The Sun.
London, England, 1848-02-28 00:00:00

itIOWITS .1111 t.

LONDON. MONDAY. FEBRUARY 28, 1848.

CONSOLIDATION
OF

THE FRENCH REPUBLIC.

Every additional scrap of intelligence received
from Pari3 confirms our impression, more and more,
that the Revolution of 1448 is as glorious in the
principles which it embodied, as it is unparalleled in its
rapidity, its completeness, t.nd its moderation. France
has imbibed wisdom from experience. Its people
have risen because they have been compelled—they
have triumphed because of their unanimity--they
have evinced the most extraordinary self•command
because their cause is the cause of justice and
humanity.

Since 1830—that famous epoch in which one man
was the recipient of the generosities of an entire
nation l—the liberties of Frenchmen have been cur-
tailed and stunted, in defiance of all the provisions of
the Charter. Since 1830, the inhabitants of that
great country have protested against the aggressions
of their perfidious and insidious Sovereign. The
struggle which commenced in 1834 has continued for
nearly fourteen years without intermission, the
royal absolutist maintaining his position by a policy
the verb of which was " craft," and the multitude
insisting upon the necessity of the due preservation
of their rights in the midst of the horror excited by
those comprehensive innovations which were never•
theless received with a sublime obedience. For
fourteen years, we say, that struggle continued with
a deliberate ferocity, and a systematic falsity, on the
part of the Government, and a suppressed but
growing sentiment of wrath on the part of the com-
munity. One act of perfidy has not evoked
the recent convulsion of affairs in Paris. The
Revolution is merely the ultimate consequence of
a thousand thousand provocations. Even the awful
catalogue of official crimes condensed by the genius
of ODILON I3auaoT within the compass of his epi-
gramatic impeachment is but a meagre indication of
the offences which have each by each aroused the in-
dignation of a sensitive and most excitable populace.
Corruption is but one of the many plague-spots upon
the Cabinet of GUlAoT—but one of those hideous
Poison-blots which affected France to the
very extremities, filling her heart with rage
and nerving her arms to a divine effort at
emancipation. The arbitrary power installed during
so many legislative and financial years in the Tuile-
ries evoked on its own head the vengeance of thirty
millions. Its Nemesis was that popular will which
it had outraged. It fraternized with Austria, it
slighted Italian patriotism, it defrauded the Spaniards
of their nationality, it strove to degrade that august
spirit of civism which had existed for centuries
among the mountains of Switzerland, it restrained the
feelings of the Portuguese for the sake of a dynastic
compact, it instigated the perpetration of such atro-
cities in Algeria as had scarcely ever been known
since the days of TAMERLANE the Conquerer, it had
partially trodden out the freedom of the press by the
execrable enactments of September, it had covered
France with infamy by the reflected infamy of its
associates, it had at length adventured upon a course
so flagrant in its opposition to that alone compatible
with civil liberty, as to take measures for the preven-
tion of freedom of discussion by the demonstration
of an armed force of 100,000 disciplined soldiers.
Against that last and consummating act of
violence the Parisians rose to a man ; they
defied the austere intellect of GUIZOT, the un-
bridled Machiavellism of LOUIS PHILIPPE, the daunt-
less cruelty of BUG EAUD, the obstinacy of HEBERT,
the determination of Duc LIATEL, the sycophancy of
DELESSERT, and the loyal frigidity of JACQUE NIINOT
—they defied all this ; they regarded with indifference
a circle of enormous fortifications; they scorned the
obstacles which bristled before them in the shape
of swords, and bayonets, and cannon ; the
Parisians, we say, defied all this—they con-
quered the friendship of the National Guard
and afterwards of the troops of the line—they
disbanded the guards of the municipalities--they
captured the palaces, dethroned the Monarch, drove
forth the members of the Royal Family as fugitives,
and after achieving all this with a suddenness almost
incredible, they installed a Provisional Government,
which immediately afterwards proclaimed France to be
a Republic. Instead of the triumphal march of Des-
potism, we have witnessed the victorious progress of
Democracy. A week hack, and France was to all
appearance tranquil under a constitutional sove-
Ireignty. Scarcely seven days—and that sovereignty
is demolished, and thirty millions of the human race
are declared to be the citizens of a democratic re-
public. The very rapidity with which all this has
been accomplished is a proof, that it had become an
absolute necessity—that LOUIS PHILIPPE had ren-
dered himself irrecoverably detestable—that the Re-
volution of 184 H has been the ebullition of an
epoch, the unanimous outburst of an entire people.
Such being the case, it is the duty of Europe at
once to recognise the existence of the French Re-
public. For that Republic is legitimately esta-
blished, and the names of the principal leaders are
enough of themselves to ensure to the Provisional
Government the respect of the Liberals of the world.
Those eminent Ministers, it will not be forgotten,
are—

