12 OCTOBER 1872, Page 1

NEWS OF THE WEEK.

J GAMBETTA has been the week's subject in France. The it is Permanent Commission has discussed and censured M. Gam- loetta. The Russian Minister of the Interior has privately denounced M. Gambetta to the President. The French Home Minister (M. Victor Lefranc) has declared M. Gambetta the enemy of the -Government. M. Thiers himself, while impressing on the Com- mission that Frenchmen "don't love each other enough,"—the astute old litterateur is really going in, in his old age, for the apostolic style, for hortatory benediction in the manner of a sort of Parisian St. John,—has warmly condemned M. Gambetta's speeches, and declared that with regard to his wish for the raising -of a new social stratum (couche sociale), he (M. Thiers) knew of but one class, "the Frenchmen of France." One thing, however, 31. Thiers sees very keenly—that he gains more and more security through the fear of Gambetta. Who can protect the Conservatives -of France from M. Gambetta, if not M. Thiers ? From that point of view M. Thiers feels it quite possible to fulfil his own apostolic injunction, and to love M. Gambetta. In the meantime, M. Gam- betta also loves M. Thiers, and has toasted him in a speech at Annecy, though distinguishing him somewhat invidiously from the Assembly which elected him.