the National Guards and an immense crowd of people
saluting him with loud cries of "Vive Napoléon! Vive
le President!" He arrived that evening at Saint Ló,
where the manifestation in his favour is described as
"enthusiastic and universal." He then skirted the
whole Eastern coast of the Bay of St. Malo, staying at
Coutances and Avranches; and finally returned to Paris
by way of Argentan; the authorities and people everywhere
hailing him cordially.
The Councils-General of France have terminated
their Annual Session. The chief question agitated
by them has been the revision of the constitution.
The result has been thus summed up:—Twenty-one
councils separated without taking the subject into consideration;
ten rejected propositions for revision; two
declared that the constitution ought to be respected;
thirty-three departments therefore refused, more or
less formally, to aid the revision. On the other hand,
forty-nine councils came to decisions which the revisionist
party claim for themselves. But a very great
diversity is to be perceived in these decisions. Thirty-two
pronounced in favour of revision only "so far as it
should take place under legal conditions," or "so far as
legality should be observed:" two of those called attention
to the forty-fifth article of the constitution, which
makes Louis Napoleon incapable of being immediately
rechosen; but another demanded that his powers should
be prolonged. One council voted for revision, and also
desired to prolong the President's power; ten simply
voted for revision; five pronounced for immediate revision,
but by very small majorities; one went further,
and proposed to give the present Assembly—which is
legislative and not constituent—authority to effect the
revision. Three councils express merely a desire for a
remedy to the present situation. Thirty-three departments
have not pronounced for the revision, or have
pronounced against it; thirty-three are in favour of a
legal revision; thirteen demand the revision without
explaining on what conditions they desire to see it
effected; and six demand it immediately; making the
total of eighty-five.
The Commission for Surveillance met on the 19th in
the National Assembly. M. Dupin presided. The
Minister of the Interior was summoned, as usual, to
attend and give an account of the state of the country.
M. Baroche read a document on the subject, from which
it would appear that at no previous period was there
greater prosperity in most branches of trade and manufactures,
and not for many years was public order better
maintained that at this moment.
It appears that there are in France regularly licensed
Marriage Agents, whose transactions are sanctioned by
the law courts. The civil tribunal of Le Mans has just
condemned a person named Designé and his son, of
Parigné I'Evéque, department of the Sarthe, to pay
10,000 francs to M. Foy, for having negotiated the
marriage of the son with a Mdlle. de Bruc, niece of the
Marquis de Malestroit. M. Foy was applied to by the
father and the son to find a wife for the latter. Foy
introduced them to Mdlle. le Bruc, who was possessed
of a certain fortune, and the son eventually married
her. By an agreement duly drawn up before the marriage,
the father and son bound themselves to pay M.
Foy 12,500 francs for his services. This, however, they
on different pretexts subsequently refused to do, and so
Foy brought his action; but reduced his demand to
10,000 francs, he having consented, after some negotiation,
to accept that sum. After hearing counsel at great
length on both sides, the tribunal gave judgment in
Foy's favour for the full amount claimed.
A Split has taken place among the Legitimists. On
the termination of the Congress at Wisbaden, a circular
was addressed to the party, under the authority of the
Count de Chambord, in which it declared that he "has
formally and absolutely condemned the system of an
appeal to the people, as implying the negation of the
great national principle of hereditary monarchy." This
has called forth a reply from the Marquis de la Rochejaquelein,
who had previously proposed an appeal to the
people of France, to know whether they would have a
Republic or a Monarchy. In a letter to the Paris
journal the Evénement, he re-iterates with energy his
former sentiments, and says, "I accept completely my
excommunication; it is evident that we have no longer
the same principles."
The accounts from Piedmont describe the public
mind as greatly excited against Austria. On the l5th,
there was a disturbance, from this cause, in the theatre
of Turin; during the performance of a piece called Lega
Lombarda, when a number of soldiers wearing the
Austrian colours of "black and yellow," and headed
by an Austrian eagle, came on the stage, they were
saluted by a hurricane of hisses, and a tumult of groans,
whi ch lasted for nearly a quarter of an hour. The
attack did not come from any isolated box or bench, but
it was participated in by all present, and it is said that
there were not ten ladies or gentlemen who did not
take an active share. The people regard the presence
of the Austrians in Italy as the sole bar to the establishment
of Italian nationality.
The King of Prussia, on receiving a deputation from
the Conservative Constitutional Union of Berlin on the
13th, thus expressed his sentiments on the question of
German Unity:—"My sentiments on the German question
have often been misunderstood. Some have done
me great injustice in respect to those sentiments [alluding
to the speech of the King of Wurtemberg on the opening
of the Chambers]: this will not turn me from the
path of duty. It is to be regretted that in more than
one place it is not imderstood that it is possible to be
honest in politics. In striving for Germany I follow
the impulses of my own heart. I maintain the German
idea, and will pursue the path on which I have entered,
as far as God gives me light; but I hope no further.
As King of Prussia, I shall strive for Germany; as a
friend and ally, I will carry conciliation as far as the
honour of this country will permit. For the maintenance
of this honour, I can appeal to the five hundred
years which the history of my house embraces."
The ratifications of the Treaty of Peace between
Germany and Denmark were exchanged on the 6th
instant at the residence of the British Minister at Berlin,
and a protocol of the transaction was signed by the
Ministers of the parties, and by Mr. Howard the British
chargé d'affaires on behalf of the mediating power.
The German states, parties to the treaty thus ratified,
are, the King of Prussia, the Grand Dukes of Baden.
Saxe Weimar, and Mecklenburg Schwerin; the Dukes
of Saxe Meinengen, Saxe Altenburg, Anhalt Dessau and
Bemburg; the Princes of Schwartzburg-Rudolstadt and
Sonderhausen, the Princes of Waldeck, the Princes of
Lippe-Detmold, of Reuss, Elder and Younger, and the
senates of the Free Towns of Lubeck, Bremen, and
Hamburg. The Danish Minister declared, in the name
of his government, that in lending itself to the partial
exchange at the recommendation of the mediating power,
it retained the hope that as the present act does not yet
contain all the states belonging to the Germanic Confederation,
no delay will occur in his reception of the
complement necessary to verify the ratifications of this
treaty for the whole of the states forming this Confederation.
A Movement of momentous import has taken place in
Hesse Cassel, in consequence of an act of the Elector's
government, administered by his Prime Minister Hassenpflug.
By an article of the constitution, the Hessian Chamber
has the exclusive right of voting taxes. Hassenpflug,
however, declined or delayed to call them together, until
the time generally destined for the close of tho session.
The Ministers immediately put before them a demand for
money, and for the liberty to raise the taxes for 1850.
The Parliament replied, by an unanimous vote, that
however little the ministers possessed the confidence of
Parliament, they would not go the length of refusing
the supplies, but requested to have a regular budget
laid before them, which they promised to examine,
discuss, and vote. To so fair and constitutional a resolution
the minister replied by dissolving the Parliament,
and proceeding to levy the taxes in spite of the Parliament
and the constitution. The cabinet went to the extremity
of proclaiming the whole Electorate in a state of siege,
and investing the commander-in-chief with dictatorial
powers against the press, personal liberty, and property.
Tho town council unanimously protested against these
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