Middletown transcript., 1869-10-30
REvoLuTloNARy FRANCE.

There is great political excitement
throughout large portion of the Empire
of France. The Emperor has lost his
prestige. The change which is now max
ing FROM system of personal government
to one Of ministerial responsibility has let
loose all the elements of disorder. The
manifesto of one hundred and sixteen
members Of the Corps Legislatif, joined to
the result of the elections, forced upon the
Government various measures of reform,
which extend the liberty of the people to
the verge of license. But the Emperor
unwisely refused to convoke the Legisla-
tive Assembly for the 26th of October,
which was the time originally set for the
opening of the session. Forty of the new
ly elected members, all of them bitter and
intensely vindictive ultra radicals, have
taken the name of " Irreconcilables, and
have openly declared their intention to
overturn the Empire and set up Repub-
lie in its stead. They denounce the Or
der of the Government delaying the meet
ing of the Corps Legislatif until the Goth
of November. Under the leadership of
M. Raspail. thirteen of them--the remain
ing twenty-seven holding aloof -determin-
ed to assemble on Tuesday last, and de-
mand the right to organize in Legislative
session. If they carried this intention in
to effect, it was feared that serious trouble
would ensue. All Paris, for several weeks
past, has been in a state of agitation. The
gravity of the political question was of it.
self sufficient cause for anxiety, but this
was increased by the strikes for higher
wages that have taken place there. Nine
thousand clerks have quilted in Paris
alone, their places of employment. The
journeymen gilders of that city are also on
strike. RIOTS have occurred among the
miners ut St. Aubin, which were not
quelled until the military was called out
and sixteen persons killed and twenty
wounded. At the Folles Belleville a
number of Radicals have been brought in
to collision with the police, and were not
dispersed until several were wounded. On
this occasion, benches were torn up, and
arm chairs smashed turned into weapons
and projectilcs. Other bodies of working
men have been tampered with, and it was
feared that the determination of the " r.
reconcilables" to proceed in body to the
Legislative Chamber, in accordance with
the programme of action they had laid
down for themselves, would bring matters
to climax.
The Government was not idle. 1t at
once, took extraordinary measures to put
down by the strong hand popular upris-
ing, Large bodies of troops have been
concentrated at or near Paris. Marshal
Bazaine has been appointed Commander of
the Imperial Guard, and rumors were cur
rent that If any attempt at revolution was
made, orders had been issued to NOW down
the insurgents with artillery. These Wig
orous proceedings indicate the extent to
which the revolutionary spirit prvails at
this time in France, and the determination
of the Government to put it down at all
hazards. The bold attitude thus assumed
has had its effect. There was no distur-
bance, and, SO far as we have yet learned,
no seditious cries. All through the day
Paris was perfectly tranquil, and in the
evening the Emperor drove through the
principal streets in an open carriage to
give confidence to the timid by proving to
tncn tndL Hc Nus Cuuuueuce III himself.
Nevertheless, the end is not yet His
fate, as well as that of his dynasty, de-
pends on the ultimate result of the conflict
still pending between him and the "Irre-
concilables." They refuse, point blank
to recognize the Empire to which, as men,
bers of the Corps Legislatif, they are o.
bliged to swear allegiance; and they arc
bending all their efforts to bring about the
overthrow of what they call "Napoleon-
ISM" In this they have the support Of
the populace of all the large cities through
out France. The prescribed of the Coup
d Etat are working with them. Victor
Hugo, Ledru Rollin, implicated long since
in the attempt to assassinate the Emperor;
Louis Blanc, GARNER Pages, Jules Fayre,
Barbcs, Raspail, and a host of other names
more or less intimately connected with the
short-lived Republic of 1913, have entered
heartily into the movement to precipitatC
a revolution. The time is not ill-chosen
Never has the Emperor Napoleon been less
popular in France than now. Even in the
Provinces his former adherents are turn
ing against him. He stands, as it were
almost isolated in the midst of surgins
multitude of enemies. whose sole object il
to rid themselves alike of him and Of tn,
Empire he has attempted to re-establisl
+ and consolidate. But whilst these peopl,
have combined together to overthrow tn,
existing Government, they entertain dis
cordant ideas, and not being able to agre,
among themselves, have no better Govern
ment to suggest, Baltimore Gazette.