The Sun.
London, England, 1848-09-04 00:00:00

historian of the Girondists has shown by his adminis-
tration of three months' duration—an inverval during
which the wave of his finger might have
worked the weal or, the woe of Republican
France that he has not studied in vain
the records of the First Revolution. He saw that
the bane of France throughout that appalling epoch
of blood and spoliation, when the Guillotine was the
Juggernaut of the Parisians, and when the Executive
was transformed into a mere Machine of Murder ;

LAMARTINE saw that the agony of France throughout
that ghastly era arose solely and wholly from the in-
dulgence of jealousy, envy, and hatred among the
different parties, and even among the different indi-
viduals who constituted the Senate of Repub-
lican Legislature. LAMARTINE recognised this
in the records of the Royalists, . the Giron-

dists, the Dantonists, the nerbertists, and the
Terrorists indiscriminately—and therefore, to prevent
the renewal of this great danger, he not only accom-
panied the proclamation of the Republic with the
initiative decree, abolishing the punishment of death for
political offences, but he resolved, at all hazards, to
abstain from party prosecutions, even though it led in
the end to his own discomfiture. LAMARTINE has
kept his resolve with religious exactitude, and the
consequence has been that every action in his illus-
trious career as an Administrator has been misappre-
hended and misconstrued. Let the citizens of the
French Republic con that career scrupulously, and
let them meditate in time whether it bears not

throughout remarkable evidences of the calmest wis.
dom and the noblest humanity.

The first great want of Ireland, the true cure for
;he sufferings she has undergone—and, we regret to
say, is still enduring—is most undoubtedly the de-
velopment of her industry, the affording of full and
adequate employment
,to the myriads :of labourers
who are now unproductively consuming the national
resources, in Owe of being the producers and
creators of national wealth. Labour is the only true
foundation and basis of capital, which really consists
of nothing but hoarded and accumulated labour in
various shapes. Now, it is manifestly a false eco-
nomy to permit that labour to remain useless and
unproductive while there are fields to be cultivated,
waste lands to be reclaimed, bogs to be drained, peat
to be converted into fuel, minerals to be extracted
from the bowels of the earth ; fish to be captured in
the depths of the ocean ; or articles of various kinds
conducive to the comfort or happiness of mankind
to he manufactured. As we have not as yet arrived
at that reinement of political economy, which would
suffer those who are unable to earn their own sub-
sistence to perish of starvation, as they must be sup-
ported whether they remain perfectly idle, or actively
occupied in useful and beneficial pursuits, it is surely
a wiser and more judicious policy to obtain the returns
which they are both able and willing to give, and not
to permit a sinful waste of the means at our disposal,
a burying in the earth of the talent with which we
are entrusted.
There is, however, one insurmountable obstacle to
the development of Irish industry, which cannot be
removed, so long as our present monetary code con-
tinues in existence. The circulating medium—the
currency of the country—is utterly inadequate to its
wants and exigencies. Without a sufficient quantity
of the representative of value, its industry languishes
and declines. It is the motive power that sets the
wheels of the state machine in action, and keeps the
various parts of the general body in healthy and bene-
ficial operation. A glance at the recent returns of the
average circulation of the Irish banks will show
how utterly disproportioned to the number of in-
' habitants, to the taxation of the country, and to
the mines of wealth that remain dormant and unde-
veloped, is the amount of currency within that part
of the United Kingdom. It appears, then, that the
entire circulation of Ireland, on the average of the
four weeks ending 12th August last, amounted to
4,313,304/. only, and as the authorised circulation
of these Irish banks, sanctioned by law, amounts
to 6,354,4941., it follows that the Irish banks
are below their fixed issues no less than
than 2,041,190/.—or nearly one-third of the entire
amount. Does nut this simple fact fully explain the
poverty and wretchedness of the country—the absence
of emplo3 ment, the increase of pooe-rates ? The
very life blood of industry is wanting. Money is
scarce and dear, and every branch of product is
withered and dried up in consequence of tha

