The Sun.
London, England, 1848-10-09 00:00:00

Otrientag

LONDON, MONDAY, OCTOBER 9, 1848.

As we anticipated on Saturday, the trial of Mr.
SMITH O'BRIEN was brought to a conclusion on that
day. At a little after five o'olock the jury returned
a verdict of guilty, accompanied with an unanimous
recommendation to the merciful consideration of the
Crown, and expressing their anxious desire that his
life should be spared. The gentlemen of the county
of Tipperary have thus honestly and conscientiously
discharged the important and deeply painful duty im-
gation
bsranbydi ngas a traitor ain accordance with
whichhave,
they were bound,
posed upon them. They
v
rt high-
mindedhe ceo r sdoel de solemn
andth
decisionbelnusiastic i
gentleman of rank and
station in society, of an amiable and chivalrous dis-
position, who for many years had sat in the Imperial
Parliament as the representative of a large and
influential constituency, and thereby, unless the
highest prerogative of the Crown should be exercised
in his favour, consigned him to an ignominious death
upon the scaffold, and deprived his innocent children
of the inheritance derived by ancient descent
through a long line of illustrious progenitors.
Deeply painful and heartrending as might be the
result of their verdict, brilliant and persuasive as was
the eloquence by which their feelings were appealed
to on behalf of the unfortunate gentleman, and in-
genious and acute as was the argument by which the
only possible solution of the various circumstances
that had occurred, short of the grave offences charged
in the indictment, was suggested, there was no hesita-
tion on their part. They decided in accordance with
the law laid down by the Learned Chief Justice, but,
as they were constitutionally entitled to
do, they expressed their decided opinion that
the prisoner had not merited the extreme penalties
prescribed by the law—that there were many
mitigating circumstances that should be attended to
—that the justice of the case would be fully met, and
the majesty of the law sufficiently vindicated, by a
minor punishment, not involving the life of the
prisoner whom they had just convicted. In the
propriety of this recommendation we most fully and
cordially concur, and we believe that there are few
indeed on either side of St. Georges Channel
who would not rejoice to find justice tem-
pered with mercy, and the British Govern
merit following the brilliant example exhibited
by Republican France, and declining to
sanction the sacrifice of human life for any
merely political offence, for the attempt to obtain
what the party conscientiously believed to be essen-
tial to the rights and liberties of his country by even
Apart, however, from the
illegal and unjustifiable means•
general question, as to
the propriety
of capital punishment for political
offences, there are peculiar circumstances in the
present case that render an extension of
mercy not only politic and expedient, but
merely an act of justice to the prisoner. Without
in any degree anticipating what may be the decision
of the highest tribunal on the points submitted by
the Learned Counsel for the defence, and which may
probably form the subject of a writ of error, it
is certain that the prisoner was deprived of advan-
tages which in this country he would have been en-
titled to, and for the partial loss of which, the sen-
tences of FROST, JONES and WILLIAMS, were com-
muted, although the objection was not taken in
proper time.
On Saturday we pointed out the reasons why this
difference of the law in force in the sister kingdom
would, whatever might be the result of the trial,
afford an ample and sufficient ground for claiming an
extension of mercy to the prisoner. An additional

and most poweerul illustration was afforded at Clon-
mel the very sat ne day, almost the very hour we were
penning those remarks, of the great injury inflicted
upon the accused by the withholding of the list of
witnesses. Up to the very moment of the produc-
tion of the spy DOBBIN on the table there
was not the slightest conception as to the
identity of the party alluded to by the Attorney-
General is his opening speech as having been present
at the meeting for the election of the war directory,
as it was called, who was to be produced to give evi-
dence before the jury. Conjecture was busy as to
the probable party. Many names were suggested,
and it is more than probable that materials fcr the
cross-examination of the suspected parties, and wit-
nesses to contradict any erroneous statement th'it
might be made, had been prepared and placed in the
hands of tlva professional advisers of the accused.
