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FRANCE. 



of Justice, Leon Bourgeois; Minister of War, 

 Gen. J. L. Loizillon: Minister of Education, 

 Charles Dupuy; Minister of Agriculture, Albert 

 Viger; Minister of Commerce, Jules Siegfried; 

 Minister of Public Works, Francois Viette. 

 The Ministry of Marine and the Colonies, which 

 M. Burdeau had refused to resume and Admiral 

 Gervais to take, was accepted by Admiral Rieu- 

 nier, being thus transmuted from a political office, 

 as well as the War Ministry, and like it restored 

 to professional management. 



The Chamber met on the same day, and Flo- 

 quet, who was also involved in the Panama 

 affair, offered himself for re-election as presi- 

 dent, but withdrew his name when he saw that 

 he would be defeated. Casimir Perier was 

 elected. The Government, which made no fresh 

 declaration, carried the order of the day by 320 

 votes, including 27 from the Constitutional 

 Right, otherwise called the Rallied or Catholic 

 Republicans, led by Robert Mitchell and M. 

 Piou, against 187 votes given by 91 Reaction- 

 aries, 31 Boulangists, and 65 Radicals and So- 

 cialists. M. Tirard carried a measure permitting 

 the Bank of France, which was reduced to the 

 necessity of paying out coin, to increase its note 

 circulation from 3,500,000,000 to 4,000,000,000 

 francs. A bourse tax was proposed in the form 

 of a stamp duty of 10 centimes per 1.000 francs, 

 or ffa of 1 per cent, on all transactions except 



Surchases for cash. This tax, calculated to pro- 

 uce 12,000,000 francs a year, and a higher tax 

 on alcohol, were necessary to meet the deficit 

 caused by the repeal of duties on wine, beer, 

 and cider. Robert Mitchell's proposal of a tax 

 of 20 francs on liveried servants, though con- 

 demned by the budget committee, was approved 

 by the Chamber. A law was enacted for the sup- 

 pression of anarchistic publications. Another 

 gives magistrates summary jurisdiction in cases 

 of attacks in the press on foreign sovereigns and 

 ambassadors. An amendment to include attacks 

 on the President of the republic, suggested by 

 foolish attempts of the Opposition press to im- 

 plicate M. Carnot in the Panama scandal, be- 

 cause, as Minister of Finance, he signed Bai- 

 haut's bill for a lottery loan in 1886, was with- 

 drawn at the request of M. Ribot. The Bou- 

 langists, who were supposed to be financially 

 aided by the Monarchists, and who first stirred 

 up the Panama scandal in the hope of forcing 

 the President as well as the ministers to resign 

 and bringing on a revolution, attacked the sav- 

 ings banks in pursuance of this plan, publishing 

 warnings against confiding savings to the care 

 of a government of thieves. The Bonapartist 

 press joined in the assault on the credit of the 

 savings banks, which have 3.900.000,000 francs 

 of deposits, mostly invested in rentes. These 

 tactics naturally caused a run on the banks, and 

 drove the Government to depart once more from 

 the party standpoint regarding the liberty of the 

 press, and bring in a bill making incitement to 

 the withdrawal of savings-bank deposits pun- 

 ishable with two years' imprisonment and a fine 

 of 1,000 to 20,000 francs, like corners in articles 

 of food, in order to avert a disastrous run that 

 might occur should the conditions of a real panic 

 be present. The bill was passed by a vote of 327 

 to 128. On Feb. 16 the Radical Opposition and 

 Boulangists called the ministry to account on the 



charge of allowing an alliance of the Conservative 

 Republicans, based on the support of the clergy 

 and financiers, to undermine its position, with 

 the object of changing the educational, mili- 

 tary, and financial policy of the country, and 

 also of shielding guilty politicians implicated 

 in the Panama scandal." The Government was 

 sustained in a vote of confidence by 315 Depu- 

 ties against 186. On the retirement of M. Le 

 Royer from the presidency of the Senate, on 

 account of failing health, Jules Ferry, the ad- 

 vocate of Conservative Republicanism, whom 

 the Radicals, under cover of the Tonquin losses, 

 had hunted from public life and subjected to the 

 execration of the masses, was elected in his 

 stead. On assuming the office, Feb. 27, he 

 spoke of this vindication, which put an end to a 

 long ordeal, as deciding " that ostracism should 

 have no place in our liberal and tolerant democ- 

 racy." In less than a month Ferry died, and 

 Challemel-Lacour was elected to the post. A 

 conflict between the Senate and the House of 

 Deputies over an amendment to the liquor law 

 imposing a new tax on spirits brought about the 

 fall of the Ribot Cabinet only a week after it 

 had been upheld by 314 Deputies against 200 on 

 Lucien Millevoye's motion in favor of a dissolu- 

 tion based on the course of the Government in 

 the Panama business. The Chamber had at- 

 tached to the budget a rider relating to the form 

 of the liquor law, and one for the taxation of 

 bourse transactions which the Senate had stricken 

 out on the ground that they ought to form the 

 substance of separate bills. The Cabinet, com- 

 pelled to take one side or the other in the dis- 

 pute, preferring to fall by an adverse vote in the 

 Lower House on a budget question to being over- 

 turned sooner or later as a result of its proceed- 

 ings in the Panama cases, was defeated, March 30, 

 by 247 votes against 242. The ministry resigned, 

 and M. Carnot sent for M. Meline, author of the 

 protective tariff. He was unable to obtain the 

 co-operation of M. Peytral or M. M. Poincare, to 

 whom he offered in turn the portfolio of Finance, 

 and gave up the task, which Charles Dupuy then 

 undertook, with better success. 



The Dnpuy Cabinet. The Cabinet was 

 gazetted on April 4 as follows : Premier and 

 Minister of the Interior, Charles Dupuy; Minis- 

 ter of Foreign Affairs, Jules Develle ;' Minister 

 of Finance, Paul Louis Peytral ; Minister of 

 Justice, Eugene Guerin ; Minister of Instruction, 

 Raymond Poincare : Minister of War, Gen. 

 Loizillon ; Minister of Marine and the Colonies, 

 Admiral Rieunier; Minister of Commerce, Louis 

 Terrier; Minister of Public Works, Fra^ois 

 Viette; Minister of Agriculture, Albert Viger. 

 The only members of the preceding Cabinet who 

 had a reputation as statesmen Ribot, Tirard, 

 and Bourgeois were replaced by untried men in 

 this Cabinet, presided over by a man who never 

 held a Cabinet office till he 'entered the Ribot 

 Cabinet as Minister of Education. 



M. Dupuy, in the ministerial declaration, said 

 that the profound tranquillity of the country 

 gave proof that the painful incidents of the last 

 few months, despite certain efforts to make po- 

 litical capital out of them, have not injured the 

 vigorous growth of the republic or the country's 

 traditional reputation for probity and honor. 

 One lesson issuing from the ordeals had sunk 



