PRANCE. 



into the national conscience that is, that " ease 



and fortune are acquired only by work, and an- 

 ved only by correct morals and a worthy 

 life." 



The finest inn of the separation of the liquor 

 tax from the budget, which served as a pretext 

 for the overthrow of the Kibot Cabinet, was 

 made a Cabinet question by the new Cabinet also, 

 and tin- Chamber now voted what they had 

 before refused. The bourse tax was passed in a 

 separate bill, as was the bill to repeal tin- duties 

 on wine, beer, and cider and increase the spirit 

 duties. Owing to short crops of fodder caused 

 by drought, the import duties on hay and oats 

 were suspended and those on barley and maize 

 reduced Toy one half for six months from June 

 80. A public-health bill renders vaccination 

 compulsory in infancy and in the tenth and 

 twenty-fifth years, whereas before it was only 

 compulsory in the case of children entering the 

 public schools. A bill based on ..the report of 

 the Panama committee of investigation appoint- 

 ed by the Chamber before judicial proceedings 

 were instituted gave special facilities to civil 

 suits against the directors, the contractors who 

 pocketed 25 to 50 per cent, profits, and others 

 chargeable with the division of the money con- 

 tributed by the Panama shareholders and bond- 

 holders. In the report, M. Floquet, who wanted 

 to know whether the enormous advertising 

 fund was used to aid the Boulangists in the 

 elections of 1889. and M. de Freycinet were ex- 

 onerated, but Rouvier was blamed for accept- 

 ing private money for public purposes. The 

 Chamber passed a bill for the abolition of octroi 

 duties on articles of food and drink brought 

 into towns. A bill was passed to tax bicycles 

 10 francs a year, and another imposing an inter- 

 nal-revenue duty of 5 francs on pianos. The 

 legal existence of the next Chamber was ex- 

 tended to May 31, 1898, in order that the gen- 

 eral election may be held in the spring, which is 

 a more convenient time than autumn. 



A number of bills were brought forward in 

 the Chamber with the object of checking the 

 increase of the foreign population, which has 

 doubled in numbers in thirty years, while the 

 native population has remained stationary. 

 Since 1851 the Belgians have increased from 

 120.000 to 465,860, the Italians from 63,307 to 

 286,042, the Germans from 67,000 to 100,000, the 

 British from 20,000 to 39.687. the Spaniards 

 from 30,000 to 80,000, the Swiss from 25,485 to 

 83,117, the Dutch from 13,000 to more than 

 40,000, the Americans from 5,000 to nearly 12,- 

 000, including 4,800 from southern countries. 

 The birth rate among foreigners is 11-39 per 

 cent., while it is 1-92 per cent, among French 

 people. A large proportion of the counterfeit- 

 ers, murderers, and other classes of criminals are 

 aliens. Foreigners are also a heavy charge on the 

 poor funds, the municipality of Paris spending 

 8.000.000 francs annually in relieving indigent 

 foreigners. Of 180,000 alien residents of Paris 

 not over 16,000 have independent means of sup- 

 port: there were 1,130,211 in France altogether 

 in 1891 ; these, with the exception of 65.665 

 who live on their incomes, while exempt from 

 military service, underbid native labor, and 

 absorb 1,000,0(10.000 francs in wages annually, 

 one sixth of which is taken out of the country 



by those who return to their own land. These 

 were the motives of the bill that was passed by 



both houses, which requires a foreigner coming 

 to France for the purpose of earning on a trade, 

 profession, or industry to send within a week a 

 declaration to the mayor, accompanied by proofs 

 of his identity, on which he receives a certificate. 

 If he removes to another place he must have this 

 certificate indorsed within two days. By neglect 

 or refusal to obey the law or for a false declaration 

 a fine of 50 to 200 francs is incurred, with or without 

 permanent exclusion ; and if an expelled foreigner 

 returns without permission he may be punched 

 with imprisonment from one to six months, fol- 

 lowed by expulsion. Another bill gives an alien 

 born in France of a French mother the option 

 of embracing either French or foreign national- 

 ity at his majority, but empowers the Govern- 

 ment to withhold French nationality from per- 

 sons deemed unworthy, subject to appeal to the 

 Council of State. A resolution passed just be- 

 fore the close of the session, on July 23, provides 

 that a bill that has passed the Chamber prior to 

 a dissolution may be sent up to the Senate by 

 the new Chamber if that is the wish of at least 

 40 Deputies. 



The " Cocarde " Forgeries. A professional 

 swindler and forger, who went by the name of 

 Norton, playing upon the passion for vilification 

 displayed by the Boulangists, offered to sell to 

 the editor of the "Cocarde" copies of a secret 

 correspondence proving prominent French poli- 

 ticians to be guilty of treason, which as a clerk in 

 the British embassy he had had an opportunity to 

 copy. Norton was a mulatto, the son of a negro 

 of Mauritius, and pretended to be actuated by 

 hatred of England. Edouard Ducret, the edi- 

 tor, with the aid of money' furnished by the 

 Marquis de Mores, paid 10,000 francs as an in- 

 stallment of the 25,000 francs demanded, and 

 after getting hold of the papers, on June 21, an- 

 nounced in the " Cocarde " that he had become 

 the possessor of important documents stolen 

 from the British embassy, patriotism impelling 

 him to become a party to the theft. The docu- 

 ments had been shown to M. Dupuy and M. De- 

 velle, and for a day or two they believed them 

 to be genuine : but they had convinced them- 

 selves of the fraud before M. Millevoye, on June 

 22, interpellated the Government on the article 

 in the " Cocarde." The Boulangist Deputy be- 

 gan his speech with a scornful denunciation of 

 M. Clemenceau, whom he and M. Deroulede had 

 scored three days before on account of his rela- 

 tions to Herz and heaped insults upon amid the 

 plaudits of the Chamber. Now the Chamber 

 jeered M. Millevoye till he was stung into reading, 

 contrary to 1 is promise to the ministers, French 

 translations of the forged documents. These 

 were pretended letters from Sir Thomas V. Lis- 

 ter, of the British Foreign Office, to Austin Lee, 

 of the British embassy in Paris, written in a 

 clumsy colloquial style, and containing a fumble 

 of ignorant allusions to international affairs and 

 French politics interspersed with names of 

 French politicians spoken of as hired spies and 

 intriguers. There was also a list of bribes pur- 

 porting to have been paid out by the English 

 Government, in which the " Journal des Debats" 

 was set down for 2,000. M. Burdeau for 2,000, 

 M. Rochefort for 8,000, M. Edwards for 1,500, 



