remained a possible factory of religious and social war. The census of March 24 had shown a sensible increase in the population of the colony, which amounted to 4,739,000 souls. At the same time, the smallness of the increase in Algiers was noticed, its population not having yet reached 100,000-a fact principally due to the incessant troubles of which that town was the scene. These tumults, exaggerated by the Press, kept away from the African metropolis thousands of tourists and of wellto-do merchants, to the great prejudice of its business.

The census in France was much less satisfactory than that of its chief African colony. It showed a population of 38,961,945. The increase since the last census was only 444,613, and even that was in a large measure accounted for by the immigration of Belgians, Italians, Germans and Spaniards. In face of the formidable gain of population shown in Germany, in the United Kingdom, and even in Italy, these figures were of bad augury, but they received little or no public attention.

Thus in the session of the Conseils Généraux, which was held, according to law, on April 15 and the following days, resolutions and addresses approving the policy of the Government in the execution of those public works which were considered most urgent were discussed, but the question of the measures to be taken to check the depopulation of the country was not even touched.

The Chambers reopened on May 14. The most urgent business for the Senate was the discussion of the law of associations, for the Chamber the vote on the law as to the funds for workmen's pensions. The Catholics had affected to count on the Upper Chamber to check the Government and to amend, to such a degree as to make it negligible, the law voted at the Palais Bourbon. But as the time for the debate approached it appeared more likely that the Senate would support the Ministry instead of opposing it. As it was important to gain time the Royalist party had recourse to a manoeuvre more clever than successful. The Comte de Lur-Saluces, who had been included in the judgment of the High Court, and condemned to banishment for contumacy, left Brussels and came to Paris, when he notified to M. Fallières, the President of the Senate, his willingness to "purge his contempt." This signal sacrifice was fruitless. After a few days of reflection the President of the Senate gave satisfaction to the Comte de Lur-Saluces by requiring him to undergo trial. But this procedure in no way stopped the normal course of affairs. The High Court had become used to this kind of case. M. Octave Bernard, who had become President of the Cour de Cassation, resumed for the occasion the red hat of the Procureur-Général, and in a few days (June 24-26) the case was finished. M. de Lur-Saluces heard himself condemned to five years' banishment, and was courteously conducted to the frontier. The incident closed without any of the complications which had been hoped for. It was, in fact, another success for the Ministry.

In the Chamber the Budget Commission had been elected on May 21, the supporters of the Ministry appearing on it in a considerable majority. M. Mesureur was chosen President. M. Merloux, who was already Reporter to the commission on the income-tax, was nominated Reporter-General, and M. Caillaux, Minister of Finance, submitted to this commission a modest Budget in which none of those great reforms appeared which the Chamber had solemnly engaged to carry. The mediocre success of the suppression of the duties on the circulation of hygienic drinks was not at all of a nature to encourage similar attempts. Even the discussion of the law on workmen's pensions was not carried to completion. It was not long before it was seen that to put this reform into execution would require not less than 500,000,000 francs a year. The Chamber did not dare to go as far as that. It took as an excuse the necessity of consulting the Chambers of Commerce and the syndicates of employers and workmen, and adjourned the discussion. It was evident that this law would not be passed by the Legislature of 1898-1902. The same thing happened with regard to the income-tax. It was in vain that the Budget Commission voted its incorporation into the Budget of 1902; M. Caillaux, Minister of Finance, vigorously opposed this measure, and induced the commission to give it up (June 20).

