Our Paris Letter.

Manawatu Herald, 25 April 1895, Page 3

Our Paris Letter.

Paris, 28th Feb., 1895, The state of public feeling in France at the present moment, is very curious. There is a general reluctance to revise the existing Constitution, while, on the other hand, j 8 a growing conviction, that Executive is not sufficiently HRrong, and that it is the only protection which the country possesses against a tyrannical majority in the Chamber of Deputies. On the other band, there is a certain avidity for scandal; and scarcely a day passes without an ex-Minister or a public functionary being accused of a gross dereliction of duty—if not worse — while no one seems to be aware, that continual attacks on Republican Ministers and functionaries do more than anything else to discredit and undermine the Republican regime. The most singular part of the situation is, that the Republic is attacked by a section of its own supporte.r8 r: and not at all by its avowed en£m_eß the Monarchists and Imperialists. The French Ministry has wisely resolved to make an experiment in political politics, and has authorised the City of Lyons to abolish its Octroi, and to substitute for it some other form of taxation. If the experiment succeeds, it will be gradualy extended to other municipalities, inclusive of Paris. The great, difficulty in the way is not so much to find other taxes to supply the. place of the abolished octrois, as to ensure that the new taxes shall be equitably levied. All French corns muhes are fully dominated by political feeling, and there is always a strong tendency of the political clique*, that is uppermost, to persecute it£i adversaries. It; -is this feeling which makes decentralization so difficult in France, and which is the best argument for the present system of extreme centralization. The municipalities are Hot to be trusted, and there is need of a supreme arbiter — the central Government. The first. Napoleon understood this phase of the national character, and that is why he carefully took away from all local communes the power of discriminating between friends and foes, The Lyonß experJsaenJi will however be watched witk much interest, as there is no doubt, that the octroi system presses heavily ,©n the poorer inhabitants of communes.