The Sun.
London, England, 1851-12-03 00:00:00

sward interests, without any touch of patriotism or love
of country—for the last month or more, e e say, every
ohaerving man must have remarked that the Assembly
was fast falling into contempt, and that a people prover-
bially grateful and attached to champions of the po-
pular cause were wont to speak of the proceedings
of the Legislature without respect, if net wi►h feel-
ings of dissatisfaction, and almost, indeed, of deri-
sion and contempt. But though this was known to
be the Lelieg among the m sjority of the P.trisi,n com-
munity, high and low—and to be the universal feeling
of the people in the country parts of France—yet the
p ople of this b ippy country, texustomed to legality,
precedent, and routine, were not yet prepared for ex-
treme measures—and generally considered that this old
year would pass over without any sudden or startling
changes. This appeared the more probable, as Paris
was, even so late as on Sunday, tranquil—as the funds
were sten ly—ae the Chamber met o❑ Monday as usual
—and as the election of a representative for the metro-
polis, in the pl.c 5 of General ifagnan, quietly proceeded
and terminate d in the midst of a profound calm and
tranquillity. But though all this is undoubted and in-
coetrovertible fact—though the workmen are generally
employed. and everybody was looking forward to a
pleasant Christmas and a brilliant opening of the new
year in the gay and civilised metropolis of France, yet it
may be that these letter expectations will not be grati-
fied. With what surprise the news which wo published
in a third edition yesterday would be generally received
in Paris may be well imagined. Admitting, however, to
the fullest extent that the Chamber has on more than
one occasion menaced and insulted the President—ad-
mitting, also, that the Council of State has bee❑ an
accessory in this unwise, undignified, and unstate man-
like policy, both before and after the fact—admitting
also that the most unnatural coalitions between parties
had taken place in the Chamber—nevertheless we be.
lieve most well-informed persons, both here and abroad,
were of opinion that the President and his Government
would have allowed the Chamber and the Burgraves to
proceed to more overt acts of hostility than anywhere
appears recorded in their proceedings. But whether it
is that a conspiracy has been discovered of which it was
arranged that a branch of alehouse of Orleans should be
the blind instrument, and M. Tillers the motive and ma-
naging power—whether it is that the proposition sought
to be brought for ward by M. Lehorde (namely, that
the principle of Monarchy or Republic should be for-
mally considered)—excited and moved the President to
action—we know not, and cannot pronounce, for the de-
tails are not yet come to hand. But whatever the
motive, or whatever the provocation, certain it is, that
both the Assembly and the Council of State are dis-
solved, and that Paris itself is placed in a state of siege.
The reason for an extreme measure of this kind was
doubtless great and overwhelming, for it were acting
disingenuously with our readers not to declare that it is
a measure beyond the assigned limits of the Constitution.
As little do we aver—that a case has arises of a very
urgent and overwhelming nature—in which the placing
of Paris in a state of siege has been justifiable. But such
case must indeed have been an urgent one, for it is pro-
vided by the 106th article of the Constitution that the
forms and effects of a state of siege must be regulated by
an express law. It may be remembered that wo expressly
defended in this journal the state of siege in which Paris
was placed in June, 1848, by General Cavaignac. But
it should be recollected that the Reds and Socialists
were then in open insurrection—that demegoguic clubs
were sitting in permanence—and that a civil war was
actually raging. Public safety and the salvation of so-
ciety we freely admitted absolutely required such a
measure in 1848, and may require such a measure again
in December, 1851, for aught we know to the contrary.
But, in the absence of all details and all information, it
cannot be supposed we are prepared to speculate upon
motives and grounds with which we are wholly unac-
quainted. We may, however, here remark, that up to
June, 1848, the conditions of a state of siege were regu-
lated by the laws of Bth July, 1791—by the laws of the
10th Fructidor—and the decree of the 24th December,lBll.
