NEWS OF THE WEEK
THE great event of the week has been the death of M. Thiers,
which took place at St. Germain on Monday, after only four or five hours' illness, owing to a stroke of apoplexy. M. Thiers had appeared in the morning in his usual health, had lunched, and according to one account had gone out in the storm for a second walk after lunch, while according to the story first given to the public, he was seized before the end of the. meal. Any way, he never recovered from the attack, and died between six and seven in the evening. llis death is a serious loss to France, and will have an immense influence on the impending elections. He was the one Republican whose name was everywhere known and trusted in France, by peasants as well as by politicians, by shopkeepers as well as by artisans. His reputation was a guarantee for the moderation of any Republic over which he presided, and for the caution of its foreign policy. There is no one equally well known to succeed him. Gambetta is still with many classes the " fou furieux" so hastily branded by M. Thiers, though he lived to share that German respect for Gambetta so ably embodied in Freiherr von der Goltz's recent book. M. Grdvy is safe and weighty, but his name is not a European and hardly even a French power. Thiers cannot be replaced.
