Art. 2. Universal Suffrage is re-established. The law of the 31st of May is abrogated.

Art. 3. The French people is convoked in its elective colleges from the 14th of December to the 21st of December following.

"Art. 4. The state of siege is decreed throughout the first military division.

is dissolved.

"Art. 6. The Minister of the Interior is charged with the execution of the present decree. (Signed)

"LOCIS NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. "DE MORNY, the Minister of the Interior.

"Frenchmen,―The present situation cannot last much longer. Each day the situation of the country becomes worse. The Assembly, which ought to be the firmest supporter of order, has become a thea tre of plots. The patriotism of 300 of its members could not arrest its fatal tendencies. In place of making laws for the general interest of the people it was forging arms for civil war. It attacked the power I hold directly from the people; it encouraged every evil passion; it endangered the repose of France. I have dissolved it, and I make the whole people judge between me and it. The Constitution, as you know, had been made with the object of weakening beforehand the powers you intrusted to me. Six millions of votes were a striking protest against it, and yet I have faithfully observed it. Provocatrons, calumnies, outrages, found me passive. But now that the

the vessel rushing into the abyss. If, on the contrary, you have still confidence in me, give me the means of accomplishing the grand mission I hold from you. That mission consists in closing the era of revolution, in sati-fying the legitimate wants of the people, and in protecting them against subversive passions. It consists especially in the power to create institutions which survive men, and which are the foundation on which something durable is based. Persuaded that the instability of power, that the preponderance of a single Assembly, are the permanent causes of trouble and discord, I submit to your suffrages the fundamental bases of a constitution which the assemblies will develop hereafter.

1. A responsible chief named for 10 years.

2. The Ministers dependent on the Executive alone,

3. A Council of State formed of the most distinguished men pre

In the mean time, before daybreak on the morning of the 2nd, numerous arrests had been made. Commissoners of police attended by guards of soldiers were sent to seize and make prisoners of, at their respective dwellings, where they were slumbering in fancied security, some of the most distinguished men in France. Amongst these were the African Generals, Changarnier, Bédeau, Lamoricière, Cavaignac, and Léflô; Colonel Charras, and MM. Thiers, Roger du Nord, Miot, Baze, Greppo, Lagrange, and Valentin. They were forced into carriages and conveyed at first to the prison Mazas, but were afterwards removed to the fortress of Ham, from which they were ultimately liberated, but compelled to quit the soil of France. The mode in which the measures to secure their arrest were taken, is well told in a pamphlet written soon after the event by M. Granier de Cassagnac, who had access to the official documents relating to the event. He says, "It was immediately after the act of hostility of the Questors that the President determined to take his measures for an eventuality evidently very near. Three men were his confidants-M. de St. Arnaud,

Minister of War; M. de Morny, Representative of the People; and M. de Maupas, Prefect of Police. Louis Napoleon explained to them the design which he had formed to conjure away the danger, and the three promised him their co-operation-M. de Morny for all political responsibility, as Minister of the Interior; General de St. Arnaud for the military operations; and M. de Maupas for the action of police. For a fortnight these three men fixed with the President all the details of this immense act, which the 18th Brumaire equalled neither in difficulty, nor in cleverness, nor in grandeur; and the slightest matters connected with it were concerted and provided for with such an extraordinary secrecy that even the nearest friends of the parties had no suspicion of what was going on until the arrival of the final moment, just preceding carrying the plans into operation. The simultaneity of all the measures to be taken was the first condition of success, and the principal measures were four in number-the arrest of such persons as were considered culpable or dangerous, the publication of the official acts, the occupation of the Palace of the Assembly, and the distribution of troops on the various points judged necessary. A quarter past 6 in the morning was fixed for the hour of execution. It was essential that the plan should not become known by any one of its parts, but that it should strike the public mind by its ensemble. Accordingly, at a quarter past 6 the arrests were effected, at half-past 6 the troops were at their posts, and at 7 the decree of dissolution and the proclamation left the Prefecture of Police to cover the walls of Paris. At half-past 6 precisely M. de Morny took possession of