That the hard and onerous conditions of a state of siege
should be so specifically regulated there can be no
doubt, for, according to the military law of France, a
city placed in a state of siege is like a city in a state of
war. The civil authority passes entirely into the
hands of the military commander, who, in reference to
subsistence, organization, and entire command, may
be considered supreme and absolute arbiter. Every
civil and military authority is for the time under
him judges, prefects, mayors, artillery, cavalry,
engineers, national guard, municipal guard, chasseurs
de VincenneJ, sappers and miners, as well as bishops,
priests. and monks, are under his entire control. Ho
alone decides in every resort according to secret in-
structions which he receives from the executive. Such
powers as these are more than plenary ; they are abso-
lute and autocratic. There have been extreme cases,
ve here such a complete dictature is not only admissible,
but supremely necessary—,here such_a migister populi
as Cicero speaks of id his " Tragm-7nt of the Republic"
can be tolerated and even applauded. But the cases
are very exceptional, and the instances very rare in-
deed, where such power should be conf,rred or as-
sumed. There must be a justification for such a course;
but until we know the facts, it would be imprudent, as
well as unjust, to pronounce up in them. The Presi-
dent, we are told in conclusion, restores universal suf-
frage, and appeals to the nation. This looks as though
he rested a firm reliance upon the motives by which he
has been urged, and upon the necessity for the course
he has adopted. Such appears to us to be the reason-
able inference to be drawn from an appeal to the people
of France.

CHRONlCLE.—Criticism of the stunning intelli-
gence which reached us yesterday must obviously be
confined to the succession of facts as they occurred,
leaving untouched for the present the mighty eventuali-
ties with which they are remotely pregnant. Although,
by yesterday noon, we had been even more distinctly
advised than welt) probably the population in the
suburbs of Paris, that the Assembly had been forcibly
dissolved, and that Louis Napoleon hrid taken military
possession of the principal points in the city; we felt
that we had been admitted to but a glimpse of the secret
of a great drama; nor are we even now much more
confident as to the extent to which we have penetrated
it. Still there is no want of magnitude in the in-
cidents themselves, and they cast a flood of light
upon much that has preceded them. All through
Sunday and Monday rumour had been busier than
usual in Paris. It was said that orders had been
transmitted to the Prefects of departments, and to
the Generals commanding the districts which wore
under military law, to the effect that they were to hold
themselves in readiness against a danger which was close
at hand. Some of the reports added that all the troops,
within twenty miles of the capital, bad been !no:led that
they must be prepared to march at a man-en-Vs notice,
and that the superintendents of the railway companies
had been commanded to keep the road completely free
for the passage of soldiery. The representatives, who
crowded to the Ministry of the Interior for information
and guidance, were acquainted by M. de Thorigny that
the preparations in question had really been made, and
that their object was to provide against an outbreak of
the Socialist democracy, which had been fixed for the
day of the Paris election. All who heard the answer
interpreted it in accordance with those perverse notions
of Louis Napoleon's character and capacity, at which
we have so often expressed our astonishment. Although
General Loewenstein had just been placed, in lieu of Ge-
neral Perrot, at the heal of the National Guards—and
although it was known that the principal subordinate of
the new commander was Colonel Vieyra, the unscrupulous
officer who destroyed the printing presses of the Repub-
lican newspapers after the abortive demonstration in
June, 1849—n0 ono eye seems to have been opened to
the true nature of the movements which were admitted
to be going on. It was the old story, they said. The
Legitimists and Orleanists were assured by their news-
papers that the President had invented this clumsy fable
of a plot, as an excuse for making an imposing display of
energy, and so proving to the Conservative party how
useful was his vigilance and how indispensable his aid.
The National of Monday declared ironically that the
Ministers would be obliged to it for saving them the
trouble of announcing that the plot was all a mistake.
In fact, the adversaries of the Elyie: walked right into
the pitfall, with loud asseverations of their contempt for
the band which had dug it. The conspiracy, which had
thus tainted the air all day, exploded in the night.
