12 AUGUST 1871, Page 2

M. Dufaure has introduced a Bill into the French Assembly

making it a penal offence, punishable with fine and imprisonment up to two years, to be a member of the International. This Bill, it is expected, will pass, but its only result will be that of many similar Bills, to drive the members into secrecy, to give the chiefs a new and powerful hold over thern—in the punishmeut of in- foriners,—and to relieve the Society of public observation and cri- ticism. It will only be heard of when it acts. Trades' Unions were most formidable when it was an offence to belong to them, and so was the Society of Jesus. Persecution never succeeds, unless carried, as in Spain, to the point of extirpation.