23rd March, A Revter's telegram of the 19th instant mentioned an_ attack by M. Millerand on M. Combes, the Preui in the French Chamber, and said that the affair indicated the existence of a split in the Ministerialist Party in France. The "Saturday Review" of the 13th ultimo contains an article with the title which we have adopted for these remarks, which throws a very useful light on the situation in France.
Is was M. Waldeck-Rousseau who consolidated the "Republican Bloc," which has been governing France for nearly five years, but which during the last fow months has been steadily losing its strength and its power of cohesion". M. Millerand, whose socialistic creed made it seem extraordinary that he should be aken tinto M. Waldeck-Rousseau's Cabinet, has been drummed out of the Socialist Federation of the Seine. M. Jaures, the leader of the Socialist party, did not succeed in being elected a Vice-President of the Chan-ber, and sixty-five members of the Radical-Socialist group have seceded and formed a new party to be called the Radical-Socialist Left, the tendency to split up into groups being a constant. obstacle to healthy party government in continental parliaments, On the other hand, M. Etienne, the leader of the Colo:
cup, has been elected to a Vice-residency of the Chamber. Several events have occurred recently, too, which have weakened the Government bef"re the country. An Alsatian priest, the Abbé Delsor, who remains a Frenchman at heart and is one of the irreconcilables in the German Reichstag, was to deliver a lecture at Lunéville. As he might possibly allude to the persecution of the clericals by M. Combes, his lecture was. forbidden by the police, and he was escorte! to the frontier by order of the prefect. This was a mistake, as irreconcilable Alsatians are naturally very popular in France, and on the matter being brought before the Chamber, the official action was only sustained by a majority of 52 votes. 'There has been much friction, too, between two of M. Combes' Ministers, M. Rouvier and M. Pelietan, over the State purchase of the French railways, to which M. Rouv'er objects, mainly o1 tle ground of the danger of the existence of a large number of State servants able to put political pressure on the Government of the ay; while M. Pelletan is angry at the idea of the State losing control over the numerous places that would be at the disposal of the Government for their friends. The squabble was composed by the personal int rvention of M. Combes, but the Cabinet is not so united as it might There are many clements that have combined to give the "Republican Bloc" an appearance of strength that it does nut really posses, A large number of Frenchmen, business men e-pecially, long for peace and quite: and dread the uncertainty and confusion of a change, especially when the Opposition does not seem to contain any man or group of men sufficiently strong to ensure continuance of firm and of steady government; and it must be allowed that the Republic has governed France most stee.ssfully in the last thirty-three years, Then the country p-ople have many reasons for upholding the existing Government. "The Minister of Public Works can give or refuse this or that districta subvention towards, or even pay entirely, the cost of the construction of a railway, a road, 0 canal, according as its representative votes in the Government or in the Opposition lobby." There is an endless number of smal! positions in the province at the disposal of the Ministry of the day, and there are minor decorations, of which Frenchmen are particularly fond. "Then again the tobacco monopoly comes in most usefully. The right of selling cigars and cigarettes as wil tobacco and postage-stamps is con-
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.