Tue fall of the Floquet Ministry was one of the prominent subjects of the week ending the 22nd of February, and the English papers while expecting to see a Mini: affairs appointed to tide over the exhi had grave doubts whether it would succeed in cluing so. The utter lack of coherency in the Chamber of Deputies seemed to make any settled ministry impossible. All sections agree not to agree; they, says the Saturday, " profess themselves favourable to Revision, yet all are ready to combine to upset Revision when it takes tangible form in a government scheme.... They can combine to overthrow ministries, but no other form of combination seems possible in the present Chamber." All works steadily on in favour of Boulanger, whom nobody seems to regard as much better than a charlatan, but whom everybody yet accepts as inevitable. The Saturday Review says It was only to be expected that General Boulanger should make capital of M. Floinet's fall. He speaks, in his Manifesto to the Seine electors, in the name of the "National Republican Party "—a term that may be variously interpreted by electors throughout the country. He declares that the Minis-
Chamber while well assured of its rejection presented) their Revision Bill to_ the by the Senate. There is truth in this, without doubt, though it is a little absurd to accuse M.'Floquet of a determination to retain power, and at the same time to push matters to extremities with the certainty of defeat. The fall of the istry has naturally raised the spirits ofthe Boulangits, Like every other politician, General Boulanger has his own Revision Scheme. He is as ready to remake or mar the Constitution of 1875 as any other claimant to power. He dubs his eme National," even as his friends are styled National Republicans. Of course this only means that he wishes to recruit the votes of all and sundry who are disposed to upset M. Floquet. But names like promises and pretensions, yo far with the electorate under universal suffrage. The General's astuteness is readily discernible in this remarkable document. "He has set himself resolutely to expedite the dissolution of the Chamber and France, weary of the exploits of the Chamber, may be brought to look upon General Boulanger as a knightly deliverer of th country from monstrous many-headed faction.
This is, as usual, merely cynical, but the Spectator is wore suggestive. Tt conceives that dissolution is brought nearer by the disappearance of M. Floquet, because the earnest Republicans must desire to be in power when the elections come off. The government of the day has enormous power at the elections, both by what it can promise the electors and its influence over the local officials who direct the elections. It is confidently asserted too that M. Floquet used the secret service money freely aguinst General Boulangerin the late Pariselection. The Senate is useless as a barrier; it has no popularity with the masses, and it is filled with rich men of middle age, to whom turmoil is abhorrent. The Spectator, believing a dissolution' to be at hand, adds some words as to the result, and its remarke on the effect ut M. Floquet's substitution of Scrutin Warrondissement for Scrutin de liste are to the point This is not the time to speculate on the result of the elections; but we are bound to notice one fact. While election by districts undoubtedly increases the influence of Govern-it does not so increase it that elections cease' to be free. There could hardly be a stronger Government than that of Marshal MacMahon, or one which fought an election Sthat of 1877—more desperately hari. Yet, with election by district the law of the land, and every Prefect working as an election agent, every man of Gambetta's list was placed atthe head of the poll. General Boulanger has publicly announced, through an interview with a journalist of Paris, his intention to issue such alist; and if France wants him and his new Constitution, that list will be returned. It is the wish of France which is the doubtful point, not any wretched detail of the method of election and that wish has now to be ascertained. The result may be a sate, for the peasantry do not realise yet how directly their verdict may affect the issues of peace and war but the Republican idea, that the result may be an uncertain one, is, we feel sure, error neons. The contest has gone too far, and it is the historic custom of France during grave crises to give distinct replies.
The St. James's article on the crisis is a capital one. It regrets that Frenchmen have so lost their sense of humour as to be able to contemplate without a smile the for-motion of an "Exhibition Cabinet," to carry on business during the Truce of God which is to prevail while the Paris shopkeepers are reaping the harvest of the great Fancy Fair.... Considering, too, that the whole force of the Boulangists and the Reactionaries will be directed against the new Cabinet, it is impossible to anticipate for that' shaky fabric a lease of life sufficient even for its modest duty of getting the budget through and holding open the doors of the Exhibition." Then the St. James's mentions one suggestion with which it is proposed to check the flowing tide of Boulangism, the only objection to which is that President Carnot seems to have nothing of his grandfather but the name Minisity which could be formed pet sow The only real strength of any Republican
would be derived from the fact that it would be practically M. Carnot's Cubinet; and some i us observers think that it might ing M. Carnot' personality prominently forward, and to play it against. M. Boulanger's. France us everybody sees no is hungering for a Man of Destiny; the sug. gestion is, that perhaps M. Carnot might enact the rile, But there does not appear much likelihood that he could, even if he would, do anything of the kind, M. Carnot is a very honourable, upright, wud generally respected politician; but, to tell the truth, his virtues are chiefly of' the negative kind. He has never done anything to impress the popular imagination, or to cause hin to be looked upon as a person very greatly superior to the ordinary run of parliamentary gentlemen whom the French constituencies are growing heartily tired. Nobody has anything to say against President Carnot, and by common consent he fills his anomalous and peculiar post very well; Lut he is hardly " big enough" to play the part of Suviour of Society and Vindicator of French Prestige, even if there were any reason to believe that he desires to perform the function, On the other hand, the General, rightly or wrongly, is supposed, by immense numbers of French voters, to be the Man of the Hour, and the only Man; and itis difficult to see how there can be anything like a sense of peace and stability in the Republic as long as feeble stopgups are devised to stay his course. To English observers, at any rate, it seems that the only thing to be done is to accept the inevitable and to put the claims of the General to the test of universal suffrage with us little delay as possible. If he gets his chance he may turn out to be a Clean instead of w Cromwell; and in that case
if his opportunity comes before the Sth of much the better for the Republicans, But May it is probable that he might manage to form a Government whi id at least. keep things quiet during the Exhibition us well. a Cabinet which nobody believes in and w! nobody respects.
Truth's Paris Correspondent shews that the constant changes in France, have, like everything else evil, their soul of goodness often wonder whether it is, after all, an evil for French Ministries to be short-lived—unless for the Ministers and their wives. Tf they were not often overthrown, the number of persons to taste the sweets of office would be so much less, The constant shuffling of the cards and new deals have also the advantage of preventing the formation of a Governmental caste, which would be the most unendurably "Conservative one that ever existed, and I doubt not, the most insolent and puffed-up.
The Government kept the secret well as to the amount they proposed to spend on ship-building; for very various amounts, ranging from £9,000,000 to £100,000,000, are confidently given by various well-informed writers. But there appears to be a much greater scarcity of guns than of ships, and the Pall Mull quotes from an article by Mr. Burdett in the Universal Review, a list of 14 ships which are absolutely useless for want of guns. Then the Duke of
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.