The deceased deputy was of a types violent and ill-balanced in his political judgtaents, which is sufficiently common upon the benches of the Right in the Palais Bourbon, He was a University professor and has written with " certain authority on historical subjects, but the, exercise did not teach him moderation or respect for tradition, when it came to a question of actual conduct. He allied himself with the extreme wing of the Nationslist Party which is remarkable for the incoherency of its programme as well as for its implacable hatred of the present occupants of place and power. His action was of that species of political Hooliganism which found expression in the assault on the President of the Republic on the race-course at Anteuil soon after his election to his-high office.
M. Rodin and the "Beaux Arts."
As most people know, there are two picture-salons held in the Spring in Paris. The one known as the "Societe Nationale des Artistes Francais" is the official Academy" which has existed a hundred years or 80; theothoris the "Salon des Beaux Arts," an off-shoot of the former and of comparatively recent growth, The president of the new Society is M. Carolus-Duran, a painter of distinction. He has just been appointed by the Minister Public Instruction and the Fine Arts to the important post of director of the Villa Médicis, or French Art School in Rome. That leaves a vacancy la the presidency of the "Beaux Arts." The greatest interest is being taken in the election of a successor. The most likely candidates, already vice-presidents of the Society, are M. Alfred Roll, and M. Rodin.
Roll is a painter of the new school, strong, coarse, vivid, and large in his manner; al for the suffrages of the members and associates is the greatest sculptor of modera times, M. Rodin. He has gone quite away from accepted theories on the subject of the plastic arts, and his marble is living, and powerful, and' sensuous. In whatever fashion he sees life he depicts it with his marvellous chisel. His work has been mora criticised than that of any living artist, but no sculptor of the present day has been able to express the very secrets of Natura as ho does, often, as it seems, with a few ill-considered strokes of the mallet. Should he occupy the position of President of the "Beaux Arts," he would worthily sustain the prestige of such giants as Meissonier and Puvis de his penultimate predecessors. The New Year's Card, Customs die harder in France, perhaps, than in any other country, notwithstanding the claim of logicality in every rela tion of life. Thus, the sending of ing cards, bearing Now Year's wishes, through the post to one's friends -and relations, which is generally acknowledged to be a great weariness to the flesh of both sender and recipient, still survives. in spite of the efforts of reformers. Even President Loubet has had to acknowledge himself beaten in an attempt at relief. Last year he decreed that there should be no more cards sent to the Elysee, but he ha now received a depuration of printers, who told bim that the abolition of the practice would bring distress to members of the Caxton fraternity. The:
i.as yielded tothesereprethe bits of paste-board with their souhaits de bonne année" will again figure in the New Year landscape. The giving of presents of bonbons to one's fair friends is aleo a custom that dies hard. Whatever the state of one's own feelings may be towards the end of the year it brings, if not always good cheer, an inevitable quantity of Christmas bills.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.