NEWS OF THE WEEK.
MCA.RNOT has avoided summoning M. Constans. After • two failures in the endeavour to form a Ministry, he has succeeded in inducing M. Duprey to accept the Premiership, and collect round him a Ministry of unknown or little-known poli- ticians. M. Develle retains the Foreign Office, M. Peytral takes the Ministry of Finance, and M. Dupuy himself becomes Minister of the Interior. M. Poincare is Minister of Instruction, M. Guerin of Justice, and M. Louis Terrier of Commerce. They are all the plainest of " plain men," they all disagree in opinion, and it is imagined that they will all be subservient to M. Carnot, who is roundly accused of selecting them for that reason. It is possible, of course, that there may be a man of ability among them, and they are none of them tarred with the Panama brush ; but the Press condemns them heartily, and the Chamber, it is believed, will accord them but a brief reign. The general desire is for M. Constans, and it is sup- posed that the President must yield ; but, as we have argued elsewhere, he is just as likely to remain obstinate, to keep on appointing scratch Ministries till the elections, and to rely on France sending up a new list of Deputies. That is governing without a Government ; but the administration goes on under the permanent officials, and the Chamber imagines that, without leaders, it has a more complete freedom of action. France is not wanting anything just now, except honest Deputies, and they must come from the electors and not from any Ministry. It is only if a crisis arrives that she will suffer for want of a controlling mind or capable adviser, and the President is apparently determined to run the risk.
