We have said enough of M. Dupuy'e programme elsewhere, but
wish to note here, as a fact in history, that the French Chamber is dividing itself into two large parties, roughly definable as those who sympathise with Socialism, and those who do not. The former are, on the surface, not a third of the Houie, but they have secret friends in the majority, who, on occasion, would bring their number up to that proportion. All the speeches as yet uttered recognise this new division, the old fragments of the Extreme Left, Radicals, Socialists, and Labour men, being merged in a single party, whose effective leaders will probably be M. Jaufes and M. Jules Guesde. Their programme is not yet quite clear ; but it tends to be simply Collectivist, with the curious reser- vation that they do not in practice claim for the State the land. Their doctrine claims it; but they are, we fancy, afraid of final repudiation by the peasantry, who, if aware that they were threatened, might seek protection from some saviour of society. The actual pivot of the fighting is, therefore, whether the State shall, or shall not, become the great employer of all labour other than agricultural.
