282 



FRANCE. 



on petitions, and one charged with the exam- 

 ination of the accounts of the Senate. The 

 Assembly deliberated on a Senatus Consultum 

 relative to an exchange of land between the 

 crown and private individuals ; voted 116 bills, 

 among which were 68 concerning the depart- 

 ments, communes, or private individuals ; and 

 48 of general interest; it also set aside, by the 

 previous question, the application for authoriza- 

 tion to institute proceedings against a member. 



Among the most important acts approved 

 during the session belong the law on the right 

 of meeting and the law on the press. The law 

 on the right of meeting was adopted by the 

 Legislative body by 209 yeas against 22 nays ; 

 and in the Senate by 86 yeas against 24 nays ; 

 and the law on the press, in the Legislative 

 body, by 242 yeas against 1 nay ; and in the 

 Senate by 93 yeas against 27 nays. (See FKANCE, 

 PRESS or.) 



The execution of the law concerning the re- 

 organization of the French army produced 

 considerable trouble in several places. In no 

 place were the disturbances so serious as in Bor- 

 deaux. On March 21st a numerous band pa- 

 raded the Rue de la Tresorerie, singing the 

 "Marseillaise." The commissary of police of 

 the quarter presented himself, and attempted 

 to take away a red flag carried by one of the 

 party. A scuffle ensued, and the commissary 

 was badly knocked about. A grocer, who 

 came to the aid of the officer of justice with 

 an iron rod in his hand, was disarmed and 

 beaten. Subsequently the police made several 

 arrests. la the St. Nicholas quarter a sergeant- 

 de-ville was ill-treated. On the 22d the young 

 men ordered to appear before the council of 

 revision in the Place Tourny presented them- 

 selves with big carrots in their button -holes 

 and in their hands. These pacific emblems of 

 agriculture threw ridicule upon the proceed- 

 ings, and provoked great guffaws from the 

 crowd. The police showed themselves in great 

 force everywhere, and many agents went about 

 in plain clothes. In the Place Tourny a picket 

 of regular troops was obliged to aid the police. 

 These disturbances of the 21st and 22d took 

 place subsequently to the trial, on the 20th, by 

 the tribunal of correctional police, of three 

 young men arrested for singing the "Marseil- 

 laise " and crying "Vive la Republique" on the 

 19th. One of these, who excused himself for 

 carrying a red flag on the ground that he had 

 seen one paraded in the streets on the day be- 

 fore, which nobody interfered with, was sen- 

 tenced only to four days' imprisonment ; but 

 the two others, one of whom publicly ha- 

 rangued the mob and spoke against the army 

 bill, were sentenced respectively to three 

 months' and one month's imprisonment. 



In August M. Magne, the Minister of Finance, 

 addressed a report to the Emperor touching the 

 success of the loan of 440,500,000 francs, which 

 the Government had made. The report states 

 the number of subscribers to the loan at 781,292, 

 and the aggregate of their subscriptions at 



660,000,000 of rente, being equal to a capital 

 of fifteen milliards of francs, or little short of 

 thirty-four times the amount called for. The 

 subscriptions received at Paris and in the 

 departments, being not subject to reduction, 

 amount to 3,141,170 francs rente. The moneys 

 deposited to insure an allotment exceed the sum 

 of 660,000,000 francs. 



According to a table published by the Paris 

 Epoque, the result of fifty-two partial elections 

 for the Legislative body, which have taken place 

 from 1863 (the last general elections) to 1868, 

 was as follows: The official candidates, who 

 in 1863 obtained 1,032,367 votes, received only 

 849,759, while 525,290 have been given to the 

 opposition aspirants, in place of 307,295 in 1863. 

 Therefore, since the general election, and in 

 fifty-two circumscriptions alone, the Govern- 

 ment has lost 182,608 votes, while its opponents 

 have gained 218,000, constituting nearly double 

 the number they obtained five years back. On 

 examining the definitive results, it is found that 

 36 candidates of the administration have been 

 elected to 16 independents. 



On March 17th, a pamphlet was published at 

 the imperial printing-press, under the title 

 Les Titres de la Dynastic Napoleonienne (" The 

 Claims of the Napoleonic Dynasty "), having for 

 its object to show, among other facts, that in 

 1799, as well as in 1852, the imperial dynasty, 

 without upsetting any Government, ascended 

 the throne of France, vacant at each of these 

 dates, with the almost unanimous sanction of 

 the people. The following extracts give a re- 

 view of the principal elections, which elevated 

 Napoleon I. and Napoleon III. to the throne, 

 and of the changes which have taken place in 

 the Constitution of the Second French Empire, 

 since 1852 : 



The opposition to the presidential election in 1848 

 had been 1,918,841 votes ; on the 20th of December, 

 1851, it had declined to 641,351 votes. Against the 

 creation of the empire the nays were only 253,145. 



But that which this exposition above all sets forth, 

 is, that six times within half a century the Napoleonic 

 dynasty has received the consecration of universal 

 suffrage. The uncle and the nephew have gone through 

 the same historical cycle ; both have rescued France 

 from chaps ; each, three times acclaimed, held office 

 for a limited period, soon prolonged, and both took 

 their seats on a throne which they found vacant. The 

 consulate and the presidency both merged in the em- 

 pire a unique spectacle in history at fifty years' inter- 

 val, in spite of so many events that intervened to keep 

 it down. The will of the people, like a river swal- 

 lowed up by sand, bursts forth from the lower layers 

 of society, and resumes its level of independence and 

 national greatness. The plebiscite of 1852 answers as 

 an echo to the plebiscite of 1804. The 4,000,000 of * 

 voters which amazed the historians (of the First Em- 

 pire) increased to 8,000,000 ; and he who was called to 

 the throne by virtue of the constitution of the First 

 Empire becomes the chief of the Second, uniting in 

 his person hereditary with elective rights. From 

 1799 to 1804 Napoleon received 10,000,000 of suffrages. 

 From 1848 to 1852 Napoleon received 20,000,000 of 

 votes 30,000,000 of voting papers signed by the 

 French people those are the title-deeds of the Napo- 

 leonic dynasty. 



In the measures which followed the 2d of Decem- 

 ber, it may have "been seen that the Prince-President 



