The Sun.
London, England, 1848-10-18 00:00:00

FRANCE.

The following is the programme of the new
Ministry, as read from the tribune of the National
Assembly yesterday, by M. 'Jur/nate
M. Dufaure, Minister of the Interior, ascended
the tribune and presented a project of decree, tending
to obtain an additional credit of 100,000 f. for secret
service purposes. M. Dufaure said that General Ca-
vaignac, in virtue of the powers vested in him by
the Assembly, had invested several of its members
with the direction of the affairs of the country. It
was consequently indispensable that it should know
the sentiments which animated the new Ministers,
and they had seized that opportunity to ascertain in,
a solemn manner whether those sentiments were con-
formable to theirs. It was impossible to conceive two
different systems of government. The country bad
spontaneously proclaimed the Republic, a Govern-
ment which called every citizen to participate in
the government of the country, a noble insti-
tution, resting on the principle of the sovereignty
of the people, and on liberty, equality, and
fraternity, proclaimed eighteen centuries ago by
Christian revelation. None but insane men could
disown those principles, and they should be culpable
if they attempted to elude them and not carry them
into effect. Every man, gifted with any elevation in
the soul, cannot but render homage to liberty, the
source of all progress—to equality, which makes all
citizens equal before society and God, who created them
—and fraternity. The new Ministers would inquire
into all social sufferings, and the remedy of those evils
would be the incessant object of their solicitude and en-
deavours. He regretted to say that the very name of
Republic inspired fear and distrust, in consequence of
the recollections of another period, and the apprehen-
sions of a return to a system which was now out of the
question. This was the real cause of the distrust, by
inspiring doubts for the future, and the country hesi-
tated to trust in a Government which did not afford it
every security. These apprehensions, sincere and
fatal, constituted the weakness of the present Govern-
ment. The new Ministers should, by every means, com-
bat those apprehensions, and endeavour to demonstrate
to the people that the Republic was not an agitated
state of society and the revolution en permanence.
They would labour to seat it on the solid basis of
liberty, society, family, and property. The country
no longer thought of monarchy, but it knew that,
without the fulfilment of those conditions, no Govern-
' ment could endure. It recollected that fifty years ago,
France threw herself into the arms of military despo-
tism from a horror of anarchy. The Cabinet would
strive to put a period to all disorders and to re-
alize principles so wisely proclaimed, which ensured
inviolability to the humblest citizens, under the pro-
tecting aegis of the Republic. The future destinies
of Europe depended on the restoration of order and
tranquillity in France. The cause of liberty and ci-
vilization were also at stake. The Ministers would
endeavour to realise those objects; their acts should
ever tend to that end, and they should be constantly
animated by a profound love of the Republic. They,
however, hoped that the Assembly should grant them
a support and confidence, without which power would
expire in their hands."