FRANCE AND THE DEATH OF XING EDWARD. [To sus EDITOR.
or TER "SPsOTAToR."1
Sts,—I write to you to express the earnest hope that great effort will be made by the English Press to recognise adequately the generous manner in which France has associated herself in our national mourning. No doabt you will have many other such letters as this from many places and people, but it is hard to realise in England just at present the due importance of the spontaneous feeling here. It must be almost impossible to realise the difference of atmosphere between this time and, say, the Boer War time, not to mention Fashoda and the Dreyfus periods ; only those who have lived
here can realise it. This morning in this small town every single shop was shut from eleven to one. At the memorial service the church was crowded, representatives of every shade of political and religions opinion attended, besides the official classes and several officers from the regiment quartered here. In this country, where divisions of political and other opinions are so sharply marked, and there is so much hostility to anything ecclesiastical, it was particularly noteworthy to see avowed enemies of the Church come openly to attend a religious service; it means more than the casual observer would suppose.—I am, Sir, &c., M. Costebelle, Hyeres.
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