. The law went 

 into operation July 13. The French Govern- 

 ment claimed that the treaty made with Tur- 

 key in 1861, which was made applicable to 

 Wallachia and Moldavia, revived upon the 

 lapse of the convention of 1878. The Rouma- 

 nian Government replied that France had been 

 the first to break the treaty, by imposing vexa- 

 tious restrictions on the importation of Rou- 

 manian cattle, and by levying a sur-tax on Rou- 

 manian cereals. M. Ordega, the French envoy 

 in Bucharest demanded that a new treaty 

 should be made, threatening that if this were 

 not done France would be closed to Rouma- 

 nian grain, and that friendly political relations 

 would cease. In the beginning of July the 

 Cabinet introduced a bill to impose duties 

 amounting in certain cases to 50 per cent, of 

 their value upon imports from Roumania. The 

 bill was passed July 17 by the Chamber and 

 August 15 by the Senate. 



The Army Bill. By the army law of 1873 the 

 system of substitution that prevailed under the 

 empire was abolished. In its stead a category 

 of exemptions was established and the institu- 

 tion of one-year volunteers adopted. Former- 

 ly a conscript could obtain his release from 

 military service by paying 2,500 francs, which 

 went to the person who volunteered to serve 

 in his place, generally a soldier who had served 

 out his own time. The class of one-year vol- 

 unteers, established by the act of 1873, consist- 

 ed of conscripts who could pass an examina- 

 tion and were willing to pay 300 francs toward 

 their maintenance in barracks for the twelve 

 months they were required to do duty. The 

 institution grew to be very unpopular, because 

 it created an aristocratic distinction in the ranks 

 of the army. The military authorities also 

 condemned it, declaring the volunteers to be 

 useless as soldiers, and a source of discontent 

 and demoralization hi the ranks. Exemptions 

 were granted under the act of 1873 to the only 

 sons of widows, to cripples, and to students for 

 the priesthood and the professoriate. A bill 

 changing the recruiting laws was the subject 

 of a considerable political agitation at the time 

 of the senatorial elections. The Radicals de- 

 sired not only to abolish the privileges of the 

 one-year volunteers but to constrain the cler- 

 gy to fulfill the duties of citizenship by serving 

 as soldiers in the army. Equal liability to 

 service for all classes of citizens was the prin- 



