

I-KANTK. 



811 



for t ho affairs of the country, and 



ART. 9. Our Minister of State is charged with the 



. diminution of the preroga- execution of the present decree. 



,!':,.. 'i. '* r ''i the address may be Done at the Palace of the Tuiloriet, January 19. 

 i;> 



E. KouiiEJt, Minister of State. 



time ITVV,', 



; 



1 1.111*1- UV/nVID* bllU UlAUlvnn 1|J w 



prudently regulated, of 

 puitiiix' 'he Lrovernmeiit. 



ditication lias appeared to me necessary 



the irovcrnment toward < >" the publication ot tins decree all the 



-..idered th .>' ministers tendered their resignation. '1 



> the Senate and the Corps Legis- peror accepted the resignation of Fonld I Fi- 



(Navy), mid Bchic 



l commission, I should better utilize 



.- '\enimcnt witlmilt dcviatin 

 f the constitution, whirli admit.- no soli- 

 auii'ii^' tlif ministers, and makes them depend- 

 ent only ii|n>ti the cliii-t' of the state. 



. forms which it is titling to adopt must 



not st. A law will he proposed for assigning 



. .\er offences uira'mst the press law 



ively to the correctional tribunals, mid thus 



Mip]T ivtionary power of the government. 



r.iually necessary to regulate legislatively the 



riu'lit nt assembly, while restraining it within the 



limits which public safety demands. 



I said List year that my government wished to 

 walk upon ground consolidated and capable of sus- 

 taining power and liberty. By the measures I have 

 just pointed out my words become realized. I do 

 not shake the ground which fifteen years of calm 

 and prosperity have consolidated, but I increase the 

 Ktrciiirth by rendering my relations with the great 

 publie powers more intimate by securing to the citi- 

 .y la\\ fresh guarantees, by completing the 

 crowning <>f the edifice erected by the national will. 



On this, monsieur le rninistre, I pray God to have 

 you in Ilis holy keeping. NAPOLEON. 



The following Is the full text of the decree 

 which accompanies the letter of the Em- 

 peror : 



Napoleon, by the grace of God and the national 

 will Emperor of the French, to all present and to 

 come, greeting : Wishing to give to the discussions 

 of the great bodies of the state relative to the home 

 and foreign policy of the government more utility and 

 ion, wo have decreed and decree what follows : 

 r. 1. The members of the Senate and of the 

 Corps Legislatif may put questions to the govern- 

 ment. 



A IST. 2. Every demand for addressing questions to 

 the government must be written or signed by five 

 members at least. This demand will briefly explain 

 the object of the questions, and will be handed to the 

 President, who will communicate it to the Minister 

 o f State and refer it to the committees for examination. 



ART. 8. If two committees of the Senate or four 

 committees of the Corps Logislutif deliver the opin- 

 ion that the questions may be put, the Chamber will 

 fix a day for their discussion. 



ART. 4. Upon the close of the debate, the Cham- 

 ber will either simply declare the order of the day or 

 refer the question to the government. 



A isr. 5. The simple order of the day will always 

 have priority. 



AUT. G. r l?he reference to the government can only 

 be made in the following terms: "The Senate (or 

 the Corps Legislatif) calls the attention of the gov- 

 ernment to the object of the question." In this case 

 a summary of the debate will also be transmitted to 

 the Minister of State. 



ART. 7. Any of the ministers may, if specially 

 delegated by the Emperor, be charged, in concert 

 with the Minister of State and the presidents and 

 members of the Council of State, to represent the 

 government in the Senate or Corps Legislatif during 

 tes on general questions or bills. 



ART. 8. Articles 1 and 2 of our decree of the 24th 

 of November, 1860, providing that the Senate and 

 Corps Logislatif shall every year, at the opening of 

 the session, vote an address in reply to our speech, 

 are hereby repealed. 



Chasselonp-Laubat 

 (Agriculture, Conn; 



etc.), and in their place appointed Kouher as 

 provisional Minister of Finance, Marshal Niel 

 as Minister of War, liiiranlt de Genoully as 

 .Mini-ter of the Navy, de Forcade la Roquetto 

 Minister of Agriculture, Commerce, etc. A sup- 

 plementary decree was issued on February 5th, 

 regulating the relations of the Senate and the 

 lative Body with the Emperor and Council 

 of State, and establishing the organic conditions 

 under which their labors are to be conducted. 



The first sitting of the French Chambers in 

 1867 was opened by the Emperor Napoleon on 

 February 14th. The Emperor thus referred to 

 the German and Mexican questions : 



Since your last session serious events have arisen 

 in Europe. Although they may have astonished the 

 world by their rapidity and by the importance of 

 their results, it appears that according to the antici- 

 pation of the First Emperor there was a fatality in 

 their fulfilment. Napoleon said at St. Helena : 

 " One of my gjeat ideas has been the agglomeration 

 and concentration of the same nations, geographically 

 considered, who have been scattered piecemeal by 

 revolutions and policy. This agglomeration will take 

 place sooner or later by the force of circumstances. 

 The impulse is given, and I do not think that after 

 my fall and the disappearance of my system there 

 will be any other great equilibrium possible than the 

 agglomeration and confederation ot great nations." 

 The transformations that have taken place in Italy 

 and Germany pave the way for the realization of this 

 vast programme of the union of the European states 

 in one solo confederation. 



The spectacle of the efforts made bv the neighbor- 

 ing nations to assemble their members, scattered 

 abroad for so many centuries, cannot cause disquiet 

 to a country like ours, all the parts of which are irrev- 

 ocably bound up with each other, and form a homo- 

 geneous and indestructible body. We have been 

 impartial witnesses of the struggle which had been 

 waged on the other side of the Rhine. In presence 

 of these conflicts the country strongly manifested its 

 wish to keep aloof from it. Not only did I defer to 

 this wish, but I used every effort to hasten the con- 

 clusion of peace. I did not arm a single additional 

 soldier ; I did not move forward a single regiment : 

 and yet the voice of France had influence enough to 

 arrest the conqueror at the gates of Vienna. Our 

 mediation effected an arrangement between the 

 belligerents which, leaving to Prussia the fruit of 

 her successes, maintained the integrity of the Aus- 

 t riaii territory with the exception of a single province, 

 and by the cession of Venetia completed Italian inde- 

 pendence. Our action has been exercised, therefore, 

 with views of justice and conciliation. France has 

 not drawn the sword because her honor was not at 

 stake, and because she had promised to observe a 

 strict neutrality. 



In another part of the globe we have been obliged 

 to employ force to redress legitimate grievances, and 

 we have endeavored to raise an ancient empire. The 

 happy results at flrst obtained were compromised by 

 an inauspicious occurrence -of circumstances. The 

 guiding idea of the Mexican expedition wus an ele- 

 vated one. To regenerate a people and implant among 



