The French Chamber met on Wednesday, and the first day's
proceedings were not encouraging. M. Floquet, indeed, was elected President by 392 votes to 18, a splendid majority, and M. Anatole ele la Forge by a sufficient number ; but the Right and Extreme Left united to throw out the second Vice-President, M. Spuller, by 231 to 201, the candidate selected being M. Pierre Blanc, an old gentleman of eighty, who had just read out an entirely Radical programme, not without a tinge of Socialism. As Radicals and Opportunists had arranged to elect M. Spuller, this showed that the Radicals would not fully obey M. Ch5men- ceau, and that the Right would vote for anybody who would. divide the Republicans. The omen is considered most disastrous, and it is doubted if the truce will last even until the re-election of M. Grevy to the Presidential chair. We think it will, as M. G-r6vy's re-election interests Europe; but note carefully that for the first time the name of a possible alternative candidate, M. Leon Say, has been seriously brought forward. He is a little too much in the hands of the mammoth financiers; but he is a possible President.
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