Paris has been surprised and shocked by the sudden death, under dramatic ciroum~ stances, of M. Gabriel Syvoton, one of the best-known metropolitan deputies, A fow weeks ago, in the midst of a stormy debate on the question of delation, or denunciation by spies in the army, M. Syveton struck the Minister of War (General Andre) " sounding blow on the cheek. It was apparent from his demean our that M. Syveton, who was thirty-five, whilst the Minister is bordering on twice that age, had gone to the Chamber with the express purpose of "inflicting chastisement" as he called it upon General Andre. Ho was suspended from the House for thirty sittings which expired yesterday, and to-day ho was to have appeared before the Assize Court to answer for the assault. As he acknowledged and, indeed, boasted, of his premeditstion, it is almost certain that his punishment would have been severe. But yesterday afternoon he died, asphyxiated it was suid, by guses from a stove, Ho remained in his library all the morning and when his wife went to call him to lunch he was found lying unconscious on the floor, poisoned by coal-gas. One recalls the death of Zola and his wife, poisoned in like' manner, two yours ago, The sensation of the hour, however, is the accusation, covertly made in certain Nationalist papers, that Syveton died neither by accident nor by suicila but as the result of a crime committed by the Freemasons. There is, indeed, a certain mystery about the whole affair but circumstances point to accident rather than any other theory.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.