Year: 1876

| ecutlve power has been conferred upon Mar
shal MacMahon there shall be no revision Of
the constitution except upon the proposition
of the President" Beyond the year 1880,
therefore, if violent changes shall not in the
meantime sweep away the whole fabric,
amendments to the constitution may orig
mate in the Assembly or the Senate or with
the Executive Before that time, however,
only the President can originate any moditi-
cation in the organic law. Such provision
was clearly necessary to protect the Septen-
nate, perhaps even to prevent violence.
Without this provision there would have
been peculiar conflict of laws. BY the
law of November 20, 1873, the Assembly
voted that Marshal AIacMahon should be
President of the Republic until 1880 He
understands, and has made this clear to the
country, that by that vote the Assembly ex-
hausted its power over the Office, and that
there will be no Legislative power capable
of acting on this subject till his term ex-
pires. In the case of Nj. Thiers there was
a similar vote. He was, on August II, 1871,
elected President for three years, yet he gave
way to MacMahon when but little more than
two years of that term had expired. In his
case, however, the question of the power of
the Assembly did not come up. 1t was
favorite step with Nj. Thiers to threaten,
every now and then, that he would resign If
the Assembly did not act to please him. He
brought timid majority to terms very often
with that threat, and he repeated it and act
ually profered his resignation on May "a
1873, when the Chamber accepted it, to his
astonishment and chagrin MacMahon does
not understand that his term can be cut
short in that or any other way; and if
troublesome conflict between a representa-
tive Chamber and himself should arise on
this point it will be determined as such con-
ficts have been commonly determined al
ways-by the Executive turning the Assem-
bly, out of doors.


Hence the constitutional provision cited
aimed to prevent such conflict For if the
new Senate should, as it promises, be repub
lican; or if the Assembly should be republi-
can, as there can hardly be q doubt it
will, then either of these bodies,
finding the Executive in the way of
it's will, would, if it possessed the power,
propose an amendment of the constitution
abolishing the Executive Office and placing
the functions of that Office Immediately
within the control of the Legislature, and as
the Senate and Assembly constitute Ma
tional Convention for the adoption or rejec-
tion of constitutional amendments the two
could carry any such change MacMahon
L L Nf ftrtffn
without provision for the Office he occupies,
and he would still feel himself bound by the
views he has already taken and expressed Of
the immutability of the law that put him
in Office Either he must abandon the Office
that he holds to be inviolable for the full
seven years or he must stand in arms in de-
fiance of the constitution and of the Cham
bers that represent the nation. He would
have behind him a clamorous, ambitious
party and at his command large and well
disciplined army and he would be per-
suaded by those who are near him that the
republican majority of the two Cham
bers was made up of the enemies
of order and of the country. In
such position he would do, what he would
be, no doubt, profoundly convinced was his
duty as loyal and honest friend of his
country. and it would not be greatly differ
ent from what was done in 1852 From such
danger the provision of the law of January
81, 1875 seems likely to save the Republic.


Marshal MacMahon has just called
the attention of the country to this
provision of the constitution. He says
I'VE must apply with common accord
and sincerity the constitutional laws, the
revision whereof alone until, 1880, have the
right to propose" For what reason is the
public reminded of this peculiar provision
of the constitution just now? AS it is far
sighted remedy for possible evil-a provi-
sion that could only become vital in an
emergency that does not to the ordinary eye
seem now to be before the country-it ap-
/ pears to be dragged in without occasion and
for mere parade. Certainly it does not seem
apropos to the division lately exhibited in
the Ministry, and which ostensibly led to
the proclamation. BY that division it
was only shown that the President
could act hastily on unwise counsels and
could retire from an awkward position with
more or less grace. Say and Dufaure, the
two distinct, but not extreme republicans in
the Cabinet, were there because they were
republicans; and their places were the guar
/ antees that the government had given to the
republicans in the Assembly. With those
( men excluded from the Cabinet, and with
the Assembly in session, vote of want of
confidence could have been carried any day
by the same disposition of parties which
elected the seventy-fve Senators. Against a
government that alarmed the susceptibilities
of the republicans by it's relations at one
while with the imperial elements, but more
Aagrantly by its affiliations with the Orleans