The Sun.
London, England, 1849-06-01 00:00:00

THE FRENCH REPUBLIC

We have received the Paris papers of yesterday.
Thanks in the first place to the illegal conduct of
General CuxtiGA.RNIElt, in the second place to the ob-
stinate pig-headedness of old M. KERATRY, the Presi-
dent pro tern. of the Legislative Assembly, and in
the third place to the "zeal without discretion" of the
very "moderate" gentlemen who sit on the right, the
Legislative assembly was on Wednesday, for upwards
of three hours, the scene of an emeute which has not
been paralleled since the days when the majority of
the Chambre Introuvable, in 1815, excited the mas-
sacres of the Protestants in the south of France
(which, by-the-bye, were justified by M. de FAL-
Loux or, Friday last) refused to receive GREGOIN, and
not only expelled him but ejected MANUEL from the
Chamber vi et arrnis. The Presse thus speaks of the
disgraceful scene :
" We look back, and find nothing which can be come
pared to the sitting of yesterday. In fact the Constituent
Assembly was a model of wisdom, of calm, and of tole-
rance, by the side of the Legislative Chamber, such as it
now conducts itself. We must go back to the time of
our first revolution to find anything to compare with the
scene which for three hours was exhibited in our Parlia-
mentary arena.
" Unfortunately this is only the commencement.
Under the monarchy a sitting like that of yesterday
would have made an epoch. But we fear that they will
frequently occur. Politics are turned into a drama ; a
speech from the tribune smells of powder. Threats and
insults are hurled from the two sides of the Assembly as
from two hostile camps. We are returned to the Reds
and the Whites of sixty years since. It is only the
years which are changed. The hatred and passions of
former days appear to be reanimated from beneath the
dust which covered them."

The scene originated in an illegal act by General
CHANGARNIER, who took advantage of the fact that
the Assembly was not yet constituted to remove
Colonel CAUYIN, who had since the 15th May, 1348,
held the command of the guard of the Chamber, and
to appoint to it some creature of his own. M. Cita.-
Yorx had called the attention of the Assembly to this
subject'; General LEBRETON had stated that he had
resigned his office of Questor because he found that
the orders which he issued in that capacity to the
newly appointed commander of the guard were
habitually disobeyed, and M. LEDRU ROLLIN had
ascended the tribune, and was about to speak, when
old M. KERATRY, the temporary President (an ultra
Royalist and once a member of the old Chamber of
Peers), without any motion being made to that effect,
put the question on the order of the day for the evi-
dent purpose of preventing M. LEDRU ROLLIN from
addressing the Assembly. The Members of the Left
of course loudly protested against this attempt at
crushing the rights of the minority by depriving
!them of liberty of speech, whereupon M. KERATRY,
amidst the frantic shouts of the reactionaries, put on
his hat and suspended the sitting. The sitting was
renewed after the lapse of a quarter of an hour,
and M. LEDRU ROLLIN again ascended the tribune
and commenced addressing the Assembly, as he had
a perfect right to do, and as he would
have done before, had any other than
"a foolish and a faded gentleman" occupied the Pre-
sidential chair. M. LEDRU ROLLIN was proceeding
to point out the manner in which General CHAN-
GARNIER had violated the constitution, and the decree
of the 11th of May, 1848, by interfering with the
command of the guard of the Assembly, and to
show how such meddling might perhaps facili-
tate a violation of the Assembly, when the
President, whose vocation it is to preserve order and
tftsporoeeomahr
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vociferously, while the Left protested, and demandedml
that M. KERATRY should apologise to the Assembly,
and should retract his words. For more than
an hour the obstinate old man, encouraged by
the shouts of the Reactionaries, refused to
make any apology, and the four Secretaries advanced
and resigned their functions on the express ground
that they considered it disgraceful to sit near a Pre-
sident who could so misconduct himself; still the
old man continued obstinate, when the Left rose in
a body, and headed by Sergeants BOICIIOY and
RATTIER, prepared to leave an Assembly in which
liberty of speech was no longer permitted, and of
which the President was the leader of disorder.
Alarmed by the firm attitude assumed by this large
minority, the majority at length became aware
that they had gone too far. They now tried to
soothe the irritated minority, and to induce them to
resume their seats, in which, however, they did not
succeed until M. KERATRY had stood up publicly

* " A Digest of Several Reports on Sanitary Reform;
containing the Views of E. Chadwick, EQq., C. 8.; Dr.
S. Smith, Dr. N. Arnott, Dr. H. Gavin, G. A. Walker,
E9q , surgeon, and others." By William Simpson, Esq.,
Surgeon. Bvo., pp. 24, Renshaw, London: 1849.