A number of prominent Frenchmen have been asked their opinion on the possibility of an understanding with Germany or England. Nearly all of them declared that no real rapprochement with Germany was possible as long as Alsace and Lorraine were last to Franes, No doubt the situ: will be altered when the men who p through the ordeal of 1870-71 have sone over to the majority, hut a Fraveo-German alliance against England would seem to be impossible for the present. On the other hand, none of the personages questioned, except. M. Emile Ollivier, expressed any desire for an entente with England. 'The fact is that France suspicious of nil her neighbours and without' confidence in her ally, Every year sees her driven to more and more desperate expedients to make both ends meet. This yenr, for instance, it was proposed te balance the budget by writing off unpaid postal orders to the extent of 14 million franes. Enterprise ix restricted by over-administration, and the free circulation of money is checked by the feeling of insecurity excited by religious and political dissension. For example, Algiers, where all the hotels are empty, the winter visitors having been driven elsewhere by the anti-Semitic agitation. France's vitality is still unimpaired, but she is unmistakably the sick woman of the West.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.