scarcity.
In estimating the amount of currency that would be
required in Ireland, the peculiar circumstances of
that country should be borne in mind. In England the
authorised circulation, exclusive of that which is based
on gold, amounts to 22,290,376/. sterling; in addition
there is that which is issued against gold and silver,
which on the average amounts to at least eight or ten
millions more say, in round terms, at least
30,000,0001. of note 3, for carrying on the general
business of the country ; but as these notes are all of
the larger denomination, none under 51. being sanc-
tioned, a very considerable amount of gold, not less
than from thirty to thirty-five millions sterling, re-
mains in the hands of the public, circulating from
hand to hand. This alone gives a currency amount-
ing to sixty-five millions for England alone,
without taking into account the amount of business
traHsacted by means of bankers' cheques and bills of
exchange, which form additional representatives of
value to an extent wholly unknown in Ireland, and
far beyond the proportion which the relative wealth
and profit of the two countries would seem to re-
quire. But at the other side of the Channel a gold
currency is comparatively unknown—small notes
circulate in place of sovereigns. A certain quantity
of gold is retained in the Bank to meet the absurd
requirements of the recent Act; but it is never
sought for, or required, except by parties
who withdraw it for the purpose of hoarding. As a
general medium of exchange the one-pound note is
greatly preferred, both in Scotland and Ireland, to the
sovereign. The 4,313,3041., therefore, performs all
the functions which it takes 65,000,000/. to discharge
here; or, in other words, a population, one-half of
that in England, is obliged to be satisfied with a cur-
rency one-fifth of what we find too little for the ge-
neral purposes of our country. This, it is, that
paralyses the commerce and the industry of the
island, and occasions that lamentable neglect of the
nimialtgovnue isfihcraeevnse s of a
tulntatural resources which it possesses.
ourselves
contractionwitnes sedotfoothreecceunrrtleyn
currency.
. w
e eal ae-
have seen that the withdrawal of six or seven millions
of gold, and the consequent diminution of the circulat-
ing medium by perhaps one-tenth of its total amount,
had the effect of depreciating the value of every de-

XII. Revolution of Fructidor. September 11

1797.
XIII. Revolution of Prairial. May 25, 1799
XIV. Revolution of Brumaire. Nov. 8.
XV. NAPOLEON made Emperor. May 18, 1804.
XVI. Restoration of the Bourbons. May, 1814
XVII. Return of the EMPEROR. March 20,
1815.
XVIII. Re-acceptance of the Bourbons. July.
XIX. Rise of the Citizen King. July, 1830.
XX. Proclamation of the Republic. February
24, 1848.
With such unprecedented vicissitudes in the go-
vernment of France, and with a still more vivid
because a more immediate, remembrance of the
• changes which have occurred since the Revolution of
February, it would be madness to look forward,
without a profound sense of trepidation, to the
futurity awaiting the newly modelled Republican
Constitution. When we bear in mind the ardour
already evinced by the different classes and shades of
politicians in the French capital—the Legitimists,
the advocates of a Regency, the Bonapartiats, the So-
cialists, the Ultras or Red Republicans, the Communists,
the Fourierists, the St. Simonians, the Mountaineers,
the Prudhonists, the Absolutists, and the Utopian
dreamers, whose bubble is called Sodalite—when we
remember, moreover, that the foremost of the Mode-
rates, the only party whose ambition arises from a
genuine and unsophisticated patriotism, are repaid
with ingratitude and calumny, it is impossible for us
to be over-sanguine as to the prospective permanence
of the proposed constitution. We can only yearn
with all the earnestness of an ardent sym-
pathy to behold the peaceful consolidation of
France, the systematic establishment of her
Government, and the lasting security of her Constitu-
tion. While we pronounce these aspirations we would,
nevertheless, if possible, remind the men of Paris of
a fact which has been already recognised by the
electors of Ma9on. .We would remind them that the

