The National Assembly met at Versailles on Thursday, the 4th
inst., and M. Buffet announced that his Government insisted on precedence for the Electoral Law. This was accorded without opposition, but a motion by M. Pascal Duprat, that the discus- sions upon the state of siege and the municipal law shall take place between the second and third readings of the Electoral Law, was also carried. The object of this move would seem to be clear. The Radicals expect to be forced into great concessions about the serail,' de lisle, and intend, if they are, to bargain for the abolition of the state of siege and some relaxations of the municipal law. It is by no means certain, however, that they will be defeated, as a part of the Right Centre is doubtful, and the Government is so alarmed that it is circulating through the Times intimations that if the Cabinet resigns the President will submit his seven years' tenure to a plebiscite. It is not, however, likely that he will evoke so powerful a machine just at the moment when the Assembly has given France the hint to answer "No." The debate will commence on Monday, but the final vote will scarcely be taken for a fortnight, and Frenchmen, when time is granted them, are expert at compromise.
