300 



FKANCE. 



baaed on the rights of man, and indignantly 

 repelled the draft of the committee. On the 

 part of the extreme Right, General du Temple 

 made another violent attack upon the Presi- 

 dent, whom he charged with having >aid 

 i- very thing, defended every thing, and attacked 

 everything; with having attacked his legiti- 

 mate king, dethroned his benefactor, and pre- 

 sided in 1831 at the plundering of the archi- 

 episcopal palace of Paris and the demolition 

 of the cross on the tower of Notre Dame. In 

 the name of the Government, Dnfaure, on 

 March 1st, declared that the Pact of Bordeaux, 

 which left the constitutional question unde- 

 cided, and regarded the republic for the present 

 as the neutral ground for all parties, must be 

 maintained, and that the report of the com- 

 mittee was not at variance with the message 

 of November 18th. The opposition which the 

 speech of Dufaure met with called out, March 

 4th. the President himself, who, as he expressed 

 it, desired to "supplement" it. The most im- 

 portant portion of the President's speech was 

 a declaration that he would not advise the 

 proclamation of the "definite republic," but 

 that the National Assembly must not disband 

 without providing good institutions for the 

 provisional republic as it now exists. He was 

 of opinion that, after the conclusion cf peace 

 by the liberation of the French territory, the 

 work of the Assembly was fulfilled, and during 

 the present year its labors should be finished. 

 Against Gambetta he declared in favor of a 

 second Chamber as it exists in the United 

 States, and against the Ri^ht, that he regarded 

 the republic as the legally-proclaimed Gov- 

 ernment. In conclusion, he asked the Assem- 

 bly to accept the draft of the committee. His 

 wish was complied with. The introductory 

 section was adopted by 475 votes against 1 99. 

 The first four articles which regulate the rela- 

 tions of the President to the National Assem- 

 bly offered but little interest. An amendment 

 proposed by Belcastle, who demanded that 

 the suspensive veto should not apply to con- 

 stitutional laws, was rejected. The debates 

 on the fifth article, which was to give fixed 

 institutions to the Provisional Government, 

 were more important. The opposition to this 

 article proceeded from the extreme Right, 

 which couriered it as paradox to strengthen 

 a provisional state of things, and from one 

 P >rtion of the Left which was dissatisfied 

 with the forms of this consolidation. The 

 section on the transfer of the constitutional 

 powers was adopt, ..Ion March 12th hy 434 votes 

 against 190, the section on the formation of a 

 second Chamber by 381 votes against 218, the 

 section on the electoral law by 470 against 168 

 votes, and the whole article by 367 against 227 

 votes. Finally, on March 13th, the whole draft 

 of the committee was approved by 411 against 

 284 Totes. 



On March 15th a now treaty was concluded 

 with the (ierman Government at Berlin, con- 

 cerning the evacuation of the French territory. 



Thanks to the able financial management of 

 1 'resident Thiers, the French Government was 

 able to notify Germany that the fourth mill- 

 iard of the indemnification of war could be 

 paid on May 6, 1873, instead of March I. H-74, 

 and that the fifth and last would be paid be- 

 fore the close of the year 1873. In considera- 

 tion of this advanced payment, Germany 

 agreed to evacuate Franco in July, with tho 

 exception of the fortress Verdun, which they 

 would occupy, in the place of Belfort, until 

 tho payment of the lost milliard. The Minis- 

 ter of Foreign Affairs, Remusat, announced 

 the now treaty to the National Assembly, 

 which unanimously adopted a vote of thanks 

 to President Thiers for having well deserved 

 of the country. 



The protest of Prince Napoleon against his 

 expulsion from France gave rise, on March 

 80th, to an animated debate. The Committee 

 of the Assembly moved to pass to the order 

 of the day, but indirectly blamed the Gov- 

 ernment, declaring itself to bo in principle 

 opposed to the expulsion. Minister bufaure, 

 in defense of the Government, spoke in favor 

 of a simple order of the day, and proposed a 

 law which forbade the members of tho ex-im- 

 perial family from entering France without 

 the special consent of the Government. The 

 Assembly voted the simple order of the day, 

 in accordance with the wishes of the Govern- 

 ment, by a majority of 68. In reply to this 

 vote, Prince Napoleon issued a proclamation 

 to the Corsicans, in which he defended tho 

 claims of the Napoleonic family to the throne 

 of France. He protests against the Revolu- 

 tion of September 4, 1870, and against the 

 arbitrary rule of Thiers; he insists that the 

 country was never so oppressed, poor, and 

 unhappy, as under the present rule; and that, 

 hy his present conduct, Thiers fully ju>titi.<l 

 the measures which were adopted against him 

 in 1851. As for himself, he claims that he at 

 all times was opposed to any kind of proscrip- 

 tion. The secret of the strength of Napoleon- 

 ism, according to him, consists in the fact that 

 the Napoleonic family twice saved France, and 

 gave to it those social guarantees, without 

 which every state falls into anarchy, and that 

 France twice, by a pUbitcite, approved these 

 acts. Napoleonic]!, he say-,, is feared, because, 

 outside of it, there are only two minorities, 

 one of which desires order without democracy, 

 and the other democracy without order. 



On April 1st the President of the Naticpii.il 

 Assembly, (Irevy, gave in his resignation. 

 Tho Assembly on this day had an excited de- 

 bate on the proposed change of the municipal 

 administration of tho city of Lyons. Tho 

 Committee of the Assembly, in the in' 

 of the Conservative party, proposed to abolish, 

 as has been done in Paris, the office of one 

 maire for tho entire city, and to substitute for 

 him n prefect, while the Government, will di- 

 vide the city into as many municipal districts as 

 there are members of the Municipal Council. 



