5 NOVEMBER 1870, Page 2

The dislike of Frenchmen for Federalism amounts to a passion,

or there would be danger in the proceedings of the League of the- South. The Reds of sixteen departments have elected M. Esquiros, the Prefect of Marseilles, President of the League ; have declared Valence their centre, have issued orders for a separate taxation. and a volunteer Army, have ordered the election of a separate Assembly, and have called on all citizens to march against Prussia and Monarchical despotism. All this means secession simply, and anarchy besides. We shall hear strange tidings, we fear, from. Marseilles when the armistice is proclaimed, perhaps a thorough overthrow of society. The citizens ought to be able to control the city as the Lyonnese do, but M. Esquiros seems to have lost his head. What on earth has he, of all men, to do with a faction. which will not obey orders even from the Republic ?