recourse either to arbitrary rule or to duplicity. On the other hand, the control of the Assembly is real; for discussion is free, and the voting of the taxes decisive.

"As to the imperfections which experience has shown us, our common love for the public good will tend incessantly to diminish their inconvenience until the Senate shall have pronounced its opinion.

"During the interval of the recess, I shall direct all my efforts to find out what are the wants of the country, and to prepare the projects which may permit me to diminish the burdens of the State without detriment to the public service.

“On your return to your duties, I will lay before you the result of our labours, and the general state of affairs, in the message that the Constitution obliges me to address to you every year.

"On returning to your depart ments, be the faithful echoes of the sentiment that predominates here-confidence in reconciliation and peace. Tell your constituents, that in Paris, the heart of France-that revolutionary centre which scatters over the world

alternate light or conflagrationyou have seen an immense population labouring to efface the traces of revolutions, and joyously applying themselves to industry with confidence in the future. Those who so recently, in their madness, were impatient of all restraint, you have heard saluting with acclamation the restoration of our eagles, the symbols of authority and of glory.

"At that imposing spectacle, where Religion consecrated with her benediction a great national festivity, you have remarked their respectful attitude. You have seen that proud army which has saved its country rise still higher in the esteem of men, and kneeling in devotion before the image of God presented from the summit of his altar.

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The meaning of this is, that there exists in France a Government animated with the faith and the love of good, which reposes on the people, the source of all power -on the army, the source of all force-and on religion, the source of all justice.

"Receive the assurance of my sentiments.

"LOUIS NAPOLEON

From Strasburg, where the populace were enthusiastic in their applause, and festivities on a grand scale took place, the President crossed the Rhine into Baden, to visit the dowager Grand Duchess of that principality. The general opinion was, that the object of this visit was a matrimonial one-and that Louis Napoleon had formed the project of asking in marriage Princess Caroline Stephanie de Vasa, a grand-daughter of the Grand Duchess, and daughter of Prince Gustave de Vasa, the son of the last King of Sweden of the old legitimate dynasty. However this may have been, no result followed from the journey, and the Princess Caroline afterwards bestowed her hand on a German Prince.

In returning to Strasburg, the Prince President crossed the Rhine, on a bridge thrown over the river for the purpose-to which an absurd political importance was at the time attached by some persons, as if the peaceful passage indicated an intention hereafter to cross the famous stream at the head of a French army! Louis Napoleon returned to Paris on the 23rd of July, amidst cries of "Vive le President!" "Vive Napoleon!" and (most significant of all) "Vive l'Empereur!"

In the month of August, the different Conseils Municipauxor Councils of Arrondissements, through out France, met in their various localities, and adopted resolutions with wonderful unanimity, approving of the conduct of Louis Napoleon. We will quote the terms of one or two of these resolutions, as showing the tone of feeling which prevailed, and the servile flattery with which these bodies of men eulogized the author of the

Some of

coup d'état of December. them openly called for the establishment of the Empire.

Indre et Loire (Tours)." Before separating, the Council hastens loudly to manifest its adhesion to the energetic and salutary act of the 2nd of December, by which the Prince President has saved France and its civilization from the frightful anarchy which would have caused her to disappear from the rank of nations."

Maine et Loire (Angers)." The members of the Council of Arrondissement of Angers, penetrated with gratitude for the immense services rendered to France by Prince Louis Napoleon, convinced that his persevering and patriotic resolutions will secure, with stable institutions, the salvation and prosperity of the country, respectfully express to the Chief of the State their profound sentiments of gra titude, as well as their hopes and the tribute of their entire devotedness."

Marne (Chalons)." The Council, on meeting for the first time since the 2nd of December, spontaneously gives its complete and sincere adhesion to the energetic act of the Prince President of the Republic, which saved France from the immense misfortunes that menaced her, and expresses its profound gratitude towards the Chief of the State for the patriotic devotedness of which he has given such signal and numerous proofs." Moselle (Thionville). Considering that, if the courageous and necessary act of the 2nd of December has saved France from the immediate dangers which menaced her, the provisional position of the Government of the Prince President is still a cause of uneasiness for the future, and maintains the

culpable hopes of men who brought society to the brink of ruin-considering that it is the duty of every good citizen to seek the means of adverting fresh catastrophes, and putting a period to a state of things which maintains uneasiness in the country, paralyses industry, commerce, agriculture, and public credit-the Council expresses a wish that aSen atus Consultum, in conformity with the Constitution of the 15th of January, 1852, should propose to the suffrage of the nation the re-establishment of the hereditary Empire in the person of Louis Napoleon Bonaparte, President of the French Republic."