DUPONT (de l'Eure), President of the Council,
LAMARTINE, Minister of Foreign Affairs,
Lanett ItoLux, Minister of the Interior,
BEDEAU, Minister of War,
!Amman GOUDCHAUX, Minister of Finance,
ARAGo, Minister of Marine,
BETIIIIONT, Minister of Agriculture and Commerce,
bikini:, Minister of Public Works,
CARROT, Minister of Public Instruction,
CGAIt
ATzaR ikclAGGEosv,e;iyo
Governor-General
of Paris
eneraalof. Algeria,
Numberless instances have been given of the mo-
deration of this great people in the midst of their
memorable and supreme excitement. While them-
selves fusilladed by the soldiery they have frequently
respected life and property, and have even chastised
their comrades when any act of brutality
has been detected. While storming the Tuileries,
they appear to have abstained from all destruction of'
the works of art and vertu with which its galleries
and saloons are enriched, planting sentinels at the
different doorways to prevent all robbery and unne-
cessary outrage. One example, however, is worth a
hundred generalities. Here is one, and we commend
its perusal to our readers, for it seems to us to be in.
vested with a very sublime aspect:—" On taking the
Tuileries," says the Democratie Pacifique, " the people
found a magnificent image of Christ, in sculpture.
The people stopped and saluted it. ' My friends,'
cried a pupil of the Bede Polytechnipe, `this is the

Master of us all P The people took the Christ, and
bore it solemnly to the Church St. Roch. Citizens,
of with your hats! Salute Christ P said the people;
and everybody inclined in a religious sentiment. Noble
people ! who respect all that is sacred 1 Noble people !
who bless the Being who proclaimed the law of uni-
versal fraternity !" This, we repeat it, is a sublime
token of the legality of this glorious and most com-
plete Revolution. It is a token that the Republican
sentiments of the French co-exist with the vital
energies of Christianity.

The Paris papers of Thursday give the following
account of what will probably be the last sitting of
the Chamber of Peers (as on Friday the Provisional
Government published a decree interdicting the ex-
Chamber of Peers from again holding any sittings),
and of the sitting in the Chamber of Deputies, in
which the Monarchy was rejected and a Provisional
Government was established.
CHAMBER OF PEERS.
SITTING Or FEB. 24.

The President took the chair at two o'clock.
About sixty Members were present. The Secretaries
were in their uniform of National Guards.

The Marquis de Boissy complained that the regu-
lations had not been followed the preceding day when
his proposition to interrogate the Ministry, relative
to the state of Paris, was presented.
_

A short discussion arose on this point, in the course
of which Count de Tascher and M. Barthe declared,
that everything had passed with perfect regularity;
and that besides, the Noble Peer was so constantly in
the habit of abusing the liberty of discussion, that he
ought to be the last person to complain. The matter
then dropped.
The President then rose and said—Now, Gentle-
men, I only know from the Afoniteur, that the pre-
ceding Ministry no longer exists, and that a new
Government is being formed. I have not yet re-
ceived any communication and consequently I have
no statement to make to the Chamber. Yesterday
the discussion commenced on the Bill relating to the
mortgage system in the colonies, but no Minister
being now present, that deliberation cannot con-
tinue.

Baron C. Dupin—Besides, the Chamber is not in
sufficient number to deliberate.
Baron Maurice Duval—The Government knows
that the Chambers are sitting. lam of opinion that
we ought to remain in a state of perms fence, in order
that if communications be addressed to us, it may
not be necessary to seek us through Paris.—(Yes !)
The Peers then left their seats, and collected round
the President's chair, the sitting being suspended.
About three o'clock, it was rumoured that the
Duchess of Orleans and the Count de Paris were
coming to the Chamber.
Some minutes after the President rose and said, I
have not received any communication, but I am in-
formed that the Regent and the young King are on
their way here.—(Profound sensation.) I shall draw
lots for a grand deputation to go and receive them.
During the drawing lots in the usual way the
public tribunes became filled with a considerable
number of spectators, amongst whom were many
National Guards.

The arm-chairs usually occupied by the Secretaries
were removed, and replaced by others of crimson
velvet for the expected visitors. The President left
his place, and seated himself below, in one of the
benches usually occupied by Ministers.
However, the expectation thus raised was not gra-
tified, and about four o'clock the President and the
Peers withdrew. An usher then announced that the
sitting was over. The spectators retired in consider-
able agitation.
CRABBER OF DEPUTIES.
SITTING OF FED. 24.

The public sitting. was to hare taken place at three
o'clock, a meeting in the bureaux being appointed to
be holden previously, but the important events of the
morning caused a change in the order of pro-
ceeding.

The President took the chair at one o'clock.

About 300 Deputies were present from the corn-
mencement of the sitting, but nothing was done for
some time.

