M. Waldeck-Rousseau has carried his Amnesty Bill by an enormous
majority,—the opponents, in fact, having been gradually reduced to two. This Bill forbids criminal prosecutions against any one concerned in the Dreyfus case, thus pardoning indiscriminately Colonel Picquart, M. Zola, General Mercier, and all concerned in what is called the Henry case. The Bill was opposed by M. Vazeille as radically unjust, those who had been injured being entitled to the benefit of the Law Courts, and by many Nationalists as insufficient, they wishing to include M. Deroulede and his associates. M. Waldeck - Rousseau's argument is, however, unanswerable. He does not like the Bill, which offends his legal conscience, but he holds it to be essential to the peace of France to terminate a veiled civil war. After a civil war we all know that amnesties must cover acts which in time of peace would be traitorous or criminal,—a doctrine it will be good to remember when the time comes for an amnesty in South Africa. Nearly the whole Chamber is with the Government, though it is believed that the Clericals are passionately anxious for delay in order to arrest the Bill against religious Associations which is shortly to be brought on.
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