, 1874-07-25

pUSSIDIlllyS SOlI6 III INC CApeQIeDCVt ana q I6Wt
perhaps, in the moral duty of restoring the
Monarchy, and those who rose to adhere
were from sixty to a hundred less than
those who sat unmoved. The great ques-
ton had been fairly put 20 an Assem-
bly, elected by Universal Suffrage, and
sitting in full freedom-or if not in full
freedom, free, at least, to proclaim a Monarchy
and the Bourbons were refused The Throne.
1t is difficult to consider the vote, given under
circumstances so favourable, otherwise than
final, or to doubt that one set of Pretenders
have been swept out of the Parliamentary field.
The precise motive of NJ de Rochefoucauld-
Bisaccia it is, of course, impossible for the pre-
sent to ascertain. The suggestion that he
wished to be defeated, to terminate the Icing
suspense of his party, and allow it to throw its
strength into the Republican or BOnapartist
ranks, is too subtle for belief and we should
imagine that be either obeyed a direct order
from his King, who is quite capable of trying
a dramatic surprise of that kind, or that he had
deliberately formed the opinion that the As
sembly, alarmed by the Bonapartists, by the
collapse of the majority, and by the signs of
popular disturbance, might, ID one of those
electric impulses common in French history,
accept a clear and definite way out of the stu
alton. lie may even have wished to try whe-
Their his party had really diSappeared,-whe-
Their, with the issue placed so markedly before
them, the old majority Wouidn0t, for very shame,
adhere to their Often-repeated determination.
Whatever his motive, the result of bis action
was to infict q heavy blow on Royalism, which
was rejected by the most Roy alist Assembly
of the last thirty years and diso~ned by the
Marshal, who by accepting the resignation of
the Ambassador ASSOCIATED himself and bis
Government from Royalist attempts.
The incident was the more important, be-
cause it followed one upon which much more
attention has been fixed, The Left Centre
have evidently been more alarmed than any
other members of the Chamber by the Bona
partists, aud on Monday their leader, M. CAST
mir Perier, a most cautious Conservative, and
but lately an adherent Of the Parliamentary
Monarchy, submitted the result of their deli
beratious. He proposed that the Republic
should be declared, that Marshal MacMahon
should be appointed first President, that a Sc
coud Chamber should be created, and that the
right Of r%evising the Constitution should remain
as under the Constitution of 1848. He was sup
ported by NJ Labou aye, by NJ. Leon Say, and
in fact, by tue whole Of the Left Centre, who
openly proclaimed throughout the debate that
their dread was If the Empire, and his motion
was finally carried by the majority Of 345 to
34l. 1t is probable that this was not the real
majority, as owing to the French method of
counting, the use Of proxies, and the confusion
%reigning in the Chamber, members may be
reckoued as abstainers who never intended to
abstain, but it has been declared by NJ. Buffet,
the President of the Assembly, to be the legal
majority. Immediately afterwards. an alter
native Resolution, advanced by M. Lambert
Sainte Croix, was submitted. proposing that the
Marshal should be declared President of the
Republic, that a Second Chamber should be or
ganised, and that the right Of dissolution should
be conferred on the President, with the assent
of the Second Cbsmber,-that 10 - say, that
M. de B~roglie's plan should be carried out al
most entire. This proposal which infercntially
d clares The R public, but leaves the Royalists
the consolation of thinking that the form Of
Government is undrfped, was accepted unani-
mousIy, and the total result of the days pro-
ceedings, therefore, amounts to this, Monarchy
is rejected. The Constitutional Committee is
ordered to choose, and choose quickly, between
the Republic, with Marshal MacMahon as
President, and the Septennate, with Marshal
MacMahon as its head; and the Assembly, on
receiving he Committees Report, will finally
decide We cannot help believing that, what
ever, the decision of the Committee, the deci-
sion of the Chamber will be for the Republic.
NJ. Laboulaye's argument that the Septennate
settles nothing and that it leaves open the door
- A.. Pooaoor4;.ka will MO srooook outUoirh