FRANCE. 



311 



published a decree appointing Admiral Eoze 

 commander of the Mediterranean Squadon, vice 

 Ronciere-le-Noury. 



In the latter part of the month of September 

 a Bonapartist council was held at Arenenberg, 

 Switzerland. No official account of it was 

 published, but it was believed that henceforth 

 the Prince Imperial will take the lead of the 

 Imperialist policy, and M. Rouher will be his 

 chief adviser. On October 16th M. Rouher 

 made a speech at Ajaccio. He made an attack 

 on ex-President Thiers and the Orleauists, ac- 

 cusing them of having blocked up all the ave- 

 nues to power. He censured President Mac- 

 Mahon, and said since the 24th of May, 1873, 

 when the marshal was chosen President, he 

 had incurred heavy responsibilities. M. Rouher 

 declared that the re visionary clause of the Con- 

 stitution remained intact. The Bonapartists, 

 he said, are in favor of universal suffrage, and 

 would contend for an appeal to the people 

 in order to give expression to the national 

 will. 



A serious difficulty between the Vice-Presi- 

 dent of the Ministerial Council, M. Buffet, and 

 the Minister of Finance, Leon Say, arose in 

 consequence of a speech delivered by the Min- 

 ister of Finance at a banquet on the 27th of 

 September. M. Buffet prohibited the publica- 

 tion of the speech on account of the following 

 sentence: "The coalition of the 24th of May 

 is happily dissolved." At the cabinet council 

 held on October 1st explanations were given, 

 and the affair was settled amicably. Conse- 

 quently M. Say did not resign, as he intended, 

 and the Journal Officiel, on October 2d, pub- 

 lished the speech, with a letter from M. Say 

 explaining the objectionable passage. The let- 

 ter had previously been read in the cabinet 

 meeting and approved. 



The last session of the National Assembly 

 began on November 4th. The Duke d'Audif- 

 fret-Pasquier was on November 5th reflected 

 President by a combination of the Left with a 

 portion of the Right. He received 396 votes, 

 and 104 of the ballots were blanks. On No- 

 vember 9th the Assembly, by a vote of 50!T 

 yeas to 26 nays, adopted the amendment to 

 the electoral bill, enabling half-yearly residents 

 to vote, in accordance with an agreement with 

 the Government committee. The most dis- 

 puted point of the electoral law was whether 

 the scrutin d'arrondissement (vote for only one 

 deputy in the arrondissement) or the scrutin 

 de lute (vote for all the deputies of a depart- 

 ment on one ticket), was decided on November 

 10th. The Committee of Thirty was in favor 

 of the scrutin de liste, but the Government, 

 though not making the matter a cabinet ques- 

 tion, in favor of the scrutin d' arrondissement. 

 M. Ricard, a moderate Republican, opened the 

 discussion. He stigmatized voting by arron- 

 dissement as an attack on universal suffrage. 

 He declared that M. Buffet, having endeavored 

 to retain the prefects of the empire, now, be- 

 cause he repudiated the majority which voted 



the constitution of February 25th, wished to 

 reestablish the electoral system of the empire. 

 "We demand," continued the deputy, "the 

 scrutin de liste, which will preserve the alliance 

 formed on the 25th of February." M. Dufaure, 

 Minister of Justice, replied, saying: "The Gov- 

 ernment will not accept at the next elections all 

 who voted for the constitution. The Govern- 

 ment will say to them, ' Thank you for voting 

 the constitution ; but we require more ; your 

 republic is not ours; you will not have our 

 confidence or our vote.' " This declaration 

 caused an uproar of denunciation and dissent 

 on the left of the Chamber. M. Gambetta 

 said : " The scrutin de liste is the only method 

 of uniting the energies of all. We must no 

 longer proclaim our disunion to Europe. The 

 ministry opposes the scrutin de liste because it 

 is afraid of universal suffrage. By the arron- 

 dissement system men like Thiers and Dufaure 

 will be defeated if they are against the Gov- 

 ernment. Local officials will be able to warp the 

 suffrage." A vote was then taken by means of 

 secret ballot, and resulted in favor of the Gov- 

 ernment, standing 357 yeas to 326 nays. 



On November 12th M. Dufaure introduced 

 the press bill. By its provisions the state of 

 siege is to be raised, except in Algiers and the 

 departments of the Seine, Rhone, Bouches-du- 

 Rh6ne, and Seine-et-Oise. The bill also pro- 

 vides that numerous press offenses, such as in- 

 sults to the authorities, false intelligence, and 

 instigation to crime, shall be tried by the cor- 

 rectional tribunals instead of by jury. In the 

 special committee elected by the bureaux to 

 consider the bill, eleven members belonged to 

 the Opposition and only four favored the bill. 

 The report of the committee on the bill was 

 made by Albert GreVy. M. GreVy, in his report, 

 recommended the unconditional raising of the 

 state of siege. " If the bill of the Govern- 

 ment should be adopted," M. Gre>y says, "the 

 most sacred rights of citizens, and the most 

 dearly-bought public liberties, are at the mercy 

 of arbitrary power, just as if there were foreign 

 and civil war. A law of public safety, essen- 

 tially exceptional and temporary, is made nor- 

 mal and permanent, just for the convenience 

 of an administration which finds martial law 

 handy." He spoke with great severity of the 

 ministerial doctrine that martial law is required 

 to maintain the sincerity of the elections. It 

 cannot Ijonestly be necessary for such a pur- 

 pose that the Government should be empow- 

 ered, without judgment or even prosecution, to 

 suspend or suppress journals, prohibit public 

 or private meetings, make domiciliary visits by 

 day and night, and remind citizens that they 

 are liable to be tried by court-martial. The 

 bill proposes a restitution of the most noxious 

 legislation of the empire, with aggravations. 

 The reporter scouts the idea that such an 

 abominable press law is to be the ransom for 

 the abolition of the state of siege, and says 

 that in the ministerial project which would 

 keep Paris, Lyons, and Marseilles, under the 



