The Sun.
London, England, 1851-01-18 00:00:00

[The following appeared in our Third Edition of
last night

FRANCE.

The debate on the resolution of the Committee of
Public Safety was resumed yesterday. It was pre-
ceded by the following " personal scene" between
MM:Vaudry, Jules de Lasteyrie, and Lemulier :
Colonel Vaudry ascended the tribune and said—At
the close of the sitting of yesterday, when he was
bsent from the hall, M. Lasteyrie had directed various
accusations against him. He knew not where he had
procured his information, but he declared it calumnie
ous, and gave its author the lie in the most formal
neanner.—(Bravos on some benches, murmurs on
-thers.)
M. Lemulier, as President of the Society of the
10th of December, next declared that the document
read by:M. Lanjuinais was a forgery, and never ema-
nated from the Society of the 10th of December.
Lasteyrie maintained that the document actually
emanated from that society, and added that if he were
defied he would produce others of a still ;raver na-
ture.—(" Produce them," cried voices in the Centre.)
Lemulier replied, that these documents ema-
nated from the same source as the famous conspiracy
of the Rue des Seuesayes.—(Laughter.)
The great speeches of the day were these of M.
Berryer and M. Lemartine ; the latter had not con-
cluded when the post left.
The following is a resume of these speeches :--
M. Berryer said that he felt it his duty to explain
to the Assembly the real motives that induced him to
concur in the severest blame of the last act of the Go-
vernment. The constitutional right was questioned
by none, but he would appeal to the recollections of
the Honourable Minister for Foreign Affairs, who,
he was sure, would bear testimony to the
prodigious effect produced by a similar dis-
missal under the monarchy. He condemned that act,
because, unless all eyes were closed to evidence, it
denoted a real tendency to a change of policy, dan-
gerous for the internal peace and derogatory to the
dignity of the country abroad. The parties were
now in presence ; they were on the eve of the ren-
dezvous assigned to them by the Constitution itself
for its entire or partial revision. Why, then,
wonder at the agitation that manifested itself ?
Did not the Message, so much admired, speak
of the instability of the institutions ? France
was actually placed in a precarious and transitory
situation. Why wee Louis Napoleon proclaimed by
six millions of citizens ? It was because the name of
Bonaparte (" Say Napoleon," cried M. Pierre Bona-
parte) was connected with the downfall of the first
Republic. He had given him his vote on account of
his respect for his personal character, which he had
long since appreciated. After the revolution of
February he had written to the electors of the depart-
ment of the Mouths of the Rhone that he retained the
political opinion he had professed during 58 years of
his life, but that if they returned him he would prove
himself the vigilant defender of the interests of his
country. He then described the endeavours he had
made to unite all parties since that period. As re-
spected his journey to Wiesbaden he would give the
fullest explanations. When men belonging to another
party, whom he esteemed and commended, repaired
to England to assist at the dying moments of a Monarch
who had reigned over France, he bad proceeded
with a number of his friends to Wiesbaden, to see
ar:other exile who had been a stranger to all recent
political events, and had never forfeited his rights
to the respect of the nation. He was exiled
because he could not lay his foot on the French
soil, which his ancestors had conquered and consti-
tuted into a glorious and powerful monarchy, without
being the first of Frenchmen—their Kiug.—(Ap-
plause and murmurs.) He went thither in obedience
to a feeling of respect and sympathy to accomplish a
political act. He had developed before the Prince
that policy of union which he had practised in France
for the last three years. He had found all his
sentiments engraven in his heart. The Prince had
expressed to him a detestation of plots and civil war,
and protested against all idea of conspiracy or attempt
at a surreptitious restoration. M. Berryer knew not
what Providence reserved to his country. The pre-
sent Ministers might continue in office, or for what
he knew, they might have no successors ; the walls
of that hall might be left standing, but he feared they
would be occupied by the mutes either of demagogy
or of an absurd absolutism.
Considerable agitation prevailed after M. Berryer
descended from the tribune, and the sitting was sus-
pended during some moments. When silence was
restored,
M. Lanaartine rose and said, that when he heard
the eloquent voice of M. Berryer he could not help
remembering the great debates of the coalition of
1838. The same men, the same principles, were ar-
rayed against the Government. M. Berryer had
ably, and, he admitted constitutionally, raised the
banner of Monarchy. It behoved the Assembly not
to raise, but to maintain, the banner of the Re-
public. This last form of government could
alone have blessed the country with that
truce of God, which permitted all political
opinions to unite. M. 13,rryer had claimed
for his party the monopoly of glory and honour;
but he appeared to forget that representative govern-
ment had taken such deep root in that country, that
there was no reason to fear that the tribune could ever
become mute. When the inheritor of the greatest
name, in modern history came forward as a candidate
for the Presidency, he bed signed the temporary
exile of him, the prestige of who4e name'tnight lead
astray the country. The moment, however, univer-

