The French Government is still suffering from the Panama disclosures.
On Saturday, Madame Cottn, wife of the director recently sentenced, was examined in the Assize Court, and testified that in the beginning of this year a man named Goliard asked her to see M. Soinoury. director of the Detective Department. She did so, and M. Soinoury, in a con- versation of an hour and a half, repeatedly suggested to her that if she could produce documents implicating the Right, or copies of them, her husband should go free. She under- stood that this offer came from M. Bourgeois, the Minister of Justice ; and M. Soinoury, who was next examined, while declaring Madame Cottu's story exaggerated, as he had only tried to get information against the Right, did not exonerate M. Bourgeois. That Minister therefore resigned, but on Monday appeared in the witness-box to give a fiat and apparently truthful denial to Madame Cottu's implica- tion of him. The Chamber on Tuesday affirmed that it believed the denial by a inajority of 297 to 228, and M. Bourgeois on Wednesday, therefore, regained his portfolio. The affair is curiously complicated by Madame Coda's con- fusion between the Ministries of Justice and the Interior, but, as we have said elsewhere, most people will believe that she intended to speak the truth ; that M. Soinoury, who has been dismissed, did make the offer reported, and that he knew enough to be sure its acceptance would not be disagreeable to the Ministry. There will be much more heard of the Panama scandal yet; and we are assured that even now M. Carnot finds it nearly impossible either to keep this Government on its feet, or to imagine where he shall discover its successor. Nobody wants to be Minister for a month at the price of ap- pearance in an Assize Court, and a loss of reputation.