THE FRENCH REPUBLIC

The Journal des Debats considers the reply of
Austria as tantamount to a refusal of the proffered
mediation of Prance and England, but does not con-
sider that the peace of Europe will be disturbed in
consequence of such refusal. Austria, it appears, had
entered into negotiations with the Piedmontese Go-
vernment before the mediation was offered, and the
terms proposed by Austria were believed to be to the
following effect :—The offer to yield Lombardy, pro-
perly so called, to the King of SARDINIA • the consti-
tution of Venice into a free town like dimburgh or
Lubeck; the creation, to the profit of one of the sons
of the Archduke REGNIER, of an independent prin-
cipality, composed of Venetia and Frioul ; and, finally,
in return for these concessions, the demand of a sum
in money (it is said 400 millions) representing the
contributive part of Italy, in the debt with which the
Austrian Government is charged.
The Siecle states that a French brigade embarked
on Wednesday at Marseilles, for Venice. The Mar-
seilles journals, however, make no mention of such an
occurrence.
The Miniteur contains the following official report
of the state of affairs at Montpellier :
" The Government has received the following news
from 'Montpellier : —Report of August 29.—The success
of the Legitimists in the municipal elections had
irritated a part of the population. For some days past
about 1,200 or 1,500 citizens met every evening on the
Place de la Comedie. They then generally went
through the quarters inhabited by the Legitimists,
singing patriotic songs.
Yesterday these manifesta-
tions assumed a graver character. The Legitimists had
gained a complete victory in the Council-General and
the Council d'Arrondissement. Vague rumours an-
nounced that disturbances would take place, and
precautionary measures were adopted. About eight
in the evening a crowd went along the boulevards, pre-
ceded by a national guard in uniform bearing a tri-
coloured flag. This crowd was returning into the town,
when several individuals, coming out of a Legitimist
club,; called the Club de r Urne, fell on the national
guard, threw him down, and took away the flag. The
latter used his sabre, and gave a very dangerous wound
to one of his aggressor& Several persons were wounded
on both sides. The prefect then proceeded, at the head
of some national guards to the spot. The Legitimists
•
afitcie,aecahlnttli
eest
determined
sttuk.eharrerlmotHPewi
rninaeacdwt:os
arudtsmoo l t
accompanied
had carried their wounded to a neighbouring quarter,
c'deeOcni
oarl
timevi
neripoecaurnni,nat
ctC(
rerflosyvt
ot
tiuuntdhi
oea b
aal trielydd
ot
pbh yien
pgo
raners
ieduutod
tehreidenauveoudroto
Refugecalm
by only M. Crouset, commissary of police, M. Nouguier,
an advocate, and two gendarmes. He hastened to an-
nounce his intentions; but scarcely had he been recog-
nised, when he was greeted with a shower of stones,
and wounded in the shouldßr, whilst the commissary of
police was wounded in the head. At the same time,
some shots were fired, and one of the gendarmes was'
mortally wounded in the back. At the same moment,
on another point, M. Peytavin, juge d'instruction re-
ceived two halls in the log. The prefect then returned
to the rnairie, to have cartridges distributed to the Na-
tional Guard, and to order out fresh troops. He next
went back to the guarder de l'Olivier, where he was
joined by the judicial authorities, by the general in
command of' the division, at the head of a battalion of
sharpshooters of Vincennes and a battalion of engineers.
surrounded, The quarter was and a judicial investiga-
went on t rough
the night. The Court of Appeal has had the matter
died
The gendarme who was shot at
brought before it.
tion was at once commenced, which h
three in the morning."
The Maniteur adds to the above the following
telegraphic despatch, dated the 31st ult., at noon :
" The gendarme who was shot was buried yesterday.

scription of property, and brought thousands to the
verge of bankruptcy. What, we ask, must be the
condition of Ireland when one third o its entire cur-
rency has been withdrawn within a brief period '?
Does it not account for all its sufferings and wretch
edness ?

