The Sun.
London, England, 1848-03-18 00:00:00

SATURDAY EVHNING, MARC4PI
_lll9.

THE FRENCH REPUBLIC.

PROCEEDINGS AT PARIS.

We have received the Paris papers of yesterday.
The Aloniteur publishes the following explanation,
or rather retractation, on the part of the Provisional
Government of the circular of M. LEDRU ROLLIN :--
" THE PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT TO THE
FRENCH PEOPLE.

" Citizens,—ln all the great acts of the life of a people,
it becomes the duty of the Government to make its voice
be heard by the nation.
" You arc about to accomplish the greatest act of the
life of a people: to choose the representatives of the
country; to produce from your consciences and your
suffrages not a mere Government but an entire constitu-
tion 1 You are going to organise the Republic.
" For our part, we have only proclaimed it. Carried
by acclamation to power during the interregnum of the
people, we did not wish, and we do not now wish, for
any other dictatorship but that of absolute necessity. If
we had refused the post of peril, we should have been
cowards. If we should remain in it one hour more than
necessity commands, we should be usurpators. You are
alone strong. We count the days. We hasten to give
back the Republic to the nation.
" The provisional election law which we have made
is the widest that in any nation of the earth has ever
convoked a people to the exercise of the supremo right
of man--his own sovereignty. The election belongs to
all without exception. From the date of this:law there are
no more subjects in France. Every Frenchman of virile
age is a political citizen. Every citiz;in is an elector.
Every elector is sovereign. The law is equal and abso-
lute tor all. There is no citizen who can say to another,
You are more sovereign than I.' Contemplate your
power. Prepare to exericse it, and be worthy of en-
tering into possession of your reign. The reign of the
people is called the Republic.
" If you ask what Republic we understand by this
wore, and what principles, what politics, what virtues,
we desire in the Republicans whom we are going to
elect I—we answer, 'Regard the people of Paris and of
France since the proclamation of the Republic.' The
people has fought with heroism. The people
has triumphed with humanity. The people has
suppressed anarchy from the first hour. The people has
itself, immediately after the combat, broken the weapons
of its just anger—it has burnt the scaffold. It has pro-
claimed the abolition of the punishment of death against
its enemies. It has respected individual liberty by not
proscribing any one. It has respected conscience in
religion, which it wishes to be free, but which
it wishes to be without inequality and without privi-
lege. It has respected property. It has pushed probity
to those instances of sublime disinterestedness which
are the admiration and the charm of history.
It has chosen everywhere, i,in order to place them at its
head, the names of the most honest and the foremost
men who have fallen under its hand. It has not uttered
a cry of hatred or of envy against fortunes. Not a cry
of vengeance against persons. It has made, in one word,
of the name of the people, the name of courage, of
clemency, and of virtue. We have not a single instruc-
tion to give you. Inspire yourselves with the people .
Imitate it. Think, feel, vote, act, like it. For its own
part, the Provisional Government will not imitate the
Governments which are usurpers of the sovereignty of
the people, which would corrupt the electors, and which
would buy at an immoral price the conscience of the
country. What would be the good of succeeding to
those Governments, if it were only to imitate them?
What would be the good of having created and adored
the Republic, it the Republic were to enter from the
first day of its existence into the track of the
abolished royalty ? It considers it as one of its
duties to throw over the operations of the election
that light which enlightens consciences without op-
pressing them. It limits itself to the neutralising of the
hostile influence of the old Administration, which has
perverted and destroyed the right of election. The Pro-
visional Government wishes that the conscience of the
public should reign. It does not disquiet itself with the
old parties. The old parties have grown older by an
age in three days! The Republic will convince them, if
it be sure and just to them. Necessity is a great master.
The Republic, know it well, has the happiness to be a
government of necessity. Reflection is for us. It is
impossible to return to the impossible royalties. No one
wishes to descend to unknown anarchy. We shall be
republican by reason. Give only security, liberty, and
respect for all; insure to others the independence of suf-
frages which you wish for yourselves. Do not notice
what names those whom you believe to be your enemies
write upon the bulletins, and be sure beforehand that they
will write the only name that can save them; that is to
say, that of a capable and honest republican. Security,
liberty, respect for the consciences of all citizens who
are electors : that is the intention of a Republican Go-
vernment, that is its duty, that is yours I That is the
safety of the people I Have confidence in the good
sense of the country. It will have confidence in you.
Give it liberty. and it will give you back the Republic.
" Citizens, France is attempting at this moment—in
the midst of someLfinancial difficulties, bequeathed to her
by royalty—but under providential auspices, the greatest
work of modern times, the foundation of the government
of the entire people—the organisintion of the democracy
—the Republic of all rights, of all interests, of all the in-
telligences, and of all the virtues I Circumstances are
propitious. Peace is possible. The new idea may be
lion but that or Imo pz j any perturbs-
it. There is no anger in the minds of the people.-
the fugitive royalty has not carried away with it all the
enemies of the Republic, it has left them powerless ;
and although they are invested with all the rights which
the Republic guarantees to minorities, their interest and
their prudence insure to us that they will not them-
selves trouble the. peaceful foundation of the popular
constitution.

