The French Government has, it is believed, decided to pro-
pose a plenary amnesty for the offences of the Commune. The demand for it has been raised again, and accepted by the Extreme Left, the Advanced Left, and half the Pure Left, and the Government has resolved to give way. M. de Freycinet, after a discussion with M. Gambetta, M. Leon Say, and about 40 of the most prominent Liberals in both Houses, daring which he stated that if the Chamber and the Senate quarrelled upon the point he should resign, agreed to bring forward an urgent Bill in the Chamber of Deputies. It will be passed there, and it is hoped that, under M. Leon Say's moderating influence, it may also pass the Senate. The sudden revival of this "burning question" is attributed in part to the strong feeling in Lyons, and in part to fear of the elections ; but it may be owing also in part to the knowledge that M. Humbert, the Municipal Councillor, an amnestied Communist, was prepared with con- clusive evidence as to the practice of torture—direct torture, the Daily News says, in the old, Middle-age sense of the word —in New Caledonia. If that is proved, the refusal of an amnesty might be followed by a serious insurrection both in Paris and Lyons.
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