The Parisians awoke on Tuesday morning to fiod every
position of importance in the occupation of the mili-
tary. Then came the news that all the officers who
might have influenced the army unfavourably for Louis
Napoleon's designs had been roused from their beds
to be placed under arrest. The great African Generals,
Changarnier, Cavaignac, and Lamoriciere, with Bedeau,
Leflo, and the Republican Colonel Charras, were already
lodged in the prison of Mazios. To these had been
added MM. Thiers, Lagrange, and upwards of sixty other
representatives. Tho Palace of the Assembly was
closed and surrounded; and the walls of Paris were pla-
carded with the following decree:—
_

‘• In the name of the Piench people, the President of
the Republic decrecs—

" ARTICLE I.

" The National Assembly is dissolved.

" ARTICLE 11.
" 'Malvern' suffrage is reestablished. The Law of
the 31st May is repealed.

_
- " ARTICLE 111.
" The French people are convoked in their communes
from the 14th to the 21st December.

" ARTICLE IV.
" The state of siege is daereed in tho whole of the
firbt military division.

" ARTICLE V.
" The Council of State is dissolved.
" ARTICLE VI.
" The Minister Gf the Interior is charged with the
execution of this decree.
" LOUIS NAPOLEON BONAPARTE."
Such are the facts of Tuesday morning; and up to the
moment at which we write, there is nothing to load us to
believe that this extraordinary blow has not been struck
with success the most signal and unqualified. The only
chock—if such it can be called—which Louis Napoleon
has sustained, is the fact that, early in the day, about
two hundred Members of the Assembly met at the
Mairie of the 10th arrondissement, under AL Dartfe,pre-

their passed
Oat h
asridmeyneavnahvoyrefrtohmey
decheince of the President, freeing the officers of the
convoking the High Court of Justice- to • ig him and
his Ministers. But this proccq.cling
decrees
o b , d
*3 pronouncing otuonhciimn g
and
seems toe h ire been
little regarded; and of course, beyond this,
there. will be
a sequel to the history of the coop
Cretar even as re-
spoeits Paris; and we still have to look—a,'d sae d so
aith extreme anxiety—for intelligeece fromo R uen,
Lille, Marseilles, and Lyons. Darin., how long a time
has this attack been preparing? thelu ' form of a fixed
.letermination not to resign his power without a .tru-gle
it has never, in all probability, been isbe nt from. Louis
Napoleon's mind; but as a distinct seh:lese
be put in operation on a particular day, its or;gin is r
haps of recent
.date. Now that the attempt has been
actually made, its commencement may be carried back to
the period at which General Megnau'e acceptance of a
command vented his seat for Puri tied placed at the
disposal of the Exectitiv, an opportuni:y of which it
must have at once disceraed all the uies. By the ex-
isting law, a casual election, such as that of last Sun-
day and Monday, might be fixed et any period within
six months after the vacancy. To appoint a day for
the polling before the unpopular Electoral Law could
possibly be repealed—to pretend that the spectacle of an
oligarchy enjoying the rights of the people of Paris
would provoke an outbreak of the indignant democracy
—to mask the assemblage of an immense armed force by
representing it as a needful precaution
against the anti-
cipated demonstration—all these are links in the cham of
conspiracy which hang evenly together, and whichindi-
cate to us the point from which they are suspended. More-
over, the inference that the blow has not been quite
extemporised is strengthened by another fact which bas
attracted notice—we allude to the ostentatious neutrality
which Louis Napoleon's personal adherents maintained.
in the late divisions, as though they were desirous of
its rights.
protesting that the Assembly had forfeited.
