The French Chamber on Wednesday, by 397 votes to 209,
approved of the Government Bill to re-establish the French Embassy at the Vatican. The debate had lasted a fortnight. M. Leygaes, in a persuasive speech, argued that the Bill involved only a question of foreign policy. Was French representation at the Vatican to be official, underground or semi-official? M. Leygues has had his way. Yet it is only sixteen years since M. Nisard, tho last French Ambassador at the Vatican, was recalled. Pope Pius X. had declared that, if President Loubet visited the King of Italy at the Quirinal, he would not be received at the Vatican ; when the President visited the King, the Pope said that he took it as a serious insult. The French Government, under M. Combos, were compelled by an indignant Chamber to withdraw the Embassy. Now France has changed her mind. It is a question which concerns herself alone. We can only remark that the persistent hostility of the Vatican to the Allies throughout the war caused far less injury to them than the pessimists had anticipated.
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