The Sun.
London, England, 1848-10-16 00:00:00

OCTOBER 16, 1848.

I THE FRENCH REPUBLIC.

We have received the Paris papers of Saturday and
yesterday.

The lifoiliteur of Saturday publishes the following
decrees, announcing the alterations in the Ministry:—
" The Preiident of the Council charged with the
Executive Power decrees—The resignation of the citi-
zens Senard, Minister of the Interior; Recu:t, Minister
of Public Works; and Vaulabelle, Minister of Public
Instruction and Religious Affairs, is accepted.
(Signed) " E. CAVAIGNAC, President of
the Council.
" MARIE, Minister of Justice.
" Oct. 13.
" The President of the Council charged with the
Executive Power decrees—

" Are named—Minister Secretary of State of the De-
partment of the Interior, Citizen .Dufaure, Representa-
tive of the People;
" Minister Secretary of State of the Department of
Public Works, Citizen Vivien, Representative of the
People;
" Minister Secretary of State of the Department of
Public Instruction and Ecclesiastical Affairs, Citizen
Freslon, Representative of the People.
" Oct. 13. .
In consequence of the modifications effected in the
Ministry the Cabinet is thus composed:—
" Citizens—MAßlE, Minister of Justice;

" BASTIDE, of Foreign Affairs;
" DE LAMORICIERE, of War;
" VERNINAC, of Marine;
" DUFAURE, of the Interior;
" TOURRE r, of Agriculture and Com-
merce;
" FRESLON, of Public Instruction;
" GOUDCHAUX, of Finance;
" VIVIEN, of Public Works."

As we stated on Saturday, one of the conditions
on which M. DUFAIIRE consented to take office was
that the state of siege of Paris should be raised. A
Special Committee of fifteen has been appointed by
the National Assembly to communicate with the
Executive on the subject of raising the state of siege ;
it is composed of Messrs. BEDEAU, L ANDR IN, ISA M-
BERT, CIIANGARNIER, BAUC HART, PLEIGNARD, AT•
LIES, LIONVILLE, FLANDIN, PORION, GLAIS BIZOIN,
MORRAU, DUCLERC, and LABOULIE. The majority
of the Committee was considered favourable to the
maintenance of the state of siege. This change in the
Ministiy, which meets with the approval of the Mo-
derate Republicans, is a source of infinite annoyance
to the Red Republicans and Communists.
The Bien Public, the organ of M. DE LAMARTINE,
says—

" Three men, eminent in different degrees, have
just given the co-operation of their talent to the task
of democracy. The first, M. Dufaure, is a Minister,
puritan and laborious, whose intelligence always
honest, and probity always inflexible, go to seek na-
turally and without deviation the true and the
honest in all discussions. His speeches always logical,
his elocution always easy, enter like light in people's
consciences. He has, more than any one, the talent
of disengaging your own ideas from the cloud in which
they float, and of expressing for you without fatigue
your own conviction. Removed, by temperament,
from all temerity in philosophy, from all exaggera-
tion in politics, he has powerfully contributed to cause
the practical and sensible articles of the Constitution
to be voted. 'Without him the debate would often
have fallen into chaos. The second, M. Vivien, is one
of those men who made their education in the old par-
liaments. He was Prefect of Police, Minister, Coun-
cillor of State, and in all those important posts he has
left a reputation of talent, honesty, and of a good deal
of firmness allied to much kindness. Eighteen years
of administrative and political labours have given him
a long experience of men and affairs. This experience
has already profited to the Republic in the debates of
the Constitution ; for M. Vivien has been, with M.
Dufaure, the orator who has most contributed to save
the best clauses from the flood of amendments. M.
Freslon, formerly an advocate, and at present Procu-
reur General of the Court of Angers, is one of those
intrepid soldiers of the idea, who under the old go-
vernment carried the flag of the Republic with the
greatest energy. But from the first day of the revo-
tion of February, M. Freslon did not seer in the
Republic the conquest of a nation by a coterie. He
saw, on the contrary, as we did, a sublime exclamation
awnhdivahil dhiirslizetichpeasrtiines.theAAccsusilit
of the country, an-improved form of gcvernment
hie votes
Tyl.Ybe"airi stamp
of the spirit of justice."

