The Sun.
London, England, 1850-01-17 00:00:00

THE FRENCH REPUBLIC.

We have received the Paris journals of yesterday.
The debate on the Educational Bill was re-
sumed in the Assembly on Tuesday, and during the
discussion M. VICTOR HUGO delivered a most elo-
quent speech, in the course of which be denounced
the cruelty, the hypocrisy, and the tyranny of the
parti-petre, and exposed their designs in terms which
procured him the most horrible groans from the priest-
ridden Members of the Assembly, and which were
answered by vociferous cheers from the Liberals. In
the course of his observations he said that the Bill
proposed he regarded as a strategic one ; it was the
chef-crceuvre of the clerical party. He could not
personify that party, he did not see it in the Assem-
bly, he did not see it in the Government. God forbid
that he should be supposed to make allusion to the
Bishop of Langres, but he could not help expressing
his distrust at the clerical party ; he would not en-
trust it with the development of the rising genera-
ticn ; he would not confide to its hands the future
welfare of France. The Bill had one great fault—it said
one thine-, and did another. It was like the usual plan
of the Government, every time that it forged a chain
it called it liberty ; when it decreed a proscription it
gave it the name of an amnesty.—(Cheers on the
Left.) In the remarks that he had made he did not
mean to confound the Church with the clerical party,
for the latter was the disease of the former. Free
religious instruction was the Sisters of Charity by
the bed-side of the dying; the Brother of Mercy
releasing a slave ; VINCENT DE PAULE sheltering the
orphan; the Bishop of Marseilles in the midst of those
affected by the plague ; the Archbishop of Paris facing,
with sublime smile, the furies of the Faubourg St. An-
toine, raising the crucifix over the head of civil war,
caring little about meeting death so that he could secure
peace. The clerical party was an ancient one; it had a
past of several centuries; it was it which discovered that
truth was but ignorance and error. Its history was
written in that of all the progress of the human mind,
but it was written at the back of the page. It was it
which put CAMPANELLA seven times to the torture
for having affirmed that the number of worlds was
infinite. It was it which imprisoned GALILEO,
persecuted COLUMBUS, and anathematised PASCAL,
MONTAIGNE, and MomEtts. It had long
sought to put a band on the human mind. And
now it would be 'master of public instruction ;
but there was not a poet, a philosopher, or an emi-
nent man that would accept it. There was a book
which appeared to be the emanation of human
united with Divine wisdom which people called the
Bible, and yet there had been Popes who had dared
to proscribe that Book, and this party claimed liberty
of instruction; but the liberty which it really wished
for was that of not teaching.—(Approbation and
laughter on the Left.) The Clerical party wished to
instruct, and it would be, therefore, well to look at
what it had done for centuries when Italy and Spain
was in its hands. Thanks to it, Italy, that mother of
nations, of poet', of genius, and of the arts, now knew
not how to read. Spain had lost her rank among na-
tions, but it was true that she had gained the Inquisi-
tion, an establishment which some in that Assembly
had wished to re-establish.
The signal for disorder was here given by M.
Dune, the President, who interrupted the orator by
the following impertinent observation—" You cannot
be allowed to impute such an intention to any one in
the Assembly."
The signal for interruption having been thus
given by M. DUPIN himself, who seems to have
acted on this occasion as ringleader of the disorder-
lies, the members of the parts-pretre continued voci-
ferating during the remainder of the time that M.
VICTOR HuGo continued speaking. The Hon. Gentle-
man thus concluded his speech:—
" The clerical party had gagged the Roman as it wished
to do the French people. It was a fine task, but let
them beware. He rejected the Bill because it outrage
French feelings—because it degraded instruction,lowered
the les el of science, and det a sed the human mind. He
was one cf those who felt the blood mount to his f,rt-
head whenever France experienced a diminution of ter-
ritory as in 1815, or a diminution of intellect, as it was
now wished to impose on her. Ile would give the
clerical Farty a little serious advice : let it beware of
the darkness caused in men's minds by the shale of the
surplice."
On td e Right—lt is insulting to the Catholic faith.
On the Lef,—lle is right in what he mays.
M. Leo Laborde—lt is infamous.
On the Le f.—He does not speak .cf priests.
On the Right—Whom does he allude to, then, when
he talks cf the surplice.
M. V. Hugo—The clerical party was alarmed at
Socialism ; it saw the waves rising, and it
imagines tat it will have saved society, when it shall
have combined material resistance with social
hypocrisy, and placed a Jesuit wherever
there is not a gendarme.—(Explosion of murmurr, and
prolonged bravos on the Lett.) Let it, however, listen,
to advice. Tho 19:h century was opposed to it, and if
it continued its course, it would raise f irmidable even-
tuaAtier. It placed"the Government in the racristy.
On the Right—Orderl order!
A Voice—Let him go on, they are only phrases.
M. Denjoy—lt is only old romantic nonsense.
bl, de Dimpierre—l demand that the speaker be
called to order.
31. de Larey—He has insulted every Cat'iolie.
The President—l request the Hon. Gentleman to re-
frain fr. in making such observations.
A Voice—lt is like the Porte St. Martin.
M. Naraud— It is the liberty of the'tribure.
The President—The Utility of the tribune has its
limits.
The Assembly was at this time in a state of great
agitation.
M. Victor Hugo considered that he had a right , when
a Bill etas presented which he regarded as a public
danger, to closely examine it—(Renewed interruption)
—and his intentions ought net to be suspected. He had
last year defended ordor when it was in peril, as be now
defended liberty when it WAS threatened. He was not
suspected when he was at the barricades on the 23d of
June.—(Agitation.)
The President—You have indulged in too long a tissue
of personalities, and you have done so with very insult-
ing expressions. But you have been treated in your
barn so reserely that it has dispensed me with acting as
I might have other Wise done.
M. Victor Hugo—Were these the kind of Bills that
were to be produced ? Was France to be ar-
rested in her onward course ? The intention was
to petrify human thought.—(Laughter.) ".In this
age of discoveries,"
conclusion, ."--you proclaimimmoveability
atem. M
;yeomr
you pause
on the road like men fatigued—fatigued with glory,
genius, science, and knowledge I Do you not see that
e% cry thing is in movement around You and advances—
you r ant to stop shoi t no.)
I declare
that if you repel progress, you will have fresh to you
revolu-
tions; olu-
ti o s ; and to such men as deny the truth cf that asset-
lion I reply by the declaration ape, the earth turns
round. I shall vote a„plinst the Bill."
(This speech was loudly applauded on the Left.)
The sitting was brought to a close at a quarter to
seven.