What is to be the cure for this monster evil? How
can we stimulate the industrial energies of the coun-
try? How afford it a currency sufficient to bring
into active employment its now useless and unpro-
ductive labour ? We believe that it is perfectly
practicable to do so, and that such a currency would
be fully as safe as any based upon bullion; that the
lab Our of Ireland could be fully occupied, and the
destitute poor fed, without any appeal to the bounty
or to the compassion of England.

SPAIN.
We have received Madrid papers of the 28th ult.
The QUEEN has returned from La Grangja to
Madrid. During the course of the journey the
horses attached to the carriage of NARYAEZ ran away,
and the General leaped out of the carriage and re-
ceived several bruises. His health is much impaired,
and it is generally supposed that he will retire, and be
succeeded by .111oN.
M. CABALLERO, a wealthy merchant, had been
arrested on an unfounded charge of having cashed a
bill for the Montemolinists, but he was shortly after
released, and several Ministers waited on him to ex-
press their regret at what occurred. He was, how-
ever, so affected as to become seriously ill. The high
character and popularity of M. CABALLERO, who is an
intimate friend of the Minister of Finance, caused his
arrest to create great sensation. There was a talk of
several Members of both Chambers intending to pre-
sent an address to the QUEEN, praying that arbitrary
political arrests may be put an end to.
The Clamor Public() pretends that M. MON'S de-
mand for an advance is not favourably received by
capitalists in the provinces.

We have received the Paris papers of Saturday
and of yesterday.
Although it is exceedingly probable that France
may not ultimately be compelled to make an armed
demonstration in Italy, it would appear from the fol-
lowing, which appears in the National of Saturday,
that nothing but absolute necessity will compel the
French Government to order the army of the Alps to
cross the frontier. Should the peace of Europe be
disturbed it will be solely attributable to the obsti-
nacy of the Austrian Government. The National
says :
.6 The affairs of Italy naturally excite public curiosity.
Accordingly we are not surprised at versions the most
contradictory and statements the most hazardous being
put in circulation by the journals. Add to that, nu-
merous representatives of Lombardy or Venice too
much disposed to take their hopes for realities, and in
their patriotic impatience to outstrip the still unknown
resolutions of the Government, and you will understand
how yesterday, for example, the departure of a corps
d'armee.la declaration of war.against Austria, &e., were an-
nounced. It is well to warn Republic on this point. Repub-
lican diplomacy has nothing to hide, but precisely because
it acts in open day, we consider suspicious all that it
does not openly avow, all that it does not openly pro-
claim. The least inconvenience of these controverted
accounts, these. anonymous communications, which are
so numerous, would be to mislead the country, and
perhaps to create us useless embarrassments with foreign
Cabinets. At present nothing is decided as to the
armed intervention of France. The reply of Austria,
little satisfactory in form, does not imply at bottom an
absolute refusal of the mediation of Great Britain and
France. It must not, however, be dissimulated that this
reply, such as it is, may place the Government of the
Republic under the necessity of supporting its offers to
the belligerent parties by a demonstration. Austria
only alleges one single motive for not pronouncing on
the question of mediation. She is negotiating, she says,
directly with Piedmont. Without inquiring whether
Piedmont is entitled to speak in the name of Lombardy
and Venice—which is more than doubtful—we will con-
tent ourselves with causing it to be remarked that the
motive put forward by the Cabinet of Vienna does not
even exist ; as in point of fact the whole Cabinet of Turin
protests against the supposition of a private treaty between
Sardinia and Austria. If then any negotiations have been
entered into on the subject of the affairs of Italy, they can
only be personal to the King. This declaration, of
which we guarantee the exactitude, has an importance
which will escape no one. Evidently Charles Albert
cannot alone and in his private name engage both bis
states and the whole of Northern Italy. Thus Austria
cannot longer shelter herself. behind pretended negotia-
tions with Piedmont to reject mediation. At the present
hour, the two Powers which have taken the Italian cause
in hand have to call on Vienna to explain itself catego-
rically. We repeat, that we hope that, better inspired,
Austria will accept the offer of mediation, of which the
bases were, so to speak, laid down by the Austrian
Cabinet itself, before England and France interposed.
The initiative, an honourable initiative, belongs to
Austria. It would not be worthy of her to abuse her
victory by retiring her proposition. Besides, what
would she gain by so doing ? Does she not feel that
her Italian possessions are for ever lost, and that
henceforth, Milan, a desert, and Lombardy, abandoned,
only offer her a costly occupation ? Let Italy b:dong to
herself—such is the wish is Europe—such is the right
of those populations which force has been able to sub-
ject, hut not conquer. Until Austria shall be
decided to reply categorically, things will re-
main in the same state, and any hostile attempt against
portions of the Italian territory not included in the
armistice is interdicted to the Austrian army. We have
not been alone in laying down this condition, for, if we
are well informed, the English Cabinet has addressed a
dispatch to Vienna to protest against any aggression
against Venice. To sum : Austria, interrogated by
us, and long silent, has put forward her negotiations
with Piedmont. Now, Piadmozit declares that it will
not negotiate, and it was difficult to understand how it
could be otherwise, after her formal acceptation of
mediation. What remains then for Austria to do? If
she be sincere, recognise her error, and, in that case, ac-
cept our offers; if she understands her own interests,
abandon what already no longer belongs to her; it she
be just, be the first to proclaim Italian independence. If,
on the contrary, the Cabinet of Vienna, counting too
much on Frankton, obstinately refuses, then we shall
have to examine, not if there be reason to declare war—
we reject the responsibility of that idea—but whether it
may not be necessary to show to Austria that, when the
French Republic has placed the nationality of a friendly
people under its protection, it knows, if necessary, how
to present at the point of its sword, as was formerly
said, the treaty of peace which its negotiators have pre-
pared."

