The Sun.
London, England, 1863-06-25 00:00:00

LONDON, THURSDAY, JUNE 25, 1863.

At the moment when the new French Ministry
is settling down to the labours of administration,
it may be as well to recapitulate what these recent
changes precisely are that have been effected by a
few strokes from the pen of the Emperor NAPOLEON.
The Foreign Policy and the Financial Policy of the
Imperial Government, we may regard, at once, as
we intimated yesterday, as unchanged. M. FOULD
still happily remaining in cffice as the responsible
financier, and M. DROUYN DE L'lltrYs as head of
the Foreign Department. Otherwise the trans-
formation of the Cabinet has been complete and
radical throughout. M. BILLAULT replacing the
Count WaLEwsiii as the Minister of State without
Portfolio. M. BAROCHE, hitherto President of the
Council of State, replacing M. DELANGLE as
Minister of Justice. M. BOUDET, until now Pre-
sident of Section to the Council of State, replacing
the Count DE PERSIGNY as Minister of the Interior.
M. DURUM, heretofore Inspector-General of Public
Instruction, replacing M. ROULAND as Minister of
Public Instruction. M. BEHIC, yesterday but
simply Councillor of State, replacing as Minister
of Agriculture, Commerce, and Public Works, M.
ROUHER, who has now been nominated by the EM-
PEROR to M.BAROCHE'Sjust vacated post as President
of the Council of State. Simultaneously with which
sweeping transformation of things in the general
construction of the Cabinet, the Imperial decree ap-
pears appointing the Duke DE MORNY to the Pre-
sidency of the newly elected, but as yet not inau•
gurated, Corps Legislatif. We have purposely re-
capitulated here at length the actual changes that
have so recently and so suddenly taken place at
Paris by mandate of the EMPEROR, because having
merely had the opportunity of glancing hurriedly
at them in our impression of yesterday, but a few
moments, as it were, after the earliest announce-
ment of their occurrence by telegram—we regard
them as of such vital importance to European
interests generally, that we are solicitous, without
one instant's unnecessary delay, to indicate as we
have just now actually done by a simple juxta-
position of names the precise difference between
the Imperial Cabinet as it was and as it is. An
animated portraiture of the new Minister of State,
M. BILLAULT, pencilled with singular grace and
delicacy by his sometime secretary, M. NORBERT
BILLIART, appears this morning in Le Constitu-
tionnel. After describing the new Minister of State
as one whose bearing and general deportment are
in no way characterised by an air of pretension,
the writer observes that, in oratory, M. BILLAULT
is endowed with qualities very rarely united, his
speaking being at once easy, and yet marked by
gravity, rapid and yet most clearly accentuated.
" His sympathetic voice," sass the Minister's former
Secretary, " a little softened or modulated in the
higher notes, has about it much nervous force and
even
cranimation, being in effect the supple and exact
Aim for the expression of his thoughts." A little
later on in this minutely careful limning of the
Minister Of St
ate, M. BILLIART observes some-
whatcharacteristically that, by his Excellency,
C;CERO is by
no
means regarded as an oracle,
M. BILLAULT being rather of the same opinion
with HORACE, wild
m
had a -
the sesquipedalia verba.
BILLAULT, he adds,
is by far the readiest extempore speaker now
connec!ed with the Government, disdaining even,
with the utmost confidence, the
aid of any
notes even when about to den
'ler a discourse
from the Tribune. It is precisely this
gift of
improvisation, it is this certainty, it is this rapidity
of coup d'xil that makes him unrivalled as an advo.
cate in reply. So much for M. BILLAULT, regarded
individually through this well-timed sketch of him
given in the columns of Le Constitutionnel. "It
>rveuld be difficult," says L' Opinion Nationale of
this evening, "just at present to form any
precise idea as to the significance of this
Ministerial reorganisation, for W 6 know not
enough of Messieurs BoUDET, BEIJIC, and
DURUY to be able to appreciate seriously
their tendencies." The retention of some of the
Ministers in the Cabinet and the removal of others
from it to be replaced by new men, fairly tends to
tae bewilderment of Le Siecle. "If," says that
organ, " the reason of the retreat of Ni. DE PER•
eIGNY is very evident, one is inclined to ask, what
Possible motive there could be for the replacement.
of Messieurs ROULAND, DELANGLE, and WALEW-
sI:' Le Siecle might at least have added that