A " scene" occurred in the French Chamber on Thursday,
accompanied by some regrettable incidents. The Ministry pro- posed to grant a national funeral to Marshal Canrobert, who died on Monday, aged eighty-six, as a great soldier and "the last Marshal of France." The Radicals, who think of him as a General who assented to the coup d'etat, refused to consent, and in the midst of an indescribable tumult declared that Marshal Canrobert should have broken his sword rather than obey the orders to slaughter citizens upon the Boulevards. M. Brisson, President of the Chamber, thereupon declared that to say " that soldiers who obey orders contrary to the Constitution and the laws fulfil their duties," is almost to apologise for the coup d'etat,—a remark of which we shall hear more. It is, as was immediately said, fatal to discipline, if only because, when emergent orders are issued, there is no time to discuss their legality. Sup- pose, on a declaration of war, half the troops on the frontier think it has been declared in an unconstitutional way. You would have a fight in barracks. The vote was ultimately passed ; but in this remark, and in another repudiating a Radical assertion as to the compensation voted to the victims of December 2nd, M. Brisson displayed intense, and we may add unexpected, party feeling.
