NEWS OF THE WEEK.
WE have little from France this week except complaints of the scarcity of small silver, rumours more or less exaggerated of Bonapartist intrigues, which, even in Corsica, end in nothing but slanders on M. Thiers in the Pays and refutations in the Journal Officiel, and a letter from M. Gambetta to a friend on the duties of a member of the Conseils-Generaux. The letter is sensible, but long and wordy, and its main ideas may be briefly described. M. Gambetta thinks the Departmental Councils should collect infor- mation on the wants, condition, and opinions of the people, and diffuse correct social ideas, but should carefully abstain from general politics. M. Gambetta's enemies, of course, allege that his motive is to restrict the action of the local Councils, because they are full of Orleanists ; but in the great cities the Reds have secured a majority, and it cannot be his interest to close their mouths. The truth seems to be that M. Gambetta, like most Liberals in France, is an honest Centralist.
