THE POLITICAL SITUATION IN FRANCE 1 1 7
but is no longer namely, the great organ of France, we may even say of Paris, par excellence. Its sale is 32,000 copies, at three cents each. Le Journal des Debats, edited by M. de Naleche, is always admirably written, but its circulation is very small only four or five thousand copies. It is more serious and less worldly than Le Figaro, and sells at two cents. La Liberte is edited by M. Berthoulat, a Progressist Republican deputy, and its chief contributor is Maurice Spronck, another Nationalist deputy. The number of copies published is 22,000, sold at one cent. It is an evening paper, very seriously written, with a good news service and a capable editorial staff. La Republique franqaise was formerly edited by Jules Meline. the well-known Progressist Republican deputy. M. Latapie is now filling his place. The political shade of this paper is always the same. Its circulation is seven or eight thousand. Of Le Soir we shall say nothing, as it is read only in Paris, by financiers and politicians.
Le Temps, the daily sale of which amounts to 33,000 copies, sold at three cents, has M. Hement, a Jew, for its editor-in-chief. Its position is somewhat different from that of the other Pro- gressist newspapers. Although it is not Radical, its opposition to the Combes cabinet was only intermittent, though the latter showed decidedly Radical proclivities. It was even often employed as the semi-official organ of the cabinet. It is an even- ing paper, with a good domestic and foreign news service, and is the great source from which the other Parisian and provincial papers borrow, thus reducing their expenses for news to a minimum.
Conservative Republicanism is defended by numerous peri- odicals: La Revue des Deux Mondes, La Revue politique et parlementaire , and sometimes also La Revue de Paris, which is open to Radical doctrine. The old and celebrated Revue des Deux Mondes is managed by M. Brunetiere, whose Catholic tendencies are well known. It has tended, and is still tending, toward the Catholic Conservative party a fact which has served to prejudice many readers against it. The number of its sub- scribers probably does not now reach 20,000, while formerly it had a large circulation. Le Bulletin politique, which is con-
