The Reds of Paris are growing more placable in the
freer air. M. Gambetta has made a speech to his constituents at Belleville, in which he declared openly that he was for a policy of com- promise, "for negotiation, and not for fighting 3," that the insur- rection of the Commune was ,4 a criminal insurrection," and that the complete amnesty for the Communists, though practicable once, if the Government had taken the initiative, was now im- possible. All that could 'be done was to divide the prisoners into
categories, and make large remissions of sentences for certain classes. The whole speech, in fact, was a defence of the policy stigmatised by Reds as "a policy of opportuneness ;" but it was received without disfavour, and indeed with considerable applause. It is, however, believed that the "proposal Gatineau," a proposal to abandon all further prosecutions for complicity in the Com- mune, will be strenuously urged, and may produce a Ministerial crisis, the Marshal being determined not to accede to it.