STATE OF EUROPE. France.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume VI, Issue 456, 15 December 1849, Page 3

STATE OF EUROPE. France.

Paris* Jult 17. — It would appear that a serious difference of opinion, which may lead to a serious result, has just occurred amongst the Legitimatists. Ad important section of the party have resolved to separate completely from M. Berryer, and to adopt ThomineDesroazures, a distinguished barrister, and ! member of the Assembly, for the department i |of the Calvados, as their leader. The comi plaint against the first named gentleman is ' his having done nothing whatever to advance i the cause on which their hearts are so much set, and that he has given to the country no opportunity of pronouncing an opinion on the i claims of the personage who they consider ought to be the ruler of France. They pro- ' j fess their willingness to support the Govern- j ; ment in all measures having for thf-ir object , I the suppression of anarchy and the consolidaI tion of order, while they at the same time declare that they will allow no occasion to pass by without advancing in a legal and ! peaceable manner the cause of Henry Y. [ The question of prorogation of the Legislalative Assembly for six weeks continues to be hotly debated. The real object is to disI miss the Assembly, whilst the Cabinet settles the question of Rome and that of Italy generally,, and it will then be dispensed with returning any other reply to interpellations than ''the 'acts are now accomplished." July 21. — A coup d' 4tat is looked for by maoy on the 15th of August, the anniversary of the birth of the Emperor Napoleon, The President is now upon a tour through the provinces, opening railroads and endeavour-, ing to earu popularity. " Vive L'Etnpereur" has been heard among the assembled crowds at Amiens. We are told that one of these fine mornings, on rising from our beds, we shall see the walls of Paris covered with placards announcing that it has been absolutely necessary to establish a solid and permanent form of Government, both for the internal good of France, as also to qualify her to be received amongst the European nations where royalty is still respected, and that for some weeks past skilful and discreet artisans have been actively but secretly engaged in the fabrication of a vast number oi bronze eagles, which on a given moruing will be distributed to the troops, who are thereupon to worship wiib enthusiasm the emblem of the imperial victories, and like the Praetorian Guards of old, proclaim the nephew of their old chief the Emperor. Le Temps says :—": — " People speak very seriously of a little coup d'etat, the consequences of wlrch would be the annihilation of universal suffrage and the prolongation of the actual executive poweT, for which an imperial monarchy wool.l be substituted. It is added, that it is in order to facilitate the execution of such a plan that the demand has been made, and which the majority will bupporf, for the prorogation during some months of the Legislative Assembly." | Whether any such intention as that imputed i to the ruling powers in the paragraph just | quoted be really entertained, it is difficult to ' say. The repression of the attempted out- j break of the 13tb of June, and the comparative tranquillity of Paris since then — the successful termination of (fee military opera- J tions at Rome, which removed one great subject of interest and excitement from the pub- I lie mmd — the cessation of those Pailiamentary conflicts which occurred almost every day since the 13th — the silence of the clubs and the suppression of the journals which j were daily exciting the population to violence, j have removed such legitimate cause for ex- I citement. But excitement of some kind is absolutely necessary to the mind of a Frenchman ; mnd when no real cause exists he will labour to find one. This may have given rise to the rumours of a coup d'itat, which have been in circulation for the last ten or twelve days. Bur, whether there be any Inundation or not for them, it is certain that every one you meet in society, or in the streets, is full of the idea; and there is not a single act of the President of the Rspublic, the Ministers or the Generals in active service, that your attention is Dot called to as affording a proof that a plan of the kind al- | luded to is really in contemplation. j July 24. — The President of the Republic visited the Castle of Ham on Sunday, accom* ptnied by the Ministers of War, Public Works, his orderly officers, and several representatives. He was received witn great enthusiasm. The Kabyle Chief, Bou Maza, was set at liberty, and informed by the President that he might reside in Paris.' The Estafette states that a demand to prosecute three more representatives is to be made by the Attorney General. A letter from Lyons states that on Saturday night last a detachment of the garrison of that city, amounting to 800 hundred men, 4 was despatched to the village of St. Andre de Corey, in the department of Aisne, which the troops surrounded, and proceeded to disarm the National Guard, and arrest fifteen individuals, amongst whom

were the mayor and the parish priest. The latter was subsequently release/I, but 'his blather and his fourteen companions were marcded to Bourg and lodged in prisou. The Government has adopted several measures whh respect to foreigners. Sixty Poles have received orders to quit Paris within twenty-four hours, and France in three days ; thirty of these refugees have already quitted the capital.

[From the Morning Herald, August 2.] >

Paris, Tuesday Morning. The Minister of Finance declared in the Chamber last evening, that it was impossible he could relinquish the tax on potable liquors. He alluded in strong terras to the inconsiderate conduct of the Constituent Assembly in abolishing taxes o( great advantage to the state at a moment too when they were saddling the Budget with expenses to the amount of fifty millions. To seek for the means of replacing old and lucrative taxes by fresh ones was, he said, perfectly impossible, and he felt persuaded that the majority of the Assembly would comprehend that the most serious inconvenience was, not to retain a tax which had long been established, and which brought in a revenue of 100 millions to the slate, hut, to allow deficits to arise instead, which could only lead governments to ruin and to revolutions. The leading columns cf this morning's journals are principally occupied with remarks on the proceedings in the Chamber, the organs of the Moderate party fully concmring in. the opinions put forth by the Minister oi Finance, and advocating the continuance of the tax, at all events until the state of the Treasury can better bear so important a chan»p, and the ultra and Red Republican journals as loudly exclaiming against it, which, as they maintain, presses with greater weight on the poorer classes than on the rich. There is little doubt but that the duty, as now levied, is not properly apportioned to the different qualities of wines, and that material reforms may be effected in the tax, but for the government, in the critical state in which the treasury is now placed, to think of relinquishing a tax which Lings so large a sum to the revenue, would be madness in the extreme. The National expresses itself with some asperity on the subject of the frequent excursions now making by the President of the Republic, and ridicules the pompous manner in which the official journal reports his proceedings, and the reception he meets with in the different places be visits. Paris, Tuesday evening. — The Assembly did not meet until a late hour to-day, and up to post hour the proceedings were entirely devoid of interest. From accounts received from Angers it appears that the inauguration of the railroad, and a!l the fetes connected with it, have passed off very well. At the review, the array cried " Vive Napoleon," the National Guard " Vive le President." Only two or three cries of "Vive l'Empereur" wee heard, by some old servants of the empire, The reply of the President to the speech of the Mayor is said not to have been exactly what the Legitimists of Anders had hoped for, and they abstained from going to the ball in the evening in consequence. Nothing like an unconstitutional cry was heart?.