It would appear from the following extract from
the Constitutionnel that the new, Cabinet will not,
for the present at least, have to encounter the oppo-
sition of M. THIERS. The Constitutionnel sap—
" The accession of three very honourable men of
acknowledged talent, whose advice the National As-
sembly likes to follow, will necessarily be approved of
by the country. Two of them besides have already
been ministers, and that is an advantage which they
have over their predecessors. Their presence alone
in the government is certainly a pledge given to
order, family ties, property, and the honeat and
moderate Republic. They can do much to strengthen
in France respect for the law, social principles, the
eternal rules of morality, to revive labour and pros-
perity. M. Dufaure takes an administration which
still bears the imprint left by M. Ledru Rollin under
the Provisional Government. M. Freslon will find
primary instruction delivered up on many points to
socialist and materialist doctrines. But it is not red
and social republics which suit the nation. There
are, therefore, plenty of reforms to be made, if the
desire is to place the central government in accord
with the population,—the new institutions with the
sentiment of the country. France will await these
reforms from the resolution and prudent firmness of
the re-constituted Cabinet."

On the other hand the Socialist and Red Repub-
lican papers are, with the exception of the Democratic
Pacifique, outrageous. The Democratic, the organ
of the Fourierists, does justice to the motives of the
new Ministers, whilst it laments their appointment.
It says :
" We believe that the three new Ministers have
sincerely joined the Republic, but their entry on
affairs takes place under evil auspices, being due only
to the intrigues of the Rue de Poitiers, which pushes
them forward in order to cause them to fall in their
tura, and to replace them soon by decided reactionists.
They will find themselves in a very awkward posi-
tion for men of honour, that of having been chosen
by the enemies of the Republic, and to be obliged to
depend on them, and at the same time to have to
struggle against sincere Republicans, who having sus-
tained with a devotedness, sometimes blind, the pre-
ceding Ministry, cannot support with energy a
Ministry which is nothing but a breastplate invented
by the eleven persons on the Right."
The Courrier Francais is somewhat more violent,
and declares that " M. CAVAIGNAC has compromised
himself! It is Messrs. DUFAURE, VIVIEN, and
FRESLON who are obliged to impose upon M. CA-
VAIGNAC the raising of the state of siege as a condi-
tion ! We willingly grant that since the Ministry of
May 12th, 1840, M. DUFAURE has made some pro-
gress in his opinions. But, in fine, neither M. Du-
rAu2tE nor Mews. VIVIEN or FRESLON has given any
solid pledges to liberty. With such Ministers there
can hardly be formed any but a Cabinet of reaction.
It is precisely such a Ministry, more than any other,
that will have need of compression, and it is the ex-
monarchical Minister, M. DUFAURE, who is obliged
to demand from M. CAVAIGNAC, the old Republican,
the raising of the state of siege ! On such an ex_'
change of characters we must renounce all idea of
comprehending anything. The name of M. Du-
TAURE, is a guarantee of order, but who will be
the guarantee of liberty ? It is no longer M.
CAVAIGNAC i"

The Riforme declares war a l'outrance, not only
against the new Ministers, but against General
CAVAIGNAC himself.

" We feel (says this organ of the Red Republic)
completely biases on the score of these wretched apos-
tasies that now, after eight months, come to profit by
the blood and the combats of the people. We find it
impossible to choke our moral sense ; we suffer for
the honour of our country before the scandal of these
metamorphoses. There is a grave question at the
bottom of this affair. In rejecting pale and colour-
less Republicans for the old servants of Louis Phi-
lippe, General Cavaignac, whom we have so long de-
fended against calumnies and animosities, now im-
poses upon us new duties ; it is no longer a question
concerning the Republic, democratic and social—it is
the Republic itself" that is in question when the men
of the monarchy are installed in the Government—it
is a decisive revolution that dispels our last hope.
Let the state of siege be removed or maintained, the
moment for serious discussion is arrived—a direct
blow has been dealt at our revolution by the delivery
of it into the hands of its enemies."

