had no feeling of hostility against the new Government, but he had no great confidence in it, for he had no conception of the principles on which it was based. If, however, the noble Earl conducted his Administration on a truly Conservative policy, he should receive no obstruction from those with whom he (Lord Derby) acted.

The House then separated for the Christmas recess. In the

House of Commons several adjournments took place before the arrangements were so far accomplished as to enable the numerous new writs to be moved for. It was not till the 31st of Dec. that the appointments to all the subordinate offices, by the acceptance of which seats are vacated, having been completed, the ultimate adjournment to the 10th of February took place.

"Art. 2. The service of the National Guard is obligatory on every Frenchman, from 25 to 50 years of age, who may be judged apt for that service by the conseil de recensement. Nevertheless, the Government will fix the number of National Guards for each locality.

"Art. 3. The National Guard is organized in all the communes which the Government may deem necessary; it is dissolved and recognised accordingly, as circumstances may require. It is formed into companies, battalions, and legions, according to the necessities of the service, determined by the administrative authority, which is to have the power of creating corps of sapeurs-pompiers. The creation of special bodies of cavalry, artillery, or engineers, cannot take place except by the authorization

of the Minister of the Interior.

"Art. 4. The President of the Republic is to nominate a Commander-in-Chief, and Colonels, and Lieutenant-Colonels, in such places as he may deem it advisable.

Art. 5. The National Guard is placed under the authority of the mayors, sub-prefects, prefects, and Minister of the Interior. When, by the orders of the prefect or subprefect, the National Guard of several communes is assembled, either in the chief town of the canton, or in another commune, it is under the authority of the mayor of the commune in which the meeting takes place. Are excepted from that decision the cases determined by law, in which the National Guard is called on to perform military service, and is placed under the orders of the military authority.

"Art. 6. Citizens cannot either take arms, or assemble as National

Guards, with or without arms, without the order of the immediate officers, and these latter cannot give such order without a requisition from the civil authority.

Art. 7. No officer in command of a post can have cartridges distributed to the National Guards placed under his authority, unless in virtue of a precise order or in case of attack.

"Art. 8. The National Guard is composed of all Frenchmen and foreigners in the enjoyment of civil rights, who shall be admitted by the conseil de recensement, on condition of being dressed in the uniform, which is obligatory.

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Art. 13. Whenever the National Guards are on service with the paid troops, they take precedence of them.

"Art. 14. The expenses of the National Guard are voted, regulated, and superintended like all other municipal expenses.

"Art. 15. The expenses of the National Guard are obligatory or optional. The obligatory ones are: -1, the cost of purchasing colours, drums, and trumpets; 2, the repairs, cleaning, and cost of arms, with the reserve of having recourse to proceedings against the National Guards, according to the terms of Art. 13; 3, the rent, lighting, firing, and furniture of the guardhouses; 4, the cost of registers, papers, and all the minor expenses which the service of the National Guard necessitates; 5, the pay of the sergeant-majors and adjutantmajors; and 6, the pay and clothing of the drummers and trumpeters. All the other expenses are optional.

"Art. 21. The prefect can suspend reviews and exercises in the communes and cantons, on condition of at once rendering an ac

count of the same to the Minister of the Interior.

"Art. 22. Every National Guard ordered out on service is bound to obey, with the power of afterwards making representations against the same, if he thinks necessary, to the officer in command."

On the 14th of January the new Constitution was promulgated. It was preceded by a Proclamation of the President addressed to the French people, which was as follows:

