NEWS OF THE WEEK.
THE French Empire has been struck by a thunderbolt from the blue. Everything was going on excellently, when it pleased Prince Pierre Bonaparte, a son of Lucien and member of the Imperial House, though outside the line of succession, to shoot down a young Parisian journalist, called Victor Noir, under circumstances we have carefully analyzed elsewhere. Paris, which knew, what apparently London journalists do not know, that the Marquis de Fonvielle, the only witness of the crime, is a person entitled to prima facie credence, went mad over the news, declared that the Bonapartes set themselves above all laws, and threatened insurrection. The excitement was deepened by an article in the Marseillaise, M. Rochefort's new paper, directly calling on the people to revolt, and it was for some hours believed that the funeral on Wednesday would be the signal for an Imeute. It would have been, but for M. Rochefort. Fifty thousand persons accompanied the funeral cortege to the grave at Neuilly, and the crowd, composed of first-class artizans in thousands, a few regular insurrectionists, and an immense number of workmen in blouses, raised the cry, "To Paris with the corpse ! " and the order would have been obeyed, but that Rochefort, who twice fainted from excitement, dissuaded the people, and had the body buried; and on his return down the Champs Elysees, after a conference with the cavalry drawn up near the Palace of Industry, persuaded his followers to disperse. Had the body been borne into Paris, the crowd would have swelled to hundreds of thousands, all embittered by an attack on equality, and nothing but a miracle could have prevented a collision with the troops, followed by a massacre. It appears to be certain that the troops are stanch, but no man can ever predict the effect of slaughter in Paris.
