NOTES OF THE MONTH.

Globe, Volume IV, Issue 383, 3 September 1875, Page 3

NOTES OF THE MONTH.

(From the Spectator, June 12th.}

The new committee of thirty at Versailles has reported on the Supplementary Constitutional Laws. It accepts them as a whole, but recommends that the President shall not declare war without the consent of the two Chambers; that treaties of peace shall not be finally ratified without a Parliamentary vote ; that the Chambers shall be convoked on the demand of one-third of the members plus one, instead of an absolute majority; that in case of the death or resignation of the President of the Republic, the two Chambers shall immediately assemble of full right; and that neither Chamber shall ait alone, except in the contingency of the President dying during an election. Then the Senate may assemble, and assume all power except the legislative. These provisions seem moderate, and will probably be accepted, but some of them place in a strong light the excessive reluctance of French statesmen to appoint a Vice-President. They evidently think he would not endure his position, and would immediately become a pivot of intrigue. The dread of such a personage is quite curious, as in the United states the difficulty has been to save the Vice-President from too complete a political extinction.

At the afternoon sitting, on Jane Bth, took place the debate on the National Debt (Sinking Fund), in which Mr Gladstone took even a more prominent part than in the attack on the Savings Banks Bill, charging Sir Stafford Northcote, first, with proposing to apply this year to the reduction of the debt £185,000 which his Budget statement showed that he will never have at his disposal ; and asserting next, that even if he should obtain it, he is demanding a new statutory power to apply it, which he does not need, since " surplus revenue would, go by the existing law to the reduction of the debt." Both the criticisms were rather contentious ones, for it seems pretty certain that Sir Stafford Northcote will have the money, though his Budget statement underrated his surplus, and moreover, that the appropriation of it is the first step in a series of what, it is hoped, will be much more important and effective steps, though steps after the same pattern. But besides this, Sir Stafford Northcote replied that the new sinking fund and the old so far differ that he might under the old law apply this £185,000 to the redemption of deficiency bills, which he cannot do under the proposed measure, but only to the redemption of permanent debt. Mr Disraeli was not very successful in defending himself against the charge of inconsistency, for undoubtedly what he did in 1858 and what he is doing now do not very well agree together ; but Mr Disraeli is resolved to make light of consistency, and the House is only too glad to help him when his inconsistency is, as in the present case, a change for the better. The order for going into committee was carried by a majority of 67 (189 to 122). A dispute of a somewhat serious kind exists as to a sentence supposed to have been uttered by Lord Derby in his answer to Earl Russell about the British offer of mediation between France and Germany. According to the Wolff Agency, the German Beuter, he said, speaking of the language held by high personages in Germany, "If there was an intention to attack Germany, she might feel herself called upon in self-defence to strike the first blow, and it was added that, though Germany did not desire war, to secure peace it seemed necessary that the French army should be greatly reduced. The language was repeated .here by the representative of the German Government in this country, and by our representatives at foreign ports ; and it naturally created extreme uneasiness and anxiety in France." The Times' report leaves out the last and most important sentence, which, nevertheless, was flashed by Reuter to Germany. Was it uttered ? If it was, what becomes of the Berlin assurances that there never existed any reason for the scare ? The Home Secretary has explained what he proposes to do by way of change in the Labor laws, and in the Law of Conspiracy as it affects the Labor laws. Two Bills are to introduced, one to effect the alteration necessary as regards civil penalties, the other to define strictly what is to be regarded as a crime, and to be punishable criminally in relation to these matters. Breaches of engagements which involve danger to the public, in relation, for instance, to the supply of gas or water, or where life is endangered by wilful negligence, and also " wilful atid malicious" injuries to property, whether by omission or by commission, are still to be crimes. All other cases of breaches of contract are to be dealt with civilly, and in these the master and servant are to be put absolutely on an equality. Ho change is to be made in the law of molestation and coercion—which, as interpreted by the Judges, Mr Cross declares to be quite satisfactory—i.e., in the Criminal Law Amendment Act, except that the defendant should, if he wishes, have the option of being tried by a jury. With regard to the Law of Conspiracy, the following change is to be made —that it shall r>o longer be a crime to conspire to do any act in contemplation or furtherance of a trade dispute between employers and workmen which, if done without consultation with any one, would not be punishable as a crime. These changes are all sound. Whether they go far enough we are not prepared to say, without more deliberate consideration of them.