M. Bourgeois, it is evident, knows France. There are pro-
bably not a hundred Members in the Chamber who approve his Bill for a progressive Income-tax ; but on Thursday, after five days of furious debating, in which insults were constantly exchanged, the Chamber, by a majority of 16 (286 to 270), passed a Resolution "agreeing to substitute for the House-tax a general tax on income, with graduated exemption of incomes below a certain sum." "Graduated exemption" is clever, because it makes the poor feel that the graduation is in their favour, though, as a matter of fact, an Income-tax graduated d )wnwards, and an Income-tax graduated upwards from a definite limit, are precisely the same things. M. Bourgeois has still, of course, to carry his Bill as well as his principle in the Chamber, and then to carry both in the Senate, bat the division shows that the experts believe average voters to be in his favour. He will, therefore, if defeated in the Senate, go to the country. It is quite curious to see the fury with which his success inspires M. de Blowitz, who, in Friday's Times, denounces the vote as "Jacobin," and carried entirely by "intimidation."
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