M. DE FREYCINET'S DEVELOPMENT BILL.
[TO THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR."1
See,—Will you allow me, as one who has read for some time at the Paris Faculte de Droit, to point out that, from my experience, there are many Frenchmen who hold that the money spent in France in internal development under the scheme of M. de Freycinet, the Minister of Public Works, gave an impetus to many works of great public utility, as, for instance, the building and improving of harbours—to mention only one matter—which private enterprise had before been apparently unable to accomplish ? I may perhaps, however, also mention that it is now generally recognised that one of the chief difficulties against which the French Government of that day had to contend was that of the pressure brought to bear by various Members of the Chambre des Deputes, each of whom believed—no doubt most sincerely—that a part at least of the large sum voted should be spent in much- needed development work in his own constituency.—I am,
[Of course ; and so it will be here. If through A's successful lobbying public money is spent in A's constituency, B's consti- tuents will soon let him know that unless a similar circulation of State money takes place among them they will not forget the injustice on polling-day. Some useful work was no doubt done under M. de Freycinet's scheme ; but at what a cost! As to harbours, we believe that the waste at Boulogne was very great, while at Dieppe thousands upon thousands of francs were literally thrown into the sea.—En. Spectator.]
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