"In three days that work which it was thought was
postponed to distant times, has been accomplished
without a drop of blood being spilt in Fiance, without
any other cry but that of admiration being heard in our
departments or on our frontiers. Let us not lose this
unique occasion in history. Let us not abdicate the
greatest force of the new idea—the security which it
inspires in citizens, the astonishment which it inspires
in the world.

" Yet a few days of magnanimity, of devotion, of
patience, and the National Assembly will receive from
our hands the new-born Republic. From that day all
will be saved. When the nation, by the hands of its
representatives, shall have seised the Republic, the
Republic will be strong and great, like the nation; holy,
like the idea of the people ; imperishable, like the
country (patrie).
" The members of the Provisional Government:—
" DUPONT (de l'Eure), LAMARTINE, GAIN=
PAGES, ALBERT, MARIE, LEDRU ROLLIN,
FLOCON, LOUIS BLANC, ARAGO.
" The Secretary-General,
" PAGNERE."

The following was the reply of M. DE LEMATC.•
TINE to the deputation of the companies of the elite
of the National Guards, complaining of the order
for their fusion with the other companies :
" A measure which must certainly have pained the
members of the Provisional Government and the Mi.
mister of the Interior is certainly that which deprived
the veterans of public order and liberty of the insignia
which they had so gloriously worn for so many years ;
but you ought to comprehend that each period has its
duties, and that what there is painful in these duties
ought to be borne not only by those who impose them,
but by those who have to endure them. The Provisional
Government thought that in enlarging immensely the
cadres of the Natioaal Guard of Paris, and of the whole
of France, that in wishing to remove from the capital
all regular military force, which could by its presence
weigh too heavily on liberty, so happily achieved,
it was necessary to cause the National Guard
to undergo in a double interest that of equality
and uniformity in the ranks of the companies,
and that of a larger, more general, and more
popular election, the modifications with which you are
so naturally moved. I am ignorant if the Provisional
Government, informed of the complaints which you are
making, and which you announce to us for tomorrow,
will not find means to conciliate the two necessities of
the situation with the desire to admit and to recom-
pense long services, and with the still more ardent
desire to preserve you, with all your seal, all your vigi-
lence, all your intrepidity, in the difficult crisis which
the Republic is passing through, with liberty, and which
I frankly tell it could not pass through without you.
Comprehend, therefore, the difficulties of the Provisional
Government, and do not press on too eagerly the solu-
tion which you demand from us at present. I will be to-
morrow the organ of your representation to it ; it will
certainly examine what you ask for with the attention
which it gives to all matters, and particularly to those
relating to the National Guard. I ought not to preju-
dice its decision, but I can declare to you, without any
fear of being in error, that it never had any idea of low-
ering or annoying what constitutes the force and glory
of France."

The Delegates—" We do not in the least doubt it!"
The Secretary to the Provisional Government, M.
PAGNERE, also addressed the deputation as fol-

lows :

"The considerations which determined the Provi-
sional Government are not in any way political ones.
At present the companies of the National Guard of
Paris have been by the new enumeration augmented in a
very considerable proportion. They have been almost
everywhere doubled, and in some instances even tripled.
This augmentation has been made exclusively in the
companies of chasseurs, and has not been effected in the
companies of grenadiers and voltigeurs. Without the
measure taken by the Government it would have resulted
from this difference that in the companies of chasseurs
now consisting of 600 or 800, and some even of 1,200
men, the new element would be two-thirds or one-half,
while this new element would not have been re-
presented in the companies of grenadiers and
voltigeurs. But this now element must be made
to enter into all the companies, for such is
the object of the Government. If we have
received deputations remonstrating against this measure
we have also had numerous deputations bringing us
complete adhesion to it; we have had officers, grenadiers,
and voltiguers giving their approbation of the decree
against which you object. You complain of being sepa-
rated, isolated; but you are about to enter, according to
the circumscriptions of your quarters, into the ranks of
your neighbours, your friends, your brothers. The Pro-
visional Government cannot rescind a decision come to
after mature consideration. But as the too rapid
fusion of the dissolved companies may cause embarrass-
ments, the Government has postponed the elections until
litare4 25; and it has decided that, instead of four,
there shall be eight companies in each battalion. You
wEaPlaill 9f being WOunded in your amour propre. Ws