20 DECEMBER 1873, Page 1

M. Cezanne, a member of the Committee of Thirty chosen

from the Left Centre, has proposed to establish a second Chamber, instead of limiting universal suffrage. Ile told the Committee, according to a telegraphic report, that the best means of limiting universal suffrage was to give additional votes to family, fortune, and intel- ligence, but that proposal, "though very perfect in theory, was detestable in practice." He therefore proposed that universal suffrage should not be seriously modified, but that a Second Chamber should be formed, to be "elected by groups," and in- vested with a certain regulating power. The "groups" would, we imagine, be groups representing families, fortunes, and intel- ligences,—say, as a mere example, the heads of French great houses, all successful contractors, and the Forty. How long would such a body be able to restrain a Chamber elected by the whole people, or to exercise a veto on its proceedings ? M. de Cezanne himself confesses that.his plan would have no root in history, and is, we should imagine, an ideal Left-Centre man,— one of those who fancy that if the hands of the clock are but gilt, the pendulum will swing slower.