The French Government has, we fancy, made a mistake. It
has promised to introduce two measures of great import- ance, one a severe law against the libelling of Officials, and the other an Income-tax, and many of its own supporters are turning against it. The Moderate Republicans in particular, or, as we should say, the Whigs, are exceedingly angry, their organ, the Temps, even declaring that the Cabinet has been captured by Jacobins and Socialists. That both measures are urgently required is certain, but severe laws of libel will always be unpopular in a community which approves the duel, and the idea of an Income-tax in France drives the possessors of property quite frantic. They say that secrecy cannot be, or at all events will not be, maintained, and that if a man's income is once officially registered all who have less will hate him or spite him, or, if relatives, sponge upon him. The fear seems to Englishmen absurdly exaggerated, but it is certain that no French Government which has seriously made the proposal has been able to go on with it. M. Waldeck-Rousseau should consult Sir William Harcourt and compromise for a heavy Death-duty. He might get that, because scarcely anybody who votes for it will have to pay it.
Previous page
