NEWS OF THE WEEK.
Tr HE French Assembly commenced its Session on November
30, but the President's Message was not read till Thursday, the .3rd inst. The Marshal tells the Deputies that no,Foreign Power doubts his sincere desire to remain on friendly terms with all the Cabinets, that the harvest has been the largest yet known, that the Government has specially endeavoured to make the taxes yield all they can, and that fiscal laws intended to prevent frauds will be submitted to the Assembly. While travelling through some Departments of France, he had noticed "the desire that an organisation admitted by the Assembly to be indispensable should give to the Power created by the law of Novem- ber 20 the strength which it requires," and he trusts that the Deputies will come to an agreement upon it ; but if they do not, the Marshal is "only a means of social defence and national recovery." He is "not there to serve the aspirations of any party," but "will not desert the post in which the Assembly has placed him," but "occupy it until the last day with immutable firmness and scrupulous respect for law." It is believed that the Message was originally much more peremptory, and that at present the –Government do not hope for a majority on the Constitutional Laws.
