, 1872-01-19
From the European Null, January 81
FRANCE.

iSJer at AtnenS.
Communist CoLoNIsATIoN.-A petition has
boon presented to the National Assembly by Mr..
George Wilke, q director of the Lower California
Company, in which he proposes, on behalf of the
company, to receive as colonistS in the California
Peninsula all the Communist convicts who have
been sentenced to transportation. A grant OF
land will be made to each colonist in exchange for
certain payments to be made by the French Gov
ernment to indemnify the company for the eXpen-
ses of transport and settlement.
Prince Bismarck has addressed a despatch to
the German Ambassador in Paris, on tho subject
of tho aequittal of murderers of German soldiers
in France. The despatch says that should the
French refuse to give up assassins the Germans
will seize French hostages, and i'll extreme cases
will even resort to more stringent measures. The
tone of the Paris press on this despatch is deplOr-
able. No journal has the honesty or courage to
lament the scandalous acquittal5 Of the assassins
of Germans at Melun and Paris. The papers give
themselves air of injured innocence, because, as
they affirm, trial by Jury is called in question by
brute force, just as if the conquororo could accept
this argument from the conquered who will not,
or cannot, do Justice. The Ljberte exhorts all
Frenchmen to cherish their hatred Of Germany,
and quotes the Bible, in justification of the doc.
trine of revenge,
THE ORLEANS PRINCES AND THE FRENCH LIZ
GIsLATURE.--The DtbatS publishes q letter from
the Due d'Aumale to the electors, explaining the
reasons which have hitherto and do now prevent
him from exercising his right as q deputy. He
says that whom his election was submitted to the
Assembly several of his colleagues came to ask
him not to take his seat, and on these terms M.
Theirs withdrew his opposition to the valuation
Of his election, and to the repeal of the exile laws.
The letter goes on 81 agreed to this, since in
my eyes it could only be temporary and reyocable.
If it had been otherwise, my resignation would
have been demanded, which has not been done.
Therefore | consider the agreement as a simple
postponement, which both for your and my sake
] have fastened to terminate. The repeal of the
exile laws has not justified any of the suspicious
of those who forget that | belong to a family
whose motto has always been respect for the
laws. Nothing can any longer impose upon me
my abstention, which applies to no one else in this
difficult period through which the country is now
passing. Strong in this conviction, I have be-
lieved that | have the right to declare void the en-
gagement which has hitherto kept me out of the
Assembly, but the President of the Republic not
having taken the same view as |, | am stopped by
the fear of appearing to break my plighted word.
/ await, therefore, the decisions of o superior tribu-
nal, by which new circumstances will trace outfOr
me anew line of conduct. The D6bdtSalso publishes
a letter of the Prince de Joinville of the same tenor, in
which he announces a similar resolution. A meeting
Of the Republican Left was held in Paris on Decent
Der II, whena resolution was adopted congratuiating
the party on their far-seeing vote against confirming
the election of the princes. The resolution, says the
Republican Left, rejected these elections in the name
of principles, in the name of disregarded law, in the
name of the threatened Republic, and in the name of
the country, which could only be disturbed in the diff
cult work of reorganization by the presence in the AS
sembly CT members of families which have reigned in
France. The Left will persist in maintaining this at
:titude, and declines to associate itself, either directly
or indirectly, with the entry ofthe princess. The Union
R6publicaine also held a meeting in Paris, at which
NJ. Gambetta and others of the Extreme Left spoke
against the entry of the Princes. The resolutions
were. however, kept secret. We have now to add that
the Duke d'Aumale and the Prince de Joinville took
their seats on December 10 in the National Assembly.
They sit among the deputies of the Centre Right.
The Princes entered at three o'clock and remained till