The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1850-1873, 1873-05-23
National Assembly, = Versailles.

National Assembly at Versailles.
The assembly meets in the theater of
the palace of Versailles. Still one is not
prepared somehow to see a parliamentary
assembly arranged so completely after
the fashion of a theatrical audience,
The theater has undergone hardly anv
alteration in its arrangement. The tiers
of boxes are just as they might have
been when a Duo de Ricelie or de
Choiseul sat there. The dress circle,
as we should call it in London, is princi-
pallY occupied by the officials, the dipio-
matists, and their friends. On the-sec-
ond range are the journalists and more
favored class of the general public.
The higher you go the less is your favor,
until you reach the l0ges g7ItLeeS, or
little barred pigeon-holes of round
shape, Just where the ceiling begins to
slope outward, and which were original
ly intended for persons who wished to
see the performance in the royal theater
without being seen, or whom perhaps
some of the audience did not desire to
see. The pit and the stalls are occupied
by the members of the Assembly: the
President sits ON the stage, with huge
bell on the table close to his hand. The
ministers sit in front of him, but be-
meath, facing the audience. Between
him and the audience. and a little to his
right, is the trIbune-a sort of pulpit
from which the orators address the As
sembly. At first the idea conveyed to
the mind of the unaccustomed visitors
is entirely that of an ordinary theater
during morning performance. He can
hardly for n time bring himself to be-
lieye that this is a great National As
sembly charged with the regeneration of
a crushed and conquered country. He
seems rather to be assisting" at the
representation of some comedy.
1t is not easy to obtain admission to
one of these galleries To begin with,
there are some seven hundred and fifty
members to be accommodated with seats.
Then there are the diplomatists of the
various nations and the officials of all
sorts, who are entitled to be provided
with places. Then there are the wives
of the members and the wives of the
diplomatists and officials. Then the
public may be taken into consideration.
Every member has in his turn two tickets
to give away to strangers but his turn
does not come very often, and he can
hardly accommodate during a session one
fourth of his friends Each day the
questOr, solemn and dread official, NJ.
de Baze, much detested by the journal
ists-nas a few tickets to give away
provided there be vacant places, or, that
those whom he gives the tickets will
wait until some wearied spectators shall
leave their seats to return no more, and
so make way for others. Then there
are the LOges grilLees, of which I spoke.
and which are dreadful little dens lust
under the roof, from which people with
keen sight may possibly by straining
their eyes distinguished NJ. Theirs from
NJ. Gambetta. Under such circum-
stances I was glad indeed to have a kind
friend in the Assembly, a man of infu-
ence and celebrity, whom I had known
in his exile, and who may at any turn
of the wheel be one of the leading minis
tiers of republican France. NV friend
contriyed that should hear the debates
more often than is usually the good for
tune of strangers during the same period
of time. l heard some passionate and
stormy discussions and saw some brilliant
passages of arms. But it was some time
before the notion of a theatrical per-
Torrance wore away. The galleries
were full of ladies, of officers in uniform.
of elegantly dressed lawyers, and-but
these last certainly rather disturbed the
theatrical idea-of priests in their
peculiar garb. It was not easy to bring
the mind seriously to regard the persons
in the pit and stalls as the assembled
Legislators of France.
Yet the debates are hot and angry and
earnest enough sometimes to Danish
from the mind of the spectator any
thought of light comedy. I was in the
House of Commons on the famous night
of the debate on Sir Charles Dilke's
motion, and [ have seen many another
stormy scene in the same House, not to
speak of some rather noisy discussions
in the Capital at Washington, and scenes
in the Palais Bourbon, Paris, when the
imperial Corps Legislatif sat there, and
the historical five were doing the whole
of opposition. But I, at least, never
heard such vehement, persistent and
passionate clamor as in the theater of
Versailles during the sitting of this
present Assembly. The whole seven
hundred and fifty-odd members seem at
times to be yelling with one throat.
Half are trying to scream down the
speaker; half the mOiety are shouting in
his defense the rest are bawling out APP
peals for silence. The orator in the
tribune speaks defiance to his enemies,
and shakes his fists at them, and bangs
the front of his rostrum sometimes with
both hands together Now and then
some interruption, shriller or nearer than
the rest, catches his ear, and he goes off
into an episodical alteration with that
particular enemy, each " skirling," as
the Scottish fishwives would say at the
very top of his voice. The President
endeavors to restore order by ringing
his bell in a manner which would suggest
to English ears the notice of departing
train or an approaching muffin-man.
The bell only adds another dreadful
sound to the din; until the Assembly
has fairly spent itself with rage and
roaring there Is no chance of quiet and
even long after the actual tumult is over,
there is a visible and audible connection
still Overspreading the benches, such as
may be observed on the sea the morning
after storm. Yet the President of the
Assembly, NJ. Grevy, is man of some
dignity and authority with a rather i'm
posing presence and a decisive manner.
When some one of the vice president
say NJ. ST. Marc Girardin-takes the
chair in the absence of NJ. Grevy, the
Assembly converts itself into very
Babel. All this time, of course, very
little business is done but unless there
is some debate of remarkable interest
going on, as on the occasion when NJ.
Gambetta lately raised the question of
dissolution, the Assembly breaks up
hurriedly, anyhow, when the time comes
for the I" dinner-train" back to Paris
Justin NcCarty.
The Will of Napoleon III.
The will of the late Emperor Napole-
ION Ill, which shows his personal for
t,,r,n Il, La nhn1,t esHOn nnn S11hinct to