There was a discreditable row in the French Assembly on
Monday and Wednesday. On the former day, M. Rouher, as author of the French Treaties of Commerce, entered the Tribune to defend Free Trade ; but the Chamber refused to listen to him, shrieking, hooting, and flinging cries of "shameless." M. Gravy tried hard to protect the liberty of the Tribune, but was overborne, and even M. Thiers, who followed, taunted M. Rouher with having ruined France, and with " boasting of more harm than he actually did," as France had retained iu part her " liberty of taxation." On Wednesday again, in the debate on the sam. subject, M. Thiers happened to say that he obtained more justice in the House of Commons than in that Assembly, an innocent remark which roused a M. Gavardie to frenzy, so that he gave the President the lie, and the furious storm recommenced. Scenes of this kind Lave always occurred in French Chambers, and do not much affect the transaction of business, which is really arranged in the Committees, but they certainly create the impression that French Deputies had rather remain ignorant than listen to people or speeches not quite agreeable to their views. They ought to have heard M. Rouher on free trade, just as the House of Commons ought to have heard Mr. Auberon Herbert on the monarchy. The malicious delight of the correspondents in such scenes, because as they think they prepare the way for the llonapartes or the Bourbons, raises them, however, to far too great an importance.
