M. Floquet, elected President of the French Chamber, on Tuesday
made a high-flown speech, intended to be conciliatory, in which he declared that " a flash of the fraternity of '89 has passed from Paris to the world," but deprecated " barren divisions." The Premier then read the Ministerial programme, which is, briefly, that the Government will be moderate, and will occupy itself with financial reform. The " Budget of 1891 will be characterised by presenting a financial equilibrium which will be altogether real and solid ;" but financial reforms will not be forgotten, " the serious element of which we shall find in the great work of revaluing house-property now termi- nated." That points, we imagine, to a substitute for the un- popular income-tax, to be found in a graduated house-duty. That may yield a large sum, but it will be cruelly felt by the poor of the large cities, who dwell in bits of large houses, and already pay in rent one-third of their incomes. To balance the Budget, the reductions must be enormous ; but they are not promised. On the contrary, the expenditure on education and on branch railways is to be increased. The cost of these latter may, however, be transferred either to the Departments, or to a capital account to be fed by continuous small loans. A special report is to be made on all Customs questions, the idea being to foster "national labour,"—that is, to revert entirely to Protection. We do not like this obvious shirking of the question of reductions.
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