The Sun.
London, England, 1831-08-05 00:00:00

FRANCE.

To the EDITOR of the MORNING CHRONICLE.
PARIS, AUGUST 2, 1831.
5t.0.0-13ravo! Bravo ! ! Yes, Y repeat it, " Bravo !"
" Bravo !" for Casimir Paler has not a majority in the
new Chamber ! I

And behte I proceed with my letter, let me not vainly,
best honestly, ask you whether 0. P. Q. is not right
again? Turn back to my last six letters. Favour me by
reading them once mom When all the " private and
public comnpondents" of tl-e Press were stating that the
Mintstet had a large majority, I told you no—he has ❑o
stich thing. Many, however, did not believe me, but
said, " Oh, yes, depend upon it the Minister has a majo-
rity ; and so the Rothschilds and the Oberkarnpfs of France
all took to predicting a great rise in the funds—and peace
(or cebtuties.

When the Deputies were counted before the ballot com-
mented, there were 355 present, and the major ity was,
therefore, 178. The two candidates were M. Jacques
Lafitte, the candidate of the nation, and M. Girod de
l'Ain, the candidate of the Minister. lam not about to
pass an eulogium on M. Lafitte, though he well deserves
it. His actions have been approved, and his conduct
lauded by France; and, although during his admi-
nistration we were frequently compelled to reproach
him, yet we are now confident that the errors
of his Ministry were those of Louis Philip, who was,
and still is, afraid of marching with that Revolution which
has placed him on the throne. Nor am I about to say
anything by way of disparagement of the patriotism, ho-
nesty, and good-heartedness of M. Girod de l'Ain. lie is
attached to liberty, and would die with cheerfulness in its
defence; but, unhappily for him, he has adopted the erro-
neous system of M. Perier, who hopes to make the Re-
volution of July popular at Vienna and Berlin, and who
cannot see why a citizen King should not be a party to the

Treaties of Vienna and Paris.
After an hour of anxious solicitude the ballot was closed,
and neither of the candidates had obtained the majority of
178, for M. Lafitte had 168, and M. Girod 171. This
circumstance rose from the fact of one Member having voted
for M. Barrot, one for General Lafayette, two for Dupont de
l'Eure, &c. ; and thus, out of 355, only 339 voted for or
against the Ministerial candidate, whilst 16 votes were abso-
lutely thrown away or null. In consequence of this, a
new scrutiny and ballot became necessary, when, as 359
were now present, the requisite majority was of course
180. The second ballot was now made, and M. Lafitte,
who before had 168, now had 176, and M. Girod de
l'Ain, who before had 171, now had 181. Thus he had
five more votes than M. Lafitte, and gained the election
by merely One Vote ! I shall not easily forget the look
of blank disappointment and mortification of poor Casimir
Perier when this announcement was made. After all his
exertions, promises, pardons, ordinances, circulars, and
efforts of Prefects, Journals, and Political Writers, he per-
ceived that he had a majority of 0t417. ! in his favour.
Sebastisni looked despair, Barthe was quite aghast, and
they looked at each other, and then at the President of the
Council, more in pity than in anger, but as men will
look when they say, " It is all over with us."
And yet still M. Girod was elected ! It was but by
one majority—by the very skin of his teeth it was true !
but yet he was elected, and the Minister now hoped to find
that M. Lafitte had been voted for by many who would
still support the Ministerial candidates for the Vice-Pre-
sidents, and that thus a loop-hole might be left for him to
remain in power some few weeks or months longer. But
in this last hope for poor Perier he was again disappointed,
for the Ministerial candidates were rejected ; and M. Du-
pont de l'Eure, the zealous, honest, wise, talented, indefa-
tigable Ex-Minister of Justice, and uncompromising re-
publican ! was elected one of the Vice-Presidents, whilst
M. Dupin, the juste-ntilieit man, was unable to obtain a
sufficient number of votes in his favour. M. Berenger,
who, as I told you in a former letter, is neither
111i-
nisterial nor Anti-Ministerial, but who belongs to
the new party in France, which meets at Rue Ri.
voli, No. IS, and which is resolved that there shall
neither he peace at all prices, nor war at all prices, was
also elected a Vice-President. Out of 344 votes, M. Du-

