The Chamber has sanctioned a change in the method of
governing Paris, which many believe will endanger the safety of the city. The debates of the Municipality are henceforth to be open, and a great ball is to be built in which visitors can listen to the speeches. It is supposed that the violent Ex- tremists who are elected Councillors will use their new privilege to propagate disaffection, and that the Municipality will become a rival Chamber, supported by the mob. The experiment is, no • doubt, a risky one ; but it is almost impossible under a Republic to insist on civic business which involves taxa- tion being conducted in secrecy, and the result may be very different from what is expected. The orators may frighten the country and the Chamber into Conservatism. French Liberals, as a body, dislike menaces to property, and the speciality of Parisian Reds is their tendency to menace property, either with repartition or with exceptionally high taxation. If the orators do this, if they demand proscriptions, or if they affront the Army, they will do much more to bring on the counter-revolution than to establish mob-rule. The word part of the new arrangement is the provision for large audiences, which is in no way required by Republican sentiment, —is rather contrary to it, as a limitation upon the free speech of the repre- sentatives.
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