The Sun.
London, England, 1848-09-06 00:00:00

THE FRENCH REPUBLIC.

We have received the Paris papers of yesterday.
The debate on the Constitution was commenced
in the National Assembly on Monday, and the ques-
tion of the powers of the President was the subject
of much discussion. M. AUDRY DE PuntilyzAu, an
old Republican, was strongly opposed to entrusting
the great powers which the Constitution proposed to
give to the President in the hands of one man.
" What could you oppose," asked M. PUYRAYEAU,
"to this power of the President, who, like your-
selves, is elected by the people, and derives his autho-
rity from the same source ? You could have no autho-
rity over him, while he, on the contrary, disposes of
the active force of the Executive, which he might
apply against you. He may dissolve you, if you
stand in the way of his ambition, for what can resist
force ? His power would, in fact, be royalty under
another name, and no matter what guarantees you
may take, be assured that such a power is by its very
nature encroaching." M. JOEERT objected to the
article which rendered military service obligatory on
every Frenchman, without allowing a substitute. He
was also opposed to having but one Chamber...A single
Chamber would, he considered, lead to the most ter-
rible dictatorship, and he noticed the example of the
Convention in support of his argument. That was a
danger which the Americans had sought to guard
against by the creation of a Senate. The Republic,
he considered, could only be maintained by having
two Chambers, one of which would be the expression
of public opinion, and the other that of experience.
With one Chamber alone the constitution would end
in a long Parliament, or in a military dictatorship.
M. GERDY defended the measure, and after enlarging
on the necessity of reconstituting the principle of
authority in France, attacked by turns the vices of
cupidity and ambition—vices which, he said, would
prevent the establishment and the development of the
Republic.
The debate on the Constitution was then adjourned.
In the course of the sitting M. CHARAMAULE pre-
sented the following project of law on the press :
" Art. 1. During the duration of the state of siege,
decreed on the 24th of June, the journals condemned for
offences of the press may be suspended in the cases and
according to the forms hereafter pointed out.
" Art. 2. The law officers of the Republic shall have
the power, in cases of seizure, to call the offenders be-
fore the Court of Assizes by means of direct sum-
monses, and within a period of forty-eight hours. The
summons shall contain the description and qualification
of the offences imputed to the incriminated article.
" Art. 3. In case the jury declare a verdict of guilty,
the decree of condemnation may pronounce the suspen-
sion of the journal for a period of from eight days to
three months.
" Art. 4. If the accused party does not appear on the
days named in the summons, he shall be condemned in
default. The Court shall decide without the assistance
or the intervention of the jury. In case of condemna-
tion, the suspension of the journal may be ordered as
above mentioned.
" Art. 5. The judgment by default shall be executed
in what concerns the suspension, notwithstanding all
opposition. The appeal to the Court of Cessation against
the decree which shall have declared on exceptions of
incompetence, or on any other incidents, shall only be
receivable after the definitive judgment."
The discussion was fixed for the next day.
Marshal BUGEAUD has given an authoritative denial
to the report which was circulated a few days since
that he had requested permission of the Government
to command the Sardinian army.
The reply of Austria to the demand by France of
a direct answer to the offer of mediation had not been
received, hut it was the general opinion in Paris that
peace would be preserved.
The Royalist faction are unceasing in their endea-
vours to disturb the public tranquillity. It would
appear that some sort of reconciliation has been
patched up between the Orleanists and the younger
branch, and that the priests, who have Judas-like
accepted the Republic only to betray it, are now
actively exerting themselves to bring about a return
to absolutism, the law of sacrilege, and right divine.
The Reforme thus exposes this cunningly contrived
conspiracy. Addressing the Royalists, it says—
" You call for examination ! You defy the revo-
lution to find your hand, your seductions, your gold, en-
gaged in a conspiracy against the Republic! What then
are we to say to those correspondences of the prefects,
which, in twenty different parts, point out your actions,
your influences, and your propagandism? Are those
communications of no value except when they de-
nounce Republicans to the Government of the Re-
public? Does not the festival at Bourges, where
toasts were drunk in extrernis to Citizen Nicolas,
sufficiently reveal both the ardour of your sympa-
thies and the insolence of your hopes? Was it
the revolution of February, which, with its white hand
embroidered fleur delis on the banners of towns, and
formed from cotton or from silk those little white flags
bearing your arms, which have been found in certain
quarters? Are we the authors of those touching epistles
and of those fine songs of Prince Credit, with which our
departments are inundated ? Does not a certain letter
which was produced at the late investigation, but which
has not been published, contain ample information
against bastard or legitimate Royalists? Has not Mont-
pellier its victims which speak ?
" We have no taste for the office of procureur ; his
part disgusts us ; but for the last six months you have
instilled so much venom—you have circulated so many
calumnies against the people and against the Republic—
you have so many times repeated, by the priesthood, by
the journal, and by the devotee, that Republican demo-
crats are thieves and assassins, who preyed on property,
on families, and on government—you have been so
violent against the revolution that we might, perhaps,
permit ourselves to exercise, in our turn, cruel reprisals
against you ; but we leave to the judicial or political in-
quiry the task of drawing out your balance-sheet, and
without entering into an analysis of the facts which
would serve as the groundwork of its study, we merely
here wish to estimate your ideas. To each his duty and
his work.
" What is your claim in your journals of the north
and of the south? Decentralisation—that is to say, the
royalty of the Church; absolute liberty of instruction--
that is to say, the privilege of superstition and fanati-
cism, for you are richer and better disciplined than the
defenders of right and of the revolution. The Republic
en bus and the monarchy en haut—that is to say the tiers
etat on its knees and royalty sovereign. Such are your
tendencies, your religion, and your instruction—this is
why we denounce you to
_all democrats as a permanent
conspiracy.
" You have dismissed your servants, stripped off your
liveries, withdrawn your capital from active circulation,
and you call yourselves Republicans—you who wish to
starve the Republic! You have held out your hands to
those of the House of Orleans to enter into the coun-
cils general, and you call yourselves Republicans,
you who league yourselves with all the vanquished of
the Republic.
" Ah! we believe you to be more convinced and more
faithful to your gods, whatever may be the words you
utter; but whatever ability you may use in making your
programmes and your intentions, we know you, and
the repressive laws which you have heaped upon us, the
calumnies with which you have loaded us, will leave us
sufficient breathing-place and strength enough to pre-
vent you, without a desperate struggle, from burying
the Republic and its government"
A sixth detachment of insurgents, in number 485,
left Paris on Saturday night for Havre, to undergo
their sentence of transportation.
M. PROUDEION has started a new journal, Le Peuple,
It was seized yesterday by the police.

