The Sun.
London, England, 1851-01-04 00:00:00

competent authority." An opinion connected with
the latter point, and impressed upon the mind of the
reader quite as emphatically, may be foiled articu-
lated further on in the body of the essay, to the effect
that " the one realm cught to be covered by one patent."
As we have already intimated, the reason which has
produced the volume here referred to is a
dread lest the present fervid agitation in behalf
of patent law reform may result in some unfor-
tunately hasty and ill-judged innovations. As Mr.
SPENCE himself explicitly observes at the very opening
of his undertaking—" I am indeed anxious that per-
manent principles should not be sacrificed through any
temporary feeling of excitement for the present un-
wholesomely stimulated by the prospect of the Great
Exhibition." How far the excitement is unwhole-
somely stimulated by the advent of the Exhibition we
cannot at all conjecture ; but in Mr. SPENCE'S solici-
tude that "permanent principles should not be sacri-
ficed" we cordially sympathise. One of the happiest
expressions contained in the whole of this luminous
essay occurs where the author remarks that " a
patentable invention," although according to the term
of the original statute " a manufacture," is yet at
the same time "an embodied principle." Altogether
the work here commended to popular attention is
one displaying very large ability and an intimate
knowledge of the subject treated of by the essayist.

THE FRENCH REPUBLIC.

We have received the Paris journals of yesterday.

The Assembly met on Thursday, but, contrary to
general expectation, no allusion was made to the New
Year's-day scene at the Elysee. It was expected
that General CAVAIGNAC and M. VICTOR LEFRANC
would have addressed interpellations to the Minister
on the subject, but after a conference with M. DuriN
it was determined to postpone the interpellations.
There was a rumour circulated in the lobbies of the
Assembly, that M. BARoc lIE had resigned the Ministry
of the Interior; the Patrie, however, declares that it is
totally without foundation.
We yesterday gave from the C onstitutionnel the
Bonapartist version of the scene between MM.
BONAPARTE and Durirt on New Year's-day, we now
give M. DIIPIN'S version from the Journal des
D ebats

" The rumours which have been circulated relative to
the visit of M. Dupin to M. Louis Napoleon on New
Year's-eve, which made that event one of great political
gravity, have since lost much of their importance, or, to
say the truth, the importance has almost entirely disap
peered. In the first place, there was nothing of an offi-
cial character in the speeches, nor was the interview of
that serious kind for which one might imagine that both
parties had prepared themselves; it was in reality a
merely friendly visit, and the conversation, which only
lasted two or three minutes, was" carried on in such a
low tone that not more tha❑ eight or ten persons could
have heard it. This fact once stated, it will be under.
stood that we by no means pretend to give textually the
words which were made use of on either side; but,
nevertheless, according to our private information, and
assisted by the recital given by several journals, we
think we may guarantee the almost perfect exactitude of
the following account, but at all events, we can vouch for
its being the spirit of that conversation. Speaking, not
in the name of the Assembly, nor even in that of the bu-
reau, but in his own, M. Dupin commenced by saying—
' Monsieur le President, I hope the new year may be a
happy one for you, for France, and for us all.'
" Monsieur le President,' replied the President of the
Republic, 6 I accept your wishes with pleasure, and I am
persuaded that they are sincere. It is so important that
the good harmony of the powers should not be dis-
turbed in the difficult times through which we have
to pass.'
Nothing is more desirable,' replied M. Dupin, and
personally I have always done all that depends on me to
maintain that good understanding, because without that
welfare is impossible. The legislative power has no-
thing to gain from weakening the executive, and the ex-
ecutive power can only lose by attempting to weaken the
legislative.'
" Both you and I,' said M. Louis Napoleon, ought
each within the limits of our attributions to seek to make
the laws of the country and the authority given us by
the Constitution respected without encroachment of one
power on the other. I care nothing about the prolonga-
tion of my powers, but I am anxious that when I restore
to the people the power which I received from them, it
should be intact and respected. My conviction is that
France desires peace and order, and she would consider
the one of the two powers which should attack the other
as in the wrong.'
" I am entirely of that opinion,' replied M. Dupin,
I think that the aggressors would be wrong, and expe-
rience has proved that he who wuuld advance one step
would be obliged to retreat four.:
" Such is the truth, as exact as possible, of this con-
versation, which is creditable to both sides."
The Legitimatist and Orleanist journals all echo
the statement of the Dibats that the visit of M.
DUPIN and the officers of the Assembly was not in
their official, hut in their private capacity. This is
evidently the mot dordre of the snubbed ones, but
it will hardly do, seeing that they were introduced
as a deputation from the National Assembly.
Several of the journals of the Majority declare that
the PIiEtAIDENT will never have another opportunity
of repeating the insult of New Year's-day, as neither
M. DurlN nor any member of the Bureau will again
enter the Elytee, neither will any more deputations
present congratulations to him.
The Evenement says :