At length the moment actually arrived when
the secret was to be revealed—and to the general
astonishment; a man wholly unknown, unre-
cognised by the prisoner or by any of the accused
parties, who. stated that he belonged to a club, of
whose existan ce there was no concurring proof, was
produced. Ells evidence bore hardly upon the pri-
soner. If cr,edited it would negative the view sug-
gested by Mr. WHITESIDE, that the whole of the
proceedings at Mullinahone, Killenau!e, and Ballin-
garry, had the object only of protecting the prisoner
himself from, arrest, and did not support the intent of
a general l evying of war against the SOVEREIGN.
This, then, was the most important witness of all, whose
testimony would perhaps have been wholly set aside
if his prev'tous history could have been known; and

damnatory facts brought forward against him. All
were at facalt, however, and nothing could be ascer-
tained respecting the confessed spy save the ac-
count which he volunteered to give of himself, viz.,
that he had been an engineer, and was subsequently
an attorney's clerk. All that the talented Counsel
for the defence could allege respecting him was, that
he came forward in a most degrading character, and
that the testimony of all witnesses of that class
required ample corroboration, and could not
otherwise be credited. Who can judge of
the effects that might have been produced
upon the jury by the withering and indig-
nant denunciation that would have been hurled
against the delinquent if the materials existed ? Most
probably his evidence would have been wholly set
aside, and the jury would have considered the other
testimony uninfluenced by any statements that fell
from his polluted lips. The matter was, however,
otherwise until the very last moment, when the
Lord Chief Justice had almost concluded his charge.
A proceeding then occurred of a very ex-
traordinary character. Mr. WHITESIDE appealed to
his Lordship to suspend his charge until a communi-
cation was made to the Attorney-General, the result
of which was, that a new witness was produced at
that stage of the proceedings, who detailed circum-
stances which, if commented upon byMr. Witruesme,
might have worked a material change, in the opinion
of the jury. The witness, a man named DALTON,
who had just arrived by special train from
Dublin, proved that in June last Donnas'
had applied to him "to join the clubs, to
urge them to go further than they might other-
wise be inclined to go, to enlist recruits," &c., and
subsequently to betray those very persons whom they
had themselves seduced into crime. The spy, when
confronted with the witness, wholly denied that he
had ever seen him before, a declaration that was re-
ceived with derisive laughter from the Court. Here
then was a practical inconvenience that might have
altered the result of the trial if the prisoner
had the privilege to which he would have been en-
titled in England, and this is another ground why
mercy should be extended. We shall return to this
subject to-morow, adducing other reasons to prove
that the extreme penalty should be remitted in this
case.

Whatever may ba said to the contrary, there is not
"an end of confidence in any constitution which may
be established in France." The elaborate and so-
phistical argument which makes this very deliberate as-
sertion will fail in carrying the conviction of its truth
home to the mind of the multitude—its refutation is
visible in the unanimity and devotion of thirty-five
millions of French citizens. Yes! the confidence of
France in the Republican Constitution is verified by
the burning wcrds of her orators, and by the heart-
born acclamations of her people, by the inspired
voice of the tribune and by the impassioned re-
sponse of the market-place. France has repu-
diated the worn-out stigma of her volatility;
her old characteristic of fickleness is thrown away
like a threadbare garment; she stands at last before
the world in the conscious vigour and permanence of
Republicanism—abhorring the mobility of monarchi-
cal rights, and trampling into the dust the muta-
bility of every institution save the sublime and ever-
lasting institution of a moderated democracy.
Nobly, grandly, gloriously has this devotion to
Republicanism been expressed by the fervid lips of
LAMARTINE. The oration delivered on Friday last
by that great man is one of those master-
pieces of eloquence which carry the imaging •
tions of an auditory away in a whirlwind
of enthusiasm. He soared immeasurably above
all his former oratorical achievements. The
tribune was no longer a tribune—it seemed to be
transfigured into a tripod ; and the Assembly hung
with an indescribable pleasure upon the accents of
his Pythonic declamation. M. DE LAMARTINE
spoke upon the momentous question as to the manner
of election to the Presidency—whether, in short, the
President of the French Republic should be chosen
by the National Assembly or by universal suffrage.
