M. Jules Favre has sent a circular Note to the
representatives of France abroad, in which he denies the character of political acts to the acts of the Communists. Theft, crime, and premeditated arson, he says, are not to be regarded as political acts, and "con- sequently, if you learn that individuals compromised in the late revolt in Paris have escaped across the frontier of the nation to which you are accredited, I request you to ask for their immediate arrest, and to inform me, in order that I may take the necessary steps for their extradition." This demand is exceedingly likely to give rise to grave difference of opinion here, and to disputes with
France as well. We can hardly express the horror which we feel at such acts as the execution of the Archbishop of Paris and the other hostages, and for the burning of the public buildings of Paris; but if these barbarous and iniquitous acts are not "offences of a political character," what are ? An able correspondent dis- cusses the question,—certainly without any Communist bias,—in another column, and to our minds entirely disposes of the plea that the crimes of the Communists can be called non-political without utterly breaking down all the reservations of the Extradition Act.
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