Tuesday was marked by a passionate debate in the French
Chamber, during which, for the first time, the Collectivists defined their position. The question before the Deputies was the right of the Municipality at Roubaix to open a chemist's shop for the sale of drugs at cost price, which the Govern- ment denied. M. Guesde, as advocate of the Collectivists, maintained that the Council of Roubaix had a right to try experiments, and threatened, if the Government refused justice, to adopt revolutionary means. The Premier, M. Duprey, advised him not to try, and M. Guesde, beside himself with rage, declared that " the Prime Minister must respect legality. If not, there will be war to the knife, war with the bomb." With a wonderful want of humour, he followed this up by a statement that capitalism must be defeated by a system based on Christ's command to "love one another," the use of bombs being apparently his notion of obedience to that great law. The Chamber finally passed a resolution "reproving Collectivist doctrines, and confident that the Government would oppose them by a policy of reform." The majority (335) constitute more than half the Chamber, but the minority (177) is still ominously large. It certainly bears out the belief in Paris that, of all the new doctrines, it is the Collectivist system which makes most progress both in the Chamber and the country. If it advances much further, we shall have the Red Spectre abroad again, and some kind of coup d'etat.
