20 APRIL 1872, Page 2

The Spanish Cabinet, which is greatly afraid of the Inter-

national, has asked all the Governments of Europe to combine for defence against the Society, and especially to agree on mutual extradition. Lord Granville, however, replies that in England the International chiefly concerns itself with assisting strikes, and has not much money for that ; that any person can be punished by law, but in no other way ; and that anybody can reside here, and can only be given up on conviction of crime. If the Inter- national plot against foreign Governments he will try to punish them, but as yet he has no evidence. The reply seems to have been published in consequence of a debate raised by Mr. Baillie Cochrane on Friday week. The Member for the Isle of Wight thinks the Society has 180,000 members in England, and principles- opposed to all civilization and morality, but he did not say what he wanted done to them beyond a vigorous denunciation by all honest men. Mr. Fawcett in a bold and eloquent reply denounced the doctrines of the International as tending to make the State all in all, and destroy all self-reliance, but argued that the way to make those doctrines formidable was to strain the law for their suppression ; and Mr. Bruce ended the debate by showing that, although the International, as a Union of Trades' Unions, had 600,000 members in England, it had not 8,000 real Communist& behind it. He was firmly convinced that the only way to defeat such societies was to educate the people, let opinion be openly pro- claimed, and support the ordinary law, which was quite sufficient to repress crime.