"Frenchmen-In my Proclamation of the 2nd of December, when I loyally explained to you what, according to my ideas, were the vital conditions of Government in France, I had not the pretension, so common in these days, of substituting a personal theory for the experience of centuries. On the contrary, I sought in the past the examples that might best be followed, what men had given them, and what benefits had resulted. I have thought it rational (logique), to prefer the precepts of genius to the specious doctrines of men of abstract ideas. I have taken as

models the political institutions which already at the commencement of this century under analogous circumstances have strengthened tottering society, and raised France to a lofty degree of prosperity and grandeur. I have taken as models those institutions which, instead of vanishing at the first breath of popular agitation, were only overturned by the might of all Europe coalesced against us. In one word, I said to myself, since France makes progress during the last fifty years, in virtue alone of the administrative, military, judicial, religious, and financial organization of the Consulate and the Empire, why

should not we also adopt the political institutions of that epoch? Created by the same thought, they must bear the same character of nationality and practical utility. In effect, as I recalled to mind in my Proclamation, it is essential to aver that our present state of society is nought else than France regenerate by the Revolution of 1789, and organised by the Emperor. Nothing remains of the old régime but great souvenirs and great benefits; all that was organised under it was destroyed by the Revolution, and all that since the Revolution has been organised, and that still exist, has been the work of Napoleon. We no longer possess provinces, or states, or parliaments, or intendants, or farmers-general, or various customs, or feudal rights, or privileged classes holding exclusive possession of civil and military employments or different religious jurisdictions. To all these things, so incompatible with its spirit, the Revolution applied a thorough reform; but it founded nothing definitive. The First Consul alone re-established unity, hierarchy, and the true principles of Government. They are still in vigour.

"Thus, the administration of France, entrusted to prefects, subprefects, and mayors, who substitute unity in the place of directing commissions (the decision of affairs, on the contrary, being confided to councils, from that of the commune to that of the department); thus, the magistracy, rendered firm by the immoveability of the judges and by the hierarchy of the tribunals -justice rendered more easy by the clear definition of attributions from those of the Justice of the Peace up to those of the Court of Cassation-all this is

still standing. In the same manner, our admirable financial system, the Bank of France, the establishment of the Budget, the Court of accounts, the organization of the police, and our military statutes, date from the abovementioned epoch. For the last fifty years it is the Code Napoleon that has adjusted the reciprocal interests of citizens; it is still the Concordat that regulates the relations of the State with the Church. Lastly, the greater portion of the measures which concern the progress of industry, of commerce, of literature, of science, and of the arts, from the statutes of the Théâtre Français to those of the Institute of France, from the institution of Prud'hommes to the creation of the Legion of Honour, have been fixed by the decrees of that time.

"It may, then, be affirmed that the frame of our social edifice is the work of the Emperor; which has stood firm, resisting his fall and the shocks of three revolutions.

“Wherefore, since they have the same origin, should not his political institutions have the same chance of duration?

"My own conviction has been formed for a long time; and therefore it was that I submitted to your judgment the principal bases of a Constitution borrowed from that of the year VIII. Approved of by you, they are to become the foundation of our political Constitution. Let us now examine its spirit.

"In our country-for the last eight hundred years monarchical -the central power has always existed by increasing. Royalty destroyed the great vassals; the revolutions themselves caused to

disappear the obstacles which opposed the rapid and uniform exercise of authority. In this country of centralization, public opinion has invariably referred everything, good and evil, to the chief of the Government: so that to write at the head of a charter that the chief is irresponsible, is to lie to public feeling. It is to endeavour to establish a fiction which has three times disappeared at the sound of revolution.. The present Constitution, on the contrary, proclaims that the chief whom you have elected is responsible to you; that he has the right of appeal to your sovereign judgment, in order that in grave circumstances you may always be able to continue your confidence in him, or to withdraw it. Being responsible, his actions must be free and without hindrance. Hence arises the obligation of his having Ministers who may be honoured and powerful auxiliaries of his thought, but who no longer form a responsible council, composed of jointly responsible members-a daily obstacle to the special influence of the chief of the state-a council the expression of a policy emanating from the Chambers, and for that very reason exposed to frequent changes, which render impossible a continuous policy or the application of a regular system.

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Nevertheless, in proportion to the loftiness of position in which a man is placed, and in proportion to his independence and to the confidence that the people place in him, is his need of enlightened and conscientious counsel. Hence the creation of a Council of State, for the future, the real Council of the Government, the first wheelwork of our new organization-a reunion; a practical