We have given elsewhere our impression of M. Loubet, and
need only add here that he keeps on M. Dupuy as Premier for the present, that he permits him to go on with his Bill superseding the Criminal Chamber in favour of the whole Court of Cassation, but that he is believed to • be rather decidedly in favour of the civil power. His first Message was sent to the Chambers on Tuesday. and was full of flatteries for France, which, he says with some audacity, has recently grown in the esteem of the world ; for the Army, which the country loves because it will protect the territory and the laws ; and for the Republic, which has secured freedom, gained a Colonial Empire, and acquired alliances and friendships,—the latter a word which greatly puzzles the diplomatists. Perhaps it refers to the Khedive. It is to be noted, however, that no concession whatever is made to Anti-Semitism, that the President places the Magistracy before the Army, and that he speaks with some energy of "the rights which I hold under the Constitution, and which I shall not allow to be weakened in my hands." He made a curious admission when thanking the electors, that he was "very obstinate," and it is said has since observed that his power of resistance will surprise his opponents. There may be the peasant strength in him, as well as the peasant blood, but at present he is almost an unknown quantity.
