A curious incident is reported from Paris. M. Dufaure, the
new Minister of Justice, issued on 30th March a circular to his Public Prosecutors, informing them that the Assembly had estab- lished a Republic as the definitive Government of France. He directed them, therefore, to report to him whether the Jury Act of 1872 had worked well, whether it could be extended to Press offences, and how many and what Press offences had been punished by suppressions, suspensions, or prohibitions to sell in the streets. He directed them also to take note of attacks by associations on the constitutional system, and of the immense colportage of Bonapartist photographs and pamphlets. The word- ing of the circular was most moderate, but its meaning of course was that the Republic was now the established Government of France. Marshal MacMahon was most irritated, and the Cabinet -required the withdrawal of the circular. This M. Dufaure refused, though he consented to telegraph that the phrase,"the Republic," must be altered into "the Republican Government in France, pre- sided over for six years by Marshal [not President] MacMahon." The Cabinetthen threatened to refuse official publication to the cir- cular, but at last it was published, with the sentences about the Press struck out. Of course there are the usual denials that dif- ferences exist in the Cabinet, but as it happened, an early copy, with the expurgated sentences, had been forwarded to the Times.
