The French Chamber on Tuesday passed a highly charac- teristic
vote. It is a cardinal principle with Continental democracy that election by universal suffrage acts as bap- tism was once supposed to act,—wiping out all previous sins. A man in prison who is elected a Deputy is at once released, and if he is convicted daring a Session, he cannot be im- prisoned until it is over. The obligation of representing cancels all other duties to the State. There is, however, it would seem, one exception to this rule, and that is the Con- scription. M. Mirman, Deputy for Rheims, has been ordered to join his regiment, and on his refusal to obey, has been threatened with military law. His friends, therefore, brought the matter before the Chamber, demanding to know whether the Minister of War could override universal suffrage. The Radicals and Socialists supported M. Mirman with fury, Zeclaring that they saw in the question a threat to strike a ,coup d'etal ; but the Chamber was unwilling to quarrel with the Army, and decided by 307 votes to 215 that military duty, though it could not abolish, did suspend the right of sitting in the Chamber.
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