The Sun.
London, England, 1851-10-22 00:00:00

ei
141 leiDlatott\

DOE MINISTERIAL CRISIS IN
FRANCE.
SPIRIT OF THE PARISIAN PRESS.
The Assemblie Nationale sa7s :
"When M. Louis Napoleon was placed at the head
of the Executive Government, the Monarchical party,
in its two shades of opinion, afforded him honest sup-
port and powerful assistance. It was necessary to
combat the revolution, to drive it back, and to wrest
st
society from its fatal embraces ; and all, Legitim
fend Orleanists, lent their efforts. But it happened
that this co-operation was singularly understood by
the President of the Republic. He appeared to be-
Here and to hope that those who
souve-
gave it would
etbdicate in his hands their past,
ntrs, their
' their rights, and their cause. That was de-
cei ring himself strangely. The Monarchical parties
cannot have any other idea, any other object than the
re-esteblishment of a veritable monarchy. They
will no make themselves the instrument of an Em-
pire, or of a Consulate for life. They will not abdi-
cate. Is it because he has been deceived in this
hope, that the President of the Republic now de-
mands forces from the revolutionary party ? Already
may the reception his advances have met with cause
biw to refl-ct. The more he engages in this fatal
P th the more his d
in isappointments will
lf up to
ome
eneleittered. It is thus that, giving hi
an exclusively personal ambition, he has become
isolated, and lessened in importance. If he had
shown himself impassible and disinterested in the
midst of parties, he would perhaps have been
pressed to keep a little longer an impartial and
moderating power. The President has not had this
prudence. There is henceforth between him and the
majority, not only distrust, but a question of honour
and dignity. This new scission has rendered the
ground more unsafe. We cannot in these agitated
times guarantee the future, but whatever may hap-
pen, the majority will prove its existence by re-
maining the courageous guardian of order, of the
boys, and of society. The gravity of circumstances
as extreme ; in some parts anarchy has already com-
mitted acts of savage fury; the faults of the Execu-
tive Government have caused trouble and disquietude
in public opinion. Bat the evil would be still
greater ; it would be irreparable if we could not say,
with reason, and in spite of the sophisms by which
it is endeavoured to misrepresent facts, that there is
a majority, and that it will know how to give proof
of energy and power."
The 1) gat: says :—" The -Ministerial crisis has ad-
vanced but little, but we cannot say that it has gone
back. A journal of the Left had announced that M.
Billeult has definitively failed in the mission which he
bad received to form a Cabinet. According to reports,
which were afterwards in circulation, that journal
was ill-informed; M. Billault continued his measures,
stied had not lost all hopes of success. Now, there is
Bo longer any talk of M. Billault, who, it is said, has
already set off on his return to Nantes, and the
Dames of General Le Pays de Bourjolly as Minister
of Foreign Affairs ; General Leroy de St. Arnault as
Miedster of War • M. Giraud (d'Angers) as Minister
of thy, Interior ; 115. Bineau as Minister of Finances ;
M. Ducos as Minister of the Marine ; and of M.
Hippolyte Fortoul as Minister of Public Instruction,
Lave been brought forward. We confine ourselves to
mentioning these reports under all reserve. The only
thing which can be positively stated is, that up to the
present time nothing has been definitively decided on,
and that apparently nothing will be decided on until
the President of the Republic shall have completed
the drawing up of his Message. The public waits for
the denouement of the crisis with a calmness which is
not the least singular trait of the present state of affairs.
At the Salle des Conf6rences, as at the Bourse, the
petysiognoney is the same ; every one seems agreed to
slicew the President of the Republic to be at his ease. It
is no the country, it is not the Assembly, it is not the
Permanent Committee, which has created the present
crisis; is: is not parliamentary exigencies and annoyances
which have driven the President into the strait in
which he is so painfully placed. It is from his own
full and free will that M. Louis Napoleon undertakes
to solve such a difficult problem as that of repealing
the law of May 31 without openly breaking with the
majority, who regard that law as the basis and the
corner stone of its policy. It la, therefore, for M.
Louis Bonaparte alone to seek an issue from
this strait. In remaining an impassable and
cool spectator, the country understand and keeps
its character. When we say that the problem
is difficult, we forget that other writers have
found the means of simplifying it. To set aside
the obstacle which the resolution of the President is
to meet with in the majority of the Assembly, these
writers, who are known to be fertile in expedients,
have suggested the plan of suppressing the majority.
There is no longer a majority. This expression gets
rid of the difficulty. Such a puerile remark does not
,merit to be seriously discussed. We are aware that
the Parliamentary majority is composed of several
pas ties, which, on a capital but reserved question,
have contrary views and hopes and engagements ; we
know that amoreest it Legitimists, and Orleati-
iste, Fusionists. But whet we also know is, that
beyond these reseread questions, on all others which
affect the general safety, and which interest in common
the Lfrett nqrry of order, the majority has never been
tivi 'ed. What we have not forgotten is, that it gave
433 vor,,s to :11;4 law of May 31, which it i, now pro-
po ieri to r,,.0ea1. We, for our parts, hope that the majority
will not show itself less uoitei in the defence and
maintene.nee of that law than it was sixteen months
ago in adopting it. Do those who say that there is
no longer a majority understand themselves what they
say? For, in fact, if there be not a majority to de-
fend the law of May 31, how can there be one for its
repeal ? This is an enigma."
On the other side, M. de Girardin in the Presse

