The new French Government has taken a very impradent step.
M. Combos, Premier and Minister of the Interior, has issued a circular directing that no one shall be admitted into Government service, or promoted in that service, without a previous report from the Prefect as to his political opinions. The object is to confine the service of the State, to which every family in France looks with hope and desire, to persOns of-decided Republican sympathies. The circular, of course, irritates all sections of the Opposition, and is certainly no " measure of appeasement." It is perfectly possible, as `we see cur own Civil Service, to serve a Government loyally without approving it; and in admitting opponents, a State;as we see from -our own military and naval history, deprii them of half their bitterness. Irish Roman Catholics who at home would be loud Home-rulers die in heaps abroad to defend the British flag. The Republic cannot, of course, tolerate in its servants either treasonable conduct or treason- able language; 'but so long as it is well served, what do secret opinions matter ? There is, we fear, a trace both of the former. cleric and the former schoolmaster in M. Combes, and neither-will help to-make of him a successful statesman. He will plead-the necessity of being logical; but to be logical he should inquire vigilantly into the opinions of all conseripte.
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