se! suffrage had pioclaitned him, considering' himself
a citizen and a well-wisher of his country,
he resolved to stand by him while he kept
within the bounds of the Constitution. Nut

having voted fq. him, he could not be sus-

pected of Elysean prejudices, and could examine
his acts with entire impartiality. The present crisis
was the most dangerous the country had had to tra-
verse since 1840. At that last period the anarchists
were in the field, whilst now the Cabinet had to com-
bat the more formidable combination of the passions
of men, roused to exAsperation against the principle of
the existing Government. When the Permanent
Committee circulated its more or less legitimate
suspicions, and allowed them to alight on
the First Magistrate of the Republic him-
self, the country on its side entertained suspi-

cions, and beheld behind that phantasmagory of an
Empire and of impracticable restoration other ten-
dencies of a more dangerous nature. M. Lamartine
then described how, relying on the mendacious re-
ports of the most ignoble agents, that Committee had
attempted to discredit the President in the eyes of the
country ; how they had treacherously kept their
proces-verbaux under seals.—(Loud murmurs on some
benches.) M. Lamartine to the interruptors—" Allow
me to speak, the Permanent Committee has spoken
too long ;" and, when a message of reconcilia-
tion, which the most susceptible republicans had
accepted with confidence.—(Cries " No, no," on the
Left- fT. Charras, "It was an act of hypocrisy."
M. Dapin called M. Charras to order.) M. Lamar-
tine thought that when a man placed so blab, without
being obliged to do so, took a new oath to the Consti-
tution, and by violating it would have against him not
only the witnesses of the Assembly, but the voices of
history and prosperity, he was entitled to belief.
The country, he maintained, suspected the Perma-
nent Committee, and absolved the Executive Power ;

the more so as, since that pledge given by
the President of his loyalty to the Republic and his
duty, not a single act of his denoted that Imperialist
tendency. M. Lamartine then branded the extraor-
dinary credulity of the Committee, who had given
credence to a filthy rag of paper, picked out of the
gutter, in the shape of a report, denouncing an ima-
ginary plot of the Executive against the lives of the
President of tine Assembly and General Changarnier.
The obstinacy of the bureau to maintain for its pro-
tection an individual who had stated a falsehood in the
sanctuary of justice was perhaps still stranger than
(Left speaking.)
their credulity.—
The Ordre has the following exquisite piece of ab-
surdity
If the English press, Tory, Whig. Ministerial, or
anti-Ministerial, unanimously excites the President of
the Republic to violate his oaths, the liberty and the
laws of the country, and to substitute his personal
government to the Parliamentary system of government,
it cannot assuredly be with an object advantageous to
the President of the Republic alone; our neighbours cal-
culate too well to give disinterested counsels. If the
English press desires so ardently a revolution at Paris,
be assured that Eaglish commerce has need of it. How
see Perhaps for this reason—we have very often
called the attention of our readers to the dangers of the
holy commercial alliance which is being prepared between
the powers of the north, and which threatens soon to
This
emheoalnys aolfliasen setting
in is to
unite, in a formidable community of material interests,
Russia, Austreiarilrbdo?
we
ematinetyve th
.
us a grave p
aside. These means consist in opposing league
to
to
league—in contracting with the statesofßetlhgeiumsouatnhd
with Spain and independent Italy, with
the Helvetic Confederation, a Customs' Union, similar
to that in preparation between the northern states. Be-
tween this double commercial coalition, what becomes
of the fortune of England? It is greatly m
The coalition of the north in particular menaces it 9
.-ex-
tremely.
Suppose, in fact, that the projects of thCa
bluets of St. Eetersburgh, Vienna, and Berlin, should
succeeddthe markets of the Zollverein, the Sclavonian
provinces, the coast of the Adriatic and the Black Sea,
the territories of Germany, and, in a word, of Italy
and the East, would be closed progressively against
English goods, and Great Britain be again exposed to
a continental blockade. In presence of such pre,sing
eventualities what is to be done? Lord Palmerston
has attempted every
he has moved heaven and earth ;
thing—at Constantinople, Vienna,
Berlin, and Turin,
but in vain. Russia and Austria have everywhere
beaten him. H
Lordship accordingly appears to
have imagined the means of getting out ihe thing by a
Piwtzeatb
coup de maitre, by one of those great coups which recal
li‘,o mind the policy of
?warA. r
eßvuoti to
ght up a general war, Yisareg;unireerdai
telin at Paris, and the. substitution for the regular Go-
Ketanaent which reigns, of a
Government adveeture,
Manth would require to support itself that the country