The French Prime Minister, M; Waddington, delivered a eppech last
week on the political situation, in, which-he made a general de- fence of his Government, and showed how successful it had been in the various difficult problems with which it had to cope when it entered 'on office. The question of an amnesty it had solved in a sense consistent with maintaining the dignity of the law and of the order of the State, and yet with due regard to the mag- nanimity and pity which a strong State should feel to-
wards misguided, political offenders. The election of M. Blanqui, for Bordeaux, was annulled in the same constitutional spirit.' The problem of the return of the Chambers from Ver- sailles to Paris had been solved in the same temper of regard for public opinion, and for the security of order, with the full assent of both those bodies, and of the National Assembly which is constituted by their union. In the spirit of true sobriety, the suggestion that the previous Government ought to be impeached, and all the old sores reopened, had been rejected, and the policy of reprisals and revenge definitively negatived. Finally, for M.. Jules Ferry's Education Bill, M. Waddington repudiated any imputation,of a persecuting motive. It interfered in no degree with either the liberty of public worship, or the freedom of the parochial clergy. As for the freedom of teach- ing, the State must be the judge whether or not it was needful to interfere with that, in order to prevent the younger genera- tion from being taught to hate and subvert the new institutions. It was a fair question for discussion whether or not the best and least violent means necessary to prevent such an evil had been taken, but that the Government was pursuing a legitimate end could not, he thought, be denied. We should have sup- posed that if the parents of France have freely voted the Republic, they may safely be trusted to see that their children are not taught to overthrow it.
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