The long debate of Saturday was nfayked by great ani-
mation and some disorderly scenes, M. Baudry d'Asson earning the official " censure " by offering M. Combes a copper basin, which it seems is slang in France for a spy ; but the debate itself was not particularly good. M. Deschanel, the former President of the Chamber, began by attacking M. Delcasse's policy as too favourable to England ; but the best speech was an exceedingly frank and strong one by M. Combes himself, who defended his Anti- Clerical campaign as essential to the safety of the Republic, and declared that but for obstruction he would in this Session have carried an Income-tax Bill, a Bill providing pensions for old age, and one for the separation of Church and State. He repeated his statement of some weeks ago that with an infallible Papacy compromise was impossible, and boasted that he had closed fourteen thousand religious establishments in which Arlie teachers educated half of the French youth, thus making themselves masters of the Army, the Navy, and the Magistracy. He did not, however,
fully answer the charge of espionage upon the servants of the State, extending often to religious opinions, and intended to purge the Departments and the Army of Anti-Republicans A low growl upon this subject ran through the entire debate, and partly accounted for its result. The case is not clear, as every preceding Government of France has pursued the same course; but the Minister of War in announcing that he has forbidden the practice virtually announces that espionage intended to ascertain officers' private opinions is at variance with Republican institutions.