The Senatorial Commission charged with the examination. of the bill on associations accomplished its task so rapidly that by June 18 the general discussion was finished, and the debate on the clauses had begun. Not only did the Senate disappoint the hopes of the opponents of the Ministry by accepting the bill, but they cut out certain amendments which had been introduced through the despairing efforts of the Right in the Chamber, and restored the measure nearly to the form in which it had been originally brought in by the Government. The Chamber finally passed the bill as it came from the Senate, on June 29. The new law, in effect, required all the numerous religious establishments for teaching and charitable aid founded. since the middle of the nineteenth century to apply for authorisation from Parliament for their existence, submitting at the same time a full statement of their objects and regulations. The application, having been lodged at the Prefecture, was to be referred for the opinion of the Municipal Council of the place in which the establishment concerned was situated, and the opinion so obtained was to be laid before the Legislature when it came to consider the application. Naturally this has resulted in recommendations of the most conflicting character from different parts of the country, even when relating to branches of the same Orders. The passage of the measure, however, in the way described, was one more victory to the credit of M. Waldeck-Rousseau's Cabinet.

M. Delcassé, about the same time, had seized the occasion to oblige Morocco to make reparation for a certain number of

outrages which the robbers infesting its continental or maritime frontiers had inflicted on Frenchmen. A naval demonstration was decided on. A portion of the Mediterranean squadron took up its position before Tangier, Mogador and Mazagan, and an ultimatum was sent to the Moorish Government. This action had an immediate effect. M. Révoil, French Minister to Morocco, obtained satisfaction on all points. A diplomatic mission, at the head of which was the Moorish Minister for Foreign Affairs, came to France, and an exact delimitation of the frontier on the side of Algeria and of the Sahara was secured. M. Révoil was nominated Governor-General of Algeria. This appointment coincided with the end of the debate in the Chamber on the interpellations on Algeria. Introduced by the Anti-Semite party with the object of weakening the Government, they took a larger scope than was intended, and, despite the resignation of M. Jonnart, resulted (June 14) in a vote favourable to the Cabinet.

The last sittings of the summer session were less tumultuous than usual. The Radical majority proved its discipline by rejecting imperturbably demands for interpellations, either by postponement for a month or by voting the order of the day; and, besides, the interest of the sittings was much reduced by the fact that the most important questions had been put off till the autumn session. In truth the Chamber felt itself moribund, and the deputies were entirely preoccupied by thoughts of the elections. This constant anxiety as to re-election, aggravated by the short duration of the Legislatures, which only last four years, is one of the sharpest in France-from this circumstance, that the Government has refused, in fact, to make use of its right of dissolution, and that therefore the fixed date of facing the ballot to some extent hypnotises the representatives. Moreover, in 1901 it was necessary to renew half the Conseils Généraux. Preoccupied with this impending struggle, the Deputies only gave divided attention to the work of the legislative session. They voted, therefore, rapidly, the direct taxes, or, as they are called, the "four contributions" for 1902, and the session was closed on July 12.

The electoral campaign had already been opened. It ended in elections which made hardly any changes in the state of parties, except that the Right lost fifty seats which were nearly all gained by Progressists and taken from noisy orators, one might even say obstructionists, such as M. Le Provost de Launay and M. Baudry d'Asson. The Socialist Mayor of Roubaix also lost his seat, which was retaken by a moderate Republican, M. Motte, who had, some time before, captured the Mecca of Socialism from the prophet of revolutionary Socialists, M. Jules Guesde. The recess was quiet. At the beginning a decree appeared, introduced by the Minister of Commerce, founding Labour Councils composed of representatives of employers and workmen elected by the committees

of their respective organisations and invested with large powers for preventing or ending strikes. This innovation was denounced as a fresh encroachment of Socialism, and provoked a protest from the eleven unions of employers' combinations existing in France, and professing to represent 45,000 employers in the grande industrie out of about 50,000.

