The news created great excitement in the Chamber, and quite
destroyed all interest in an expected debate on Tonquin, where the civil Governor-General and the military chiefs are at loggerheads. M. Reinach asked for information, and the Chamber soon became a scene of furious altercation, the Moderates of all parties blaming M. Loubet for want of energy in applying the laws, and for encouraging crime by par- don; and the Left, headed by M. Clemenceau, while repudiating the crimes of Anarchists, defending all that had occurred at Carmaux. M. Loubet made the usual speech, in which, how- ever, he expressed strong detestation of " this kind of Home Mission," and of the papers which supported it, and succeeded in inducing the Chamber, after an unanimous vote of indigna- tion at the outrage, to pass a vote of confidence by 359 to 94. It is felt, however, by the respectables that they are in danger, and there is a cry for the restoration of M. Constans to the Ministry of the Interior. Nobody, it is said, was blown up in his time, but though that is true, it is difficult to perceive how his courage and unscrupulousness could prevent such attacks. The assassins are already liable to death ; and as even the Socialists repudiate them, the difficulty is not to punish, but to obtain evidence of guilt.' The alarm, however, is both deep and widespread, and there is danger of a Law of Public Safety, under which suspected Anarchists would be seized wholesale and sent to Cayenne.
