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pendence and force to give timely warning, and keep the Government within bounds."

M. Ernest Renan, author of "La Vie de Jésus," informed the electors of Meaux that he was opposed to all ideas of revolution. He belonged, he said, to no party. Any new revolution would be fatal, as it would be the forerunner of a reaction more deplorable than any since 1848. He was persuaded that the regular development of existing institutions would realize serious reform. His watchwords were, "No revolution and no war-progress and liberty." In like manner, M. Berthe, representative of the people in the Constitutional Assembly, and a Republican of the Cavaignac school, declared to the constituents of the Burgos Pyrenees that the report of his wishing for the overthrow of the Empire was utterly false :

"I love my country too much to desire a fresh revolution. I discard all party spirit, and only look at the interest of France. I am animated by an equal love for order and for liberty."

M. Henri Rochefort, the editor of the Lanterne, avowed in his address to the third division of Paris his "invincible resolution to fight." What he wrote in his Lanterne he pledged himself to repeat in the Legislative Chamber, if elected. France cannot shake off" its unhealthy sleep" but by a salutary crisis; he was one of those who are determined to provoke that crisis, and he declared himself a Democrat and Socialist.

M. Thiers having been invited to appear before the electors of the second circumscription of Paris, declined attending, and assigned the following reasons for his determination :

"You are not ignorant how numerous and diverse are the opinions which compose the immensity of universal suffrage. If I had any thing to inform my fellow-citizens relative to my ideas, it is before the totality of that grand whole that I ought to appear, and not before one single section-that represented by the Democratic Socialist Committee, in whose name you have invited me to your meeting. But permit me to ask you, what should I do among you? Discuss social organization? That is a most serious subject, and worthy of the deepest meditation, and on which you and I differ profoundly. I should not assuredly fear to explain those divergencies to you; but could I, in the middle of the passions of the electoral contest, and in the presence of the agents of the Government, disposed to allow any one to speak rather than myself, obtain the time, the prolonged attention, and the calm which so important and so grave a matter demands? Certainly not. Besides, what is the question at this moment? One sole subject, as you have yourselves recognized in your printed programme-liberty. Freedom is the indispensable instrument of all truth, but at present we are deprived of it, and the object is to achieve it. During the last six years I have devoted all my efforts to that work, and the persons who have not been enlightened by my speeches, my acts, and the constancy of my endeavours during the last Session will not be so

by an explanation of an hour, often consisting only of promises contradicted by acts."

Some serious disturbances took place during the elections, which were not concluded before the early part of June, and in several parts of Paris crowds of men traversed the streets, shouting, "Vive la République! Vive la Lanterne!" (meaning M. Rochefort's newspaper) and singing the "Marseillaise Hymn." Disturbances happened also at Angers, Lille, Amiens, Toulouse, Bordeaux, Dijon, Calais, and Toulon.

Before we mention the result of the elections, we will quote a speech made by the Emperor on the occasion of a visit which he and the Empress paid to the city of Chartres on the 9th of May. His Majesty said,

"Twenty years ago, when I was appointed President of the Republic, it was the town of Chartres which I visited first. I have not forgotten the pleasing reception I met with. It was within your walls that I, on the strength of my good intentions, made my first appeal to the spirit of conciliation, calling upon all good citizens to sacrifice for the public welfare their regrets and feelings of rancour. To-day, after seventeen years of peaceful prosperity, I am about to speak to you in the same language, but with greater authority and confidence than in 1848. Once more I address myself to the honest men of every party, inviting them to second the regular advance of my Government on the path of liberal progress which it has laid down, and to oppose insuperable resistance to those subversive passions which appear to revive only to threaten the unshaken fabric of universal suffrage. In a few days the people will meet in their electoral comitia, and will, I have no doubt, choose men worthy of that mission of civilization which we have to accomplish. I count upon you, citizens of Chartres, because you are part of those eight millions of Frenchmen who have thrice accorded to me their suffrages, and because I know you are animated with ardent patriotism; and where genuine love of one's country reigns, there the best guarantees for order, progress, and liberty cannot fail to exist."

