Paris has a new scandal. Two or three editors are
accused -of direct blackmailing,—that is, demanding money from clubs and individuals, by threats of denouncing them for gambling, and of publishing their biographies as kept in the Prefecture of Police. A collusion with former police officials 'is suspected, and the matter was consequently, on Thursday, brought before the Chamber by M. Hebert. The Deputy edeclared that blackmailing was rife in the Press, and that its origin was the new practice among capitalists of purchasing support for their schemes in respectable journals,—an accusation believed, by those who know Paris, to be too true. There is, however, no possible remedy for it, any more than for the bribery of Deputies, except punishment on -evidence, and the Premier had no difficulty, after pledging himself to that course, in obtaining a vote without a division. The great fortunes made by many newspaper proprietors in England are often subjects of animadversion, but we are by no means sure that they do not provide the public with an effective guarantee. Bribing millionaires is not easy, and they have no interest in blackmail.
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