The remainder of the speech consisted of certain proposals, the
principal of which is a duty on successions, probably as a substitute for the hated Income-tax, and of strong and obviously sincere declarations that the Government intend to defend the Republic, to place the civil power above the Army, and to compel the latter "to take no cognisance of divisions, which only weaken it," that is, in fact, to ignore politics. To this end it is intended to introduce more cen- tralisation into the Army, so that individual generals should have less power. The Government, in fact, adopts "a policy of Republican action," which, M. Waldeck-Rousseau twice hints, has been approved in advance by the thirty thousand Mayors of France, who, we may remark, were recently banqueted without any of the blunders shown in entertain- ing the O.I.V. That banquet has evidently greatly en- couraged the Ministry. There can be no doubt, we think, either of the courage of the present French Cabinet, which rises indeed to the point of audacity, or of its devotion to Republican institutions. What is now in question is its judgment in committing the Republic to a war a. outranca against the Church. It is not always safe, or right either, to attack institutions because their temporary action is most annoying.
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