In discussing the difficulties and the responsibilities
of this great problem, the orator gradually revealed
its solution with a felicity of logic, a splendour of il-
lustration, a profundity ofargurnent, and a grandeur of
utterance, such as defied even a whisper of opposition,
and commanded an universal outcry of admiration
The debate has been abbreviated by this magnificent
discourse, and the decision of the national represen-
tatives arrived at without further hesitation. After
perusing the speech which has accomplished so
much in a single sitting (a translation of which
speech will be found elsewhere in this even-
ing's impression), it becomes to us no mat-
ter of astonishment to hear that the orator,
on descending from the tribune, was surrounded
by a great number of representatives offering
him their felicitations, or to find the Parisian
reporters appending this remark to the discussion,
that " no one dreamt of addressing the Assembly
after the address of M. DE LAMARTINE.” As in the
instance of SHERIDAN'S philippic upon the Princesses
or Begums of Oude, the House was immediately ad-
journed to allow the first rapture of admiration in
some measure to subside. Yet the next morning the
acclamations may be said to have been renewed with
redoubled earnestness—the plaudits of the Assembly
being re-echoed by the panegyrics of the various
journals. In this instance the applause has been equiva-
lent to an ovation; and—what must be of infinitely
greater importance to the orator—almost every
tongue, with scarcely one exception, acknowledged
at once the correctness of his deductions those
deductions tended directly to the election of the
President for five years by universal suffrage.
How majestically the orator vindicated the supe-
riority of the popular or national right over the right
of birth, over the right of primogeniture, over the
right of conquest, over the right divine, over the
right of hereditary succession, may be discerned
from the following eloquent apostrophes :—" The
right of birth ! What is it ? All the world is suf-
ficiently enlightened now-a-days to penetrate the
mystery. The right of birth—it is the right of
hazard ! The right of primogeniture ! What is it ?
The right of the first arrived, the right of the one
who first emerges from the womb of the mother ! The
right of conquest ? It is the right which secures the
degradation of the races who submit to its pre-
dominance—it is the right of violence and of brutal
authority The right Divine ? It is nothing more
than the sanction or benediction of the priesthoed
bestowed upon the royal dynasties ! It is now a
long time since this sign became nothing more than a
sign, and this symbol nothing more than a symbol !
The right of hereditary succession ? But this
right is sometimes only the right of idiotcy !" Again,
in exposing the dangers which must inevitably accrue
from the choice of a President by the National
Assembly, the orator exclaimed that the factions
might thus address themselves to the different repre-

sentatives—" Thou! Thcu b ast named the President
of the Republic because 1 is was thy father, and
because in the aggrandizen sent of his position, thou
didst aspire to the advance) gent of thine own family !
Thou ! Thou hAst given to the President of the
Republic thy voice, bees' ise he vv as thy personal
friend, and, because in the . extension of his fortunes
thou didst hope to enhai ice the magnitude of thy
posses ions ! Thou ! Th, m hest named the Presi-
dent of the Republic, beta) lie he has promised thee an
ambassadorship—thou, be. :ause he has promised thee
a prefecture.—(The orator ' was here interrupted by
shouts of " Yes ! yes :" " Bravo I" and pro-
longed sensation.) Such are fragmentary portions
of the harangue 'w/ 'licit has
,ao profoundly
moved the Assembly, and the reverberations of which
are sti►l thrilling in the, hearts of the French Reptibli=
cans. It has already gone fii,r towards consolidating
the new institutions inaugurated in February—it is
even now affording a brilliant refutation to the fal-
lacy propounded by an English pamphleteer—it is,
if we may employ the beautiful expression,
of M. DE LAMAITINE himself, becoming to us a light,
enabling us to peruse the destinies of France
through the darkness of futuxity. The President of
the French Republic will now be elected imme-
diately by the French people themselves—he will be
the visible emanation from the souls and the con-
sciences of many millions of citizens. As LANIAR.
