A rumour has reached London from so many quarters that
there must be something in it, that the Court of Cessation has practically decided the Dreyfus case. The Court will, it is said, in a few days declare, by a majority of ten, that Madame Dreyfus has failed to prove the existence of any new fact sufficient to justify it in issuing a decree for revision. Her. appeal, therefore, will be rejected, and Dreyfus will remain at the Ile de Diable. That being legally settled, the Government, in order to quiet the agitation or relieve the consciences of its members, will pardon Dreyfus on condition of his not returning to France. It is needless to say that this monstrous compromise will satisfy no one, and in no degree quiet the conflict between the Army and the civil power. It will simply prove that no reliance is to be placed upon the independence of the Court of Cessation, and that the last defence in France against oppression by the Executive has ceased to exist. Frenchmen might as well be living under Louis XV., indeed they would have been safer, for they could have bribed a mistress or a Minister to defend them. Now- adays the only form of corruption which seems to offend France is bribery to secure an acquittal. The republication of wit- nesses' evidence continues, but nothing new is revealed, except indeed that the Staff, whether they have acted rightly or wrongly, did not act in ignorance. Colonel Picquart told them only too plainly what they were doing.
