The Express.
London, England, 1851-02-01 00:00:00

FRANCE.

PARIS, TIIMUIDAT Eventrio.
The responsibility imposed upon tue President by
the constitution is furnishing to him tie chief means
of weeping from the subaltern position in which the
same constitution has placed him with regard to the
Assembly. In Act, the President enjoys at this mo-
ment a stretch of power unknown to the monarchy,
because he is released from several cheeks peculiar to
monarchic institutions. Under the mcziarchy, the
head of the state, however personal Lie policy might
be, had to coLsult the interests of his dynasty, which
were not always identical with his own. He had to
govern by the rule of a constitution accepted as per-
manent. He had to consult a peerage, which
could no more be got rid of than the
constitution and dynasty. Again, the majo-
rity of the Chamber of Deputies dictated the
policy of the government, set up ministers, and de-
posed them by a vote of censure. Louis Napoleon is
restrained at this moment by none of the checks
enuoierwed. He is his own dynasty. 11.. is not
thwarted by a peerage. The Assembly, to be sure, is
no trifle to deal with; but the great notabilities of
the Chamber having thought proper to pass under the
new system into a state of eclipse, Louis Napoleon
has in some measure, esesped the sort of tutelage
which the monarchy was obligtd to acciipt. Soon be
removed the leaders of the old opposition, who were
thrust upon him by the nature of things, and sent
them to join the Burgraves. Generals N..wmay‘r and
Changarnier presented formidable cbs:nclis; they
have been replaced by men devoted to his person.
Lastly, he has succeeded in evading the obligation of
firming a ministry from the parliamentary majority.
Tne definitive cabinet promised by the explanations
of M. de Royer on the 27th Jan. will be appointed
with a view to the revision of the constitution.

The sittirg of the Assembly to-day was presided
over by M. Darn. The benches prtsented but
a thin sprinkling of representatives. The
proposition of General Fabvier fur the forma-
tion of a consultation and permanent council of
War was rejected. The postal convention between
France and Sardinia was adopted on the third read-

ing.
M. Julien has received a mission from the Dutch
government to negotiate with France fur the con-
nexion of the Luxembourg Railway with the line of
Strasburg by a branch from Metz.

PARIS, FRIDAY EVENING.
The name of Odilon Barrot is still mentioned as the
pivot on which the new ministry is to turn.
The notation Bill, according to reports which pre-
vailed this evening in the Assembly, would be post-
poned.
The calm which has reigned in the Assembly siaoe
the notable failure of tho interpellatioes of M. Hovyn-
Traachere, was interrupted yesterday by a stormy
debate, raised upon that old and knotty question, the
rights of labour. The Constituent Assembly ordered,
on the 2511 May, 1848, that a great inquiry upon
the question of agricultural and industrial labour
should be opened throughout the length and breadth
of France. A list of 29 questions was addressed to
each of the justices of the peace of the 2.817 cantons
of France ; and in each canton a committee, composed
of an equal number of workmen and masters, was
formed to draw up answers to the questions proposed
by the committee of inquiry. More than 2,000 can-
tons sent in their reports. A legislative committee,
having been appointed to present an analysis of
these numerous documents to the Anembly, hu
jut reported, by the organ of tl. Lefebre-
Darufle, that the fruits of this inquiry pur-
sued throughout the whole territory of the repub-
lic for the space of three years are worth nothing,
arid the committee has nothing better to propose than
to bury the 2,000 reports of the French cantons in
the archives of the Ministry of Agriculture
and Commerce. This singularly impotent con-
clusion called out yesterday from the ranks of
the Mountain a genuine champion of the work-
ing cla.sts, himself a son of toil, a mason,
named Nadaud, representative for the departmatt of
Creuze. The tone of conviction which rings out clear
from the breast of an orator who has lived among
the facts to which he bears witness, won for M.
Nadnud, in spite of much interruption, more atten-
tion on the whole than would have been accorded
to the most eloquent of his party. la France, he
said, there were 18 or 20 millions of w irkmen, the
pittance of whose labour sufficed not for the support
of their families, and in the face of this great fact
they were told at the end of au inquiry of three 3 ears,
that nothing could be done for the alleviation of their
lot. To conceive the misery which weighed on the
working class, he would ask them to ponder on the
statement of M. Bliinqui, that out ot 21,000 poor
children born in Lille, only 1,000 reached the age of
adults. The report of M. Letebre-Darutle was the
brother of that of M. Thiere' on public assistance, and
of M. Moutalembert on the observance of Sunday.
It proved the impotence of the legislative majority to
devise the least remedy for the greeted: social evils. The
revolution was taxed with having bred the distress of
the working classes. This was an inversion of the truth.
During thirty-five years all the governments which
had succeeded one another in France had set up
the example of gross scandals aid deep immo-
rality. (Left " Stock, obbing!" Right: " Luxem-
bourg!" " Hotel de Ville !") If they were to set one
half of France to coerce the other halt, they would not
maintain the existing order of things. Let them look
out of that hall into the forges, the factories, the farms,
the mines, where their brother men were expending
their strength to buoy them up in affluence before
they earned for themselves what was strictly neces-
sary for existence. And, after sifting all France with
their commission ot inquiry, M. Letebre-Darntle had
nothing better to propsethan cothrow therecordsof the
grievancesof labour into thecatacombs of the ministry.
But what consoled the working dames for the insults
—(great noise) —which had been systematically heaped
on them since the revolution ot February by the
organs of reaction in the press and the tribune, was
the spread of social elcc:rints which characterised our
epoch, and the hopes of proximate emancipation.
The idea of an inquiry on the subject of labour had
been started under the monarchy, but owed its reali-
sation to the revolution. Tne President of the
Chamber of Deputies, M. hauzet, bad said in 1844,
that the Chamber was not there to provide workmen
with work, and not a single protest had been rained
against this assertion from the benches of the Right.
A deputy of the Left, Id. Ledru Rollin, had then pro-
cured the signatures of 400,000 workmen to a petition
for instituting an inquiry into the state of the work.
ing classes. He supported this petition in the
tribune, and although there was at that time an
immense number of workmen at Paris thrown out of
employ, no attention whatever had been paid to it.
Thus the government of July had lost the hearts of
the workmen ; and when it fell not a workman's arm