On the other hand, it is difficult to set aside, as having
exercised no influence on this measure, the extraordi-
nary result of the debates on the Municipal
.Bill. One
can scarcely conceive a more plausible occasion for an
appeal to the people than a division which stereotyped
an unpopular principle in the most fundamental of laws,
and which was known, all the while, to have been
vitiated by fraud or mistake. It may be, however,
that this is only another instance of the felicity with
which, up to the critical moment, fortune has played
into Louis Napoleon's hands. The only man in France
who has sworn obedience to the Constitution has broken
it. Keeping fully in view the palliations afforded by
the malice, the recklessness, the selfishness, and
the provocations of his enemies, we cannot
forget that, according to the letter of the moral
and positive law, the act just perpetrated amounts
both to perjury and to treason. If it be suc-
cessfully accomplished, we can only hope that the ex-
cuses for his conduct will seem so conclusive to Louis
Napoleon as to preserve his self-respect unimpaired.
Once confirmed in a systematic carelessness of obliga-
tions, he will find himself courted by precipice after pre-
cipice in the path on which he has entered. With an
army to support him, there will be a perpetual tempta-
tion to beat down domestic opposition by its help. With
an army to keep in good humour, there will be a perpe-
tual temptation to engage in foreign war for its aggran-
disement. But we must keep our promise to refrain at
present from speculation or contingencies like there. One
consequence of the coup d'ilat must indeed be men-
tioned, though the statement of it appears very like a
bathos. The English Whig Ministry—on the point of
falling to pieces through the revived disagreements of
the Palmerston and Grey factions—has perhaps been
saved by the events at Paris from a forced resignation,
which we shonld otherwise, in all probability, have had
to announce in the course of yesterday Eaernoon. Our
patriotic Whig statesmen will find a bond of union and
a reason for holding place in the events which have oc-
curred in Paris.

POST.—Louis Napoleon has at last made his
threatened appeal from the adverse decisions and ag-
gressive legislation of the National Assembly to the
voice and will of the people at large, as the only compe-
tent arbitrators on the great questions at issue. With
the leading facts of this important tarn in the course of
events our readers were yes.erday made acquainted in
quick succession, and, in fact, almost as they occurred-
The extreme conciseness which the medium of the
electric telegraph combines with its wonderful rapidity
leaves us, however, at the moment of writing, in some
uncertainty as to the precise mode in which the bold
measures of the President have been carried into effect,
and as to the exact circumstances which may have de-
termined or precipitated their execution. The important
points are that the Assembly bas been actually dissolved
by command of the Executive—that Universal Suffrage
was declared by the President to be the bash on
which alone auy settled Government could be formed
—that the people were invited to re-ume their
sovereignty and elect a chief—ClA: the troops
were steady under arms—that the city was
quit t and the people acquiescent. Fi um the
attitude of both the contending parties for some time
past, it was clear that affairs were rapidly converging
to such a necessity as that into which the Executive
has now been forced. The Assembly had proved, by
the time and mods in which they had revived and car-
ried forward the augmented Bill on the responsibility
of the Executive, that they were bent on reducing to
nullity all power in the State except their ovk n. Ths
President, on every possible occasion, had manifested
the strongest determination not to submit to such an
extinction, nor to permit the seizure of military power
by the leading factions of the Assembly. To have done
so would, in fact, have been to sacrifice not his own
position alone, but the constitutional rights—the means
and hopes of settled and tranquil political existence—
entrusted to him by his vast constituency. The only
chance of preserving such political quiet clearly lay in
in the re-construction, while it was yet time, of the
clumsy and discordant Constitution, which every day's
experience sunk into deeper condemnation, as absurd
in theory, and unmanageable is practice. En-
tangled in the bonds of M. Marrast's contradic-
tory and involved provisions of fundamental law,
it was evident that the country could have no chance cf
making its way safely through the dangers of disturb-
ance aad anarchy that beset the coming p ar. Yet the
