The Sun.
London, England, 1869-07-12 00:00:00

THE CRISIS IN FRANCE.

.FRIDAY.

It is very remarkable that up to this evening no rumours
of war should have been got up, no disquieting state-
ments made during this great political crisis. It is the
current idea that a war is a ruler's best resource in a time
of domestic trouble ; but thcugh we have lived for
the last twelvemonths in a constant dread of war,
during the last few days nothing has been
said about it. The Patric, however, of to-day
comes out with a statement which, appearing in an official
paper, will give rise to great trouble. It assures us that
the understanding, or alliance, or whatever it may be,
which was spoken of between France, Italy, and Austria,
is gaining strength, and that the three Governments are
now on the best of terms. This good understanding applies to
religious as well as political questions, and on the subject of
Rome it has been decided that the status quo shall be main.
tined. "Italy and her two friendly Powers," says the Petrie,
" in view of the eventualities which may arise from th's
triple alliance, have no interest in raising a question which
might, without any advantage, bring about an agitatien
in the Catholic world." The meaning of this is plain
enough. The semi-official journal gives it to be under.
stood that France, Italy, and Austria have concluded an
alliance, that something is going to happen in consequence,
and that, therefore, it would be unwise to get into trouble
about the occupation of Rome. Like many snore of its race
this alarmist statement may be groundless ; but its
appearance in the Patric will cause no little excitement.
Some of your contemporaries, I see, have estimated the
number of signatures to the demand of the Moderate
Liberals for Ministerial responsibility at 125. This is an
error. The total number is 116, one more having signed
since yesterday. The list will now be closed, and no more
signatures sought. The party of reformers who have
affixed their names has been dubbed the Cent-seize.
This proposed constitutional change is literally the only
topic of discussion here. Paris, and indeed the entire
country, is agitated with rumours touching the great
question of what the Emperor will do, but nothing beyond
rumour is yet known, and it is extremely unlikely that the
Sovereign has as yet made up his mind. He must decide
very shortly, but there is no necessity for him to come to
a conclusion just at present. As I have before mentioned,
the Chamber is yet only verifying the elections ; it is not
yet " constituted" by the election of secretaries and other
formalities, and consequently no public business can
be brought before it. It is true that the Chamber might
be constituted at once, and begin this momentous
discussion. But this the Ministers refuse to do until more
of the elections are validated, for they not only gain a
little time, but increase the number of their own sup-
porters. Of the elections yet to be disposed of not more
than a dozen are Opposition seats. The remainder are all
Imperialists, and none of these can vote until they are
" confirmed." This is a resource, however, which can
prove only temporary ; indeed, it is generally expected
th at the ceremony of constituting theCh amber will take place
to-morrow (Saturday). The Emperor then must face the
demand for Ministerial responsibility. What will he
do ? Rumour to-day is rife that he will give
way, and that all the Ministers have already resigned at
his request. Other reports are very different. The first
and second articles of the Senatus-Consulte of 1866 pro-
vides that the Ccnstitution cannot be discussed by any
public body except the Senate. Now, the demand for
Ministerial responsibility involves a discussion on the'
Constitution, and the Government can strictly refuse to
allow it to come before the Corps L4gislatif. Some believe
that the Corps Legislatif will certainly be forbidden to
enter upon this question, but that the Senate will be con-
vened at once and set to work to discuss it. The Patrie
of to-day affirms that this is the course which will be
taken. The Senate, it adds, will be instructed to grant the
most important demands of the Moderate Liberals ; and
thus a compromise will be effected which will unite all the
parties in the Chamber, except the extreme Imperialists
on onehand, and the extreme Radicals on the other. In
short, the semi-official Patric gives us to understand that
Ministerial responsibility will be granted, but that the
concession will be made by means of the Senate—a hum-
drum collection of old men, all nominated by the Emperor
himself—and not through the Corps L4islatif, chosen by
the people.
It will be seen that nothing is certainly znown so far,
and this hesitation on the part of the Government is
exeserelrle. For, in fact, the demand of the Moderate
Lil orals means nothing less than that the Emperor
should surrender the supreme control of affairs to the
Parliament. If his Ministry were answerable for their
doings to the Corps Ldgislatif, instead of being respon-
sible only to their master, as at present, the French Par-
liament would littlo by little become as powerful
as the English House of Commons. Such a
result would be a work of time, indeed ; but
once let the deputies obtain control over the acts of the
Executive and arbitrary power must vanish little by little.
To English notions this power of the Parliament is right ;
but it is not to be expected that the Emperor will make
the surrender very readily.
The doings in the Chamber continue to be very die.
turbing. There was a violent row yesterday about the
Nantes election. M. Pelletan complained of the
manoeuvre I have before alluded to—the swamping of the
town voters by adding a large piece of country to the
election district. Thus, though every circumscription
ought to contain at least 35,000 electors, the equilibrium
at Nantes was so disturbed that one district contained
many thousands more, and another many thousands less,
than that number. The Government Commissary, in reply,
charged the Opposition with unfair practices, the Left
thereupon getting into a great rage, and calling upon him
to name them. The Commissary stated that a report had
been spread that the daughter of the official candidate
• bad died, and that lie was induced to go to Paris in con-
sequence. To this M. Jules Favre retorted that the
officials had represented him to be dead, and M.
Pelletan, another Liberal, said that he " had been killed "
several times. The fight grew in intensity, until at length
M. Respell, the newly-elected Red, got up and charged
the priests with telling lies from the pulpit in order to
further election purposes. He declared that the bishop of
one district had given an order to all his curds to preach
L against the independent candidates, and they had done so.
The tumult grew until the deliberations merged into a
semi-riot.