The Sun.
London, England, 1848-06-20 00:00:00

THE FRENCH REPUBLIC.

THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY.

We have received the French papers of yesterday.

Tranquillity has been restored atNismes and Per-
pignan, and there have been no further outrages in
La Crewe. The outbreak in that department was
of a formidable character. The tocsin sounded in all
the communes on the night of the 15th, and continued
till four the next morning. The peasants formed a
most formidable corps darmee. They were armed
with scythes, pikes, and spears. The municipal au-
thorities tried in vain to make them listen to reason.
They would hear nothing. They insisted on the
liberation of the prisoners and the abolition of the
additional impost of 45 centimes decreed by the late
Provisional Government. They expressed their re-
solution to march upon the town, and it was only by
the supplications and tears of women and children,
and the entreaty of the clergy, who promised that
their demands should be granted, that they were in-
duced to forbear. It was feared that a still more
formidable manifestation would have taken place on
Saturday, being the fete-day of Gueret. Consider-
able bodies of troops had arrived from Cheateau
Roux and Limoges. Two companies of the Garde
Mobile have been ordered to Gueret.

The Canatitutionnel publishes a document which, if
authentic, is calculated seriously to damage the cha-
racter of M. LAMARTINE, and even to connect him
with the conspirators of the 15th May. It is a peti-
tion which is 'going the round of the Socialist and
Communist clubs, and which, when a sufficient
number of signatures shall have been attached to it,
is to be presented to the Executive Committee. In
this petition it is declared that M. DE LAMARTINE
bad promised to create a Ministry of Labour, as de-
manded by Lours BLANC—to demand a credit of
600 millions of francs (more than half the sum de-
manded from the rich by BARBES on the 15th of May)
for the " foundation of agricultural and industrial
institutions; of halls in which the people may com-
plete their political education ; in short, to reduce the
principles of Socialism to practice."
The Constitutionnel asks whether the statements of
the petition can be true, and whether it is thus that the
conductor has been conspiring with the cloud and the
lightning ? "We know not," concludes the Gonstitu-
tionnel, "All that is certain is that signatures continue
to be attached to this petition, that the Socialists enrol
M. LAMARTINE as a member of their body, and that they
insist on giving him, as an army, the workmen in the
Ateliers Nationaux, an involuntary assemblage of
honest men, who merely wish for employment, but
whom intrigues would fain transform into an or-
ganized mob for attack and disorder."

The. National endeavours to explain away the un-
fortunate expressions of the Minister of the Interior,
that France could not tolerate an increase of power
by her neighbours without seeking compensation for
herself, an expression which had been commented on
by the Constitationnel as a declaration of an intention
to seize Savoy. The National says--
" At a moment when grave incidents are complicating
the Italian question, and that the armaments of the
Czar are menacing intervention in Prussia and in
Austria, an intervention invited, perhaps, by the treason
of Sovereigns, the most vulgar prudence commands that
France be prepared for every eventuality. This much
justice must be done to the Republic, that it takes all
precautions to reconcile the considerations due to pri-
vate interests with tho exigencies of national safety,
however, the journals of the reaction seek to throw a
doubt upon the character of this patriotic measure. The
question is to insure the independence of France, and to
preserve civilization in Europe. What matters ! They
attribute these armaments to schemes of conquest, of
which the Government has not the least idea, and to
which the alarmists themselves do not attach belief. But
the good sense of the public will do justice to these
malevolent and perfidious insinuations, the object of
which is too transparent to deceive anybody."

The Finance Committee has recommended the
rejection of the Railway Bill proposed by the Go-
vernment. The debate in the Assembly on this im-
portant subject was to have come on yesterday.
A strike for wages has taken place among the
workmen employed in the arsenal at Toulon.
It is said that M. DE ROTHSCHILD is in negotiation
with the Executive Government on the subject of a
loan.

This day is fixed for taking a census of the work-
men employed in the Ateliers Nationaux. The autho-
rities will call at the domicile of each workman, in
order to verify the statements made by them as to
their respective means of support.
M. Timßs has elected to sit for the department of
the Seine.