M. DE LAIIIARTINE has just published a pamphlet
in defence of his conduct while a member of the
Provisional Government. It has created the greategt
sensation, and the first edition was sold off in the
course of a quarter of an hour. It is in the form of
a Letter to the Electors of the various constituencies
who returned him as their representative to the
National Assembly.
After commencing by declaring that "that popu-
larity which had greeted him everywhere without
cause, has withdrawn from him without motive,"
he proceeds to treat successively the following
points :
"It is alleged that I have been ardent in pursuit of
my ambitious projects, and feeble in the exercise of
power during the three months I formed part of the
Provisional Government;
" That I entered into conditions with terrorism;
"That I made arrangements with conafnunisna, and
intoxicated the people by promising them the organiza-
tion of labour;
" That I conspired with the persons now detained at
Vincennes, and furnished Sobrier with arms for im-
proper pnrposes ;
" That I aided in attempts of armed propagandism
against Governments to which I promised peace and
honourable conduct ;
"That I compromised the safety of the Republic by
not ordering our forces at once beyond the Alps and
the Rhine ;
" That I was an accomplice in the manifestation of
the two hundred thousand men on March 17th •
" That I was hesitating and uncertain on the 16th of
April ;

That through pusillanimity I refused, after the
meeting of the National Assembly, the sole power which
the Assembly was disposed to confer on me, and which
two millions of votes seemed to point me out for ;
"That by this refusal I led the Assembly to form a
Committee of Government, without unity of will and
without firmness to meet the difficulties of the moment ;
" That I formed an alliance in that Committee with
men of opinions contrary to my own and to the mode-
rate Republic ;
" That I paid my debts with the money of the RP-
public, and that I purchased property with the fruit of
ivy peculations' &c. '
The political charges against M. DE LAMARTINE
have been and will be again frequently discussed, and
his eloquent speeches in reply to those charges are
well known. With respect to the last charge, it is
the first time we have ever heard it brought against
M. DE LANIARTINE, and we are surprised that those
wh6 have brought it forward should for one moment
imagine that any sane maawould believe it possible that
ALPHONSE DE LAMARTINE Could be guilty of petal-
lotion. In our minds the charge excites merely dis-
gust against its fabricators. It needs no reply. M.
DE LANIARTINE, however, has condescended to notice,
and to reply to it, and this he does in a manner that
completely sets the question at rest.
After declaring that it is impossible for a man in
power to take any part of the public money, so nu-
merous are the formalities which attend every sum
obtained from the Treasury, he goes on to say :
" The truth is, that .I have not had the handling of
any other funds than 293,000 f. of secret service money
assigned in the usual way to me as Minister of Foreign
Affairs to be expended in missions, information, and
useful influences of every kind, at a moment when it was
necessary to see everything with the eye of the Republic,
to supply the suspended action of the agents of the mo-
narchy in foreign countries, and when I was at the same
time Minister of Foreign Affairs and member of a dicta-
torial Government. That was the only sum of money
of the funds of the Republic from which I could possibly
deduct these imaginary sums said to be sent by me to
foreign countries, or appropriated to pay my debts.
If my accusers will not believe in the mcral impossibi
lity of my pretended peculations, they will at ieast be
here in the impossibility of the arithmetic of their state,
men. '

But I shall proceed further. On the Ist of last Ja.
nuary, fifty-three days before the Republic, my general
