The Committee to consider the Bill for abolishing the election
of Mayors of Communes and substituting nomination by the Ministry of the Interior has been formed, and consists of nine members of the Right and six of the Left. M. Depeyre, who has the Bill in charge, defend& it in the Bureau on the ground that the Prefects are paralysed by the hostility of the Mayors, Who, elected by Radical Councils, frequently resist his orders. M. Baragnon, Under-Secretary, declares the Bill absolutely necessary to "meet a great social danger," which is described by others to consist mainly in -the right of the Mayor to appoint lay school- masters and mistresses. It is rumoUred that the nightie not con- tent With the Bill, because it confines the Government to a selection 'from the Municipal Council, which, it is averred, may consist en- tirely of Radials, wherefore Government should claim the right of appointing anybody it pleases. It would almost seem, from some of these speeches, that the majority claim the right to govern, even if everybody in France turns Radical, and would sooner appoint a German than a political opponent.