-
The discussion was resumed in the sitting of yes-
terday, and had not been brought to a close when the
post left. All the journals admit that the speech of
.M. VICTOR HUGO was a splendid specimen of elo-
quence. The Constitutionnel admits that there are
many fine passages in it, and the Assemblee Nationale
speaks of the orator as •‘ one who has received the
fatal gift of genius, and will fall for believing in the
sovereignty of his reason." The Univers says—
„ have come back to the worst times of attacks
against religion and against the liberty of the Church.
The tribune of the Assembly has just flung out before
France bitter, irritating, and passionate expressions. M.
Barthelemy St. Hilaire and M. Victor Hugo remindcJ
us of the Liberals of the Restoration."
This is, to our thinking, one of the highest com-
pliments that can be paid to these gentlemen • for, be
it remembered, that among the Liberals of thei Res-
toration were PACEL Louis COURIER, P. J. DE
BEBANGER, MANUEL BENJAMIN CONSTANT, and
General Fov.
The Presse says—
"At the very first word of his speech, this eloquent
orator separated himself from the majority by a
Mpro-
gramme of liberty. We have not time today to follow
M. Victor Hugo through his magnificent development,.
Let us simply record this triumph of eloquence."
The Republique says :
" The JeSuits of the liberty of instruction will
not r.cover from this speech. They come and
speak of liberty. They who each day practice
violent compression with the blindest rage. They
comp and speak of liberty—they who are unwilling
cf light terrifies; who have
just placed all the teachers of the people under the sur-
mioetttlo—wthtehyelvilihscoumaseioyner,ytoratyahe place without impedi-
veillance of the police; who, according to the words of
M. de Montalembert, would wish to take away from us
even to our ideas! it is truly too much audacity, and, as
M. Victor Hugo told them, if they have succeeded in
gagging Italy, it is not prudent on their part to endea-
vour to introduce the same system into France. France
will not have either Jesuits or Inquisition, or the sub-
serviency of souls, heart?, and minds; she wants to have
liberty. And the clerical party is the negation of all
liberty."
The Moniteur publishes the revenue returns for the
last six months, from which it appears that the state of
commerce and industry
I\i. PRADIE has laid the following proposition on
the table of the Assembly
Art. 1. In case it should occur, either by surprise,
coup (rad, or insurrection, that the President of the
Republic or National Assembly should be prevented
is improving.
from exercising the funcions intrus'e 1 to them by the
Censtitutioncallthe municipal councils, and councils of
arrondissercents and departinerts, shall be bound, under
pain of dismissal, to assemble officially, and assume pro-
visionally the direction c f the administration of the de.
partments, arrondissements, and communes.
" Art. 2. The pre ets and other public functionaries,
as also the armed force,. shall also place themselves
under the orders of the new Government, which shall
provisionally, have the power cf suspending, dismissing, and replacing,
" Art. 3. The pnbio tunctionaries shall, under pain of
dismissal, refuse obelieace to any Government resulting
the employes f the state.
from usurpation or insurrection.
" Art. 4. Collectors and receivers of the taxes, whe-
per general or particular, are. forbidden to 114nd ever