25 NOVEMBER 1899, Page 1

The news of the week from France is graver than

the public, absorbed in the South African struggle, has quite perceived. The signs of unrest are increasing. On Sunday there was a parade in Paris of two hundred and fifty thousand workmen, which was attended by all the members of the Government except the President, who was ready to receive the immense procession, but left the ground when informed, truly,' that every Union would carry the illegal red flag. There seems to have been some idea of seizing the ill-omened symbol and arresting its bearers, but it was abandoned, as the police would have been crushed by :he masses engaged in the demonstration, and the Government were afraid to call out the soldiers. There might have been a refusal to obey, the populace and the Army being united against Dreyfus; or there might have nem a Collision, in which case the officers, having repressed revolt, would have been masters of the Government. The Times correspondent. answers for it that this fear exists, and i3is statement is confirmed by our own informants, who add that the dread of commotion is spreading fast among

resolute Republicans, and is making even them long for a termination of the present regime. No one suggests clearly what regime is to follow it, but the Government in France under such circumstances is like a splendid tent with its pegs drawn. At the first gust it falls, bewildering and burying all underneath its shelter.