NEWS OF THE WEEK.
THE week in France has been one of intense excitement, owing to the fact that it will have witnessed before it closes the arrival of Major Marchand ; the public hearing of, and the decision in, the Dreyfus case ; and the trial and acquittal of M. Deroulede. What will be the outcome of these events it is most difficult to surmise. The ascertained factors in the situation are :—(1) Paris, as a whole, is in a state of extreme effervescence over Major Marchand, and has made him a great. popular. hero. (2) There is a, large body of men who are profoundly dissatisfied with, and disloyal to, the Parlia- mentary Republic, and openly proclaim their desire to over- throw it. (3) Public opinion—witness the reception of the ver- dict in theDeroulede trial—is inclined to encourage rather than to suppress this form of treason. (4) The heads of the Army are sullen and angry, even if humiliated,—witness General Herve's speech at the Deroulede trial, a speech which has been left unpunished. [Remember General Herve is one of the Army Inspectors who are virtually the Commander-in- Chief in commission.] (5) .The President, the Ministry, audthe, Chambers seem bereft of the power of action, and are appa- rently drifting with the stream. When to-day or on Monday the Court of Cessation drops into the human powder-magazine of Paris its decision in the Dreyfus case, it is quite possible that an explosion may ensue, and also possible that Marchand may come - to •the top. No doubt he is only a Major of Marines, but he is also the only person or thing at the present moment which practically all Frenchmen agree to praise and respect. Yet in spite of all these grounds for alarm, we hold instinctively to the belief expressed elsewhere,namely, that, for the present at any rate, there will be no expinsion.
