All the correspondents believe that a great incident occurred in
France on Wednesday afternoon. M. Bourgeois, Minister of Justice, had just refused to interfere with the acquittal of M. Rouvier, against whom M. Franqueville, in- vestigating Magistrate, had pronounced the evidence insuffi- cient, when M. Cavaignac, formerly Minister of Marine, intervened. This gentleman is son of the General who con- tested the Presidency with Louis Napoleon in 1848, and holds from his character a high position in the Assembly. In a short but stately speech, summarised elsewhere, he declared that on the evidence as to the Panama scandals admitted by the Government, further inquiry was necessary to clean the Republic, and moved that the Chamber, to "prevent the recurrence of Governmental practices which it reprehends," should pass to the Order of Day. The speech delighted the Chamber, and the Ministry, cowed by its reception, accepted the motion, which was accordingly passed with only three dissentients. The Chamber, however, then proceeded, by 325 to 47, to order that the speech should be placarded throughout France, an honour never yet paid to a private Deputy, and this is considered a moral defeat for the Ministry, as undoubtedly it is. In the course of the debate, M. Deroulede spoke of the speech as one befitting a President of the Republic, and this was so well received that M. Cavaignac is already spoken of as a formid- able candidate, and it appears certain that a new force has arisen in France. The Opportunists will try to make M. Cavaignac Premier, in order to use him up before the election, but it is stated he will decline, desiring for himself the more permanent position.
