The unfortunate proposal of the French Government to prosecute M.
Paul de Cassagnac for his articles in the Pays brought on another disgraceful scene in the French Chamber on Monday, in which the Bonapartists were not the only offenders. M. Paul de Cassagnac first made a very clever speech, taunting the Republican Ministers with having opposed, under the Empire, the prosecution of M. Rochefort, under very similar circumstances, and he showed that M. Jules Ferry was himself amongst those who made this protest. To this speech, which was very able in its way, the Government vouchsafed no reply, and the Republicans called for the cldture without a reply being given. This greatly irritated the Bonapartists, who burst into physical fury, while some members of the Republican party replied with scurrilous epithets of the most indecent kind. A scene of extreme violence prevailed for some time. One Republican—M. Tallandier—had had the courage to speak against the prosecution, and several voted against it, but the prosecution was ordered by 306 votes to 195. It is these foolish acts of disloyalty to Liberalism which launch the Liberals of France into their most serious troubles.
