So closely are London and nowadays that the principal topic of the week in the London papers is the downfall of M. Loubet's Cabinet, There wera many predisposing causes, but the exciting cause arose out of the Panama Canal scandal, On receiving a 1s to appear befure Correctional Court in connection with this scandal, Baron Reinach died suddenly, and was buried with the proper and usual certificate that he had died a natural death.
The Baron had received " very large sum, £360,000 it is said, to distribute among journalists and others whom it wae desired to conciliate, and it was known that the lists of a great number of persons who had been approached on behalf of the Panama Company were to. be found at his house. The Commission of Enquiry, of which M. Brisson, who became for months Premier in i demanded the exh body, to discover if he was really dead and if his death was natural, and that his papers should be seized, which M. Loubet's novemment refused, and on @ division on the question, the government were beaten by 204 against 219 votes. M. Brisson then moved his resolution, that: Phe Chanber, accepting the views of the Committee of Enquiry, passes to the order of the day." This was carried by 393 votes to 3,-and the Ministers then went to the Blysée, and handed in their resignations to M. Carnot. M. Brisson was charged with the formation of a new Cabinet, but was unsuccessful, for, as we know by a later telegraphed division, there are still six—but only six—niore' supporters of the Republic s represented by M. Loubet, than all the burning papers just before his decease. discontented put together, Monarchists,
etc., ete., and the majority of M. Loubet's Cxbinet returned to' power, the premier ship being shifted from the shoulders of able speaker and retains the post in whicl Loubet, who has proved himself a v
he made his failure, the Ministry of the Interior, to those of M. Ribot, who has made avery good Foreign Minister, As to the downfall of M, Loubet the Times By the fall of the Loubet Cabinet French politics have been thrown into a condition of extraordinary confusion and obscurity. From the hopelessly contradictory comments of the French journals it is plain that no one has at present any clue to the solution of the imbroglio. M. Brisson, indeed, has undertaken the task of replacing the Cubinot he Freycinet and MI. Ribot. might, it is thought, took a leading part in upsetting, M. de retain their present posts; but, though the President is said to desire them'to remain in office by way of maintaining continuity of policy in two important departments' of government, it is quite possible that one of them at least may decline the honour, Whother they door do not Join the new Cabinet, and whether the new Prime Minister be M. Brisson or another, it seems to be generally recognised that there is nothing before France except another shuffle of the old pack. M. Brisson has already had experience of Cabinet making, but his work did not prove more durable than that of the numerous other Prime Ministers who have chased one another across the political stage. The difficulties of construction are now greater than ever, and the chances of stability less, It is said that he endeavour to form a Ministry represent all fractions of the Republican, party, and that if he fails in this he will abandon the task. But the fractions of the Republican party are just as disunited as if they bore distinctive' names, as has been proved by the voting that resulted in the fall of M, Loubert, Republicans who voted against. him or abstained altogether were about equal in number. to the whole strength of the Right, and fell short by only twenty of the Republicans yih supported him. M. Brisson's attempt to combine the various Republican fractions ig therefore not more hopeful than the for-motion of a strong coalition of several entirely hostile parties." French political' nomeucloture doe Givisions of opinion, but the lack of distinct.
not keep pace with the subtive names does not in any way prevent the pursuit of half-dozen different policies, I. Brisson is expected to give a definite answer to-day to President Carnot as to his ability to form a Cabinet, but, however successful he may be for the moment, anything like strength or even relative stability seems en While the Daily News—and we regret that we have not room for the whole of its article—writes The defeat of the Government of M, Loubet is no more than our Paris correspondent has led us to expect. We were warned a week or ten days ugo that the Cabinet's days were numbered and that it was merely a question of the form and manner of the final stroke, That stroke came yesterday in one of the three questions on which those who covet the Premier's portfolio were ready to take him unawares. He fell for what was judged to be a certain lukewarmness in prosecuting the inquiry into the scandals of Panama, It is necessary to discriminate; there is a new scandal added to what may be called the standing dish. A Court of Justice, on one side, is inquiring into the alleged mal-administration of the Panama funds. A Parliamentary Committee, on the other, is inquiring into a particu: ¢ of them for purposes of bribery, which is said to involve the honour of many' deputies, present or past. Mean-hile, the alleged agent of corruption, Baron Reinach, through whose hands nearly half a niillion sterling of the Company's money is said to have passed, makes a rather mysterious, and a decidedly sudden exit from this world. He is buried with the ra ined: by French law, but the earth has scarcely covered the coffin before all sorts of rumonts arise, He is known to have been actively engaged in mere
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.