NEWS OF THE WEEK.
MJULES FERRY was elected President of the French • Senate on Friday week, receiving 148 votes against 39' given to a Royalist, M. de Kerdrel, and 28 to a Republican of the Left, M. Magnin. He took the chair on Monday, and in his in- troductory speech declared that his colleagues had ended a long ordeal, and had decided that "ostracism had no place in our liberal and tolerant democracy." His own life bad been a long combat, but they bad judged him worthy of the position of arbiter. "Experience of men and things is a great school of equity." The Parliamentary Republic, founded eighteen years ago, had succeeded, though it had against it "an in- veterate tendency of the French mind to confound the best with the most simple," "as if despotism were not the simplest and the worst of Governments." Order had been maintained, the .finances restored, the Army reconstituted, and the Re- public enriched by powerful friendships. The Senate itself, once so attacked, was now regarded as a safeguard. All the Powers of the State were in relations of friendly co-operation and mutual deference. The Republic is open to all, and admits all of good faith and good will. "A great rallying movement is penetrating the masses, and pursuing its imper- turbable march." The speech is understood to be that of a moderate, who welcomes the aid of converted Royalists, and has no reluctance to accept the "powerful friendship " of Russia. The Republicans generally do not object to the election ; but the Radicals still abuse M. Ferry, and Henri Rochefort declares he will prove at the proper moment that the President of the Senate conquered Tonquin as agent of a financial syndicate, which had been assured that a gold-bearing territory existed in the Colony.
