FOREIGN INTELLIGENCE.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume VIII, Issue 664, 13 December 1851, Page 4

FOREIGN INTELLIGENCE.

('From the Home News, July 24.) France.—ltis notonly in the Parliamentof England that the fortnight has produced strange things; the National Assembly of Fiance has presented to the admiration of the civilized world a spectacle of grandeur, one of the most extraordinary episodes in the people’s Iliad, as Victor Hugo has named the revolution, followed by as ludicrous a burlesque as the French political stage has produced. It was an august spectacle to witness the wisdom of a nation seriously bent on considering the petitions of the people, and deciding beforehand on the form of their government and the mould of their constitution. The House

listened to every speaker with an attention more than decorous. Berryer and Larochejaquelin, for their monarchical heroism and devotion, found an audience as grave and earnest as did Dufaure and Michel de Bourges, while they lauded the revolution, and hailed the Republic. Changarnier, Cavaignac, Lamoriciere, Le Flo, on the other side of the Republic ; Thiers, &c., on the side of Orleans, and the minisiers in favour of Louis Napoleon, encountered a discreet and uninterrupted silence and applause, but the Republican medal had its reverse. Victor Hugo lavished his admiration on the days of Robespierre and the Red Revolution. He excited the passions of the Mountain, and a perfect volcano broke forth. Smoke and fire, and red hot lava poured out on all parties, and was answered with equally destructive projectiles. It was a party battle, contemptible in the spirit by which it was directed, but fierce and fatal in its consequences, The House did not resume its decorum after the speech of the Laureate of the last monarchy, and on Saturday last the Assembly divided, when M. de Broglie’s motion for the revision of the Constitution was carried by a majority of 446 for, to 278 against it; but as the constitution itself demands and prescribes that the decisive majority for any change of its text shall be three-fourths of the Assembly, which on Saturday counted 724, requiring for the constitutional majority 543, the actual majority fell short by 97 votes of that required to make it lawful, and the revision of the Constitution was therefore decided against. From the Bth instant, when M. de Tocqueville read the report of the committee on the revision of the Constitution (a very luminous and brilliant state paper) up to Saturday, the 19th instant, when the division took place on the question, the revision of the Constitution occupied the Chambers. But immediately afterwards, the Government, on the motion of M. Baze, was censured by the Assembly for interfering with the affair of the petitions ; this vote of censure was carried by 333 to 320, majority 13. The President of the Republic was at a steeple chase near Ville d’Avrey, on Sunday, looking more like the “honestest man in France,” than a “conspirator for the imperial throne.” Marshal Sebastiani, it is said, died on Monday evening. The charge against the Ministers of tampering with petitions is no doubt substantially true, but what does it prove ? That the executive and legislative functions are alike in favour of the continuance o' the same ruler. The division on the constitution showed that the House asked no change of the supreme Governor, and the people breathe the same prayer. Thus the alternative for France is Louis Napoleon or a Red Republic, The one untried in our day, the other approved for what he bas performed, and not (except by his avowed enemies) distrusted for what he is likely to do. Ihe question is now decidedly thrown on the people, if there be any such thing as Republican stedfastness to the great principle of the ' Republic that power springs from the peoPe. The appeal is from the elected of the people—the deputies to their constituents, and

in’llieir consistency they have mwkTT*’ people is qntte. different sffsi I mob of Paris. Spain.—The Queen of Snain h • tered the fifth month of befpLn the usual ceremonies have taken M —■ •