NEWS OF THE WEEK.
THE event of the week has been the destruction of the column in the Place VendOme. The Commune at last screwed their -courage up to perform that act of noble childishness—noble because -the idea that inspired it was lofty, childish because lofty ideas are slot established by spoiling fine buildings—and on Tuesday Abadie the engineer pulled down the column with ropes tightened by a huge winch. The concussion was expected to be immense, but at was very slight ; the shaft inside, of brick and atone, broke in two, the bronze plates separated, and the column came down with a thad on the heap prepared for it. Now it is down one square in .Paris is a little less beautiful, the Commune is a little more con- demned by the world, and international fraternity is a little further off than ever. The destroyers desired to extinguish war, and they have created material for cannon. They wished to dis- honour Bonapartism, and they have tempted men to pardon it. They hoped to obliterate the past, and they have helped to make -the future they sigh for impossible.
