It is noted as a sign of the change which
is coming over Conservatives in France, that Deputies belonging to that party begin to attend the Republican social gatherings. At a large soiree given on Wednesday by M. Floquet, President of the Chamber, thirty Conservative Deputies were present, and among them M. Fourtou, the Duc de Broglie's strong- fisted Minister of the Interior,—the M. Constans, in fact, of Conservatism. Till within the last few months, such attend- ance would have been deemed treachery, and would on the following day have been scourged in all Conservative papers. The withdrawal of Papal support has, however, taken the heart out of ultra-Conservatism, which rests upon clerical feeling, and a large section will accept the Republic, and strive to moderate its tone. Their difficulty is the desire of leading Opportunists to keep open the religious sore, with which end they are even now holding an inquiry into the "concealed wealth" of the religious Orders. It is to be noticed, however, that the old group, the "Extreme Left," which has re-formed itself, and has issued a programme pledging itself to hostility to the Church, "that implacable enemy of the French Revolution," only counts thirty Deputies in its ranks.