The Republique goes quite as far as the Reforme in

its denunciations of General CAVAIGNAC. The
Republique says—
" Where does General Cavaignac go and seek
succour for his outflanked Cabinet? Is it in that
part of the Assembly, of which the opinions, alike
progressive and practical, by inspiring confidence in
the country, could have drawn round the Govern-
ment an imposing majority ? No, but in the con-
venticle of the Rue de Poitiers, that *Zia podrida of
Legitimatist Orleanists, and Federalists, who pray
so heartily for the fall of the Republic; he goes and
chooses out M. Freslon, Procureur- General at
Angers, the advocate of the penalty of death, and the
zealous defender of the members of the parquet,
who prosecute with an equal quietude of conscience
attacks made against the Monarchy and the Republic ;
he goes and chooses M. Vivien, the insignificar.t
Minister of Justice of the weak Administration of the
Ist of March, who since his fall has known how to
unite the popularity of a languid opposition with the
profits of public functions; and lastly, M. Dufaure,
a fallen celebrity, the unfortunate patron of the
dotation of princes, a Ministerial aspirant, always
ready for office; who withdrew with a religious
horror from the Reform banquet of Nantes, because
the directors of it thought that the dinner could very
well pass over without a toast being drank to the
King. Such are the Republicans who obtain the
sympathies of General Cavaignac I Nothing more
remains for us to do than to cry out Vive le Roil'
and send a char-a-banc to the exile at Claremont."
Even the National expresses its dislike to the new
appointments. It says—
" In our opinion. it is a grave fault to confide the
political Ministry—the essential Ministry—to a man
whose character and talent are certainly not called
in question, but whose antecedents expose bim to
suspicion by all who profess Republican opinions.
Messrs. Dufaure and Vivien excite disquietude and
repugnance. We do not, indeed, fear for the Re-
public ; but it is evident that eight months after the
Republic has been formed, it is natural that people
should behold with astonishment the ancient adver-
sary of the Reform banquets become the chief and
political director of the Interior of Republican
France. General Cavaignac, we say it sincerely,,
has done wrong to confide the Home-office to M.
Dufaure, and this fault, commanded' it may be by
political necessities, is of a nature to weigh in an un-
happy fashion upon the new Cabinet."
But it is not alone among the political writ rs that the
Ministerial modifications have excited hostility. M.
Ducoux, the Prefect of Police, has resigned his
office, assigning as a reason for so doing the dangers
which menaced liberty in France in consequence of
the appointment of a reactionary Ministry, an ap-
pointment which he considers: Jantamount to a
counter-revolution. General CAVAIGNAC has ac-
cepted his resignation, and appointed M. GERVAIS
(de Caen) in his room.
In the sitting of the National Assembly on Sa-
turday M. DE PORTALIS addressed the Assembly on
the change of Ministers, and asked for a programme
of the policy of the new Cabinet. He was replied to
by General CAVAIGNAC, who said that on Monday he
should submit to the Assembly the question of the
change of Ministry, ask them for a vote of confidence,
and if it were refused he should at once retire.

The following articles of the Constitution regulat-
ing the functions of the Council of State have been
adopted by the Assembly :
" Chap. Vl.—Council of. State.—Art. 68.—There
shall be a Council of State, composed of forty coun-
cillors of State at least. The Vice-President of the
Republic is, ex officio, President of the Council of
State.

" Art. G 9. The members of this Council are ap-
pointed for six years by the National Assembly.
Half of the members are renewed in the first two
months of each legislature, by secret ballot and by
an absolute majority. They are indefinitely re-
eligible.
" Art. 70. Such of the members -of the Council of
State as may be chosen from the National Assembly
shall be immediately replaced as representatives of
the people.
" Art. 71. The members of the Council of State
can only be dismissed by the National Assembly,
and on the proposition of the President of the
Republic.
"Art. 72. The Council of State is consulted upon
the project of laws of the Government, which, ac-
cording to law, must be submitted to its preliminary
examination ; and upon the projects of parliamentary
initiation that the Assembly should send before it.
It (the Council of State) prepares the rule con-
cerning public adnitnistration. It can make of itself
such rules as it is warranted to prepare by special
delegation of the National Assembly.
" It exercises, with regard to public administration,
all the powers of control and surveillance which are
deferred to it by the law.

