The Due de Broglie has again appeared in politics this
week, to justify, or rather to make a feeble attempt to justify, the wholesale Press prosecutions by which his Government was distin- guished. The Press Offences Amnesty Bill was the occasion of this appearance ; M. Dufaure, stating in his defence of this Bill— which, as drawn by the Government, applied only to the period of M. de Broglie's administration between May 16 and De- cember 14, 1877,—that on acceding to office he found 136 Press prosecutions still pending ; that in 845 others the de- fendants had been condemned to imprisonment, And that in 445 of these cases the sentences had been already executed. As to fines for Press offences, 85,000 francs (£3,400) had been paid, while 100,000 francs (£4,000) had been paid into Court pending appeal, and 136,000 francs (£5,440) had not been paid. As to the proposal of the Committee of the Senate to strike out the dates, and make it an amnesty also of previous offences during the former Government, there would be only ten preceding prosecutions to which it could apply, M. Martel having only instituted 12 prosecutions in six months, and in one of these cases the penalty had already been remitted. In spite, however, of M. Dufaure's able speech, the Senate voted for the extension of date, so as to make the Bill apply to the previous Administration, as well as to M. de Broglie's,—the Constitutionalists on this ques- tion voting with the Right,—by a majority of 157 to 138. The Bill, therefore, as thus amended will go back to the Chamber of Deputies, who will probably disagree with the amendment ; and the amnesty, if it is granted at all, will then have to be granted by the Administration in the shape of individual pardons to each of the individual offenders.
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