" M. Dupin has been scurvily received by the Presi-
dent of the Repvblic. It is well. What business had
he at the Elyse, ? Why did the Bureau of the Assembly
go to the residence of M. Louis Bonaparte? Is not the
Assembly a sovereign power? Is it inferior to the
President that it should put itself out of the way to
seek him? We are not aware that it ever en-
joined M. Dupin to drag its Members through the
ante-chambers of the Elyse?. If he went, it could only
be because he himself chose to do so ; he, probably,
was not sorry to soothe, by a visit of humiliation,
the irritation which his conduct in the affair of
Allais may have produced, and to conciliate those on
whom the fate of the Procureur-General of the Court
of Cessation depends. On this point, we would ask
whether it is proper that the man who has the honour
of presiding over the National Assembly of France
should at the same time hold an office which places him
in the power of the Government? Is it not an inconceiv-
able contradiction that the personage who in himself
represents the Parliamentary Sovereignty should be at
the same time the subordinate of a Minister whom a
Parliamentary vote can dismiss? M. Dupin is the equal
of M. Bonaparte and the subordinate of M. Rouher."
The Siicle, alluding to the resignation of M. YON,
says :—" The resignation was accepted by the Bureau
of the Assembly in terms highly honourable to M.
Yox. You offer your resignation,' it is said to have
replied, but it gives you a greater right to our esteem
and to our confidence. You will retain your post
until we shall have officially replaced you.' But will
M. 'lox be replaced ? Could he be so usefully for
the Assembly in the state of things which the Prefect
of Police has created ? Is not the office henceforth
inefficacious? These questions are, it is said, to be.
the subject of mature consideration by the Bureau.
In accepting in such terms the resignation of M.
Yori, the Bureau, it must be admitted, has done
every thing which suited the energy of the majority."
M. FREDERIC BASTIAT, the celebrated political
economist, died at Rome on the 24th ult.
The Bourse was agitated and public securities de-
clined. The Five per Cents. opened at 9M. 30c., fell
to 94f. 50c., and closed at 94f. 75c.; the New Loan
closed at 94f. 70e. ; the Three per Cents. closed at
561. 75c. ; Orleans Railroad Shares, 8601. ; Rouen,
6721. 50c. ; Havre, 267 f. 50c. ; Great Northern,
480 f.; Avignon, 192 f. 50c. ; Vierzon, 401 f. 25c. ;
Basle, 1361. 25c. ; Bordeaux, 400 f.; Paris and
Strasburg, 353 f. 75c.

BUSINESS DONE IN FOREIGN RAILWAYS AT THE
LONDON STOCK EXCHANGE, J. 3.

Boulogne and Amiens, 9—Central of France (Orleans and
Vierzon), 1614—East Indian, 12—Luxembourg, 2%—Namur
and Liege, B%—Northern of France, 151 A—Orleans and
Bordeaux, 4,/s ex div.—Paris and Rouen, 274—Rouen
and Havre, it %—Sambre and Meuse, —Tours and
Nantes, 6%.