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

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
mark% 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 been 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-
vernnu-nt. 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, drac. ;
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 man
who have lost their quality as citizens. I say, I de-
clare that these men will not present themselves.
What, 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 thing 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 country. I will do it with all
the reserve due to Honourable 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 And
themselves mistaken. To effect an lith 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 repnb-
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 calumny
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 I le-
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 Win],
"Reflect, judge, and choose yourself, amongst your
fellow-citizens, him who inspires you with m ost
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 tthe
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 wersken
the respect of the people for the chief power • universal
suffrage alone can give it strength. When uni-
versal suffrage nominates a President, what else if it,
than that each citizen strips himself individually of
his sovereignty to invest with it not a man, but •
strong Government. Now look at the other system),
that of M. Flocon. Were that adopted, the Pres i•
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 woatld
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 happe'n ?
Envy would come forward, and seek out the reascon
of each of your votes. "You," it would say to on e,
" 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 éclat on yourself."—" You," it would sill
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 we re
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 tin
members of the Assembly. Would not that con al'
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 ek e-
jected that a president emanating from the populis
.r
suffrage might become the founder of a tyranni,:r•
What ! you speak of the excess of strength in an exx
cutive power which succeeds to an_overturned throng)