The great French debate on M. Albert Gravy's motion for
an investigation into the electoral abuses of the recent contest was begun by M. Albert Gravy on Monday. His resolution recited that " all laws had been violated " in order to bring an illegitimate pressure to bear on the elec- tions, and that the need of inquiry was the greater, since those who had pretended to consult the nation now took no heed of its decision. M. Albert Gravy charged the Government with having treated France during the five months' silence as a " con- quered province ;" while the Due do Broglie voted urgency for the discussion, though declaring that he could not accept the one-sided tribunal which the resolution proposed. The greatest speech probably on the Republican side was made by M. Leon Renault, who had acted under the Due de Broglie at the Ministry of the Interior, and who was therefore minutely informed as to the kind of machinery by which the terror had been exercised. He described how the Government had dismissed Senators and Deputies from their posts of Mayors ; how they had shut up the thoroughfares against all Liberal newspapers ; how they had made the Marshal an electoral agent, dictated to him manifestoes which defied beforehand the popular will, and made use of official placards to vilify Republican Deputies.
