The French Government is beginning to play tricks again. In
order to have time to carry out the provisions of the Constitutional Law, which orders that the Senate must be elected a month before the Dissolution, and that the Assembly must always assemble in the first week of February, it is essential that the Recess should end on an early day in October. Consequently, M. Malartre, a Monarchist, proposed to adjourn to November 30, and the Committee appointed to consider his proposal suggested the 16th. The Government, which is believed to have been at the bottom of the whole proceeding, then offered Novem- ber 4th, and this was carried by 470 to 155. The date selected makes it just possible, if the Government cannot help itself, for the Dissolution to be decreed this year; but the Cabinet, through M. Dufaure, has carefully reserved its liberty of action. Its motive may be to hurry the Budget through or the Electoral Law without discussion, but it is more probable that it hopes to take advantage of some event to defeat the Constitution altogether. The Liberals are becoming seriously alarmed, and the majority would seem to have gone to pieces.
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