the definitive amount of this calculation. The deficit which it throws on the Treasury does not exceed the quotations of the message of the 12th of November last. The decree which shortens by two months the duration of the financial year has been applied to the receipts and to the expenditure of 1850, so that it is in some manner easy to ascertain the total. We are happy to be able to say that a surplus will remain after meeting the propositions of the Committee of the Budget and the Administration.

"The budget of 1850, now preparing, and the definitive results which it will present, will in a great measure depend on the state of the revenue during the last month of the year. Up to this day the collection of impost offers a satisfactory result.

"The direct taxes are being paid with great promptness. They present an improvement even on the favourable situation of last year.

The indirect imposts feel the effect of the want of confidence, without, however, any diminution upon the sum of the receipts anticipated by the budget being as yet produced.

"The loss experienced under some branches of the revenue, especially registration dues, is compensated by the amount of the taxes on consumption-a circumstance which establishes the welfare and employment of the majority.

ments, and being aided by the concurrence of cantonal delegates, has exercised a most active watchfulness.

"The facility granted to the communes of substituting in certain cases free schools for public schools, has not diminished the number of the latter.

"The number of communal schools is increasing. At the time when the law was promulgated it was 34,446; it is now 34,939.

"The instruction of girls, so important both for religious and domestic order, is increasing more and more. In 1850 the communal schools for girls were estimated at 10,171; they are now, in 1851, estimated at 10,542.

"The new law has not been favourable to the free instruction of boys. In 1850 there were 4950 free-schools for boys; there are now only 4622.

"The case is otherwise with the free-schools for girls. In 1850 they amounted to 11,088; in 1851 they amount to 11,378. "Altogether the primary schools have increased by 806.

"The organization of public instruction, according to the basis of the new law, has been entirely completed since last year. The academic councils have shown equal firmness and moderation in the exercise of their powers. The superior council, placed at the head of the hierarchy, maintains a powerful unity, and I feel justified in saying that freedom of instruction, which has been developed in a remarkable manner, is without danger, because it will be confined within proper limits.

66 WAR.

"The general effective land force consisted on the 1st of October

of only 387,519 men and 84,306 horses. If circumstances present no obstacle, this effective force will be brought within the limits of the budget of 1852, which reduce it to 377,130 men and 83,455 horses. No fresh supplementary credit will be necessary for 1851. The credits granted by the budget of 1851 have allowed to be organized this year 231 new brigades of gendarmerie. The creation of 230 more will take place in 1852, and the increase of expenditure which will accrue from this source will be more than compensated by the reductions operated in the effective force of other arms. Several bills concerning the organization of the skeletons of regiments, recruiting, and the pensions to be granted to non-commissioned officers and privates, have been for some time past submitted to the consideration of the Legislative Assembly, The army waits for their adoption with justifiable impatience. We hope that it will not be long ere they are discussed and voted by the Assembly.

You are aware of the importance of the military operations of last spring in the eastern portion of Kabylia, and the success which, during 80 days' march, crowned the brilliant valour of our troops, under the command of a General whom my confidence has called to the Ministry of War. The subju gation of the tribes of the Djidjelli circle, the pacification of the valley of Loued Sahel, the extension of the oil trade, supplied by the Kabyles-such are the happy results of this campaign. Of 1145 tribes proved to exist in Algeria, 1100 have acknowledged the sovereignty of France, and those which still withdraw themselves from it are the most poor and distantly located.

"FOREIGN AFFAIRS. "We have reason to congratulate ourselves on the state of our relations with foreign powers. From all sides we receive assurances of the desire felt to see our difficulties peaceably ended. On our side, a loyal and sincere diplomacy allies itself to all measures which can contribute to assure tranquillity and peace to Europe.

"The more this peace is prolonged, the more tightly are the bonds between the various nations drawn. Prince Albert's vast and liberal idea has contributed to cement their union. The English people have welcomed our country men with a noble cordiality, and this competition between the various industries of the world, instead of fomenting jealousies, has only served to heighten the natural respect of the nations.

"At Rome our situation remains the same, and the Holy Father is unceasing in his demonstrations of solicitude for the prosperity of France and the comfort of our soldiers. The work of the organization of the Roman Government proceeds but slowly; nevertheless, a Council of State has been established. The Municipal and Provincial Councils are gradually organizing themselves, and they will serve to form a Consulta whose duty it will be to take a share in the administration of finances. Important legislative reforms follow one after another, and great pains are taken with the creation of an army which would promote the retreat of foreign powers from the territories of the Church.

"The dangers which a year ago threatened the peace of Germany have been dispelled. The Germanic Confederation, as a whole, has returned to the forms and the

rules which prevailed previous to 1848. It attempts to protect itself against new convulsions by carrying out an interior re-organization, to which we ought to remain perfect strangers. We had for a moment reason to fear that the Frankfort Diet might be called upon to discuss a proposition which vastly modified the very essence of the Germanic Confederation, while it tended to expand its limits and to change its destination and European rôle, and which would have shaken the equilibrium which has been consecrated by the general treaties. We thought it our duty to make our representations. England, too, protested. Luckily, the wisdom of the German Government has removed this chance of a complication.

"Switzerland has removed from its territories the greater part of the refugees who abused its hospitality. In supporting that measure we did a service to Switzerland and to its contiguous States.

"RESUMÉ.