TINE ejaculated, in the language of the great
Junius, "Alea jacta est !" The die is cast! There
is now no further appeal. If the people abdicate their
sovereignty to a Pretender, the Assembly will meet
destruction with glory, and the past seven months will
be nothing more substantial than a beautiful vision.
" Yes ! Whatever may happen, it will be a beautiful
fact in history, to have attempted to create the Re-
public which was proclaimed, conceived, and in-
augurated in four months, the Republic of enthu-
siasm, of moderation, of fraternity, of peace, of pro-
, tection to society, to property, to religion, to family,
the Republic not of WASIIINGTON"—Of LAMARTINE !

THE FRENCH REPUBLIC.

We have received the Paris papers of Saturday and
yesterday.
On Friday the discussion on the article of the
Constitution regulating the election of President was
continued, and the following brilliant speech in favour
of the election by universal suffrage was delivered
by N. DE LAMARTINE

If every speaker is to experience embarrassment in
coming to discuss from this tribune a question so
complicated, and one on which opinions are so much
divided, it is at least pleasant to appreciate and ad-
mire the men whom he comes to oppose.
Numerous voices—Speak louder. We cannot hear.
M. de Isamartint —I say that independently of the
embarrassment which a political man feels when
giving his opinion on one of the questions the
most wavering, and the most undecided in the
opinion of the country, and in our own, there is
something painful in opposing those he appreciates
and admires. I shall, however, endeavour to put
aside these preoccupations. The Hon. Representa-
tives who yesterday and to-day spoke on this question
have, to my great regret, confounded in the discussion
the five articles which, in the draft of the Constitution,
tend to constitute the Executive Power; I am com-
pelled to follow them for a moment in the generality
and in the specialities of their arguments. The
question has been for the last two days not only to
decide whether the President of the Republic shall be
elected by the people, or by the National Assembly,
but also whether there be a President ; what shall be
the form of his government; whether it shall be in
one or more hands; if it shall be arbitrarily subject to
the opinion of the majority ; if it shall be triennial or
quinquennial. All those points have been called in
question. Just now it has been recommended to us
to constitute a temporary and transitory power, de-
ficient, from that very cause, of all those conditions
of fixity necessary to terminate the revolu-
tion, which is now becoming unravelled, and
which we now constitute. To the question whe-
ther the Republic shall or shall not have a
President, I shall only reply to this by a very few
words. I refer to history, and I see that all French
Assemblies, all those who have seriously wished to
constitute a government, have admitted, and sought
to carry into practice, that distinction of functions. I
set aside the word powers, which is not a proper
expression, for the power must be unitary ; but you
have it here. The question is of functions, and they
must be distinct.—(Marks of adhesion.) I see on the
other hand the long Parliament, and the Convention
taking in hand not only, as was just now recommended,
the Legislative and the Executive Power, but also the
power indispensable to complete tyranny, the judicial
power, and thus giving an idea of what has been
been called a unitary power. I invoke that example,
and I will tell you. If you think that the necessities
of the country demand that terrible intensity, that
power which is to be met with not as an appeal, but
as a scarecrow in our history; I will tell you—go to
the end, assume also the last, the judicial power, and
then call yourselves by your true name—call your-
selves the Reign of Terror.—(Agitation.) You will
not do so—the country does not wish it, and it is
right.—(" Hear, hear," and renewed agitation.)
