M. Bourgeois, formerly Premier, has addressed to a Con- gress
of the Radical and Radical-Socialist parties in France, now sitting at Toulouse, a letter of some importance. Though a man of exceedingly moderate opinions—we should in England call him a Liberal—he holds that the maintenance of the "Bloc," or union of all Liberals in the Chamber, which has for the past five years controlled affairs, is still essential to the efficiency of the Republic. The questions to be dealt with are, he says, numerous and pressing, and he especially mentions as first among them the Concordat, the Income-tax, and the grant of pensions to the aged. Upon all he trusts and believes that the " Bloc " will hold together. As M. Bourgeois is always spoken of as the alternative Premier to M. Combes, and as these three are the questions on which the Ministry must stand or fall, this unmistakable adhesion will relieve M. Combes from any apprehension of treachery within his own ranks. His great difficulty will be to carry his Income-tax, which, though necessary to relieve the Treasury, is opposed to some of the strongest preposses- sions of the "easy" classes of France. Apart from their dislike to pay more money, they hate revealing the amount of their incomes to officials, who will not, they fancy, keep the secret. They are afraid, not only of envious neighbours, but of their own poor relations.
The population of Spain is said to be greatly excited by an
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