The most important French event of the week has been
a letter by the Vice-Admiral of the French Squadron in the Mediter- ranean, be la Ronciere-le-NourY, to a political friend in the de- partment of the Eure, by which department the Admiral is returned as a deputy, declaring that he should not cease "to be the devoted servant of the Government of Marshal MacMahOn, as long as heshal/ not be borne outside of the Conservative paths in which to-day he is concentrating his most ardent efforts,"—a conditional adhesion which implies that he will cease to be the devoted servant of the Government, so soon as Marshal MacMahon shall do anything which does not satisfy the Admiral's Conservative sympathies. This, from a great naval officer, is equivalent to a threat, and could not be overlook Id by the Government which put General de Bellemare on the retired list for writing to the Minister of War in 1873, that if the Monarchy was proclaimed he would no longer serve the Government. Accordingly, Admiral de la Ron- ciere-le-Noury is superseded in the command of the evolutioi. squadron of the French Mediterranean Fleet, by a decree of the President of the Republic dated September 8th, and Vice-Admiral Rose is appointed in his place: Had M. Buffet hesitated to take this step, the rising suspicion of his loyalty to the Constitution
would have been remarkably confirmed. As it is, he must be fairly credited with this act of good faith.
