The Sun.
London, England, 1852-12-03 00:00:00

feelings have burst forth ; from one end of the country
to the other, flocking on your steps, hastening from all
parts, to salute the man of their hopes and of their faith,
our people have sufficiently made known to the world
that you were their Emperor, the Emperor chosen by
the people ; and that you have with you that national
spirit which, on the day marked out by Providence,
crowns new dynasties and seats them in the place of

those which it no longer animates.
" Taking shelter under an immense souvenir of glory,
under what it holds most precious—its honour abroad,
its security at home, and those immortal principles of
1789, the firm basis of the new French society so power-

fully organised by the Emperor, your uncle-lournation
again raises up with proud love that dynasty of the
Bonapartes, which sprung from him, and which was
not overthrown by French hands. But while preserv-
ing a proud remembrance of the great events of war, it
hopes to find from you the great things of peace. Hav-
ing already seen you at work, it expects from you a re-
solute, prompt, and fruitful government. In order to
aid you in it, it surrounds you with all its sympathies,
it delivers itself wholly up to you ; take then, Sire, take
from the hands of France, that glorious Crown which
she offers to you ; never has a royal brow worn one
more legitimate or more popular."
The words of the honourable president were
frequently interrupted by applause, and followed
by cries of " Vive Napoleon III.," and " Vive
l'Empereur." M. Billault afterwards handed to
his Majesty the declaration of the Legislative Body
with the result of the votes.
M. Mesnard, Vice-President of the Senate, ad-
vancing to the right of the Emperor, addressed to
him the following speech :
" Sire—The Legislative Body has made known the
sovereign will of France.
"In re-establishing the Imperial dignity in the person
and in the family of your Majesty, in giving you the
crown which she placed half-a-century ago on the brow
of the conqueror of Marengo, France loudly expresses
what are her wishes, and how, in connecting the present
with the past, she mixes up her hopes with her souvenirs.
"This throne on which your Majesty is about to
seat yourself, by whatever force and whatever splen-
dour it may be surrounded, finds in the power of public
opinion its most solid foundation.
" L'Empire, c'est la paix, said your Majesty on a
memorable occasion. The voice of the country adds:

The Empire is the maintenance of international relations
in all the dignity of amicable reciprocity ; it is religion
honoured as it deserves to be ; it is the condition of the
working and suffering classes become the object of con-
stant solicitude ; it is discipline in the army, and in the
heart of every soldier the ardent sentiment of honour and
of national independence ; it is commerce and manufac-
tures developing themselves and fertilising public pros-
perity ; in fine, it is the pacification of parties ; it is a
wide and free scope given to all capacities and to all in-
telligences, from whom it will now be only asked
whither they go, and no longer whence they come.
" This, Sire, is why so many millions of votes present
to you that imperial crown promised to your birth, re-
conquered by your merit, and rendered to your name by
the most solemn act of the sovereianty of the people.
"We beg your Majesty to receive with kindness the
homage and congratulations of the Senate."
Cries of " Vive r Empereur " followed the
speech of M. Mesnard. These having subsided, it
was amidst the most profound silence that the
Emperor, in a firm voice, replied as follows to the
two great bodies of the State :
" Gentlemen,—The new reign which you, this
day, inaugurate, derives not its origin—as so many
others recorded in history have done—from vio-
lence, from conquest, or from fraud. It is, you
have just declared it, the legal result of the will of
a whole people, who consolidate in calm that which
they had founded in the midst of agitations.
" I am penetrated with -gratitude towards the
nation which, three times in four years, has sus-
tained me by its suffrages, and each time has
only augmented its majority to increase my power.
But the more that power increases in extent
and in vital force, the more does it need en-
lightened men, such as those who every day
surround me independent men, such as those
whom I address—to guide me by their counsel, to
bring back my authority within just limits, if it
could ever quit them.
" I take, from this day, with the Crown, the
name of Napoleon 111., because the logic of the
people has bestowed it upon me in their acclama-
tions • because the Senate has legally proposed it ;
and because the whole nation has ratified it.

" Is it, then, to be inferred that in accepting this
title I fall into the error imputed to the Prince who,
returning from exile, declared null and void all that
had been done in his absence ? Far from me be such
a wild mistake. Not only do I recognise the Govern-
ments which have preceded me, but I inherit in some
manner all that they have accomplished of good and
evil ; for Governments which succeed one to another
are, notwithstanding different origin, liable for their
predecessors. But the more completely that I ac-
cept all that, for fifty years, history transmits to us
with her inflexible authority, the less it is permit-
ted to me to pass in silence over the glorious reign
of the head of my family, and the regular, though
ephemeral, title of his son, whom the two Cham-
bers proclaimed in the last burst of vanquished pa-
triotism.

" Thus, then, the title of Napoleon 111., is not
one of those dynastic and superannuated preten-
sions which seem to be an insult to good sense and
to truth. It is the homage of a Government which
was legitimate, and to which we owe the brightest
pages of our modern history. My reign does not
date from 1815—it dates from this very moment
when you have announced to me the suffrages of
the nation.

" Receive, then, my thanks, Messieurs les De-
puUs, for the éclat that you have given to the
manifestation of the national will by rendering it
more evident by your supervision, more imposing
by your declaration.

" I thank you also, Messieurs les Senateurs, for
having been the first to address congratulations to
me, as you were the first to give expression to the
popular wish.
" Aid me, all of you, to set firm in this land, up-
set by so many revolutions, a stable Government,
which shall have for its bases religion, probity,
and love for the suffering classes.
" Receive here my oath, that no sacrifice shall be
wanting on my part to insure the prosperity of my
country ; and that, whilst I maintain peace, I will
yield in nothing which may touch the honour or
the dignity of France."
His Majesty, after several times bowing to the
persons assembled, withdrew with the same cere-
mony as he entered.
The members of the Senate and of the Legisla-
tive Body returned to Paris at 10 o'clock.
A series of decrees appears in the Moniteur,
which now bears the second title of Journal Officiel
de l'Empire Francais. The decrees which are
headed—" Napoleon, by the Grace of God and the
national will, Emperor of the French—to all pre-
sent and to come greeting,"—are as follows :-
1 1. A decree proclaiming Louis Napoleon Bona-
parte as Emperor of the French, by the title of
Napoleon 111.
2. A decree, elevating Generals de St. Arnaud,
Magnan, and de Castellane, to the dignity of Mar-
shals of France.
3. A decree determining the form for the pro-
mulgation of laws, judgments, and proceedings of
courts of justice. Each is to be preceded by the
words above quoted.
4. A decree declaring that in future the Cour
d'Apel shall be called Cour Imperial.
5. A decree, granting a pardon to all persons
found guilty of offences of the press, and declaring
all past avertissements null.
6. A decree pardoning members of the National
Guard convicted by the Councils of Discipline.
7. A decree re-establishing the second section of
the general staff of the army.
8. A decree relative to the retirement of general
officers, and declaring that general officers nomi-
nated senators can be employed though beyond the
legal age.
The Moniteur announces that a day's pay is
granted to all the subalterns, corporals, and soldiers
of the army and navy, on the occasion of the
empire.
Two hundred and ninety of the political convicts
have been pardoned.
The seal of the Emperor is to be a crowned Im-
perial Eagle reposing on thunder (reposant sur la
foudre). All official seals are to be after the same
model.