The Amnesty difficulty in France is over. The Senate passed
without a division the compromise Bill granting an Amnesty to all whom Government might pardon, unless condemned for incendiarism or murder ; and the President pardoned all the Communists. Only nine will, it is stated, be in the end de- prived of the full benefit of the amnesty. The exiles are already hastening home, and M. Rochefort has already started a paper, the Intransigeant in which his main business is to sneer at the Chamber which amnestied him, because it sup- ports M. Gambetta, who proposed the amnesty. He calls him a dictator. The incident is quoted as proof that French Ultras are past hope, and it certainly illustrates the inveteracy of French parties ; but M. Rochefort is not more formidable in Paris than in Geneva. His little poisonous epigrams were just the kind of ware which no preventive service could keep out. Besides, M. Gambetta is not Napoleon III., and in a duel of wits between him and M. Rochefort it is not a certainty that the Irreconcilable will win.
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