The Sun.
London, England, 1848-07-08 00:00:00

THE FRENCH REPUBLIC.

LAMARTINE'S DEFENCE OF HIS
GOVERNMENT.
We have received the Paris papers of yesterday.
The funeral of the victims of June passed off with-
out disturbance. The following account of the cere-
mony appears in Galignanis Messenger :
" The funeral ceremony in honour of the victims who
fell in defence of the cause of order in the late insur-
rection took place yesterday, in the way regulated by
the programme, with the exception of the procession to
the Place de la Bastille. It was announced in the Na-
tional Assembly on Wednesday, that this part of the
ceremony would be postponed, as the vaults under the
Column of July were not ready for the reception of the
bodies, and that they would, therefore, be deposited for
the present in the vaults of the church of the Made-
leine. The motive officially assigned did not inspire
generalbefief, and rumours,which, we trust, were wholly
without foundation, were current yesterday morning
that the postponement was the result of information
that some assassins had prepared an infernal machine,
a la Fieschi, in some house on the Boulevards,
and that it would be let off at the moment when the
President of the Council of Ministers and his colleagues
should be passing. The ceremony, even without the
procession along the Boulevards, was splendid and im-
posing. The hall of the National Assembly, and the
part of the church of the Madeleine which faces it were
hung with black, intermixed with silver; and the altar
erected in the Place de la Concorde was remarkable at
once for simplicity and grandeur. There is, perhaps,
no capital in the world in which public displays of this
sort are got up with greater rapidity, elegance, and good
taste, than in Paris. The troops, who took part in the
ceremony, consisted of detachments from different corps,
and the total formed an imposing mass. Most of the
National Guards were in uniform. The crowd was, as
usual on occasions of this kind, very dense, and con-
sisted, for the greater part of the bourgeoisie. At
half-past ten the officiating bishop ascended the steps
of the altar, and the religious service com-
menced, the cannon of the Invalides firing at
intervals. Notwithstanding the intense heat of the day,
the crowd stood with their heads uncovered during the
greater part of the religious service. When the Host
was elevated nearly all the persons present went on their
knees. The members of the National Assembly and the
public bodies were ranged in the order fixed by the pro-
gramme. At halt-past eleven the procession moved to-
wards the Madeleine, headed by the Horse National
Guards, the Republican Guard, and the different troops
now in Paris. The car was drawn by 16 horses, richly
caparisoned, and accompanied by nearly 200 priests.
After the car were other detachments of troops. On
arriving at the Madeleine the bodies were brought into
the church, and, after prayers had been read by the
Bishop of Langres, they were deposited in the vaults.
The public and troops then separated in religious silence.
The car was left for some time before the church, in
order that it might be seen by persons who, from the
denseness of the crowd, could not get a sight of it during
the procession. It was of the usual form, hung with
black draperies, and richly ornamented with silver. The
whole ceremony was as imposing as it was mournful,
and will leave a deep impression on the minds of all who
witnessed it."
. The National denies the discovery of any plot for
the assassination of Generals C:AVAIGNAC and LA-
MORICIEILE by means of an infernal machine ; and it
also denies the report that fresh disturbances had
broken out in the Faubourg St. Antoine. It says,
that some seizures of arms and some arrests having
been ordered in the faubourg, it had been considered
advisable to have an imposing military force in the
neighbourhood. The seizures and arrests had, how-
ever, been made without resistance.
The total number of arrests effected in consequence
of the insurrection amounts, it is said, to 10,000, and
about 12,000 files of examinations and documents
relative to the recent events are in the hands of the
examining magistrates.
The most effectual measures are in the course of
adoption for upholding the cause of order in Paris.
An encampment of 30,000 men is to be formed at St.
Maur, and various other measures of precaution are
to be adopted. On this subject the Journal des De-
bats says—
" In the Committee of War M. de Remilly has pro-
posed the concentration of the force of 50,000 men round
Paris. This is a wise precaution, for the surest way to
prevent bloodshed is to take away every chance of suc-
cess from those misguided men who would attempt it.
With this view the representatives of the people who
hold a meeting in the Rue de Poictiers, and which now
forma the most numerous fraction of the Chamber, from
the adhesion of many fresh members, have conceived a