M. C. Laffitte—Gentlemen, I address myself to all
parties in this Chamber, particularly to the Members
of the extremities, praying them to keep down all
angry passions.—(llear, hear.) Looking at the cir-
cumstances in which we are now placed, I propose to
the Chamber to declare itself in permanence.—(Loud
cries of " Yes, yes.")
M. Dutier—J demand to have the proposition
postponed, and that the Chamber simply declares
itself sitting, with the faculty of afterwards ad.)pting
such measures as it may deem advisable.—(Yes, yes.)
M. de Carnbaceres-:-1 propose that the Chamber
shall remain in permanence until the end of the
crisis.—(Yes, yes.)
The President—There cannot be any other ques-
tion of permanence than this—the Chamber has
opened its sitting, and will remain so as long as no
motion be made to adjourn it.—(Hear, hear.)
About half•past one it was rumoured about that
the Duchess of Orleans and the two young Princes,
her sons, were about to arrive. Shortly after a
movement was apparent in the passage on the left of
the Chamber, and the Duchess and her two sons en-
tered, followed by the Duke de Nemours and the
Duke de Montpensier. The Count de Paris entered
first of all, a person holding him by the hand. With
difficulty he penetrated as far as the semicircle in
front of the President's chair, so encumbered was it
with Deputies and National Guards. His presence
and that of the rest of the royal party created a great
sensation. The Duchess seated herself in an arm-
chair with her sons at each side of her in the wide
space just mentioned.

Almost immediately after the passages to the
various parts of the Chamber were filled with an
immense body of the people and National Guards,
both armed. Cries of " You cannot enter ! " " You
have no right to enter !" were then heard ; but the
next moment a number- of men belonging to the
people forced their way into the Chamber, and placed
themselves right under the tribune.

The Duchess of Orleans then rose, and taking the
young Princes by the hand, led them to the range of
seats forming the pourtour behind the Deputies, and
still exactly in front of the President. The Duke de
Nemours and the Duke de ➢lontpensier placed them-
selves in the last line of seats, immediately behind
the Princess and her son. The greatest agitation
prevailed in every part of the Chamber ; and it was a
moment after increased by the public tribunes being
rushed into by another body of the people.
M. Dupin then ascended the tribune, and amidst
deep silence said—ln the present situation of the
capital and the critical circumstances in which the
country is placed, the Chamber was bound to as-
semble immediately. The King has just abdicated.
—(Sensation.) lie hu disposed of the crown in
favour of his grandson, the Count de Paris; and has
constituted the Duchess of Orleans Regent.—(Ap-
plause from all the benches of the Centre, and trom
some of the public tribunes, and with loud disappro-
bation on the Left.)
A voice from one of the Tribunes—lt is too late !

An agitation, impossible to describe, here arose.
A number of Deputies collected round the
Duchess of Orleans and the rest of the royal
group. National Guards without ceremony came
and mingled with the Deputies who had done so.
M. Marie ascended the tribune, but was obliged to
remain there a length of time without being able to
obtain a hearing. At last, silence being restored, he
said—Gentlemen, in the situation in which Paris now
is, it is both necessary and urgent for us to adopt
some measure which may have some authority with
the population. Since this morning the evil has made
immense progress.—(Hear, hear.) What course will
you take ? Just now, the Duchess of Orleans was
announced as Regent ; but a law exists which gives
the regency to the Duke de Nemours, and you cannot
at the present moment pass a law to revoke it. What
must be done is to nominate a Provisional Govern-
ment—(Loud cries from the Left of "Hear, hear)—
not to give institutions, but to consult with the two
Chambers on the necessity of satisfying the wishes cf
the country.
M. Cremieux—ln the interest of the public safety
a great measure is necessary. It is important that
every one should be of the same mind to proclaim a
great principle, and to ensure to the victorious people
serious guarantees. Let us not do as in 1880, since it
has been found necessary to commence again, in 1848,
what was then done.—(Applause.) We cannot at
the present do more than establish a provisional Go-
vernment.—(Cries of " No, no.") I have the
greatest respect for the Duchess of Orleans—(Cries
of " Bravo, bravo l")—and I just now conducted the
Royal Family to the carriage which bore them
away.
A Voice—Bon voyage !—(Murmurs.)
M. Cretnieux—The population of Paris has shown
the most profound respect for the King's misfortune,
but we who have been sent here to enact the laws,
cannot violate them. A law already voted disposes of
the regency, and I cannot admit that it can be abro-
gated at this moment. Since we have come to the point
of undergoing a revolution let us confide ourselves to
the country. I propose a provisional Government of five
members.—(Voices in the tribunes, "Yes, yes.")

The Abb‘ de Genoude ascended the tribune, and
was about to address the Chamber, when M. 0.
Barrot entered.

Numerous voices—O. Barrot to the tribune ! Let
0. Barrot speak !
The Abbe de Genoude—l have only a word to say
(M. 0. I3arrot, who had ascended the tribune, signi-
fied his acquiescence, and remained standing with his
back against the President's bureau, the Abbe said)
—You cannot effect anything without the co-opera-
tion of the people. You trie I it in 1830, and you
see what has come to pass.
M. 0. Barrot—Rever have we had need of more

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