NEWS OF THE WEEK.
T"great conspiracy against the liberties of France having been exploded by the letter from the Comte de Chambord, the conspirators have fallen back upon another plan. They believe that a military dictatorship, lasting for ten years, and supported by a Conservative Government, with power to silence the Press, abolish the municipalities, and manipulate the elections, may reduce France to such a condition that she may willingly accept the Comte de Chambord ; or if he is dead, the Comte de Paris. They have pressed this idea upon Marshal MacMahon, who has accepted it, and in a message read on November 5th, the " im- partial soldier" poses openly as chief of a party. After repeating that the Germans have departed, that material tranquillityhas been maintained, and that the Government has not intervened in recent party discussions, he suggests that the Pro thorium should be continued. To continue it, he says, two things are necessary,— more durability and more authority. The right to govern must not be daily called in question ; the right of removing the Presi dent must be given up ; power must be given him "to discourage the factions," to "repress a Press which abandons itself with im- punity to excesses," and to compel the municipalities "to remem- ber that they are organs of law, and ought not to leave the Central Government without representatives."