M. GOUDCHAUX is the President of the Committee
appointed to report on the grant demanded fur the
Ateliers Nationaux.

The following are the concluding chapters of the
new constitution :

" OF THE REPRESENTATIVES AND THE
...__

ASSEMBLY.
"Every Frenchman of 21 years of age, and having
resided in the commune for six months, is an elector.
" Every Frenchmen, aged 25 years, without any
condition of paying contributions or domicile, is eligible.
"Bankrupts uncertificated, and persons condemned to
infamous punishments, or suffering punishment for acts
qualified as crimes by the law, or for robbery, swindling,
abuse of confidence, indecency, vagabondage, or begging,
shall neither be electors nor eligible.
" Voting shall be by ballot. The election of repre-
sentatives shalllikbe made by departments and voting by
lists.
" Every list shall contain as many names as there are
representatives to elect.
"The National Assembly shall verify the powers of
its Members , and decide on the validity of contested
elections.
"The Assembly is to be elected for three years, and
after such period to be entirely renewed.
"It is permanent, but it may adjourn for a specified
time, but not exceeding three months.
" The representatives are re-eligible.
" The Members of the legislative body are not repre-
sentatives of the department by whom they are named,
but of all France.
They cannot receive any instructions to vote.
" No Member of the National Assembly can be prose.
cuted or arrested in a criminal matter, unless taken in
flagrante delicto, until the Assembly shall have given
authorisation.
"The law determines the public functions which are
incompatible with the duty of representative of the
people.
"The sittings of the Assembly are public. Neverthe-
less the Assembly may form itself into a Secret Com-
mittee, on the demand of a certain number of represen-
tatives fixed by.the standing orders.
"The Assembly makes laws and decrees. Decrees
can only have reference to local and private interests.
The presence of one half of the Members of the Assem-
bly is necessary to the validity of a vote of a law. The
standing orders shall determine the number necessary to
vote a decree.

"No legislative act can become definitive until after
the project of law shall have been printed, deposed, and
published, till it shall have been twice discussed and
three times read, at intervals of not less than ten days.
Every representative receives an indemnity which he can-
not renounce.
" OF THE EXECUTIVE POWER
"The President must have at least two million votes.
He is elected for four years, and is not re-eligible.
"He is to inspect and secure the execution of the laws.
"He disposes of the armed force without being ever
enabled to command it in person.
4. He can give up no part of the territory, nor dissolve
the legislative body, nor suspend in any manner the em-
pire of the constitution and of the laws.
"He has to present each year to the National As-
sembly the report of the general state of the affairs of the
republic.
"He negotiates all treaties, which will be available
only after having been examined and ratified by the le-
gislative body.
" He has a right to grant pardon, but he can only
exert this right upon tee proposal of the Minister of
Justice, and after having consulted the Council of State.
"He promulgates the laws, in the name of the French
people, without delay and without suspension.
"He receives tho envoys and ambassadors from fo-
reign powers accredited to him.
"He is lodged at the expense of the republic, and re-
ceives a salary of 600,000 fr. per annum.
" He resides at the seat of government.
"There is a Vice-President of the republic, named for
four years by the National Assembly, upon the presen-
tation made by the President, in the month which im-
mediately follows his election. The Vice-President of
the republic is, by right, President of the Council of
State.
"The President names and revokes the ministers, ac-
cording to his own will. He names and revokes in a
council of the ministers the diplomatic agents, the gene-
rals, and military commanders of land and sea forces,
the prefects, the governors of the colonies of Algeria
and of the Bank of France, the procureurs-generaux and
other functionaries of a superior class. He names and
revokes the secondary agents of the government, upon
the proposal of one of the ministers.
"lie has a right to suspend the agents of the execu-
tive power elected by the citizens. The term of this
suspension cannot exceed three months. He cannot re-
voke them without the consent of the Council of State.
The law determines the , cases in which the revoked
agents can be declared ineligible to the same functions.
This declaration of ineligibility can only be pronounced
by a jury.
" The number and the attributions of each minister
ars fixed by the legislative body.
" No act of government can have any effect unless it
be signed by a minister.
"The president, the ministers, and the agents and de-