The quarrel in the French Chamber over the Municipal Bill
has been settled as we expected,—the extreme Left, under plea of anxiety not to help the Bonapartists, declining to vote. The Government therefore carried their proposal to appoint mayors in the chief villages of cantons, as well as the chief towns of departments and arrondissements, by 287 to 132. It was then proposed that the promulgation of the Bill should be followed within three months by fresh elections—so that the electors may send up none but Liberals—and this amendment being accepted, the Bill passed. The success of the Ministry is undoubtedly due to the determination of the President, announced through the correspondent of the Times, to dissolve rather than surrender the right of selecting the Mayors, which, in his belief, would be a direct concession to Communist feeling.
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