• On Wednesday and Thursday the debate was in reality,
though not in form, about a proposed censure on M. Rouher for pre- siding over the Bonapartist Central Committee. M. Rouher spoke for three hours, maintaining the right of the Bonapartists to organise as well as the Legitimists and Republicans, and declaring that the report of the Prefect of Police about his Committee was full of exaggerations and misstatements. Some of his remarks irritated the Left till there was a tumult, amidst which a deputy, alleged to have been M. Gambetta, shouted, "The blood of the 2nd December is choking you." The debate finished amid great uproar, and on Thursday, after M. Savary had defended his report in an eloquent, but bitter speech, M. Buffet himself ascended the tribune, and declared that he sympathised with the feeling which induced Bonapartists to attend the Emperor's funeral, and that "there were quarters from which even greater dangers might arise" than from Bonapartism. M. Gambetta, probably irritated by what he considered an open defiance, called on M. Buffet to explain his words, and averred that he was half a Bonapartist, whereupon the Premier rose again, and in a strong speech repeated his statement, adding that he took no account of the accusation of Bonapartism, and that the Assembly must pass an Order of the Day expressing its confidence in Government. The Left, alarmed at this sudden raising of a Cabinet question, abstained from voting, and the vote of confidence proposed by M. Baragnon was passed by 483 to 3. The consequence of this incident is that the Government has now a temporary majority without the Left. M. Gambetta seems to have made a mistake, but it is not one which will impede the Dissolution.
