The Sun.
London, England, 1851-12-22 00:00:00

EVENING,_ DECEMBER 22, 1851.

THE FRENCH REPUBLIC.

We have rez:eived the Paris journals of Saturday
and yesterday.
Saturday, the first day of the Presidential election,
passed off in Paris without the slightest appearance
of disturbance. In the morning ;the proclamations to
the people and to the army, issued by the PRESIDENT
of the Republic on the 2d of December, were again
placarded in all the principal streets. In the course
of the day upwards of 100,000 electors voted in the
department of the Seine. The voting was conducted
with the most perfect order. The polling places were
guarded by detachments of troops of the line and Na-
tional Guards. In the arrondissements of which the
National Guard is dissolved the troops of the line
alone were on duty. The number of electors in-
scribed in the department of the Seine amounts to
290,000.

M. DE SESMAISONS having written a letter in
which he protests against his name being published,
as a member of a Consultative Commission, the Mo-
niteur of to-day announces that there never was an
idea of making him one.

The Consultative Commission is summoned to meet
on Tuesday next, for the purpose of examining the
votes on the Presidential election.
It is announced in the Constitutionnel that the seven
Communal Councils composing the arrondissement of
St. Denis have voted an address of sympathy to
the PRESIDENT of the Republic.
It is also announced that addresses and adhesions
of Municipal Councillors, National Guards, Chambers
of Commerce, &c., have been presented from 115
places in thirty-eight departments.
The Presse and the Pays have given their formal
adhesion to the renewal of the power of Louis NA-
POLEON.

The votes of the army and navy have been an-
nounced by a communication transmitted by subma-
rine telegraph from Paris on Saturday morning to be
as follows :

VOTE OF THE ARMY.

For ...

SociaF.St party proposed to the President that he should
'rely on them, and should choose a Ministry from their
ranks.
Lastly, on the Ist of December, in the evening, a pro-
position of aid (contours) was brought to Louis Napo-
leon, in the name of the Legitimatist chiefs.
It may be thus seen that all parties, without excep-
tion, considered the position to be no longer tenable; all
proposed to the President to help him to put an end to
it. But each of these parties wished the President to
rely on it alone, and Louis Napoleon refused to rely on
any party—he relied upon France.

- 111.
The President of the Republic, threatened by two con-
spiracies, and bound by his responsibility as Chief of
the State, had no longer any choice of conduct. The
only choice that remained to him was in what manner he
should devote himself to save France and Europe.
In the first place, there existed a vast organization of
brigands, directed by secret societies, ranging itself
beneath the flag of what were termed Montagnard men,
who, for the most part, assuredly, were not aware of the
extent and of the nature of the abominations they
were patronising. The Government was, however,
acquainted with every mesh of this vast net. The pre-
cise and detailed reports of the various prefectures left
no doubt as to the plans of pillage and massacre which
would certainly have exploded in the month of May
next, and which, moreover, might explode under cover of
the very first crisis.
There existed, secondly, a conspiracy, hatched by the
old monarchical parties, coalesced against the President
of the Republic. Their design was to overthrow him,
and substitute in his place the dictatorship of the As-
sembly. The projects and the plans of, and the persons
engaged in, the conspiracy were all perfectly well known
to Louis Napoleon, and when, in the Constitutionnel of
the 24th of November, we loudly denounced them, by
name, the conspirators did not dare to summon us
to the bar of the Assembly, because they supposed,
not without reason, that we should appear there with
dates, facts, and documents, and that we should have
presented an indictment instead of a defence. This con-
spiracy of the old parties was so far advanced that
amongst the papers of M. Baze have been found the or-
ganic decrees of the new government, the distribution of
the principal places, and the preparations for taking
arms, grounded on the presumed aid of the tenth legion
of the National Guard of Paris.

