New-York tribune., 1874-12-26
THE FRENCH ASSEMBLY.
PROSPECT OF ITS ORGANIZING THE SEP
TENNATE.

| PROSIECl OhOhNAAAS0 AA~~ ~>-
| TENNATE.
THE VOTES ON VARIOUS MEASURES DURING TIE
LAST TWO YEARs-oPP0sITIoN OF THE LxorII
Mrsrs TO A CoNsrrTUTION-PRoBABLR COURSE
OF TIE REPUBLICANS.
| irRoM THE REGULAR CORRESPONDENT or THE TRBCNEJ
| PARIS, Dec 11.-All who yet strive to follow In
| telligently the strange game OF French politics
should be thankful to lie Temps. An extra page OF
its issue for to-day is filled with clear, FULL tabu.
| lated statement in SO columns, OF the names OF
Deputies by departments and parties, and the votes
cast in the National Assembly on May "a and Nov.
10, 1873, and May 49, July g. and July 90 1874. on
the first Of these great days. coalition OF royass
Of all shades joined by the Bonapartists and heiped
ont by IA Others overthrow M. Theirs by vote OF
a62 to 34s. On the second, MacMahon's authority
established for seven years by vote OF oIo 10
$40, all but 8 Of the Bonapartists 16 Of the Left
Center, and all but Of the Legitimiss going With
the majority. But the third. Minister dc Broglie
was overthrown, the Assembly rejecting by vote
of 381 to 8l7 his propostion-which he made Cab-
net Question-fOr constitutiOnally organizing the
Septennate. OF these SS there were 52 Legtimists,
who had discovered, since the preceding Nov. ~.
that instead of dupiug they had been duped by
the Orleanists and that with them In rejecting do
Broglie and his constitute al works went 10 Bona
partists. In less than six months from the birth
day of the Septennate, out Of the CONSERVATIVE"
majority that male it, Al Legitinsts and 10 Bona
partists refused much TO try to keep it alive Tor
seven years. On July 23 1874, the Cassimir-Perier
proposition for giving the shiftless poor thing
republican constitution was rejected by a vote OF
S74 TO 33J, the majority in this case being composed
of all the Royalists and Imperlalists and few
Conservative Republicans. But on the Goth OF the
same month the motion for entertaining PROPOSE
ton for dssolying the Assembly rejected by 375
to S32.
One other great day should be noted here On the
9Th July 1874 an order Of the day accepted by the
Ministry was rejected by 3G8 to $50. OF this nega-
two majority Il were Legi.imi5ts, and, what n
equally worth Observing, Of this minority 45 be-
longcd to the Left Center (which favors republican
Septennatc, but not personal lmpcrsonal govern
ment of MacMahonl. and 25 to the group Of patient
and impatient Imperialists. On the following day,
July O. MacMahon issued his manifesto message.
famous for its emphatic tone Of reproof and imper-
ous urgency. and containing this passage:
The Assembly which has promised 70 cndow the an.
horlty Of its creation with those organs without
which that authority cannot be usefuy exercised, caD-
dream Of evtiIng Its engagements. Let permit
to-day to remind ri them, and to eureat OF their
prompt fuiflncnt. The country earnestly demands
that organization Of the national authority Which VIII
b. for it pledge Of stability Questions hitherto re-
served must DO settled. New adjournmentS by pro-
longing uncertainty, would weigh heavily on oil ill.,
terests with grave harm to their development and pros
20 y The patriotism of 1.-THE Assembly will not fail IN
the duties which it yet has to fulfill 1t Will give to the
country what II owes and the country expects.
After these severe drafts on its feeble organ
lsm and despite this moral chastisement the
fatigued body at Versailles, making no further
effort to exercise its sovereign constituent powers.
resolved to refresh itself with long vacation. 1t
was the hope of some that it might acquire new
strength by personal communication of its members
with the people, that they might catch something OF
the natona sense aud so return to the scene
| of their labOrs will improved capacity for cOOpera-
| ton and constructive work Whoever entertained
such hope must sec they might as well have left it
behind. Deputies have come back as they went-as
impotent to constitute stable-wOrking ministerial
majority let alone form of stable government, il
the preseut as they have ptifuy proved themselves
to be in their past sessions. Perhaps moro
for the Chaubordsts not forgetting nor forgiving
the Orleanist schemes Of which they soon learned
they were victims in November last year. are fur
thermore taught from FroGdorf to do nothing that
shall in any way retard embarrass tho advent of
the new king. There 80 more or less Of them
whose voices may be safely counted out from any
majority that can be brought to vote for anything
that can be properly called constitution of the Sep
tennate above all for constitution in an Orleanist
sense; tho samo predicate holds good of some 81
Bonapartsts. and OF enough Republicans OF different
shades to make up with these much moro than hall
the entire number Of deputies.
Yet the prospect that looked last Summer to be q
growing one of majority for the dissolution, fades
IN these Winter days. The Left Center, that showed
to all the Right menacng readiness to go to the
country" along with the thorough Republican Lett,
which has large estates in hand and in hopeful sue
cession there, seems now somewhat alarmed, by the
radical returns of the municipal elections,
to their being returned. Waiting for come unex-
pected something that can only be cirIatiOnay hoped
for is tho queer estate in which the various parties
of the directing classes" at present stand Honest
MacMahon (whom certain Oi ,,s malicious COM
patriots, with rcference to his Irish origin and
through their own mssrfection of Scotch Oh English
accent in reading Shakespeare, call MacbGte sur
rounded by ministers at among themselves,
with him, the majority Of the Assembly and the M
tion is the Micawber of them all, with this differ
ence that such mind as that brave gentleman has is
made up to his keeping till 1880. if meantime he
keeps his health with or without constitution, the
part he was given in November 1873. This deter
mnaton is satisfactory to the extent that any fixed
thing in this changing world is satisfactory; but III
some other respects 1t moro apt to provoke anxiety
than to encourage sense Of security.
Suppose the Assembly should dissolve before the
Marshars term is ended. and that. previous to its
dissolution it manages 20 construct an Upper House
or Senate that with the Executive. shall have theo
retically mastery of the Lower House, and to make
the only modification which at best it can 10 the
present electoral law that with some idle restrc-
tiOn of universal suffrage the mebesOf the popular
branch of the new House shall DO v ted and re-
turned each in and from his siuge district instead.
AZ now, by general ticket from q whole department
It is as nearly certain anything in the future,
outside of mathematically caculabe limits, that the
great majority of that House will be not Septen-
6aIst; that is not Orleanist. nor yet royaiis The