pont de l'Eure obtained 182, and M. Ilerenger 179.
Poor Dupin got only 153 ; and it is now very questionable
whether he will be elected to-day as third or fourth
Vice-President, for there are four Vice-Presidents as
well as four Secretaries. The election of M. Dupont
de l'Eure is an event of vast importance. We
have been told of late, both in England and France, that
the respectable part of the community in this country,
who have something to lose and something to gain, were
opposed to the Extreme Gauche party ! ! I told you this
was false ; and now I show you a fact which can never
be got over, and which is this—that although M. Dupont
de l'Eure belongs to the Extreme Gauche of the Extreme
Gauche—to the party of Mauguin, Odillon Barrot, La-
fayette, and Bavoux—yet M. Dupont de l'Eure has been
elected a Vice-President of the Chamber of Deputies, to
the exclusion of M. Dupin, the juste-milieu candidate of
Casimir Perier.
Thus, then, the Minister is defeated. He thought to
gallop through the Chamber with all his measures and all
his system : but the Chamber says to the Minister, " No ;
we can ',lice reliance in vour most zealous opponent
in all France, than we do in either you or your supporters."
Now, then, you know why I commenced my letter by
crying bravo ! bravo ! It is not about M. Lafitte, or M.
Girod, or about M. Dupont, or M. Dupin, that lam in-
terested ; but I am delighted and hsppy to think that the
Minister is defeated ; who would, by his system, disgrace
and degrade France, and disserve the cause of civil and re-
ligious liberty all over the world.
In the France Nouvelle, or Journal de Paris, of to-
day, the Minister has announced his intention of retiring.
This Journal was brought up by the friends of the
Minister, and M. de Montalivet is not a stranger to the
transaction. The Messager des Chainbres last night was
silent ! The Journal des Debats has not a word to say.
The Moniteur is si'ent as the grave ! From this moment
some bow or other—by peace or by war—by a partial
war or a general war—by war against Prussia, Austria,
and Russia, if necessary—or even by a war against all the
world—l know not how this may be, but from this mo-
ment Poland is ultimately saved ! !
There will, most probably, be an European war ! Do
I rejoice at this ? By no means ! Abstractedly I deplore
it; but I prefer war to slavery—war, to the triumph of
Perier's system—war, to the success of Russia against
Poland, of Prussia against Belgium, of Austria against
Italy, and of Spain against liberty all the world over. I
prefer war to the humiliation of France—to the triumph of
Absolutism—to the re-establishment of a Holy Alliance
system of conferences at London, and to the success of
Prince Talleyrand's diplomacy ! If compelled to choose
between two evils, I will take the least ; I will take the
evil which, though great, must be temporary ; and I will
prefer war and liberty, to peace and tyranny. If we must
fight the last battle between the ciphers and the millions
—between the Kings and the people—between error, vice,
absolutism, and injustice, and truth, virtue, civilization,
and freedom, let us have it begun and terminated as soon
as possible. Louis Philip, by his timidity and avarice,
aided by the Guizots and the Periers of France, has already
given to the Austrian and Prussian Governments twelve
months in which to arm—and I know of my own personal
knowledge, that the Prussian and Austrian Ambassadors,
both speak in very civil terms of Louis Philip for the
delay which has thus been accorded, and for the opportu-
nities thus afforded to Austria and Prussia to arm ! The
Governments of Vienna and Berlin are not, however, more
grateful than the Court of St. Petersburgh ; for if Louis
Philip had understood the Revolution of July, and
moneyed
ogrlor hyad of
had marched with it, and had sacrificed his private
Fn
merelyra required
andce—
t.
the
honour interests,
and
the happiness
freedom of millions of the human' and
race, he might, in No-
vember last, and even in February last, have given freedain
to Poland, to Belgium, to Italy, and to Spain. Since that
time th t
u
time Louis Philip has preached peace peace p
terms—peace on any conditions—and has risked the
of this generation in a manner and to an extent for
which be can never be really pardoned. But still it is nut