says—
" On the 30th May, 1850, 433 representatives of
the people voted for the suppression of universal suf.-
frage. On the 19th July, 1851, 446 representatives
voted fir the revision of the Constitution. Such
is the double knot of a situation which cannot he
untied but by obtaining from those who voted for the
law of May 31 to vote against it, and that those who
voted against the revision should vote for it. If
the 278 representatives who voted on the
19th July, 1851, voted against the revision of the
Constitution persist in that vote, the 433 representa-
tivas who voted on the 30th of May, 1851, fur the
suppression of universal suffrage, will also persist in
voting fer it. The 433 will justify their refusal of
re-establishing universal suffrage by the refusal of the
278 to vote the revision of the Constitution. The
278, in their turn, will justify their refusal to vote
the revision of the Constitution by the refusal of the
433 to vote the re-establishment of universal suf-
frage. Dues not the evidence of the state of things
and the imminence of this danger strike every eye
that is not blinded by party spirit ? The 433 per-
sisted in the feeling which on the 30th of May, 1850,
made them vote the suppression of universal suf-
frage! the 279, persisted in the opinion which made
them, on the 19,h of July, 1851, vote the rejection of
the revision, to what will this pertinacity and this
emulation in blindness lead ? They lead, I admit, to
maintain the non-eligibility of the actual holder of
the presidency, but on one fstal condition—the con-
dition of civil war. Who can foresee what will be
the result of this civil war ? What I know is that,
either the traditional monarchy, or the constitutional
thinonarchy, or the consulate, or the empire, have only
cihance, of return. Let those, therefore, who
I.gicady push forward to this civil war accept the
political responsibility of it before thd civilised world
and before history I"
We read in the Pays :
°' There is one consideration which should induce
the President of the Republic not
theot oo
fsreherppseaar
la
meet ef
theth e
revision of the Constitution fromss,
jao; of 31st May, in the drawing u
and in the composition of his new
Ministry. The
i
consideration is this—lt may be balieved
prcpcsidg the pure and simple re-establishment ofn
universal suffrage, Louis Napoleon Bonaparte hopes
and excites a coup- d'etat of the People by a move-
ment of gratitude, or by the glare of popularity. But
if at. the same time he proposes the revision, it is not
only his re-election which he endeavours to secure,
but, before all, the will of France, which he wishes to
consult, and the Government which he wishes to
strengthen and consolidate. How much better will
his situation be before the Assembly with this object
of public safety. It will not be a personal interest
which will he at stake, but a social one. Legitima-
tiib, Orleanists, RFTublicans, majority and minority,
all Fill be dominated. They must either yield or
rise in 1111Urreei ain,
the coontry, The- "ag
to rnaintaio.
They wilt Yield yn will
yield—let us - not doubt it.
t a man, but against
order to set aside from them an
immense retuohl-liy They will yield also in order
ballot-box th'e -Peaces and to remove from the
Constitution bv the
peril of a violation of the
the President of' 2ple themselves, renominating
magistracy inte efouhlic, and transforming a
charged to support this The Ministry
perils, to crush civil w," policy, to
tshete
respect th e ef
t:)rilettno a-dssour the Assembly for
right and of the law,
repeal—such
sovereignty by the vote
France the plenitude of her "
have
Ministry is not
of revision, end the
It 'stitlicess‘:.(esn honest men.
will quickly
already.
difficult to form.
Their probity and their patriotismave
render them illustrious, if they are quickly
They will find in this trial, whatever may
issue of it, the most lasting and most gloanYous illus.
be the
illus-
tration, that of public gratitude and of the esteem of
posterity."

AMERICAN FIREARMS IN TEE EXHIBITION.—The
Treasury have desired the proper authorities to
ISTEII.;., Min'e thrtetr6nB for the delivery to Lieutenant Eyer Coates,
the-11th hussars, of four of Colt's revolving pistols from
d s Gtiakiktkbition building in Hyde Furl:.
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