The French National Fete, celebrated on Monday last, July 14th,
passed off without any noticeable occurrence, except that the President was fired at by a mad inventor with a grievance, whose revolver, however, was not loaded, and whose only object was to attract attention to the neglect he believed himself to have suffered at the hands of the public. The troops who took part in the review of the Paris garrison seem to have won high praise from military critics, the soldierly bearing of the men and the completeness of their equipment attracting particular attention. A special feature was the participation of a brigade of the so-called Territorial Army, or Second Reserve, consisting of men between thirty and forty. President Carnot, in his letter to M. de Freycinet, speaks of the " smartness and dash " of this force ; and the nation is evidently pleased that its third line of defence made so creditable a show.
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