It has evidently been decided in Paris that charges of
corruption against Senators and Deputies shall not be roughly pressed. Only one politician, M. Badhaut, was punished in connection with the Panama scandals, though two or three disappeared from public life ; and some intermediaries fled or committed suicide. This week, M. Magnier, Senator for the Var, was brought to trial for taking a bribe to promote in the Var General Council a local line desired by the Southern Railway. The particular bribe was only £3,440; and although the jury found M. Magnier guilty, the Court sentenced him only to one year's imprisonment as a first-class mis- demeanant, which in France is, in reality, a sentence of deten- tion only. The Socialists all believe that M. Magnier could have implicated great Opportunist Members, and, in fact, pur- chased a light sentence by holding his tongue, and a furious debate is expected on a demand to publish the official Prose- cutor's "Report." The demand will be refused, the Ministers trusting to the indifference of the peasants, who, believing that politicians are all rascals, sent beck the " Panamists " to the Assembly. The man most punished is M. Clemenceau, whose career has been broken, though the only proof against him is that he asked or allowed M. Herz to buy shares in his journal.
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