"You have just heard a faithful exposition of the situation of the country. As to the past, it offers satisfactory results; nevertheless, a state of general uneasiness tends to increase daily. Everywhere labour grows slack, poverty augments, vested interests are alarmed, and anti-social expectations swell high in proportion as the enfeebled powers of the State approach their term.

"In such a state of things the first care of the Government must be to seek out the means of avoiding the dangers which threaten it, and of insuring the best chances of safety. Already in my last message my words on this subject I remember it with pride-were

favourably received by the Assembly. I said to you

"The uncertainty of the future gives rise to many apprehensions, while it awakens many hopes. Let us all be prepared to sacrifice these hopes to our country, and let us give heed to its interests alone. If during this session you vote for the revision of the Constitution, our Constituent Assembly will remodel our fundamental laws, and fix the destiny of the Executive Power. If you do not vote it, the people in 1852 will solemnly manifest the expression of its will anew. Whatever may be the solution of the future, let us understand each other, in order that it may never be passion, surprise, or violence which shall decide the fate of a great nation.'

"To-day the questions are the same, and my duty is not altered. It is inflexibly to maintain order; it is to banish all causes of agitation, in order that the resolutions which are to decide our fate may be conceived amidst calm and adopted without contest. These resolutions can emanate only from a decisive act of the national sovereignty, since they are all based on the popular election.

"Well, then, I have asked of myself, whether, in the presence of the delirium of passions, of the confusion of doctrines, of the division of parties, when all combine to attack the morals, the justice, the authority of the nation, we ought to stand by and leave shaken and incomplete the only principle which, in the midst of the general chaos, Providence upholds for us to gather round it. Since universal suffrage again raised the social fabric, by substituting a right for a revolutionary fact, is it wise in us to continue narrowing

its basis? And, lastly, I have asked myself, if, when new powers shall preside over the destinies of the country, we should not from the first compromise their stability if we left a pretext for questioning their origin, or for misrepresenting their legitimacy. No doubt was possible; and, without wishing for a single instant to swerve from the policy of order which I have always followed out, I have been obliged with great regret to separate myself from a Cabinet which had to the full my confidence and respect, in order to choose another, which is equally composed of honourable men, whose conservative sentiments are publicly known, but who consented to admit the necessity of re-establishing universal suffrage on the broadest possible basis.

66

You will, therefore, have presented to you the draught of a law which restores that principle in all its fulness; retaining at the same time from the law of the 31st of May everything which winnows universal suffrage from impure elements, and which makes its application more moral and regular. The project has consequently no features which can possibly hurt the feelings of this Assembly; for if I think it expedient to ask today for the withdrawal of the law of the 31st of May, I do not mean to deny the approbation which I paid at that time to the initiative taken by the Cabinet which contested with the chiefs of the majority, whose work this law was, the honour of presenting it. On the contrary, I am ready to acknowledge the salutary effects produced by it.

"If we remember the circumstances under which this law was presented, we shall not, I believe,

refuse to avow that it was a political act rather than an electoral law; that it was really and truly a measure of public benefit. Whenever the majority shall propose to me energetic measures for the safety of the country, it may rely on my loyal and disinterested support. But the best of measures for the public welfare have but a limited existence. The law of the 31st of May has, in its application, even gone beyond the object intended to be attained. No one foresaw the suppression of 3,000,000 electors, two-thirds of whom are peaceful inhabitants of the country. What has been the result? Why, that this immense exclusion has served as a pretext to the anarchical party, who cloak their detestable designs beneath the appearance of a right which has been withdrawn, and which ought to be reconquered. Too weak in numbers to take possession of society by their votes, they hope, under favour of the general excitement and the decline of the powers of the State, to kindle, in several points of France at once, troubles, which would be quelled, no doubt, but which would throw us into fresh complications. Independently of these dangers, the law of the 31st of May presents as an electoral law grave inconveniences. I have never ceased to believe that a day would come when it would be my duty to propose its repeal. Defective when applied to the election of an Assembly, it is still more so in the case of nominating a President; for though a residence of three years in a commune may have appeared a guarantee of discernment imposed on electors in the knowledge of those who are to represent them, so long a term of residence cannot VOL. XCIII.

be considered necessary for the appreciation of the candidate destined to the government of France. Another serious objection is this. The Constitution requires for the validity of the election of a President by the people at least 2,000,000 suffrages, and if this number is not collected, the right of election passes to the Assembly. The Constituent Assembly had therefore decided that, out of 10,000,000 voters inscribed on the lists, one-fifth was sufficient to render the election valid. At the present time, the number of electors being reduced to 7,000,000, to require 2,000,000 is to invert the proportion-that is to say, it is to demand almost one-third instead of one-fifth, and thus in a certain eventuality to take the election out of the hands of the people to give it to the Assembly. It is, therefore, positively changing the conditions of eligibility for the President of the Republic. Lastly, I call your particular attention to another reason, which perhaps may prove decisive. The re-establishment of universal suffrage on its principal basis furnishes an additional chance of obtaining the revision of the Constitution. You have not forgotten why the adversaries of this revision refused last session to vote for it. They urged this argument, which they knew how to render specious- the Constitution,' they said, 'which is the work of an assembly taking its rise in universal suffrage, cannot be modified by an assembly issuing from a restricted suffrage.' Whether or not this be a real motive or a pretext only, it is expedient to set it aside, and to be able to say to those who would bind the country down to an immutable Constitution, 'Behold universal suffrage re-esta[R]