The National Assembly has decided, by a majority
of 586 to 154, that it will not separate until it shall
have voted the organic laws as well as the Constitution.
M. LANDRIN and M. BERARD have been elected
Secretaries to the National Assembly for the month

of September. The discussion on the Constitution
was continued yesterday. The Abbe FAYET, Bishop

of Orleans, complained that religion was not brought
forward prominently enough in the preamble. M.
COCQUEREL, the celebrated Protestant minister, was

replying to the Abbe when the post left.
The report of Admiral CECILE on the new organi-
zation of the Naval School has just been published.
The present system is found fault with for furnishing
but an exceedingly small number of first-rate officers.
The cause appears to be this :—every year there are
admitted on board the school-ship about seventy or
eighty pupils ; out of that number, it is found that
about ten work hard, six tolerably well, and three at
about an ordinary rate. This average is exceedingly
low for such a number, yet still the Government is
obliged to employ the greatest number, the demands
of the service requiring it. As to the want
of vocation for the sea, which is percep-
tible amongst a number of pupils, the rea-
son is, that many come from the depart-
ments, where they had pictured to themselves
a most exaggerated idea of the pleasure of a sea life.
A single year at sea disenchants them, and they
either withdraw altogether from the navy, or they
become what is technically called in the French ser-

vice castors, that is, men who are always avoiding
active duty, and endeavouring to get places on shore•
By the new plan, young seamen who can prove that
they have been 18 months on board a vessel belong.
ing to the Republic will be admitted to an examina-
tion for the Naval School, provided they have not ex-

ceeded 18 years of age on the Ist of January of the
year of the Concours. The 18 months may be re-