fortune consisted of about 2,500,000 francs, as wall in
land, houses, furniture, as in money invested and literary
property. My debts amounted to 650,000 f. Nothing is
more easy than to verify these figures.
" But 3ou had,' it is replied, not less than 1,100,000 f.
of debts in 1847, and now you have only 600,000 f. of
the same. You have, therefore, off 500,000 f., and
you must have done so out of the public money !"There
is but one little difficulty in that, which is, that these
500,000f*. were paid off by me six months before the Re-
volution; and out of what funds did I pay them in
1847? Out of 300,000 f. paid me by
the publisher of
L'Histoiie des Giroadins,' and out of 450,000 f., the
price of my patrimonial estate of Pertaine, near Macon,
sold by me at that period. GJ and learn its particulars
—the property sold, the persons who purchased it, my
notaries, my publishers, my creditors, the deeds and
receipts, will reply to you more peremptorily than any-
thing I can say.
"As to the movement of my disposable fortune since
the day when the Republic was established, and from
my accession to power up to the present day, here it is
—I was obliged to borrow 110,000 F. in order to pay
105,000 r. The lenders, publishers, creditors reimbursed
are there to attest the exactitude of these assertions. I
am ready to produce this testimony to the most incre-
dulous. The names of the parties respond for the mo-
rality and sincerity of the acts. Thus, it is evident that
the source of my partial reimbursement in 1848 is not in
the public treasury, but in the:strong box of my creditors
and of my friends.
"I blush to bring forward these figures ; but the
people have a right to inquire into the reputation of their
representatives. Let us therefore go farther.
41 had concluded, shortly before the 23d of February
at different dates, with publishers, capitalists, and news-
paper proprietors, contracts for the turning to account
my literary works, past, present, and to come, amount-
ing in all to the sum of 540,000 r. I hoped, from the
fruit of my assiduous labour, to pay in a few years my
creditors, preserving my patrimony to a family numerous
and dear, and to the numerous families of farmers who
live on my capital. The care of public affairs and the
crisis, which I could not consent to take advantage of
voluntarilyi.f e,therefore,ri nac againstforced
du inr ts hee
to rescind
honourable rnif
r.he raadebnaval
cdeol
eldl andsui
these
ttiiw additional
nnhga.i eel
acts,
ceswtr
lus oh,
Such
ahchs
nha partiesdad Ir wer ieh
received.
evyi
fevoceprsodcran.
eoce
profits
itrf
sacrificed
cebei
tdysdo:
the Republic!"
In the French provinces trade is reviving.
The Journal de l'Arrondimement du Havre says—
" We believe we can point out an evident symptom
of a return to a more favourable state of things for
our town. The strangers arid travellers who flock to
Havre from the month of June had hitherto been
completely absent from our hotels. It has been re-
marked with a lively satisfaction that for some days
past they have arrived in great numbers. The hotels
are now becoming filled, as ia former years, and
The Obaervateur d'Avessee says:—"
nearly all the apartments at FRASCATl'SAariaergtaekseinii.:.
nieg factory of Guise is now buying up all the wool
as trarno dn
d,
slsseom, tehnatt
tlf almostv e r av
rs
that can be found in the neighbourhood. We under-
greatest part of the workmen whom they had sent
h
away after the revolution of February."
the manufacturers t
aken
bacokt•
thet e
Yesterday, at the review, General CAvAIGNAC was
loudly cheered. The sight was a noble one, between
70,000 and 80,000 men being under arms, of whom
about 19,000 or 20,000 belonged to the Na-
tional Guard, only one battalion being called
out • from each legion. The General, at the
head of a numerous staff, went down the lines
with General DE LAMORICIEBE by his side, and then
had all the troops to file off before him. Numerous