" Particular laws will regulate its other attribu-
,ions."

We find the following in the National, on the sub-
ject of the recent insurrection at Vienna, and the
effect which it may probably produce on the affairs of
Europe. As the National is the organ of M. BASTIDB,
the Minister for Foreign Affairs, the article is im-
portant as indicating the views of the French Go.
vernipent

" Let us endeavour to surmise what will be the
probable consequences of the new situation which
events have just produced for Austria. The report
is current that the Diet which, as is knwn, has de-
clared itself in permanence, has rendered itself master
of the revolution. According to letters from Vienna,
it passed on the Bth the following resolutions 1.
The Diet declares that it will not dissolve itself, and
that it will remain faithful to its duty. 2. The Diet
will maintain itself within constitutional bounds, and
will only employ legal measures to save the country,
the liberty of the people, and the hereditary throne.
If the Diet was to predominate in the situation, it
appears to us evident that the revolution of October
6 would prove a failure. What occurred on May
25 would again come to pass. The Emperor, with-
drawn to some distant town, would there wait the
turn of events, would cause himself to be desired and
recalled, and would then re-appear in his capital, to
again deliver himself to reaction and provoke a new
insurrection. If the Diet is overpowered by the
people, or if, of itself, it replies, as its dignity
would command, to the manifesto which the Em-
peror isssued just as he fled—if It replies to menace
by menace, then the revolution at Vienna will con-
tinue. In that case, two courses are open to the
Court of Austria. It could withdraw to:lnspruck in
the midst of its ever faithful Tyrolese, and depend for
protection on the army of Radetzky. Amongst the
men who urge on the unfortunate Emperor to his
ruin, are some who care but little about Italy, on
condition that the remainder of the monarchy should
be re-united to the imperial throne by indissoluble
ties. Their policy is perhaps on the point of triumph-
ing. If, on the contrary, the Court, yielt);ing to a
resolution which appears to us to be above its courage
and its strength, should decide on combating all its
enemies at the same time, it will leave Radetzky at
Milan, in order to withdraw to Prague. There it
will find elements of resistance against the revolution
of Vienna. We must here express frankly a fact
which we have sometimes indicated, that since the 11
insurrectional movements have burst out in Austria,
the Sclavonians are in the empire only a reactionary
element. That is the part which the Croations of
Jellachich play in Hungary ; that is the part
which the Tcheches play at the Constituent
Assembly of Vienna. And let it not be said th it
the Sclavonians are urged only by antipathy of
race against those who, in face of them, represent
new principles. National animosities disappear before
ideas of liberty, when such ideas are in the heart;
and what proves it is, that the Germans and the
Hungarians, whom old animosities, Heaven knows,
have so long divided, gave each other the hand when
democracy had need of their alliance. The bombard-
ment of Prague, which has been so much spoken of,
represents simply a struggle of races; it is so, and
not otherwise that it is comprehended in Bohemia.
But it is possible to obey perfectly the idea of race,
and at the same time overlook liberal tendencies.
Soon, perhap?, events will lead us to examine an
hypothesis which is often put forward in order to
explain the conservative tendencies of the Sclavonians.
We shall examine if Austria can reconstitute herself
on new bases by making an appeal to the Sclavonian
forces which she contains. But however that may be,
up to this time evident facts must be admitted, and it
must be allowed that Jellachich, in invading Hun-
gary, had nothing else in view than to serve the
cause of Austria, such as it was conceived at Vienna.
The dynasty of Hapsburg, which is resolutely Germa-
nic, would not certainly have risked its last stake to
support a Sclavonian movement; still less with the
prudence and deep cunning which it is known be-
longs to it, would it have allowed itself to be de-
ceived by its Lieutenant. Facts will at last speak
for themselves, and we shall no doubt soon learn
that the Croatian patriots who have so energetically
protested against the Ban have at last shaken off the
authority of Jellachich and of the Austrian party.
A great subject of conversation at Vienna was the