The French Committee on Pardons unanimously recom- mended that the
capital sentence on Vaillant, the Anarchist who threw a bomb into the Chamber of Deputies, should be .carried out. After some delay, due it is believed to the inter-
lerence of the Socialist Deputies, the President decided to ac-cept this recommendation, and the criminal was accordingly guillotined early on Monday. He died bravely enough, declaring that religion was "a grotesque farce," that he 'detested the bourgeoisie, and that he should be avenged. It is remarked that the French law is more severe than the English, which requires that somebody should die before even a bomb-thrower can be hanged ; but it must be remembered that in this country no bombs have actually been thrown. If forty or fifty Members of the House of Commons were torn with nails, discharged with intent to kill the front benches, this rather absurd distinction between successful and unsuccessful ,crime would not last many hours. The single possible defence for Vaillant was insanity; and of this there was no trace of evidence except the crime itself.
