The Express.
London, England, 1851-12-09 00:00:00

REVOLUTION IN FRANCE.

STATE OF PARIS.

to portion of the following appeared in a second
edition of the Express last evening.)
PARIS, SUNDRY EVENING.
The members of the dissolved Assembly are now,
with few exceptions, at liberty. The first use
which they have made of their power of
seeing one another has been to commit whe-
ther they shall stay at Paris or mak to
the various departments, where they have mast
influence, in order to organise a pacific resist-
ance to .ouis Napoleon by way of vote. This goes-
, bon has not been yet decided. But several censer-
' votive representatives will meet this evening at the
house of a well known ex-minister, in order to come
to some common resolution on this subject. I un-
derstand that none of the representatives hostile to
the government receive their letters addressed to
them ; and their correspondence has to be sent
through third parties. The most important
private news which I receive from the de-
partments is that Douay has declared against
the President, and holds out. I notice in the
official news from the departments the omis-
sion of the Bouchoo-du-lthone. Merely the
Bonapartist addresses of the Prefect and Mayor of
Marseilles are given; but not a fact of auy kind is
' mentioned.
' There is nothing new in the aspect of Paris to-
day, nor anything in the streets unecarred by the
events of Thursday, which could give the least idea
that so tremendous a revolution had been accom-
plished.
A friend who called in on his return from the
Evangelical Chapel of the Rue Taitbout, tells me
that the protestant teacher there announced that the
lectures suspended by the events of the week would
be now resumed.
It appears by a proclamation of the Prefect of
the Haute-Garonne, published in the Moniteur' that
the following telegraphic despatch was sent by the
Minister of the Interior to every prefect in France
on the 2nd of December:
THE MINISTER OP THE INTERIOR TO THE PREFECTS.
The repose of France was menaced by the Assembly. It
is dissolved. The President of the Republic appeals to the
nation. He maintains the republic, and loyally remits to the
country the right of decidiug upon its destiny. The
population of Paris has accepted with enthusiasm
this event which had become indispensable. The govern-
ment gives you all powers necessary to ensure public tran-
quillity.
It is worthy of observation that the prefects' pro-
clamation is dated Toulouse, Dec. 2.
The first grand issue to be looked for is now the
result of the secret ballot by universal suffrage on
the 20th and 21st instant. It would not be very
safe at this moment in France to express doubts as
to the sincere intention of the President to accept
the decision of the country upon that occasion. All
the hostility of the Assembly will for the pre-
sent be turned into this channel; the coali-
tion of the royalists and socialists will be
exerted with all possible energy to procure
the failure of Louis Napoleon's appeal to the country;
and, in case of a negative vote carrying the day,
means will be organised to render that vote effective.
Whether the royalists join the socialists or not in a
civil war against the President, supposing him not to
stand by the award to which he has appealed, the
army arrayed against usurpation would be in its vast
republican, and no doubt sufficiently for-
ble to dispute obstinately the empire of France
against all violent and illegal pretensions. If, on the
Weer hand, the President obtain the majority of suf-
lieges, as there is every probability he will, the
supreme power which he has gained by a violent
surprise must be regarded as consolidated in his
heeds by the consent of the nation. In that case
the cause of the Legitimists and Orleanists will look
so desperate, that we may expect many of the leaders
of those parties to come forward and support the
authority of Louis Napoleon ; and in all cases, whe-
ther they do so or not, the bulk of their adherents
will pursue that course. Thus surrounded with
the army, the bourgeoisie, and the mass of
the nation, Louis Napoleon will be in a
I very different condition from that in which
be made his appeal on the 2nd of December. Will
he, under such circumstances, remember his pledge
to allow one of the chambers to be chosen by univer-
sal suffrage? Whatever may be the present inten-
tions of Louis Napoleon, it may be reasonably
doubted whether such a result will be ever realised.
Evidently. a chamber so chosen would be in perpe-
tual collision with the senate, and still more with a
government which must be essentially repressive. :It
siskty
would lie at the mercy of the army, and after a few
maim of stormy debates would be swept away like its
poiesemor. Such a legislative body would, in fact,
no party. It would be objected to by the
moserratives as the deformed issue of unlimited
sage • it would be as an institution unless to the
=irom its being controlled by the other or-
bodies of the date. Hence the realisation
of Louis Napoleon's programme, even in case of his
obtaining the majority of votes throughout France,
nillifar from probable. His success must, in
lf; the very nature of things, lead to the er-
ased= not only of that universal suffrage, which he
adopted u his flag against the Assembly in the
meerge of the 4th November, but of representative
Imitations altogether, which are systematically as-
sailed in all the organs devoted to his cause.
I am told today on all hands by persons conversant
with the tone of opinion that Louis Napoleon's
triumph at the poll fixed for the 20th is considered
as certain. Physical resistance; or materials for it,
tams may be said to exist none at Paris in the pre-
med menet. The blow is struck, and it has per-
heap sowesoisd. The great proprietors, the mer-
abiante, the monied interests, on all hands adhere to
dm sew power. They regard the revolution of
February as completely slain ; they look forward to
the rising of rents, to the revival of commerce,
to the reanimation of industry. The persons and
classes, who since February, 1848, have been sunk
in dejection and choked with fear, begin to breathe
with ease, and to appear radiant with hope. I de-
scribe what I see among the opulent orders and the
tradespeople, who have no political creed whatever,
but only look to a strong central power to put down
with the strong hand all attempts at disturbasoe,
and stop all sources of agitation. Yon will lad
it of great importance to bear this in mind, that the
government of Louis Napoleon humped already by
all such. The new dictator meets raoletsoce only in
the political orders, which are at this moment in a
terrible minority. So tree is this, that M. Thinshas been set at liberty, together with the greater
renefistas repueutatives who remained still in om-
it in dee 'Aden of those with whom I have eon-
mood. most quite disinterested in their views, who
good diet from politics, that the achievement of
Lois Napoleon has taken, that he will obtain a
rammioritY of oUfirrages, and that no sicken re-
will be offered to him in the departments.
Ir. ••7 gather from various signs thaltgadeslly all
trams of the revolution of February r
wer is the shape of external symbols odrilAltillac: hethi
instilling.

The resenereks tithe Pantheon into the Church
of St eswevieve, leaned by an ordinance in the
Moniker of this siersing, is a sop thrown to the
priesthood, this more ardent section of which has still
stock to the canes of Louis Napoleon. This conces-