Assembly refused to remove those bonds, rejected every 1
practicable solution proposed to it, occupied itself in un•
justifiable combinations for objects that lay backward in
the pa t, instead of co-operating honestly with the Go-
vernment to meet the difficulties of the future. In short,
the nation, anxious to be rid of the clog that threatened
to drag it down into every kind of danger, could look
only to ono man for release, and that man was Louis
Napoleon. Foiled in every attempt to deal with the
obstacle within the walls of the Assembly, he has fol-
lowed the prompting voice of the most influential classes
of the people, by cutting the knot which he was not per-
mitted to loosen. Nothing could show more strongly
the profound conviction prevalent through France, that
the Assembly had forgotten its duties and mistaken
its proper course, than the quiet approval with which
the middle classes contemplated the impending fate
of their representatives, while a coup d'etat was
merely a thing talked of; and it seems, as we judged
would be the case, that nothing could be more
complete than the indifference with which the actual
cessation of their existence, as a member of the body
politic, has been regarded by the citizens of Paris. The
complete failure of the successive attempts at military
domination en the part of the leaders of the Assembly
could not fail to bring utter ruin to their ambitious hopes,
and to establish more strongly the power against which
their machinations were directed. Military usurpation
was the last chance of success for the chiefs of the old
parties; for they had done nothing to win the confidence
of the people, and had promised nothing to gain their
support. They had no principle on which to rely—could
declare no courseon which they were agreed—were surg-
ing blindly, recklessly on to anarchy. The appeal pro-
posed by Louis Napoleon to the only possible foundation
of a political system that revolution has left to France,
namely, universal suffrage, was, in fact, the last and so-
litary way of escape from a revival of that instrument of
evil, the Convention, and perhaps from all the horrors
of 1793. To the result of such an appeal everything
that has yet occurred leads us to look with confidence.
The intrigues of those unwise adherents of the two
branches of Monarchy, to whom so much mischief
has of late been traced, may bo considered to have re-
ceived their finishing stroke. These persons must, in
French phrase, " accept the situation," and be content
to abandon their projects for such Government as tl-
'e
nation is prepared to accept and welcome.
diffi-
culty
which the Executive Power will yet have
t'oe will, no doubt, be that ancient ono of revolution, the
reconciliation of Republican jealous
restrictions of a Government that forms
with the necessary
sixty years' course of political trousles, a new part in a
appealing for its very creation,
and d An Executive
depending for its
very existence on the most Democratic principles, will
yet be charged with the strictestand most vigorous
re-
pression of the dangerous tendencies.: okf Dhsemoctirnacytn
practice. In this difficult part
of hl
sup-
port of the President, if Louis NapotlEteson, the
elected to
that post, will be in the loyal consistency with which,
even in these last bold measures, he has adhered to the
principle professed by him throughout—that the peoplel
in the widest sense, and they alone, must, in tb,e
present state of France, be the source of power, held
whatever ruler they may choose. Of himself ho has ae.r
tempted to establish no sovereignty—he no power
epowfree-
beyond that which ho employs in giving the
nation
dom to do its own work and mikeeictesssoawn
ry,
beyond ail
choice. In
order to give that freedom, it was
doubt, to get rid of the had shown it- '
self so disp,sed to employ its last.day s riaplotting against
that free action of public opinion to which the coup
(rout refers the whole settlement of future govern-
ment. Louis Napoleon has done his part, and has
done it boldly yet moderately. It is now for France
to do hers resolutely, yet, let us hope, peace-
fully. A chief chosen by the universal voice, hold-
ing his office for ten years, supported by a Council of
State, and by a double Chamber—such are the recom-
mendations of Louis Napoleon; and with whatever feel-
ings they may be received by the more advanced sec-
tion of the republican body or the partizans of the mo-
narchic houses, they must be admitted to present to the
middle classes of France a better prospect of a fair field

a could 3 fl dbeePi
thr their industry
, ~.. /.......----- %u. , anElß•thiiinsgi
1 cos!e, F-' Paris
c__ cause Paris is in
.4,,
<..
