The successor to M. de Marcere in the Interior is
to be M. Lepere, the Minister of Commerce, an able speaker, and said to be on terms of confidential intimacy with M. Gambetta. To the Ministry of Commerce, M. Tirard, one of the Deputies for Paris, a rich jeweller, and a hearty Free-trader, is to succeed,— and this appointment promises well for the financial policy of the Republic. The Protectionists are strong in the Assembly, b it they are hardly so strong as the Free-traders, who know,
too, that if the Republic adopts Protection, the Imperialists, who have always been Free-traders, will profit by their folly, and gain new support in the country, by reminding the people of the material prosperity which Napoleon III.'s Free-trade policy brought to France. We may therefore still hope that the Republic in France will accept the gage which Prince Bismarck has cast down on behalf of the despotic party in Germany, and fight the cause of Free-trade against the cause of Monopoly.
