NEWS OF THE WEEK.
THE President of the Wench Republic signed on Monday _I- the decree constituting the Senate a High Court of Justice for the trial of "M. Georges Ernest Boulanger, retired General and Deputy," accused by the Ministry of Justice of " a felonious attempt against the safety of the State," and the Senate accepted the function. On the following day, the Repub- lican Deputies, amidst a tremendous scene, by one dead heave carried the Bill regulating the Senate's procedure through all its stages ; and the trial will therefore commence to-day. The Bill was resisted in the Chamber by all the Reactionaries, and seventeen amendments were proposed, intended to give the accused the right to " challenge " twelve Senators, who, it was pointed out, might well be his personal enemies ; to be heard by counsel in the preliminary stages ; to be convicted only by a five-eighths majority—as in the old Court of Peers—and to appeal, after sentence, to the Court of Cassation. Every proposal, however, was rejected, and the Chamber, after a stormy sitting of eight hours, and several attempts to obstruct by demanding a "vote from the tribune," which takes hours, passed the Bill by a majority of 310 to 190. The proceedings are to be secret, and the vote, only the result being made known. It is still doubtful whether the Right will sit on the tribunal; and two Senators have refused, M. Leon Renault, in particular, saying, " I will not sit as Judge to try General Boulanger, because I hate him," an ob- jection which, if universally offered, would extinguish the tribunal.
