NEWS OF THE WEEK.
AF TER six days of failure to find a Ministry, M. Carnot signed on Thursday a decree appointing a new Cabinet. Its head is M. Tirard, formerly Finance Minister, who takes the portfolio of Commerce. M. de Freycinet remains Minister of War and the most important personage in the Administration. M. de Courcelles, a placable diplomatist, accepts the Foreign Office ; and M. Constans becomes Minister of the Interior, with the management of elections. He was the Minister "who turned out the monks," he is an energetic Radical, and he was recalled from the Governorship of Tonquin as too opinionated to be controlled. We surmised last week that he would be selected in order to manage the elections, and imagine that the intention is to dissolve if the Govern- ment is beaten, this contrivance leaving him in power during the electoral period. The Ministry, except for his presence, is not one whit stronger than that of M. Floquet, and the Opposition believe that it may be turned out soon enough to allow of completed elections before the Exhibition opens. The President will send no Message to the Chambers, and the Ministerial programme will be as colourless as possible, so as to give the Opposition no foothold. They will find one, however, pretty soon, the Moderates being irritated by the retention of M. de Freycinet, whom they suspect of crypto- Boulangism.