About this time a pamphlet appeared in Paris, called L'Empereur, which was an elaborate vindication of the Imperial rule. Passing by the eulogy upon the personal character of the Emperor himself, we will give some extracts which describe what he has done for the material prosperity of France-results which it would be difficult for his worst enemies to gainsay or deny.

"An account of what the Emperor has done for the cause of society cannot well find a place in a mere portrait; but, comparing it with what had been done before him, it would seem that during the nineteen years of his reign he has accomplished the work of centuries. The day will come when impartial history will say, Napoleon III. found France unsettled, made sterile by the most detestable passions; and he has made it strong, fertile, and great. Look at the rich fields, where every peasant has henceforth his vine

and his harvest, where his property is vivified by division; look at the cultivated plains where formerly there were but sandy deserts ; those schools, those churches, those lodging-houses for workmen, those beneficent establishments, those monuments, those networks of railways, where steam annihilates time and space; those canals, those by-roads, countless arteries of industrial and rural life; those manufactories, which produce for all countries, for those even to which France had before been tributary; that territory so well ordered in its riches that it suffices for itself. Look at Paris made salubrious, enlarged, rebuilt, and made the capital of the world, grander than the Rome of the Cæsars; those ports, those fortifications, those arsenals, those perfected arms, by which courage becomes invincible; that army whose colours, torn by bullets, are covered over with the names of victories; that formidable fleet, an entirely new creation, and yielding to none other the empire of the seas; the right of neutrals and the right of humanity inscribed in the code of naval and continental battles; the name of France protecting Christian missions in the most remote and barbarous countries; the frontiers levelled by the civilizing influence of commerce and the emancipation of nationalities; the magnanimous and incessant appeal to Congresses for universal pacification; the steady and the all but complete solution of the most formidable social problems; the solicitude which protects the working man from his cradle to his grave by institutions of beneficence, credit, and forethought; good every where encouraged and recompensed; the level of intelligence raised at the same time as material welfare; primary and professional instruction, formerly so limited, diffused every where ; labour, so long the slave of capital and of itself, nobly emancipated; liberty and equality alike to the working man and the employer; association accessible to probity and courage; immense works and new ideas infusing vigour into the life-blood of the nation,-all these benefits and all these glories, order and liberty, prosperity, justice, this great current of generosity, and this force, all due to the initiative of Napoleon III."

The total number of opposition candidates elected to the New Chamber was little more than thirty. For Paris MM. Thiers, Garnier Pagès, Ferry, and Jules Favre were returned; and amongst those who were elected for the Department of the Seine (in which Paris is included) were MM. Gambetta, Bancel, Ernest Picard, Jules Simon, and Eugène Pelletan.

On the 16th of June a letter was published which was addressed by the Emperor to M. de Mackau, a member of the Legislative Body. It was as follows:

:

"My dear M. de Mackau,-I have received the letter by which, in the name of the electors who have again returned you to the Legislative Body, you express the desire that my Government may be strong enough to repel the aggression of parties, and to give to liberty guarantees of duration by basing it on a firm and vigilant authority.

"You add, with good reason, that concessions of principles, or sacrifices of persons, are always inefficient in presence of popular movements, and that a Government with any self-respect ought not to yield either to pressure, or persuasion, or riot.

"That view of the question is also mine, and I am well pleased that it is entertained by your constituents, as it is also, I am well convinced, by the great majority of the Chamber and of the country. "Believe in all my sentiments.

"NAPOLEON."