quil, be)auso tb
change their feeli
The siege was proclaimed yesterday mornieg at an early
hour. The declaration of Paris being in a state of siege,
was the accompaniment of an edict from the Elys eel dis-
solving the National Assimbly and the Council of State,
followed by an appeal to the country on the principle of
universal suffrage, in favour of a ten years' Presidency,
and two legislative Chambers. For such information,
which at best is but excoediugly scanty, as has reached
this country, by means of the cicc'ric klegreph, re-
specting the ciicamstances under which this sa:a ding
charge in the position of mailers has taken Weer,
we must refer to another part of our p per. There
is every reason to assume that the bold stns, which
Louis Napoleon bee tskon was, so far ai relp4rds
the particular moment, the result of scue sudden
impulse. We cannot on any other ruppusitien
acocunt for the c;rcutnstanee of its being so entirely un-
have taken I lace—it
ex! ented, even in the best i ,formed circles in Paris.
rise,
It is clear that the moneyed rue:_— the men who hetet- the
for Comed
credit of knowing thing' before they can well lw aid to
is hey( mid tI; qaestioo, that they
ws
ihadeeg wt.,
or
tns
t)dt remotesttethrbeeafttoewr particular
mustwhat.
av waye
biis its," e
fferchtei
of
:keee:,k.
ts,E
formed
his
algd proof
htc)cira,
:s
nat
happened?
estmbet,
eirei
cr: thanistoi.
ioientachvioAams:
list
enutnwri:erereriyss
w!ul:rhfirai
rile
ibhsyebd: the
fact, that up to the el use o! hu inf s i hours on the
Bourse the previous t vcr,leg, the funds c.;ntioued to
what has occurred? AssuredlyaPPeped ?
the majoritiyreinn
past. E tier, thrrtfore, the dissolution
teofosthteheevheambers, and declaring Paris to be in a state of
not.
ombetoso resort to
and
drging
Luis Ns:ode=
peelarpsosendel
persons in such a position as his r did before. Do
thatshinactreedweosfaLidouis Na
expedients, or coups-cfetat, a:
—a majority composed of f
to
apcompeli
a tin g . hTi
they had for months b'en daily
kept together by no other bond
t those unconstitutional
yurdoar five vaenddiffevsreeruyt
hour of
3f
13. unionsee
mt rheadi
dandaewtceiott
hmulmienooentia.
ptoleo
charging
are csolleds..whials
animaltr exist-
ence thea y s
Assembly have
enemies goading him en eveor
which2,h they accused
the day, to commit the very
enduring creature in the wide domain of The most
him, was more than could be borne.
will not tamely submit to be always
There are limits
to patience: there are bounds to forbearance.
and hurt, without at least evincing a disposition'ddtn on
re-
sistance. Why, then, should we wonder at i
heto
which Louis Napoleon has taken? Human nature eosin
not have borne the provocation he had received at the
hands of the Burgrzves. It is their act and deed quite as
much as his. They have done it all, so far as regards
supplying the motive. The ground for surprise le, not
that the President has had recourse to this extreme ex-
pedient now, but that he so long refrained from taking
the step. Never did man, in his situation, bear so
much and so long. The majority in the Assembly
seemed to imagine that their sole mission, as members of
the Legislature, was to harass, annoy, and in every pos.
sible way, insult the President. And assuredly, had that
been the express purpose for which their constituents
had returned them to the Assembly, they could not have
more faithfully or perseveringly fulfilled their mission.
