PRESIDENT LOUBET

One wonders whether M. Loubet signed the proscription list of M, Combes with a good grâce. For it contained the name of a school which must be dear to his a Catholic daughter. Mademoiselle Loubet, now Madame de Saint- Prix, was educated at the Couvent of the Visitation, Montélimar. She must hâve known of M. Combes, intended proscription; yet herown schol, where many happyyears ofher life were spent, figures among the institutions proscribed! Did she make any attempt to save it? Or was her father powerless against his own minister? No doubt, as M. Léon Chaîne says in his brilliant book, the French Président is in the position of a constîtutional king; he reigns through his ministers, on whom, and not on him, falls the responsibility of the Government's acts. And no doubt, too, M. Combes would object to any exception on grounds of mère sentiment.

Le Libéral de VOise (Noyon), 4 août 1904.