set of measures calculated to secure the tranquillity of
the capital, and hence of the whole of France, and almost
of Europe.
" The measures which have been proposed by M.
Thiers are the following:—The first consists in dissolv-
ing the national workshops, by giving to the workmen
out of emplyment assistance at their own houses; by
offering to others work adapted to their profession, such
as clothing for the troops to weavers, tailors, shoe-
makers, Scc.; artillery waggons to men accustomed to
that business; works on the fortifications at Havre,
Cherbourg, and other parts of the coast, to carpenters
and masons, who are now so numerous in Paris; in a
word, to give employment where possible to the men of
the ateliers, and to relieve those for whom work could
not be found.
" The second measure was the complete disarming of
the insurgent quarters; the third, the maintenance in
Paris, or close to the walls, of a force of the line of at
least 60,000 men ! To these measures were added two
others, tending to prevent civil war by suppressing the
causes which lead to it—it was to close the clubs tem-
porarily, reserving to the constitution to regulate the
right of association, and to put a limit to the freedom of
the press, and prevent offences against society, such as
provocation to civil war, pillage, murder, provocations
of which certain journals have been guilty by publibhing,
for instance, every day in Paris, the list of those
inhabitants who were supposed to possess the most
property.
" These measures were proposed not to be converted
into decrees of the Assembly, which might assume the
character of opposition to the new executive power, but
to make them the subject of an understanding with the
Government to which they might be pointed out as
means considered indispensable by a principal part of
the representatives to secure the repose of France, and
the peaceable and durable establishment of the new
Republic. No conduct could be more guarded, more
governmental, more worthy of men who wish to benefit
the country without ostentation and without any useless
discussion with the Government. It was agreed to that
if it was found impossible to come to an understanding
on the subject with the executice power, the propo-
sitions would be submitted to the Assembly in a series
of bills.
"All good citizens must see with satisfaction that a
part of those measures are in accordance with the views
of the Executive and the Assembly. The ateliersnationaux
are already in course of dissolution, and several bills are
in preparation for affording employment to the workmen.
The disarming is being effected, and already more than
100,000 muskets have been returned into the Govern-
ment deptits.A large military force is being concentrated
round Paris; independently of the Garde Mobile and the
Garde Republicaine, there are 45,000 infantry of the
line, and 10,000 artillery, engineers, and cavalry. This
display of force will show the folly of any fresh at-
tempts at disorder,
" But this is not all that is to be expected from a wise
and enlightened Government. Moral order is not less
necessary than material order, and we hope that in pre-
serving the right of association and liberty of writing,
indispensable limits will be fixed to both. It will be
easy, while respecting and consecrating those rights, to
prevent the existence in Paris of open tribunes from
whence such doctrines as an appeal to arms are put
forth, and the sale of papers exciting to pillage and
murder are openly sold in the pubiic streets. To to-
lerate such abuses is not the way to consolidate the new
Republic, but to render it as ephemeral as its predecessor
of 1792."

M. EMILE DE GIItARDIN, who was set at liberty
on the sth, has published the following protest :
" Arrested without motive, and kept au secret for
eleven days, without anything, even of the most vague
character, being brought against me, and afterwards set
at liberty as irregularly as I was incarcerated, without
any document being communicated to me to show why I
had been deprived of my liberty on the 25th of June,
and released on the sth of July, my first act is to protest
against that sequestration of my person, and against the
suppression -of the journal La Prcdse, a twofold attack
against liberty and property, which I reserve to myself
to discuss when that journal may again re-appear,
all the materiel of which'is now under seal.
" July 5."

" E. DE GIRARDIN.

M. DE LAMARTINE has addressed to the editor of
the Constitutionnel the following indignant protest
against the calumnies of which the Orleanist party
have endeavoured to make him the victim :
: " lifonsieur,—Out of respect to the crisis in which my
country is placed, as well as to that of the good sense of
the public, I leave unnoticed that flood of malevolence,
calumnies, and absurdities which for some time has been
directed against the names, the acts, and the intentions
of the men whom events raised or threw down in the