I will now say something of another form of govern-
ment, that of committees. The danger of that form
is its irresponsibility ; an irresponsibility terrible,
because it is anonymous, and which is led away not
only in our time, but in history, to such a point that
we who have read, and who have written, the history
of the great epochs of the Revolution, we are obliged
to admit that it is impossible to attribute to whom it
is due the remuneration of gratitude, or of honour,
which any particular act may deserve, and which we
cannot say if it proceeded from Collot d'Herbois,
from Barrere, from Robespierre, or from Denton.—
(Agitation.) The government of committees has
another inconvenience, which appears incompatible
with that which I have just mentioned, and which is
not the less real ; governments with several heads are
always weak. From a natural consequence of the
clashing of convictions and wills, the Government
directed by several heads, is composed of reciprocal
concessions, of delays, of compromises, and is not that
which suits great epochs, or the period of crises in
question
which we live.—(Hear.) I now come to the
which has more particularly excited my attention—
the form of nomination of the President
sincere
by you, or
by the country. I yesterday listened with
and conscientious anxiety to the remarks e wh'l h were
t
H made by an on. Representative (M. Parieu),
the considerations developed by that Hon. Gentleman
are not new to me. I have also read and studied the
constitutions of other nations in which monarchy has
recoiled before the forms of liberty. lam acquainted
with the United States, with Venice, and Genoa; I
am aware in our own history of the system of '93 ; I
have seen that combined mechanism according to which
twenty-five candidates were pointed out from amongst
whom was to be chosen the President of the Re-
public. I have endeavoured to render to myself an
account of all these systems, and I declare that I
have there found no information, no certain evidence,
no application of a great and general principle which
could enlighten our minds. M. Parieu yesterday
adduced the example of the United States, of Switzer-
land, and of Holland, where the nomination of the
Presidents was made by two degrees—even by three
degrees in one of those republics ; but, he must
allow me to observe, that that example applies as
badly to the queston of the nomination of the Presi-
dent as to that of the single Chamber. Those re-
publics which have been cited to us are Federal
States, what was to be personified in their Presidents
was not the expression of individual value, but of a
Federation. That is the secret of the constitutions
of those countries. But France has nothing analo-
gous to these federations, which are held up to us as
examples, without understanding the nature and
necessities of our country. Gentlemen, lam tempted
to leave these historical considerations, and which are
merely accessories to the question which is submitted
to us, and to enter into those which now engage the
attention of the country. Yes, gentlemen, lam
tempted, when I think of the religious attention which
is given in this Assembly to the most elevated ques-
tions, when I think to what understanding, I address
myself, I am tempted, I say, to speak with open
heart before you and before the country. If the question
was only to determine on such or such a mechanical
combination, it would be soon done. We should say
to ourselves, this people, which effected the revolu-
tion of February, is unitary par excellence; it is
therefore from its bosom that should proceed, not the
divison of power, for it is repugnant to my feelings
to use that expression, but that distinction of func-
tions which the Constitution requires. The people,
be it remembered, were jealous—such was at all
times their nature—and susceptible, for they had been
so often betrayed. Well, then, let it not be attempted
in this question of the Presidentship to give the
people reason to suppose that we want to deprive
them of their right of election—let that right be ac-
corded to them largely, fully, and sincerely, without
any reservation, without any desire to keep anything
back from them.—(Loud cheers.) In a Republic
what constitutes the three of the Government ? The
power in Republics is entirely in popularity or not
at all ; not that fugitive and restless popularity
which departs without reason as it comes without
motive, but that other popularity of reflection which
accumulates on all the names of the National
Assembly the sign of strength and the love of the
country.—(Hear, hear.) That popularity, gentle-
men is the entire power, but it is possible that it may
sometimes 9xhaust itself or be led astray. If in

abandoning the National Assembly it also abandons
the executive power, into what abyss will fall, I will
not say the Government alone, but also the country
itself ?—(Hear, hear.) Yes, gentlemen, this is the
whole problem. Be assured that if the President of
the Republic is elected by the National Assembly, it
will be said that he is the privileged man of an As•
sembly, he is the favourite of the Parliament.—(Loud
marks of adhesion.)
A Voice from the Right—That is it—that is it.—
(Murmurs from the Left.)
