M.Oonstans will on Monday bring forward an immense project in
the French Chamber. Any workman will be authorised. by law to have certain deductions made from his wages, and if he does, will be entitled after thirty years to a pension, ranging from L12 to £24 a year, for life. Provision will also be made in the Bill for sickness and for strikes. The Bill orders employers to pay certain con- tributions towards the Insurance Fund, and the State promises a grant-in-aid which, if all workers subscribe—that is, five and a half millions of persons—will reach 24,000,000 a year. It is useless to discuss such a Bill before its details have been explained ; but it introduces the principle of the Poor-Law into France, and will materially affect the position, and pro- bably the plans, of all working men. It has in its favour the stationary character of the French population, and their readiness to save; but it has against it the cleavage between the interests of workmen and of peasants. If it succeeds, M. Constans will be the inevitable candidate in the next Presidential vacancy, which occurs on December 3rd, 1894,