The Government at this point let it be known that, on the invitation of President Loubet, the Tsar had promised to come to France and to review the Navy and Army. The negotiations which had preceded the arrangement of the programme for this visit had been carefully concealed, and the Opposition journals went so far as to suggest that the President and the Minister of Foreign Affairs had failed to inform the rest of the Cabinet of them. The session of the Conseils Généraux opening at this moment, the great majority of the Departmental Assemblies made the journey of the Russian Emperor the theme of the addresses to the Chief of the State, which it is the fashion nowadays to vote. A certain number of Councils in the vinegrowing districts of the South thought the occasion favourable for pressing the Foreign Minister to obtain from the Russian Government a serious reduction in the Customs duties on French wines. A few discordant notes were nevertheless heard to qualify the chorus of applause which the Imperial visit was expected to secure for the Government. The Nationalists, in particular, discussed the programme in an unfriendly spirit, and complained of the omission of Paris from the list of cities to be visited as amounting to an outrage to the nation. It would be wrong to connect with the visit of the Tsar the energetic attitude suddenly adopted at Constantinople by the French Ambassador, M. Constant. Such a connection would, indeed, appear natural were it not for the almost hostile attitude which the Russian Ambassador in that city took at the same time with regard to the French action. However this may be, in the last days of August the relations between France and the Sultan were suddenly subjected to severe tension, as a consequence of the persistent refusal of the Porte to render justice to the claims of certain French merchants. M. Constant, having tried all diplomatic means to obtain satisfaction in detail, decided to mass all the pending demands, which were on behalf of the Société des Quais de Constantinople, the Créance Lorando and the Créance Tubini, and after a futile conference with the Sultan left Turkey and returned to France. The Turkish Ambassador in Paris received his passports.

On the occasion of his first journey to France in 1895, Nicholas II. had devoted the greater part of his time to visiting Paris, but had not accepted the hospitality of his allies. He had stayed at the hotel of the Russian Embassy. This time, however, the Emperor and Empress, after being present at a great naval review off Dunkirk (Sept. 18), were entertained at the Château of Compiègne. The programme of festivities was

spread over three days, and though there were those who, in comparison with the splendours of the same palace in bygone years, thought them a little thin, there seemed good reason to suppose that they afforded gratification to the illustrious guests of France. On one day their Majesties witnessed the operations of four army corps near Rheims, in which town they had an enthusiastic reception, though through the greater part of their stay in France the elaboration of the precautions taken for their safety practically excluded the popular element from the welcome extended to them. On the concluding day of the visit (Sept. 21), after a review of the four army corps at Bétheny, a luncheon took place in a marquee at Fresnes, at the close of which toasts were exchanged. M. Loubet, to whose simple dignity of bearing in the capacity of host of the august visitors general testimony was borne, referred to the powerful aid which the alliance between Russia and France had afforded to "the maintenance of the balance of power in Europe, a vital condition essential to peace." In his reply the Tsar said that the Empress and he would "ever retain the precious remembrance of these few days," and would "continue near and far to associate ourselves with all that concerns France, our friend." His Majesty added that "the intimate union of two great Powers, animated with the most peaceful intentions, which do not seek to infringe upon the rights of others, but mean to have their own respected, is a precious element of appeasement for humanity as a whole. But for the undoubted disappointment at the non-inclusion of Paris in the Imperial visit all seemed to have gone well.

The morrow of fêtes is rarely gay. The threats of a general strike among the miners, the angry discussion as to the application of the new law to members of non-authorised congregations, the organisation of committees for the general election of 1902, occupied the last days of September. The law allowed to the non-authorised associations an interval of three months, expiring on October 3, to make application to Parliament for the right to exist. A great number of the members of the Orders, among them the Carthusians, the Benedictines, the Jesuits and the Assumptionists, refused to ask for the requisite permission. Among the female Orders a great number put themselves en règle. And it was recognised that many who had refused to follow their example had been deceived by forged despatches from Rome which were attributed to one of the chiefs of the Carmelite Order. The Pope had, on the contrary, given the French Orders complete liberty to ask for authorisation or not. Many communities returned to France, and hastened to make the necessary application for authorisation before October 3. Nearly 600 congregations submitted to the law; the predicted rising did not take place, and the sensational scenes which were organised in 1880 found no counterpart in 1901.

Neither had the crisis in the Légion d'Honneur the