Page:The Annual Register 1899.djvu/255

 1899.] France. — General Disorder. [247

appointment had been the immediate cause of Boulanger's flight. His only evidence was idle gossip of doubtful authen- ticity, overheard by office clerks or inferior police officers. Nevertheless these slight conjectures sufficed to frighten the Ministry, and to bring it to take a step of exceptional gravity. A commission of inquiry composed of M. Mazeau, senator and first President of the Court of Cassation, and MM. Dareste and Voisin, members of the same court, was appointed to interrogate M. de Beaurepaire's witnesses, and the judges. A fortnight later (Jan. 27) the President handed in a report, not less extraordinary than the rest of the proceedings. After rendering full justice to the capability and rectitude of the incriminated judges, he concluded that it was requisite to withdraw from them the right of deciding alone whether the trial should be revised.

At the same time the Nationalists were mustering their forces, the streets were abandoned to them, the police supported them, and the Ministry, thoroughly cowed, capitulated.

In the interval the session had been opened, M. Paul Deschanel being re-elected President of the Chamber by 323 votes to 187 given to the Badical candidate M. Henri Brisson. On taking the chair M. Deschanel expressed his hope and belief that it would be in his power to reconcile the two noble aspira- tions of the country — the Army and justice. In the Senate no opposition had been raised to the re-election of M. Loubet.

The earlier part of the session was devoted to the discussion of the Budget — mingled with a few interpellations in which the movers themselves displayed but little interest. The " affair " was still the all-absorbing topic. The Ministry made the first move in the matter by requesting the Chamber to appoint a committee to inquire if there were not grounds for amending the code of criminal procedure in cases of revision of sentences. The step was a grave one, for it openly violated the recognised principle of non-retro-action in criminal enactments. Never- theless even this concession was regarded as inadequate by the Nationalists. In an open letter to the President of the Council, M. Jules Lemaitre insisted that an inquiry carried on by judges publicly suspected and regarded by their chiefs as open to suspicion was from the outset branded as unsatisfactory, and therefore he called upon the Ministry to begin the proceedings afresh. Simultaneously out-of-door manifestations were organ- ised in order to force the hand of the Ministry. At Marseilles the Anti -Semites and the Republicans interchanged revolver shots. At Algiers the Municipal Council invited M. Henri Rochefort, once a Radical and Communist, but now the most reckless leaderof the Anti-Semite faction. His arrival, as was to be expected, was the signal for the most disgraceful rioting, resulting in the wholesale suspension of the Municipal Council by the prefect, M. Lutaud. Disorders were reported from numerous centres, and were reflected in the confusion which reigned at Paris. The Committee of the Chamber reported