Our total impression of the affair is that it may
prove a dis- aster for France. Germany has been insulted without cause, and Spain in the teeth of reason, the President has lost prestige, and the Ministry is breaking up. Moreover, the Parisian mob has once more proved itself an important factor in great affairs. All these things alarm the respectable classes, and increase their permanent impression that the Republic has entered on a downward course. That is, of course, an exaggeration ; but the decline of M. Grevy is, we fear, real, and the Chamber will have a most difficult task in apportioning blame and regulating a reconstruction of the Government. Fortunately, all classes appear disposed to await the reassembling of the Chamber, and the Deputies will return fresh from contact with constituents who neither fear nor reverence Paris. They may find a new Ministry not afraid of M. Wilson, and, by adopting M. Grevy's policy of abstention from " spirited " foreign policy, replace him in accord with his Ministers. The grand difficulty, how- ever, will be General Thibaudin, whom M. Gr6vy will not dismiss by fiat, and whom a large party in the Chamber wish to retain. They know be cannot strike coups d'etat, and they believe that he could prevent any movement among the higher officers of the Army. Unfortunately, the known Gene- rals who are also convinced Republicans are now few.