was lifted in its support. When the Constituent met,
Louis lilano had proposed a ministry of work, but
this idea bad been rejected. The parliamentary ma-
jority, with all the resources at their command,
with all the offices in the state filled with their
men, had done nothing for the interests of labour, and
if they remained in office ten years longer they
would still turn in the same barren cir-
cle of worn-out expedients. The liberty of
work was inscribed in 4 the 13th article of
the constitution; but this was a mockery so long
as the government lent to the masters the support of
the public force, when the right of coalition was
judged as a crime, and the workman who freely
debated the conditions of his salary was brought
before th,. tribunals. The civil code, that fortress of
the bourgeoisie, was as unjust as the institutions of
the middle ages; and the parvenus of oar day, the
stockjobbers and exchangers, were much lea humane
and charitable than the nobles of the old time. M.

Niched then reviewed the laws passed 1;-;
the Legislative Assembly on unwholesome
lodgings, relations between muter, and work-
men, caisses de Meade, and proved that none
of them more than scratched the surface
of the question. He claimed the principles of freedom
of association, which he thought could alone enable
workmen to compete with machinery. He quoted a
succession of economical writer, from the ranks of
conservatism, who dwelt upon the social cancer of
pauperism and its political danger. lie said that the
revolted= of February had been a social and not a
political revolution. He told the =pupate of the
opposite benches that they were all inroad from the
tors etas parvenue of the revolution of 1789, who,
after leading the people through three successive
revolutions, and marched it for personal ambition over
all the battle-fields of Bosom treated the poor math

g picture of the evils of competition, which unwed,
we,:se than the nobiss they had displaced. Ile then drew 1
down the workmao's weger. The care for pauperism
was :le localised pea:sawn sod fairer distribution
of wealth. Such is the outlive of this ep.ech of M.
l'isdacd, which was feebly eesweted by M. Wolewsle.
Tcedey the debate was rearmed b 7 M. Mortimer
Tempe, who 'cowered the ashuments of MM.
liadated and Media de Moithett. Ile opposed the
system of aseuciation. The Asteciation of (Itchy,
whici hid been represented u • model of adminie-
tratioo, bad failed in its engagements towards
the city of Paris, notwithstanding the assistance'
which bad been rendered to it, and had not ben able
to furnish the tonics agreed for. Charges of pecula-
tion bad been laid spoil some members. M. Damn
bad designated the assUation as a hotb-d of anarchy
sod conspiracy, monarchic and of other kinder.
lel.Narlaud said that the association would call upon
Teepee: to prove his auertioas. M. Cornb:er
exclaimed that these were calumnies, and was called
to order by the President if th• Assembly. M. Imre
was ind g, ant at the provJcsiire tone of M. Nadaad's
speech, and attempted t i refute his doctrines.
Breese( nude a long speech in favour of socialist
doctrines, is which he maintained the necessity of
favouring associations by the assistance of funds from
the treasury. lie concluded with moving a supple-
mentary u.quiry. M. Wayre ccrrected the statistical
rate meats of N. Boyeset. M. Benoit d'Azy wished
to demonstrate the emptiness of the doctrites of the
Lett. M. Pierre Leroux wished to speak, but the
close of the debate wee called for and voted. M.
haze having proposed that the report of the
committee of it qatry aticuld be deposited &moos
the archives of the Assembly, instead of the
archives et the Ministry of Agrieul• are and Commerce,
this proposition was accepted by the committee, and
would be ad. pled by this Mumble, although the.
exact resuit of the division was not known in time
fur put.
M. d'Adeleward has, in order to clearly plint out
the extent of the legal attributions of the legislative
power, as far as concerns the right of requisition in
extraordinary and urgent cases, piesentoo a prop:mi-
litia to the Assembly to the following effect:
The leerViVe prover is charged to watch ever the safety
aid detente of um legislative power ; fatless, in sa-
traordisary circumstances, of which ha alo be the
jades, the praddent of the Natiiast Asiemblr , by himself,
or by one of tee vieepresidscts, or the quevors delegated
by him, may all fur all the forces which be may ermaider
mensary for the moiety of the Assembly. °thorn of all
rink., as well as all fuoctioraariee, whoever they may be who
may be tweed oe, mast obey the order of the president, or
of his delegate, under pais of the peasities pet forth in the
law. The present law is to be posted up in all the barracks
Orals.
The committee charged to examine the bill on the
colonial banks decided yesterday that only notes of
f,4Mfr., 100 fr., and 23fr. are to be issued. It has re-
jected the idea of loans on the standing crops.
The Bresilian government has given eati•faction to
France for the egression which occasioned the de-
parture of M. Scotia, the French consul, from Per-
nambuco, by bringirg the judge, who prose cuted M.
Scuts, to trial, with a view to hie condign punish-
ment. _ _ _ . . _ _

The jury will bold its first sitting on the let Feb.,
at tht Ministry of Agriculture and Commerce. Ob-
jects II id be received at the Northern Railway ter-
minus until the lfth Feb.
PARIS FUNDS, Jas. 31.

Three per Cents.
Five per Cents.
Bank Shares.

. 67f. 85c.
. 96E 46c.
. 2.230 E Oe.