M. Lamartine—l asked myself, in face of such a
state of things, what must arrive, for everything
possible happens in face of an assembly which has lost
all its popularity, that force which supports it, what
would become of the power which had emanated from
its own choice ? You see, gentlemen, the executive
and the legislative powerlwould disappear at the same
time.—(Hear, hear.) We should, in fact, say :
In every natural constitution, all proper power should
have its prerogative in the confidence with which you
have Ist en invested by your fellow-citizens. But this
executive, this responsible power, it will not also derive
its prerogative from the entire country. Gentlemen,
if, instead of being the elected of the country of
France, the President is only the elected of your-
selves, allow me to say he will be no longer the go-
vernment. This executive power will be no longer
the beacon of the nation, he will be no more than the
needle to mark the hour of your wills and of your
caprices.—(Applause.) Since these motives do not find
amongst us any instinctive opposition, there is then
another reason.—(Sensation.) Why that invincible
hesitation should work not only in public opinion,
but on yourselves, whose mission it is to direct
it. This reason may be thus set forth :—" you
are going to review the parties which devour
France; you are going to take the great census,
to recruit from all the anti-republican parties; you
are going to unite Legitamists, the Orleanists, &c. ;
you are going to make this census, and yet you do
not tremble." I will reply to that objection, that
France and I have :more impassibility, if not more
courage, than they who bring them forward; I reply
that it is ridiculous to feel any concern about some
few votes which are thrown away on names of men
who have lost their quality as citizens. I say, I de-
clare that these men will not present themselves.
1V hat, gentlemen, do you not believe that those men
who reside in a foreign land would consider it as an
abdication of their divine right if they were to come,
and put forward a candidateship of a few years, a
precarious candidateship ?—(Hear, hear, and loud
interruption.) What! that Government, which had
all the means of power, and which rather fell of itself
than was overthrown, would endeavour to return at
the end of six months, concealed in a balloting urn!
No, the thiug is impossible.—(Applause.)
A voice from the Left—And Bonaparte?
M. de Lamartine—But if that is impossible with
regard to the two dynasties which I have just alluded
to, is it not equally so for another ?—(Hear, hear.)
For since you declare that supposition ridiculous and
impossible for those two dynasties, you must there-
fore imagine that there is some other left. I will
raise the secret veil which falls over the minds of the
Assembly and of the coon -'y; I will do it with all
the reserve due to Horntiur4l6 Gentlemen who sit in
this Assembly, and with the frankness which I owe
to the greatest of public interests: At another period,
when we considered there was something incom-
patible between the foundation of the Republic and
its possible establishment, and certain names whose,
only crime, be it remembered, is our glory.—(Pro-
longed agitation, and cries of " Hear, hear.") I beg
the Assembly to abstain from those interruptions,
which not only break the thread of the discourse of a
speaker, but derange his ideas and expose him to say
things less worthy the attention of the Assembly he
is addressing. I repeat, when we thought that cer-
tain persons, whose only peril, whose only crime is a
reflection of glory, were a danger for the Republic, I
proposed myself from this tribune not an act of severity,
for I could never be guilty of such a thing, but a
postponement of some months before restoring to
those individuals the complete enjoyment of their
rights. You decided otherwise, and I bowed before
your will. But what occupies all minds is the fear
that the fanaticism of certain men may mistake a
duty, and attaching themselves to the heirs, I do not
say of other persons' glory, for glory is a matter to
which relationship gives no right, but to that fame
which carries away so easily a nation like ours, may
create what you and what I myself look on as a dan-
ger. Is such a danger real ? I cannot say; it is not
given to me more than to you to lift up the veil of the
future, but permit me to say that I am convinced that
the heirs of whom I speak do not think of any attempt
at usurpation ; they have declared it themselve in this
tribune, and I believe their word as honest men. No,
they have no thought of that kind ; but around them
there are groups of men, such as are always ready to
flutter about supposed ambitions, and who would be
disposed to turn to the profit of bad passions the greatest
of our glories. But I say that these men would find
themselves mistaken. To effect an 18th Brumaire two
things are necessary—long years of terror behind,
and in prospect the victories of Marengo and of the
Pyramids.—(Loud applause.) But at present there
is neither one nor the other.—(Hear, hear.) The
real danger of the Republic of February is its pas-
sage through the perilous reflux which follows all re•
