NEWS OF THE WEEK.
THE French Assembly draws near its end. On Thursday it decided that the elected Senators should be chosen on January SO, and the new Deputies on February 20, the new Assembly of two Houses meeting on March 8. The day of its own disso- lution is not yet decreed, as members have agreed to work off some arrears of business, but the final hour cannot be protracted many days. The Assembly will probably, in obedience to the law of its history, do something unexpectedly good before it dies, but the programme is that it should retire over-worked to bed, and die there. History will probably judge it more leniently than journalists have done. This Assembly has pro duced no ruler, no orator, and no united party capable of con- trolling the country. But it has made a peace which has lasted, it has upheld the credit of the State under enormous difficulties, it has enabled the Executive to maintain public security in spite of a civil war, and it has established a Conservative Republic. Those are great achievements, and if some of them were performed unwillingly, the Assembly is entitled to the credit of self-denial.
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