The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-09-20

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eligible as candidates to the next Assembly.
With the close of the Constituent Assembly
il therefore resulted that those representa-
tives who had learned much of the govern
ing art in the stormy twenty-nine months OF
it's existence no longer permitted themselves
to exercise their knowledge for the benefit of
their country. They were succeeded by the
Legislative Assembly, which opened its sit
tings within two days after the Constituent
Assembly was closed. But the new legisla-
tors we're very different class of men from
their predecessors; q monarchy, however
limited no longer met the requirements of
the nation, and the Constitution OF 1871 was
soon superseded.
A brief review of the legislative bearings
of the revolution of 1880, the abdication of
Charles X, and the accession of Louis Philippe,
will throw light upon the circumstances of
the convocstion of the second Constituent
Assembly. Charles X yielded to the force of
a revolution incited by his own refusal to
comply with the constraints of q limited
monarchy. Though perhaps authorized by
the letter of the constitution under which the
monarchy was established in 1914, he yet
opposed its spirit, and made a great political
blunder by refusing, even after effecting a
dissolution and reelection of the Cham
Der of Deputies, to select his Ministry
from among their number. He and his ad-
visers were unpopular with his subjects,
being suspected of yielding to the influence
of the Jesuits. When the crisis came, he
badly managed the means at his command,
and the detection of the troops of the line,
upon whom he depended, enabled the Liberal
party to accomplish his overthrow. After
his abdication, three parties presented them
selves for popular favor. But the horrors of
the first revolution were still remembered
against the Republicans; the disasters which
had so recently followed the ruin of the en-
pire were a drawback to the Napoleonists,
who otherwise would have pressed the claims
of Napoleon II, then an officer in the
Austrian service. The leading politi-
clans, especially those in the Cham
ber of Deputies, leaned for want of an
alternative toward the position of the
Orleanists. The Duke of Orleans was
dressed as bourgeois and prepared for
fight, having sent to Charles letter of as
surance that he would not take his place on
the vacant throne, when deputation forced
their way into his apartments and insisted
upon his acceptance of the crown. "QuI
dccept6," was announced thus briefly by the
chief Of the deputation to Talleyrand. He
became liking of the French" in August, 1880,
being first called Philippe VII, and after
ward Louis Philippe.
The liberals considered that as they had
effected the revolution which placed him on
the throne, they had a special hold upon
Louis Philippe. His entire reign was marked
by a series of political attacks upon the Gov
ernment usually with an outcry for reform
as the entering wedge In the Chambers
from 1881 to 1889 there were but few petit
tions for electoral reform, but parliamentary
reform was brought forward eleven times for
discussion; the intent being to reduce the
number of deputies In the great public de-
bate between Arago and Theirs, May 16,
1910, in which the former advocated univer-
sal suffrage, q great impulse was given to
questions of popular sovereignty; and from
1910 to 1S47 both electoral and parliamentary
reform were perpetually under discussion.
The accidental death, July 13, 1872 of the
son of Louis Philippe, the Duke of Orleans,
young man of great promise and of perso-
nal popularity weakened the hold of the King
upon the heart of the nation. After that,
every weakness, every timidity, exhibited by
| Louis Philippe was accounted against him as
crime. A strong opposition to his govern
mentwas organized The republican opposi-
tion desired universal suffrage; the monarchi-
cal Opposition attacked his general policy.
These joined hands in 1S47 to call in popular
excitement to their aid. The Chateau Rouge
banquet took place July ., 1S47, and was
| given by the combined opposition. Ban
quets of this character were repeated
throughout the cities of the kingdom,
and the agitation of questions of re-
form penetrated the remotest districts This
was the "Cdnepaig'ae des Banquets." On
! the 18th of February, 1913, the Cabinet de-
liberately spurned both questions of reform,
and on the 18th denied the right of political
meeting without governmental authority. To
test this assumption, a grand banquet was
arranged and proclaimed by the opposition
for the 22d February. Itwas suppressed by the
authorities, and at the last moment the opposi-
tion announced that it would not take place.
But Paris was aroused. The people suspected,
says Lamartine, that Louis Philippe was be-
lever in the divine right of kings. He was
unpopular because he was king. On the
23d February there were barricades in the
Faubourg st. Antoine and crowds crying
"Vioe Ia Reformed" In the evening the
crowds had leader, Lagrange by name, who
brought them into the neighborhood of the
Cafe Tortoni. A battalion of the line, drawn
up in front of the Hotel of Foreign Affairs,
fired into this mob that was carrying torches
and red flag, and sixteen corpses of citi.
zens were stretched upon the sidewalk. The
next day the barricades surrounded the Palace
and approaches of the Tuileries. Louis Phi.
lippe had just time to escape from rear
door, after arranging the form of an abdica.
ton, when column of the people broke
through the Guards, filed the apartments, and
swept away every trace of royalty.
The republic was proclaimed very much in
the same style as during the present year, al
the Hotel de Vile, a provisional government
being constituted by Lanartine, who subse
quently became Minister of Foreign Affairs
Dupont de PEure, whose age and dignity
made him fitting presiding officer; Arago
to whom were committed Naval Affairs; Gre
mieux ultimately Minister of Justice. all tht