M. de Marcere is showing great Parliamentary ability in the
French Senate, in his new character of Minister of the Interior. Nothing could be better than his reply to M. de Franclieu's interpellation last week, as to the meaning put by the late M. Ricard in his circular, on the Revision clause of the Constitution. M. de Marcere pointed out that this clause was moved by M. Casimir Perier, who certainly did not intend to overturn the Constitution in advance, and that its true intention was to provide for " modification " without "revolution." On Wednesday, a similar interpellation was made in the Chamber of Deputies by M. Paris, and M. Dufaure delivered a speech couched in very much the same tone as M. de Mercere's. Nobody, he said, had any intention of finding fault with inward hopes, where not so manifested as to disturb the public peace, but public functionaries must not connive at plots against the Govern- ment they serve. It is clear that if the Conservatives had had a_ majority, the President would have been urged at once to pro- pose the revision of the Constitution in a monarchical sense. And as it is, they brood over tha,minute chance of a revision in 1880, and cannot bear to have tteir dreams called "factious hopes."
