The Sun.
London, England, 1848-12-12 00:00:00

2itit

LONDON, TUESDAY, DECEMBER 12, 1848.

For the next four or five days we can only barn
our thoughts towards Paris, and conjecture. The
result of the great contest for the Presidency must
remain, as yet, for a considerable time, in profound
obscurity. Nothing decisive can be learnt by the
Parisians themselves until Thursday, and even then
the proportionate numbers will be dependent upon
the votes received from the electors in Corsica and
Algeria. It is, therefore, manifest that we must
continue in ignorance upon the subject until Saturday
at the very earliest. The delay is only the inevitable
consequence of the ballot and of universal suffrage.
When as many as seven or eight millions are partici-
pating in the struggle, when the votes of those seven
or eight millions are crumpled up in the urns of
election, and when each of the tickets inscribed with
the name of a candidate has to be separately extracted
and subsequently calculated in the aggregate—it is
evident that an accurate appreciation of the
estimate must be liable to an extraordinary procrasti-
nation. Rapid as the labours of the Committee of
Supervision may be, they must, perforce, be singularly
prolonged. Against our will, therefore, we must
exercise patience, and at the same time rest assured
that before the absolute result reaches our knowledge
it will be preceded by a variety of the most conflict-
ing and preposterous rumours.
Whatever is the consequence of the struggle, that
struggle has already terminated—the secret reposes
at this moment in the urns, impossible though it be at
this moment to anticipate
other of the candidates has its
s character. One or
already triumphed by a
majority, though whether that
on examination, to be sufficient tuaiajority will prove,
eveenrdaerbt.he popular
election valid, remains more than
sidering the number of candidates, five of them conspicuous character—CAvAiGriac--RA„,,, ° very
DELI ROLLIN—LOUIS NAPOLEON—and LestaxT,,,, E"
it is indeed doubtful beyond measure if any one
amongst them will gain the absolute majority of tun,
millions.

From the preliminary decrees passed by the
National Assembly as to the formalities consequent
upon the nomination and inauguration of a President,
it would appear, in fact, as though the popular repre-
sentatives calculated upon the ultimate decision of the
question by themselves. They have provided for the
emergency of an invalid election. And, as an intro-
ductory step towards the solidification of the Repub-
lican institutions, they have constituted a Provisional
Council of State, consisting of thirty members, dis-
tinguished in the majority of instances by their de-
votion to Democracy. As a significant evidence of
the sentiments with which the National Assembly
view the future government of France, the consti-
tution of this Provisional Council of State must be
regarded as in every particular remarkable.
1. ... F. Arago ••• ...

vielle
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2. ... Lacrosse
3. ... Lamartine

Bedeau. .

Dupont (de L'Eure) ..

Senard.

7. . . Goudchaux
8. ... Billault

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8• .. Martin (de Strasbourg)
10. Tocqueville . • •
I'l. Havin
12. !•• Purim

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