NEWS OF THE WEEK.
EUROPE has this week sustained a great shock. The
Emperor of Germany has lived so long beyond the usual term of life, that men had ceased to expect his decease ; and it was with a kind of consternation that Berliners heard on Wednesday that he was seriously ill. He had suffered, as many times before, an attack of pain, it is believed from renal cal- culus; but this time the physicians were alarmed by the duration and character of his swoons. At 11 o'clock in the morning, they summoned the German Chancellor and other great officials, in immediate expectation of their master's death ; but the Emperor, with his wonderful constitution, rallied again and again. Owing to some " complication " not specified, the physicians from the first had little hope ; but the Emperor, though he swooned frequently, once for so long a time that on Thursday afternoon his death was telegraphed throughout Europe, lingered on till 8.30 on Friday morning, when he expired, according to the bulletins, peacefully and without pain. The Empress was with him, and Prince William and all the great officers of State ; but it was impossible for the Crown Prince, even had he set out on the first intelligence, to arrive in time. Looked up to as the Emperor was throughout Europe as the arbiter of peace and war, and believed to decide always in favour of peace, his death leaves an enormous void, which is increased by the uncertainty that prevails as to the immediate future. The German Throne fills itself, as it were, automatically ; but no one is certain yet who will actually reign.
