The Sun.
London, England, 1848-12-20 00:00:00

THE FRENCH REPUBLIC.

We have received the Paris papers of yesterday.

The following was the state of the poll for the
election of President, so far as the same was known
up to yesterday morning :

Napoleon. Cavaignac.

Votes officially verified by the
Committee of the Assembly 3,483,889 ... 824,012
Votes from departments where
election complete, but returns
not verified
Partial returns

... 1,104,747 ... 240,706
... 1,058,660 ... 361,048

Total ••• 5,647,312 1,429,766
The following is a complete list of the new
Ministry :
MM. Odilon Barrot ... President of the
Council and Minister of Justice.
Drouyn de Lhuis ... Foreign Affairs.
Leon de Malleville Interior.
Hippolyte Passy ... Finances.
Leon Faucher .. ... Public Works.
Bixio ••• ... Commerce.
General Rulieres ... War.
De Tracy ... Marine.
•
Marshal BUGEAUD is to take the command of the
army of the Alps, and General OUDINOT devotes
himself entirely to his duties as member of the As-
sembly. It is said that the Post-office was offered to
EMILE DE GIRARDIN' but that he aimed at something
higher. We do not believe that the Post-office was
offered to him ; we cannot imagine that any Minister
would venture, after the exposures which took place
in the Chamber of Deputies about twelve months
since, to nominate M. EMILE DE GIRARDIN to any
office of trust.
M. DE TOCQUEVILLE has resigned the office of re-
presentative of France at the conferences on the
Italian question.
It is said that M. L&RABIT is likely to be Under-
Secretary of War, M. CORALLI Prefect of Police,
and M. BOULAY (Meurthe) Prefect of the Seine.
The President, Louis NAPOLEON, has offered the
Post-office to his old tutor, M. VIELLARD, who,
however, has refused the appointment.
The Pattie says it is assured that the three names
which M. LOUIS NAPOLEON BONAPARTE will send in
to the National Assembly, for the choice of one as
Vice-President of the Republic, are General BE-
DEAU, M. DUFAURE, and M. DE LAMARTINE.
The National Assembly met on Monday at hal

past two o'clock, when DI. CHARLES ROLLAND was
called to the tribune.
M. Rolland said, that on Saturday evening he had
begged leave to put a question to the Cabinet, but in
the absence of the Minister of Justice he had thought
proper to postpone it until this day. Seeing now the
latter in his. seat, he asked him if he had read an article
of the Eniancipateur de Cambray, copied in the Gazette
de France of Saturday, containing a violent attack
against the National Assembly, and an incitement to
hatred of the Government and the Constitution. That
article stated that the Assembly had betrayed the coun-
try, by suffering itself to be forged by the Parisian clubs
to proclaim the Republic.—(Loud murmurs.)
M. Marie, Minister of Justice, replied, that after
reading the articles he found it to contain two scanda-
lous attacks, the one against the National Assembly,
which was entitled to universal respect, and the other
against the principle of the Republic, which all had
sworn to maintain. He had accordingly ordered legal
proceedings to be directed against the editor of the Ga-
zette de France, and justice should be done.
This incident having been dropped, M. Gent ascended
the tribune, and complained of the violation of the right
of meeting committed on Wednesday by a public agent
of the Gov, rnment. On that day the Parisian Electoral
Central Congress was to assemble, when, at the ap-
pointed hour, a Commissary of Police presented himself
in the hall and ordered its doors to be closed. On being
asked in virtue of what law he acted, he replied that the
16th article of the law on clubs required that previous
notice of the intention to open such reunions should be
given to the authorities, and, that formality having been
omitted, he had been sent to prevent the meeting being
held. M. Gent maintained that the Congress in ques-
tion was of an exclusively elictoral nature, and that the
authorities had no right to interfere with it.
M. Dufaure, Minister of the Interior, began by
declaring that the alleged violation had taken place with
his assent, and by his order, and that he was con-
sequently answerable for it. On the 13th of De-
cember, that is, after the election of the Presi-
dent, an association, entitling itself" the "National
and Electoral Congress of Republican Solida-
rity," was to hold a meeting in the Hall
of Montesquieu. The Commissary of Police repaired
thither at the appointed hour, and, in the absence of the
President, he saw M. Crevot, to whom he read the 16th
article of the law on clubs, which the latter did not think
proper to resist. On the 28th of July last, added M.
Dufaure, the Assembly, by a formal decree, recognised
the right of meeting. It authorised the opening of clubs
with certain restrictions, which are now inefficacious,
and denied the right of the Government to interfere with
preparatory electoral reunions. The clubs had become
of late so violent that the Government had been obliged
to close several. The factious then resolved to elude the
law, and established electoral reunions. The election of
the President approaching, the authorities confined them-
selves to watch their proceedings, and he declared,
without fear of contradiction, that at no time and in no
country was so important an election prepared with
greater liberty. The Government, however, was deter-
mined not to allow the spectacle it had witnessed during
the present month to endure after the election, and the
measure he bad ordered was perfectly legal.—(Yes, yes.)
M. Joly, who followed, said that this was a question of
constitutional law, and contended that the clubs had a
right to form themselves into electoral reunions before as
well as after the election of the President. In conclu-
sion, he protested against the measure, of which the Mi-
nister had assumed the responsibility, denouncing it as a
violation of the right of meeting, which had been at-
tended for preceding Governments with the most disas-
trous consequences.
The incident here terminated, and the Assembly re-
sumed the adjourned discussion on the proposition of M.
Dufournel, for clearing and planting lands hitherto un-
productive, which was ultimately referred to the Finance
Committee.