Ariége (Foix, St. Girons, and Pamiers)." We demand that the Senate should substitute for the temporary Government of the Prince President (the expiration of which is always a cause of uneasiness, if not of disturbance) a stable and hereditary Government, and that it declare His Highness Prince Louis Napoleon Bonaparte Emperor of the French, and the Crown hereditary in his family.”

As the 15th of August was the birthday of the great Napoleon, his nephew, the Prince President, determined to celebrate the anniversary by a splendid fête.

A

mock naval fight took place on the Seine, and there were fireworks in the evening on a grand scale. The most pleasing feature of the day, however, was the appearance in the Moniteur of a proclamation announcing the intention of Louis Napoleon to grant a partial amnesty for political and other offences -and in the course of the following week about 1200 persons were pardoned.

On the 14th of September the President quitted Paris for the purpose of making a tour in the

south of France, and visiting the principal cities there. His object, no doubt, was to ascertain the feelings of the population with respect to the restoration of the Empire, and if so, his wishes were fully responded to, and he cannot be blamed for assuming a Crown which the nation with loud and eager acclamation thrust upon him. However much we may and do condemn his conduct on the 2nd of December, 1852, when, by a coup-d'état and military violence, he overthrew the liberties of France, it seems impossible to deny that the people afterwards hugged their chains, and spontaneously, and of their own accord, perpetuated their servitude by calling to the throne a master who had trampled under foot their Constitution, banished their representatives, and acknowledged no law but his own absolute will.

Prince Louis Napoleon left the capital by the Paris and Orleans Railway, and passed on his way to the south, through Bourges, Nevers, Moulins, and St. Etienne (over the gate of which were the words Are Casar Imperator), to Lyons. Here one of the chief spectacles was the inauguration of an equestrian statue of Napoleon, and the President seized the opportunity of making the following speech:

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Lyonnese, your city was always associated by remarkable incidents with the different phases in the life of the Emperor. You saluted him as Consul when he went beyond the mountains to gather fresh laurels; you afterwards saluted him as all-powerful Emperor; and lastly, when Europe had banished him to an island, you were among the first, in 1815, to again salute him as Emperor.

"Now your city is the first to raise a statue to his memory. This fact is a significant one. Equestrian statues are only erected to sovereigns who have reigned. Thus the Governments which have preceded me have always refused this homage to a power, the legitimacy of which they would not omit.

"And yet who was more legitimate than the Emperor-elected three times by the people; crowned by the head of the Church; recognised by all the Continental Powers of Europe, who allied themselves to him both by bonds of a political nature and by those of blood?

"The Emperor was the mediator between two conflicting ages: he destroyed the old régime in reestablishing all that was good in it; and he destroyed the revolutionary spirit by everywhere causing the benefits of the Revolution to triumph. That is the reason why they who overthrew him soon had to deplore their success. As to those who defended him, it is unnecessary for me to renfind you how much they have wept over his fall.

And so it was, that as soon as the people saw themselves at liberty to make their choice, they cast their eyes on the heir of Napoleon; and for the same reason, from Paris to Lyons, on every point of my passage, a unanimous cry of Vive l'Empereur!' has been raised. But in my eyes this cry is much more a souvenir which touches my heart than a hope which flatters my pride.

"Faithful servant of the nation, I never shall have but one object, and that is, to re-constitute in this great country, convulsed by so many commotions and Utopian schemes, a peace based on conciliation for men, inflexibility of princi

ples of authority, love for the labouring classes, and national dig. nity.

"We have but just extricated ourselves from those moments of crisis where, in ccnsequence of notions of good and evil being confounded together, the best minds have been perverted. Prudence and patriotism demand that at such times the nation should reflect before it decides on its destinies; and it is yet difficult for me to know under what name I can render the greatest services.

"If the modest title of President can facilitate the mission confided to me, and before which I have never held back, it is not I who, from personal interest, would desire to change that name for the title of Emperor.

"Let us then lay on that stone our homage to a great man; and in doing so we shall honour at the same time the glory of France and the generous gratitude of the people. That act will also testify the fidelity of the people of Lyons to immortal souvenirs."

From Lyons the President went to Grenoble and thence to Avignon and Marseilles. While he was proceeding down the Rhone to Avignon it was announced that an infernal machine had been seized by the police on the night of the 23rd of September, at a house in the road leading into Marseilles from Aix. The following account of the alleged plot was given in the Moniteur at the time :-" The Minister of General Police has for some time past been on the trace of a secret society, of which the object became every day more manifest. The members had resolved to make an attempt on the life of the President. The city of Marseilles had been chosen for the