NEWS OF THE WEEK.
A NEW President of the French Republic has been
elected without trouble or confusion. The two Chambers met at 1 p.m. on Saturday last at Versailles, and it was evident from the first that M. Francois Emile Loubet, President of the Senate, would be elected. Votes were given to other candidates, but his only serious opponent was M. Maine, who was almost forced by the Reactionaries of all shades to allow his name to be put forward. In less than an hour the counting was completed, and it was found that out of 824 Senators and Deputies present, M. Lonbet had received 483 votes, constituting an absolute majority, and M. Milne only 279. The moment the result was declared, M. Loubet was acknowledged as President, and, after a brief address of thanks, remarkable chiefly for its strong Republicanism and its statement that the President should give counsel to the Representatives as well as receive it from them, he was driven off under a guard of honour to the station, and thence carried in a special train to Paris. In Paris he was not well received by the crowds through which he passed to the Elysee, being greeted with shouts of " Panamist," but it does not appear that he is unpopular, except with the Reactionaries and Anti- Semites. He is, in fact, too little known to be either hated or admired, and even the masses are inclined to wait to see what he will be. By birth he is the son of a fairly rich peasant of Montelimart, was regularly educated, practised as a lawyer in his own town, and afterwards as a barrister in Paris, was returned to the Senate, and was elected President of that body on account of his conciliatory ways. His success in that position is the secret of his election.