M. Lagrange next ascended the tribune, and repeated
his appeal to the Assembly in favour of an amnesty.
God, he said, had set it the example of clemency. God
alone had effected the revolution of February, for he
could not conceive how a handful of revolutionists like
himself could have overturned the monarchy without
Divine assistance. In conclusion he proposed that the
discussion of the question should take place before the
proclamation of the President of the Republic.
The President asked whether any members supported
that demand?—(Cries of" Yes, yes.")

A number of -voics3 on the- right—" The ballot."-

Agitation.)
M. Lagrange declared.tbat if the ballot were resorted
to, he and his friends, who would vote for the discussion
of his proposition, would publish their names in the
Monitenr.
The President said that the Assembly would proceed
to the ballot, on the proposition of the Hon. Gentleman
being placed on the order of the day for to-morrow, but,
before proceeding to that course, he had to announce to
the Assembly, that the Committee appointed to examine
the votes for the election of President of the Republic
had gone through all that had reached the Assembly;
there only remained the returns of twenty departments
to be received.
The ballot then took place, when the numbers were—
For the proposition
Against it
Majority against it
The proposition was consequently not placed on the
order of the day for the next day.
The reactionaries, emboldened by the success of
their manoeuvres, and wishing to make of Paris a
second Vienna, are now endeavouring to force on the
dissolution of the National Assembly, and to procure
this they will not scruple to have recourse to
any means, however base. Royalist emissaries are
at this moment disseminating among the ignorant
peasantry the most atrocious suggestions, obscure
provincial papers, under aristocratical domination,
are loudly calling for the dissolution of the As-
sembly, and the communications with the reac-
tionary congress, which has been for some time past
sitting in England, are more numerous than ever.
We should very much like to know how many
times within the last three months, M. DELESSEKT
has crossed the channel.

The National has the following in relation to the
intrigues of the reactionaries :

" The National Assembly is now in a similar posi-
tion to that in which the Convention was placed after
having completed the constitution of An 111. A for-
midable movement of reaction was seen to break out at

that period. All the parties which that- terrible As-
sembly had kept under for two years, reunited and
mingled in one common mass their past terrors, their
regrets, their hatreds, their ambitions, and their impa-
tience. Behind them }ay concealed the Royalists,
who excited them, and made more noise than the

whole together. The impulse given invParis~spread
itself in the provinces ; the movements extended
throughout France, and the Republic was threatened in
its existence. The political sense of which the Cony( n-
don had given proof did not fail it at this moment, any
more than in the difficult scenes through which it had
had to pass. Braving with an imperturbable sang froid
the storm of cries, of
.pamphlets, and of invectives with
which it was assailed, it decreed that the new legislative
body which was to be formed in virtue of the Constitu-
tion should be composed of two-thirds of the old Con-
vention, and that one-third only should be re-elected.
The result of this firm and wise decision is well known.
The disappointment of the reactionists was great, and
their discontent went the length of insurrection. The
Convention, however, remained firm, and maintained its
measurepacNaimi
wilt ; General Bonaparte suppressed the insurrection,
and the Republic was saved. A similar rt actionary movement is at present taking
National
o protest has to be made, it is true, against a
But its dissolution is impatiently latrhetoptehoatt,letakoern by the Convention, for the
ssembly of 1848 has not fur a moment thought
of depriving
alerte soundedpartof
by
to accelerate that event. W® have
meats are taken called for, and every
. sovereignty.
Legitimists;
already spoken of the
the
ee
now a journal known as representing the most ardent
fraction of the Conservative party, sounds in its turn its
trumpet. It may be seen that both •
the white and the
tricolor Royalists play the same game.”