NEWS OF THE WEEK.
Tr HE definitive Treaty of Peace between France and Germany
was signed on Wednesday, the 10th inst., but its text has not reached England. It would appear, from a speech made by M. Thiers to the Assembly, and a telegram from M. Pouyer-Quertier, that Germany has made but one concession. She has bought the -State rights in the Alsatian railways for £13,000,000, so that the indemnity is reduced to £187,000,000. She has also agreed to release the entire French Army at once. In return, France has agreed, it is said, to pay £20,000,000 within a month of the recapture of Paris, and to pay the remainder some- what more rapidly than was originally arranged, German bankers being permitted to help her. A great deal of uneasiness prevails in Berlin as to this indemnity, but Prince Bismarck tells the Reichstag that if he does not get it he will levy the taxes in a third of France, collect the customs duties on the German, Swiss, and Belgian frontiers, pay no interest on the French debt, reduce expenditure to pure necessities, requisition the people for the maintenance of his troops, and so save about £24,000,000 a year. This policy involves the destruction of France as a power for eight _years, and misery throughout a third of France such as was once witnessed in Venetia, misery which will be increased by a conces- .sion of which M. Pouyer-Quertier is inclined to boast. The Germans had asked for a commercial treaty, but the Protectionists absolutely refused this, and France is to pay a bounty to all French manufacturers as well as the indemnity.
