The Royalists in the Chamber endeavoured to defend the scene
at Auteuil as " an explosion of popular disgust," but a Resolution proposed by M. Baucel, and accepted by M. Dupuy, denouncing the affair as a scandal, was carried by 513 to 32, and the declarations of the Government were also approved by 326 to 173. The Chamber, however, declined by 299 to 238 to sanction the prosecution of General Mercier until the result of the Rennes Court-Martial had been re- corded. That is only just, as the Court must be left free from political pressure ; but it is not quite clear that the Chamber has entirely lost its dread of the Army. Passion rose very high during the debates, one Deputy, M. de Largentaye, refusing to recall an insult to the President even when the soldiers who guard the Chamber had been sent for ; and M. de Cassagnac exclaiming that " the man expected by the country would soon appear." So far, however, the heated atmosphere appears only to solidify the resolves of the Government., who are dispersing clubs, arresting aristocratic agitators, and sending regiments suspected of reactionary ideas into the provinces.
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