Paris has been much excited during the week by the
downward plunge of the franc. In the middle of the week the rate of exchange was just over 98 to the pound. No wonder that Frenchmen are alarmed and that the position of the franc has excluded most other subjects of discussion. M. Poineare's Government is naturally taking the subject very seriously, as the elections to the Chamber will be held in four months' time, and no subject agitates the people so much at present as the cost of living. The danger of violent oscillations in value notoriously is that the currency may get entirely out of hand. The French Government has set to work by proposing a 20 per cent. increase of taxation and public economies which ought to mean a saving of about thirty millions a year. Even so, there seems to be no chance of the Budget balancing ; and, further, everybody knows that it is much easier to propose taxation in France than to impose it.
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