The San Francisco call., 1896-05-01
Interrupted by a Radical Who
Declares the Constitution
Is Violated.
THIS CAUSES a BIG TUMULT.
Various and Needed Reforms Are
Promised by the New
Ministry.

PARIS, FRANCE, April 30.-M. Meline,
President OF the new Council of Ministers,
made a statement of the policy OF the new
Cabinet in the Chamber of Deputies to-
day. The Chamber received toe state
ment very coldly. scarcely half of the Dep
uties applaudlng his utterances, and the
Socialists interposing their accustomed in
terruptions.
In the Senate the Minis terial declaration
was read by NJ. Darlan. Minister of
of Justice. AS he was beginning the state
ment M. Girault, Republican Radical,
shouted: at is useless TO read it; the
Cabinet is unconstitutional."
A tumult ensued but after it subsided
M. Darlan proceeded with his reading and
at the conclusion he was applauded.
In his statement NJ. Meline made an
appeal for reciprocal goodwill toward the
Ministry on the part of the Cham bers,
which, he said, would solve and settle all
ciscords. He placed the fiscal reforms
befote the Cham Der as matters of the first
Importance. The probate laws and the
laws regulating the traffic in drink, he
said, would be introduced in the
budget and would be operated under a
system which dispensed with an inquisitor
or any other arbitrary measures, and
assured a better division of the direct
taxation, thus relieving small taxpayers.
The Government, he said, would vigilantly
apply the economies which the nation
demands and simplify the present COM
plicated administration. They would also
spare no effort to aid the interests of agri-
culture, to complete the national defense,
to regulate the hours of labor and the
liability of employers and to organize pen
sion funds.
NJ. Goblet, Republican Radical Socialist.
offered an Interpolation, saying that un-
der the circumstances Of its formation the
Cabinet had violated parliamentary rules.
The Cabinet, he declared, did not repre-
sent the Republican majority of the
Chamber. 1t was the result of a plot
formed by the Moderates, who, in order to
give the country such Ministry, had pro-
voked q conflict between the Senate and
the Cham Der of Deputies. The Premier,
he said, must render an account of his vio-
lation of the constitution. The programme
of the Cabinet was contrary to the de-
mands of a majority of the Cham Der, as it
rejected the income tax. 1t was in fact, a
ministry in defiance of the majority of the
Chamber.
NJ Deschanet, Republican, said univer-
sal suffrage was certainly supreme, but to
declare that the Chamber of Deputies was
omnIpotent and the Senate powerless was
a negation OF the sovereignty of the people.
The Bourgeois Cabinet, he said, had for
five months exercised upon the Chamber a
sort of moral blackmail.
Ihe president, NJ. Brisson, interrupted
the speaker and demanded that he with
draw his expression in regard to the late
Ministry.
M. Deschenet modified the expression
by substituting the words "outside the
Chamber" for "upon the Cham ber," and
continued, saying that during his term of
Office as president of the Council of
Ministers NJ. Bourgeois had not executed
a single reform, but had merely propagated
coIlectivisr doctrines.
Ex-Premier Bourgeois maintained that
either dissolution of the Chamber or re-
vision of the constitution was the only
proper solution of the situation.
Premier Meline replied that the Cham
Der must now choose between a policy of
the conflict with the Senate or policy of
conciliation.
The Cham Der, by a vote of 279 to 251,
refused TO give priority to the proposal OF
NJ. Henri Ricard. resffirming the Cham
ber's right to preponderance in the repre-
sentation of the principle of universal suf-
frage.
The Chamber then adopted resolution.
which received $50 affirmative votes,
affirming the sovereignty of universal suf-
frage.
The Chamber. by a vote of 531 to 1876,
approved Nj. Meline's declaration, and
then adjourned until May %.