volutions. I will not affirm that France is not re-
publican—l am perfectly convinced, and I will
analyse the matter before you one day, if you permit
it, that if France is not yet republican by her habits,
if she is still monarchical by her vices, she is repub-
lican by her ideas.—(Movement.) Think of the
monarchy falling to pieces before a tribune not far
distant from that in which I now speak; think of the
enthusiasm of the people saluting the magnificence of
the inauguration of the Republic, which cost neither
a regret nor a drop of blood, and which brought with
it so many hopes to be realized, not all at once,
but with the slowness and maturity which effect
great things in life. That inauguration cap-
tivated all hearts, and if I brought to this tribune
the confidential declarations of the heads of the great
monarchical parties, you would be convinced, as I
am, that at that great period at which men elevate
themselves above all personal considerations, there
was in all minds but a single sentiment—a sincere,
loyal and complete acceptance of the Republic.—
(Prolonged movement.) But for some months back,
all that feeling has changed—the universal confidence
at first felt has been changed into distrust, into a kind
of disaffection. Whence arose that change ? The
days of May and of June, the embarrassment of our
financial crisis, the general distress, the difficulties of
the situation, all served to bring it about. Every
one contributed to it—some wished to exaggerate
their republican zeal, to carry it too far—others
said to the people—" Behold the republic is the sub-
version of family ties and property—it is ealumny
and violence pursuing the best citizens by their de-
nunciations." From department to department, from
one country district to another, these declarations were
made ; and thus it was by calumnious assertions
that all enthusiasm was cooled, all affection for the
Republic lessened. And is it in such a state of things
that we are recommended to declare to this country, in
so great a proportion set against the Republic, that we
deprive it of the exercise of its sovereignty, that we
banish it from its own Republic, as for thirty-four
years nine-tenths of the electors were banished under
the monarchy ? If I wanted to discredit the Re-
public, I could not invent anything that could prove
more fatal to it ; but if I wanted to draw back to it
the heart of every citizen, I would say to him,
" Reflect, judge, and choose yourself, amongst your
fellow- citizens, him who inspires you with most
confidence; he will not be your master, but he will
be your highest personification, your head, your
moderator, the regulator of your republican institu-
tions, the guardian of your honour, and your for-
tunes." It has been said that we want to place the
functions of the President too high, and that his
influence will exceed that of the Assembly. I for my
part maintain that
,the President nominated by the
Assembly would not be anything else than a part of the
Assembly, and not a distinct function ; and that the ex-
istence of such a power would still more tend to weaken
the respect of the people for the ehief power; universal
suffrage alone can give it strength. When uni-
versal suffrage nominates a President, what else is it
than that each citizen strips himself individually of
his sovereignty to invest with it not a man, but a
strong Government. Now look at the other system,
that of M. Flocon. Were that adopted, the Presi-
dent, in place of issuing into open day from the urn
of the people, would come forth in the midst of the
Assembly by a majority of 60 or 30, or even 3 or 4
votes.—(Sensation.) I say that probably he would
be elected by some petty majority; his name would
he inserted the next day in the Moniteur, and all
would be said. Are you aware what would happen ?
Envy would come forward, and seek out the reason
of each of your votes. "You," it would say to one,
" you voted for the President because you are his
relative, and because you want to aggrandize your-
self by his means."—" You," it would say to' an-
other, " gave him pour vote because you are his par-
ticular friend, and you imagine that his high postion
will cast eclat on yourself."—" You," it would say
to a third, " voted for him because you wanted an
embassy !"—(Loud murmurs, interruption.)
The Hon. Gentleman here suspended his remarks
for two or three minutes whilst the lustres were
being let down from the ceiling.
M. de Lamartine went on. I was remarking that
the vote of the Assembly would excite suspicion. I
believe firmly in the incorruptibility of the mass of
the citizens ; and on the other hand, I have no doubt
that unworthy motives would be attributed to the
members of the Assembly. Would not that consi-
deration, were it the only one, be a powerful extenua-
tion of the arguments of the partizans in favour of
the nomination by the Assembly ? It has been ob-
jected that a president emanating from the popular
suffrage might become the founder of a tyranny.
What ! you speak of the excess of strength in an exe-
cutive power which succeeds to an overturned throne I

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