NEWS OF THE WEEK.
DEA.CE has been made at last, though on terms which reduce it
merely to a truee. M. Thiers, after a contest with Count Bis- marck which was prolonged for days, yielded at last, and signed a treaty by which France cedes all Alsace to Germany, with the exception of Belfort, and Lorraine up to the western side of the arrondissement of Metz; agrees to pay £200,000,000 as a war in- demnity, and consents to the occupation of certain territories until the payment is complete. Nothing is said in the Treaty about deductions,—though it is rumoured allowance will be made for the Alsatian share of the debt and the value of the State railways, say £25,000,000 in all,—and a mean little rider is appended compelling France to pay interest on such of the indemnity as is not paid up at once. The whole is to be cleared off in three years, and when the first £20,000,000 are paid the Germans will quit Paris and Normandy ; but they will con- tinue to hold all the territory between Rheims and the Vosges, including the fortress of Belfort, until the remainder has been liquidated. The expenses of the garrison will be paid by France, 'but it will be gradually reduced to 50,000 men, and no requisi- tions are to be levied in the occupied districts.