IV.
Thus, the Constitution to which the Parliamentary men
affected to pay an hypocritical veneration, was threat-
ened by them with speedy ruin. The President, charged
with an immense responsibility, could hesitate no longer.
Why should he hesitate ? Parties were notoriously
powerless to effect the salvation of France, and their coa-
lition would not have sur►ived their triumph. Legality
was every day aggravating the perils of society, by
weakening the Executive Power, by strengthening Com•
munism, by lessening the jurisdiction of the administra-
tion and of the law. The President was still master of
his movements. In a few months it would have been too
late for him and for all.
In face of such perils, and penetrated with the confi-
dence.of six millions of men who had confided their des-
tines to him, and appreciating the duty that such a con
fidence imposed on him, he resolved to save his coun-
try, knowing well that he was giving, as proofs of his
loyalty, his head to the passions of the present, and his
memory to the judgment of the future.
It was immediately after the hostile act of the gores-
tors that the President took his resolution and his
measures for an eventuality that was evidently very
near. Three men were his confidants—M. de Saint
Arnaud, Minister of War; M. de Morny, representative;
and M. de Maupas, Prefect of Police. Louis Napoleon
explained to them the immense dangers that threatened
society, and which each day was aggravating. lie dis-
covered to them the designs he had formed fur the dissi-
pation of those dangers, and he asked them for their aid-
All three promised it. M. de Morny, as Minister of the
Interior, would answer for all the political responsibility ;
M. de St. Arnaud for the military operations; and M.
de Maupas for the action of the police.
During more than a fortnight, these gentlemen, in
conjunction with the President, determined o❑ every
detail of this immense act, which the famous dix-huit
Brumaire by no means equals, either in difficulty, in
cleverness, or in grandeur. The least things were fore-
seen, concerted on, and prepared in detail, with such
marvellous secresy, that even the safest friends and the
most necessary agents had not the least idea of what
was to happen, till the supreme moment which pre-
ceded the execution of the project.
V.
That all the measures that were to be taken should
be effected simultaneously was evidently the first condi-
tion of success; the principal measures were four in
number:—lst. The arrest of guilty or dangerous persons.
2d, The publication of official decrees. 3d. The invest-
ment and occupation of the palace of the Assembly; and
4th. The distribution of troops on the necessary strate-
gic points.
Quarter-past six A.M. was the hour fixed upon for the
simultaneous execution of all these measures.
The plan was not to be discovered by some one of its
parts, but was to be re►ealed by the action of all. At a
quarter past six, the arrests were being made; at half•.
past six, the troops arrived at their posts; at seven
o'clock, the decree of dissolution of the Assembly and
the other proclamations, left the Prefecture of Police, to
cover the walls of Paris. At exactly half-past six, M.
de Morny took possession of the Ministry of the Interior,
accompanied by 250 chasseurs de Vincennes, and he
placed in the hands of M. do Thorigny a letter, in which
the President thanked that gentleman for his services,
and communicated to him the decisive act he had re-
solved on.
All that concerned the printing and publication of the
decree dissolving the Assembly, of the proclamation to
the army, and of the appeal to the people, bad been en-
trusted to M. de B4rille, lieutenant-colonel attached to
the staff, and officier d'ordounance of the President. The
necessary workmen were summoned to the National
Printing-office for an urgent piece of work. The pre-
sence of the director was required at eleven o'clock pre-
cisely under a decent pretext. As midnight struck, a
company of gendarmerie mobile, summoned to protect the
office from an imaginary danger, entered the court-
yard. Sentinels were immediately placed at every door,
and at every window. It was only after these precau-
tions that M. de Beville produced the documents which
were confided to him, and whose printing and subse-
quent delivery to the Prefecture of Police he superin.
tended in person.

VI.
The persons who were to be arrested by the police
were of two descriptions-Ist, representatives more or
less engaged in a flagrant conspiricacy ; and 2d, the
chiefs of secret societies and the commanders of barri-
cades, always ready to execute the orders of factions.
All these had been strictly watched for a fortnight by
agents of whose presence they bad not the remotest
notion; and of the agents not one was aware of his real
mission, having all received various or imaginary orders.
The total number of persons to be arrested was 78, of
whom 18 were representatives, and 60 chiefs of secret
societies and barricades.
The 800 sergens de yille and the brigades of safety
(de surete) had been ordered to attend at the Prefecture
of Police at eleven o'clock at night on the Ist December.
The alleged pretext for summoning them was the pre-
sence in Paris of some of the refugees from London.
At half-past three on the morning of the 2d, the
officiers de paix and the forty commissaires de police were
summoned from their houses. At halt-past four all had
arrived. They were placed in groups, apart, in sepa-
rate rooms, in order to avoid questionings.
At five o'clock, the commissaires were all summoned,
one by one, to the chamber of the Prefect, and received
from his mouth the full and complete revelation of the
truth, together with orders, indications, and the neces-
sary instruments. The men were, with great care, each
appointed to the charge that best suited him, and they
all left, full of seal and of ardour, resolved to accom-
plish their duty at any price. None failed to perform
his promise. A great number of carriages, prepared
beforehand, were stationed in groups on the quays, near
the Prefecture, in the manner least calculated to excite
atteniion.
The arrests had so been arranged by the Prefect of
Police and the Minister of War, that they should pre-
cede by a quarter of an hour the arrival of the troops
on the appointed ground. The arrests were to be made
at a quarter past six, and the officers had received orders
to be at the doors of the persons pointed out to them at
five minutes past six. Everything was effected with
.Ttraordinury punctuality, and no arrest required more
than twenty minutes.

President was certain," said he. "He had no need to
resort to a coup ditat —he gave himself much trouble
for no purpose." On another cceasion he said, " When
the President has a foreign war on his hands, he will be
glad to seek me to give me the command of an army."
VIII.

The arrest of General Cavaignac was neither more
difficult, nor did it demand more time. Having effected
his entrance into the house, No. 17, Rue du Helder, the
Commissaire Colin spoke as follows to the porter.—
" Where does General Cavaignac live?" " Re's not
at home."
" I must speak to him ; I know he is at home."
"He is not; besides, he is asleep. You come too early;
his lodgings are on the entresol."
The Commissaire proceeded thither, knocked at the
door, and asked for the General. A female voice first
replied, "Re is not here." A moment afterwards the
commissaire rung again. Then a man's voice asked,
" Who's there?" " A commissary of police—in the name
of the law, open."
The General then opened the door himself.
The Commissaire said to him—" General, you are my
prisoner. All resistance is useless. I have to secure
your person in virtue of an order, which I will read to
you. 'Tis useless."
The General became very angry, struck his hand upon
a marble table, and burst out into invectives.
The Commissaire begged him to be moderate. The
General looked fixed at him and said, " How 1 do you
arrest me? Give me your names." "We will not hide
them from you, General. But this is not the moment—
you must dress yourself and follow me."
The General then became calm, and said—" Very
well, sir, I am ready to follow you—give me time to
dress, and order your people out of the room." He
asked, also, the permission to write, which was accorded
to him.

When the General was ready, he said to the commis-
sary—" Let us go, sir; I ask but one favour from you,
that is, that I may go to my destination with you alone."
The commissary at once granted this.
During the ride the General appeared absorbed i❑
deep thought, which was only interrupted by these
words—" Am I the only person arrested?" " General,
I cannot answer that question." " Where are you
taking me to?" "To Mans."