New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1871-02-18

FIRST DAYS OF THE TRENCH ASSEMBLY,
The opening scenes of the Assembly at
Bordeaux are not sufficiently accented to afford
any sure indication of the result which is to
follow from Their deliberations. There has
been some rather violent comment by Repub-
Iican members on the fact of the doors of the
Assembly being guarded by soldiers; one
sanguinary patriot from Paris annOunc-
ing his intention to come in future to
the sessions armed. On the other hand,
the elections of officers so far have been marked
with the greatest prudence and discretion.
Mr. Grew, the President, was q member of
the Third Party of 1869, so liberal and so fear
less in his OppOs ton to tho abuses OF personal
government that most of our contemporaries
classify him enormously as a Republican. He
is the same undaunted liberal that mounted the
barTicades of 1880, the same unflinching
advocate OF popular rights that withstOOd the
Establishments and plots of the Elys6e in
1851, the same incOTuphble tribune that re-
Gently twice defeated the Government in his
own district, when after eighteen years of seclu-
sion, he came out again to attack afresh the
crumbling fortress of usurpation; but it is too
soon to claim him as Republican. If the
viii of France honestly expressed, be in
favor of the Republic, she will find true
and honorable servant in him. But his early
associations and later utterances alike indicate
his preference for the constitutional monarchy.
Four Vice-Presidents have also been elected,
of the same highly respectable character. The
most advanced of these, Louis Joseph Martel,
has never been thus far graded as a Republic
can. He was member of the Legislative
Body during the Government of July, and was
one of the earnest partisans of Mr.. Theirs in
the debates of that day. He was prominent in
the Third Party just before the war. OF his
colleagues, Vicomte Benoist day was an old
| and chivalrous champion of the Bourbons be-
fore and after their expulsion in 1890, and
since the shame and disgrace of the Coup
| GEtat, has retired utterly from politics
until called forth in his vigorous age
by the shock Of war and revolution to
take part IN the reconstruction Of the country.
Ludovic Vitet is also rather memory of the
past than an active politician of to-day; his
last term of service in the Legislative Body
ended twenty years ago. Maleville, the fourth
Vice-President, also ended his public life on
the day the liberties Of France were strangled
by Napoleon and his gang of consprators.
Up to that time he, as well as Vitet, had been
distinguished among the friends of Mr.. Theirs
and partisans of the limited monarchy.
With such tendency of the Chambers in
Dictated by its choice of officers, it will be
readily seen how premature if not entirely
apocryphal was the London dispatch published
by the morning papers yesterday announcing
that the majority had agreed upon Provisional
Government, of which Mr.. Theirs was to be
the head, and the leading members of the
present Republican Committee the most prom
inept members. A proposition has been intro
duced for comforting upon the veteran statesman
full powers of forming Cabinet, signed by
the weighty names of Dufaure' Maievllle, and
Vitet, who are all old friends and lifelong