The Anti-Anarchist Bill has been under discussion in the French
Chamber during the week. On Tuesday last, the chief sensation was the speech of M. Ponrquery de. Boisserin, an Independent Republican, who literally hit out right and left in his attack on the Government measure.. The existing law, strengthened as it had been after the- explosion in the Chamber, was amply sufficient. More than £1,000,000 was spent on police over and above the expenditure of the departments, and yet the President was not properly protected. The Government asked for- further powers to relieve itself of responsibility. This was, the method of M. de Morny. " Present-day Anarchy in, France is the consequence of the faults and errors of nos- all. The Socialists have scattered shame on everything- which is honest in the Republican party, and have excited all passions and all interests." Having thus bonneted the- Socialists, M. Pourquery do Boisserin went for the Centre, and hurled the Panama Scandal at their heads. Under the Bill, " even for a conversation in a cafe or a club, a man might be condemned to two years' imprison- ment, or a journalist guilty of writing a strong article transported for life. By such a clause any man who- during an election displeased a Government might be arrested and condemned." The speaker ended with a very unfair attack upon M. Dupuy, for leaving the President " to die quite alone, almost left to subalterns," At the removal' of the body from Lyons there was no Minister. To receive it• in Paris there were only the Prefect of Police and some- policemen. Never had such forgetfulness been seen. The Government, in spite of this attack, have resolved to resist all amendments, and will probably carry their Bill, since curtail- ments of personal liberty are not unpopular in France when. carried in the name of Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity.
Previous page
