p.

The opposition to the Cabinet was virulent. There were now two great
groupings of the chief political parties.[18] The Radicals and
Socialistic Radicals, under the name of "Unified Radicals" waged war
against the President and the Ministry. They were under the inspiration
of men like Clemenceau and the active leadership of Joseph Caillaux and
tried to revive the methods of the old _Bloc_ of Combes. They
declared their intention of repealing the three-years law and
proclaimed the tenets of their faith at the Congress of Pau. The
Briand-Barthou-Millerand group, supporters of Poincare, soon formed a
Moderate Party with a programme of conciliation and reform known as the
"Federation of the Lefts."

The Barthou Cabinet had been overthrown early in December, 1913, after a
vote on a government loan. President Poincare had to call in a Radical
Cabinet led by Gaston Doumergue, the programme of which Ministry was,
after all, less "advanced" than the Pau programme, especially as to the
three-years bill. M. Caillaux, the master-spirit of the Radicals, was
the Minister of Finance and the object of the hostility of the
Moderates. They claimed that he used his position to cause speculation
at the Stock Exchange, and accused him of "selling out" to Germany in
the settlement after Agadir. The _Figaro_, edited by Gaston Calmette,
began a violent campaign. Among the charges was that during the
prosecution in 1911 of Rochette, a swindling promoter, the then Prime
Minister Monis, now Minister of Marine, had, at Caillaux's instigation,
held up the prosecution for fraud, during which delay Rochette had been
able to put through other swindles.

In the midst of the public turmoil over these charges Caillaux's wife
went to Calmette's editorial offices and killed him with a revolver.
Caillaux resigned and, the Rochette case having come up for discussion
in the Chamber, when Monis denied that he had ever influenced the law,
Barthou produced a most damaging letter. A parliamentary commission
later decided that the Monis Cabinet _had_ interfered to save Rochette
from prosecution.

It was under such circumstances that the Deputies separated for the
general elections. Three chief questions came before the voters, the
three-years law, the income tax, and proportional representation. The
results of the elections were inconclusive and the new Chamber promised
to be as ineffective as its predecessor. On the second ballots the
Socialists made a go