In another letter, a few days later, addressed by the Emperor to M. Schneider, who wished to resign the office of President of the Legislative Body, but which resignation his Majesty refused to accept, he said, "The policy of my Government is manifested with sufficient clearness to prevent any mistake about it. After, as before, the elections it will continue the work which it has undertaken-viz. the reconciling strong authority with institutions sincerely liberal." In June the Emperor visited the camp at Chalons, and in a speech addressed to the soldiers who took part in the Italian campaign of 1859, said,-

"Soldiers !-I am rejoiced to see that you have not forgotten the grand cause for which we fought ten years ago. Keep always in your hearts the remembrance of the battles of your fathers, and those in which you have taken part, since the history of our wars is the history of the progress of civilization. Thus you will preserve the military spirit which is the triumph of noble over vulgar passions. Fidelity to the standard is devotion to one's native country; continue as in the past, and you will always be worthy sons of the Great Nation."

In the same month M. Henri Rochefort was sentenced, on the charge of complicity in the illegal introduction of the Lanterne into France, to three years' imprisonment, to a fine of 10,000f., and to the forfeiture of his rights as a citizen for the same term of three years.

The newly elected Legislative Body met at the end of July for the purpose of verifying the elections, and M. Rouher, Minister of State, addressed the Members in the following words :

"The present extraordinary Session was necessary in order to hasten the verification of the elections, and thus put an end to all uncertainty respecting the validity of the electoral proceedings. According to the Government's intentions, the present session has no other object. The recomposition of the Legislative Body by the process of universal suffrage is a natural opportunity for the nation to manifest its thoughts, its wants, and its aspirations. But the examination of the political results of this manifestation on the part of the people should not be precipitate. At the ordinary session the Government will submit to the high consideration of the public bodies the resolutions and projects which seem to it the most calculated to realize the wishes of the country."

CHAPTER II.

FRANCE (continued).

Constitutional change in the Imperial Government-Surrender by the Emperor of Personal Power-Message from his Majesty to the Legislative Body-Change in the personnel of the Ministry-Senatus Consultum-Report thereon-Remarkable Speech of Prince Napoleon-Speech of M. Michel Chevalier-Commercial Treaty with England-Le Père Hyacinthe-Postponement of the meeting of the Chambers -Manifesto of the Opposition-Illness of the Emperor-Reception of the Prussian Ambassador-Political Creed of the Party of the Left-Paris Election-Speech of the Emperor at the opening of the Chambers-Speech of the Minister of the Interior on the Policy of the Government-The Ecumenical Council at Rome-M. Rochefort in the Legislative Body-Debate on Electoral Returns-Change of Ministry.

A VERY important change took place this year in the Imperial régime. Hitherto the Government of France under the Second Empire had been very much personal Government by the Emperor, who had by no means acceded to the maxim which was in vogue under the Orleans dynasty-Le Roi régne, mais il ne gouverne pas. The Emperor was emphatically the Government, and the Ministers were the creatures of his will in every sense. One inconvenience of this was that all attacks on the Ministry were construed into attacks upon the personal authority of the Chief of the State, and opposition to the measures was apt to be considered disaffection to the Throne. In England we all know how completely the authority of the Sovereign is kept distinct from the responsibility of Ministers, who, although appointed by and nominally dependent on the Crown, practically hold their places at the will of a Parliamentary majority. The Emperor Napoleon thought the time had come when it would be expedient to introduce a similar principle into the Government of France, and for that purpose a Senatus Consultum was prepared, the object of which was to provide better guarantees for constitutional liberty and ministerial responsibility.

With reference to this subject, M. Rouher, Minister of State, read the following message from the Emperor at the sitting of the Legislative Body, on the 12th of August:

"By the declaration of the 28th ult. I announced that I should submit at the ordinary session of the Chamber the resolutions and plans which seemed most fitting to realize the wishes of the country. However, as the Legislative Body appears desirous to learn immediately what reforms have been decided upon, I think it right to anticipate its wishes. It is my firm intention to give to the powers of the Legislative Body that extension which is compatible with the cardinal bases of the Constitution. I now lay before you by this Message the decisions which have been taken at the Council. The Senate will be convoked as soon as possible to examine the following questions, viz.:

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