The town is perfectly quiet. The judicial investigation
is going on."
The following le reported as the explanation of
General CAVAIGNAC to the Committee of the As-
sembly on the suspension of the journals :
" Tne journals cannot seriously believe that the Go-
vernment wishes to prevent them from free discussion
during the debates of the National Assembly upon the
Constitution. The idea of the suspension of the Consti-
tutionnel is nothing but a fable. The Council of Minis-
ters have never entertained any such idea, and conse-
quently the Minister of Justice cannot have to oppose a
measure which has never been thought- of. It was only
from necessity, and for the public safety, that some
journals have been thus attacked. The Republic is but
in its birth, and the Executive Government cannot tole-
rate journals which attack its very principle of life. Be-
sides, at every act of the executive power since the state
of siege, the Assembly is perfectly at liberty to mark its
disapprobation, and when it has done so the executive
power will immediately stop." The General further de-
clared that he had not addressed himself to the Com-
mittee of Legislation, because that Committee had only
to occupy itself with the laws, but to statesmen who
were to judge of the state of things in a political point
of view.—" We are not"—sa:d the:General, in conclusion
—" in a normal, but in an exceptional state."
On Saturday the National Assembly was engaged
in discussing the report of the Committee on the
Constitution, which recommended that the state of
siege of Paris should not be raised during the dis-
cussion of the Constitution. General CAVAIGNAC
spoke in favour of the conclusions of the Committee,
which were ultimately adopted by a majority of
529 to 140.
The bureaux of the National Assembly proceeded
on Friday to their monthly organization. Almost all
the presidents and secretaries were re-elected. The
principal change was in the fourth bureaux, where
M. LEDRU ROLLIN, as president, and M. CHAUFFOUR,
as secretary, were opposed by M. DUPIN and M.
MORTIMER FARNAUX. Both of these last-named
gentlemen were elected by large majorities.
A prisoner named VINCENT, confined at the Con-
' ciergerie, who has lately written a letter to the
Refornze affirming that " he had received money from
the Legitimist party in the affair of June for carrying
letters, and seen sums distributed to others," was on
Friday visited by the Procureur of the Republic,
and M. Fienow, Judge d'lnstruction, who asked him
to reveal what he knew. VINCENT persisted that all
he said was true, but refused to give the slighest
information as to the persons implicated, unless he
got a formal promise of pardon from the Government
fcr any offences ha might have committed, that of
desertion included. He said that he had besides
written a letter on the subject of what he knew to
the President of the National Assembly and to MM.
PROUDRON and LAGRANGE, representatives. Under
the circumstances, the law authorities did not
think that anything further could be done in the
matter.