the Hotel of the Interior, accompanied by 250 Chasseurs de Vincennes, and handed to M. de Thorigny a letter, in which the President thanked him for his good services, and informed him of the decisive act on which he had resolved. The persons who were to be arrested were of two sorts-representatives more or less engaged in a flagrant conspiracy, and the chiefs of secret societies and commanders of barricades always ready to obey the orders of the factions. Both of these classes were narrowly watched and almost guarded à vue for a fortnight before by invisible agents, and not one of these agents suspected the object of his mission, each having received a different motive for it. The number of persons to be arrested amounted to 78, of whom 18 were representatives and 60 chiefs of secret societies and barricades. The 800 sergens de ville and the brigades of surety had been consignés at the Prefecture of Police the night before at 11 o'clock, under pretext of the presence in Paris of the refugees from London. At half-past 3 in the morning the commissaries of police and officiers de paix were summoned from their own houses, and at 4 o'clock they all arrived at the Prefecture, and were placed in small groups in separate rooms, in order to avoid questions amongst themselves. At 5 o'clock all the commissaries were called one by one into the Prefect's cabinet and were there informed by him of the intended plan of operations, receiving at the same time precise orders as to his own mode of proceeding. These men promised, every one, to execute at every risk the orders given to them, and not one failed in performing what he promised. A great number of carriages, engaged beforehand, were VOL. XCIII.

stationed on the quays, in the neighbourhood of the Prefecture, in such a manner as not to excite attention. The arrests had been combined between the Prefect of Police and the Minister of War, so as to precede by a quarter of an hour the arrival of the troops at their different posts. The arrests were to be effected at a quarter past 6, and the agents had orders to be at the doors of the persons designated at 5 minutes past 6. Everything was carried into effect with a marvellous punctuality, and no arrest occupied more than 20 minutes."

A graphic account of the proceedings of the Assembly at this momentous juncture was given in the columns of the Times by one of the members (whom we believe to be M. Léon Faucher), and there is every reason to regard it as an authentic version of what really occurred. The following extracts will be found full of interest:

"When the representatives of the people learned, on waking on the morning of the 2nd of December, that several of their colleagues were arrested, they ran to the Assembly. The doors were guarded by the Chasseurs de Vincennes, a corps of troops recently returned from Africa, and long accustomed to the violences of Algerine dominion; who, moreover, were stimulated by a donation of five francs distributed to every soldier who was in Paris that day. The Representatives nevertheless presented themselves to go in; having at their head one of their Vice-Presidents, M. Daru. This gentleman was violently struck by the soldiers, and the represen tatives who accompanied him were driven back at the point of the bayonet. Three of them, M. de Talhouet, Etienne, and Duparc, were slightly wounded.

[S]

Several

others had their clothes pierced. Such was the commencement."

They reassembled at the Mairie of the Tenth Arrondissement. "Every shade of opinion was represented in this extemporaneous Assembly. But eight-tenths of its members belonged to the different Conservative parties which had constituted the majority. This Assembly was presided over by two of its Vice-Presidents, M. Vitet and M. Benoist d'Azy. M. Daru was arrested in his own house; the fourth Vice-President, the illustrious General Bédeau, had been seized that morning in his bed, and handcuffed like a robber. As for the President, M. Dupin, he was absent; which surprised no one, as his cowardice was known. Besides its Vice-Presidents, the Assembly was accompanied by its secretaries, its ushers, and even its shorthandwriter, who will preserve for posterity the records of this last and memorable sitting." Thus constituted, they passed the following decree:In pursuance of Article 68 of the Constitution-viz. the President of the Republic, the Ministers, the agents, and depositaries of public authority, are responsible, each in what concerns themselves respectively, for all the acts of the Government and the Administration-any measure by which the President of the Republic dissolves the National Assembly, prorogues it, or places obstacles in the exercise of its powers, is a crime of high

666

they will convoke the juries in the place which they will select to proceed to the judgment of the President and his accomplices; they will nominate the magistrates charged to fulfil the duties of public ministers.

666

And seeing that the National Assembly is prevented by violence from exercising its powers, it decrees as follows, viz.

"Louis Napoleon Bonaparte is deprived of all authority as President of the Republic. The citizens are enjoined to withhold their obedience. The executive power has passed in full right to the National Assembly. The Judges of the High Court of Justice are enjoined to meet immediately, under pain of forfeiture, to proceed to the judgment of the President and his accomplices; consequently all the officers and functionaries of power and of public authority are bound to obey all requisitions made in the name of the National Assembly, under pain of forfeiture and high treason.

"Done and decreed unanimously in public sitting, this 2nd of December, 1851.”

The decree was signed by Benoist d'Azy, President; Vitet, Vice-President; Moulin and Chapot, Secretaries; and by the whole of the 230 representatives present. General Oudinot was made commander of the public forces; and M. Tamisier, of the party of the Mountain, was made chief of the staff. "The choice of these two officers from distinct shades of political opinion showed that the Assembly was animated by one common spirit."

"A band of soldiers, headed by their officers, sword in hand, appeared at the door, without, however,