crime
ofr to see his persona
For nearly two years there has scarcely been a day .in
which some new manifestation of personal hostility to
LOll3 Napoleon, has not been made. And even when an
adjournment of the Assembly took place, it was not until
feeling of personal hostility,rno movement
ttinogf LC
,5 Committee of Permanence was appointed, to watch
with vigilant eye every
under the pretext that he was supposel to entertain pur-
poses at variance with the Constitution. Nor did this
intentional insult, in any degree abate • hthe lapse of
with
time. It seemed, on the contrary, to become more
intense with every fresh rising and setting of
e st o acts
Napoleon,cso f
the sun. It only appeared to have reached its
climax, when the implacable personal foes of the Presi-
dent gravely proposed, some four or five weeks ago, to
deprive the Executive of all right of control over the
army, and to assume that power to itself. Had they suc-
ceeded in that attempt, they would have had their re-
venge gratified to the full ea Louis Napoleon. They
would have wreaked their wra.h with no sparing hand
on his devoted head. The dungeons of Vincennes would
have been his first destiny, to be followed, very possibly,
by something even worse than that. Though defeated
in that attempt, they still determined to persist in
affronting and seeking to injure Louis Napoleon. Close
on the heels of the majority's defeat on the question to
which we have just alluded, came the attempt to carry
the Responsibility Bill, and even so late as Saturday last,
the commission appointed by the Assembly to prepare
a measure in accordance with the principle of Presidential
responsibility, as laid down by the majority. devoted
a bitting of several hours to the consideration of the
propriety of impeaching the President, in certain
contingencies, which they regarded as of possible occur-
rence. We give in the words of the comman7cation,
from our able Paris correspondent, which appeared in
our impression of yesterday, the proceedings before the
commission en Saturday. " Si. Psudie," says our cor-
respondent,
" who lately proposed us an amendment,
that the President cf the Ae,em!ely ehould be invested
with power to call out any troops that he may require
for the defence of the Assembly, again presented an-
other amendment, to this effJet:—' The President shall
be impeached fur high treason if he should att. mpt an
unconstitutional re-election, by causing the law to be
viilated, or not punishing any public functionaries who
may attempt to further tits re-election.' Another
amendm( nt, equally hostile to the Presid,nt, was pre-
sented by M. Combat de Lyval: —' It shall be high trees-
s! n fur the President to provoke the vleletion of :he Con-
stitution by bribes, threats, cr promise:, or other arti-
fices.' Be:h of these amendments, dirt oily aimed at
the President if he should attempt his re-election, were
rejected after strong discussion, %hen M. Berry's'. pro-
posed :—' The President she!' bo impeached fur high
treason if he attempt to violate the 45th article of the
Constitution,' M. Zanvier said that he thought all
these propositions so objectionable that he should vote
for none of them. A tremendous scene of recrimination
then followed, when, finally, M. Berryer's proposition
was carried by seven votes to six." What mortal, we
again ask, could always submit to the system of insult
and attempt to injure, of which these proceedings of Sa-
turday constituted but the last scenes? The wonder we
Inc it, is, that Louis Napoleon could have displayed the
forbearance hu has done, under such great and manifold
provocations. But thecrisis has come at last. The day
of forbearance has passed. Louis Napoleon has ap-
pealed from his personal enemies in the Assembly, to
the people. He will not appeal to them in vain. They
have not been inattentive to what has been passing
before them during the last two yoars. They have not
been unconcern: d spectators of the scenes which have
lately been exhibited in the Assembly. They are with
Louis Napoleon—with him almost to a man. His foes
have no party without the walls of the Chamber. They
stand alone. And now that matters have come to *
climax, they will quarrel and become divided among
themselves. Like a nest of conspirators who have beeu
detected and defeated, they will begin to indulge in
mutual recriminations. We shall have a new illustration
of the old adage respecting honest men getting their
own, when a certain class of persons fall eat. We are
sure that, in France, the universal feeling must have
been one of utter weariness at the state of things which
has latterly prevailed, and that there must be a corre-
sponding delight that an end has been put to it. We
have, we repeat, no apprehensions of the result of the
appeal which Louis Napoleon has made to France. Is
would not surprise us, should a still greater number vote
for his re-election than voted for his elevation to the
Presidency of the. Republic in 1848.