The Senate of NAPOLEON could not have been more subservient
to its master and creator, than the majority of the French Cham- ber of Peers to Lotms inulLip. Whoever may be Minister, and whatever may be his policy, the Peers go with the Cart. Thus, on Tuesday, the Doctrinaire address, which was a mere echo of the Royal speech, was carried by a vote of Os toil. Had Tmeas been Premier, or even LAFFITTE, the Ministerial address would no doubt have been sanctioned by their French Lordships. For the collective decisions of such a body it is impossible to feel any respect, but the individual opitlions of some of its members may be worthy of notice.
In the debate on the address, in that section of it applicable to Spain, SOULT spoke out on the subject of " intervention' and "
cooperation. " Like his old antagonist and vanquisher, the Duke of WEssistems, SOULT cannot comprehend the use of nice dis- tinctions, when the subject is the invasion of a country and the support or demolition of a dynasty. " CoOperation" he stigma- tized as none other than a " compromising, shameful, dis- guised, and dishonourable intervention." Nothing could be m3re paltry than the quibbling attempts of MOLE and GU1ZOT to jus- tify their intervention, and their refusal of cooperation. Their former associate, the well-known Vicros COUSIN, asked them to reconcile the sending of the Foreign Legion to Spain with their non-cooperative policy, and with their assertion that the Cabinet which preceded that of THIERS pursued the same plan as the present. It was no answer to this on the part of GUIZOT to pros duce a despatch of TRIERS ill April last, decliniles an armed intervention in the affairs of Spain. The whole debate served only to illustrate the truth of SOULT'S remark, that the difference between intervention and coOperation was so fine as not to be in- telligible.
While the French Ministers were labouring to preve their con- sistent and faithful perfortuance of the obligations of the Quadruple Treaty, clothing, ammunition, and horses were forwarded across the Spanish frontier, by the aid and with the permission of the French authorities, to the routed troops of DJ11 CARLOS at Du- Range. Merchants at Bayonne contract to supply the eartisls with necessaries, and are enabled to execute the Pretenders
orders as openly and punctually as if their customers were ESPARTERO and General EVANS.
In the Chamber of Deputies, the Ministers will not have so triumphant a division in their favour as in the Upper House ; but it is still the general belief that they will have a considerable majority ; although in the Committee the Government draft of the address received some modification, through the exertions of THIIRS and DUPIN. The Doctrinaires wished to insert some ex- pression blaming the late revolution in Spain; but they were not supported by the majority ; who, moreover, carried a sentence expressive of a wish that, in union with England, the French Government would prevent a counter-revolution. There is also a very courtly and delicate hint to the King, that, notwithstanding the late attack upon his person, no necessity existed for additional measures of repression.
Much is made of these points by the Liberals; but when the address as passed by the Committee was read by Dem/ to the Chamber, on Tuesday, it had, on the whole, a very Doctrinaire sound, although DUPIN endeavoured to give prominence by artful accentuation to those passages which returned 'a Liberal tinkle. The discussion on the address in the Chamber was to commence on Thursday.
In the course of the wrangling in the committee, two noticeable facts were elicited. The first is, that CONSEIL, the Swiss Spy, was admitted by GASPARIN, the present Minister of the Interior, to have been employed by him when Under Secretary of THIERS, without the knowledge or approbation of either TRIERS or MoN- TALIVET. This relieves the Ex-Minister from a charge which the Doctrinaires preferred against him, though their own colleague was the guilty party. It is rumoured that this imprudent acknow- ledgment of an ugly truth will occasion GASPARIN'S dismissal from the Cabinet. The second circumstance, which made a good deal of talk in Paris, was the production by THIERS of a copy of an official statement of the force to be sent IO CLAUSE', which he procured before his dismissal. From this it appeared, that had THIERS remained in power, CLAUSEL would have had 39,000 in- stead of the 30,000 men allowed him by the Doctrinaires. It was asserted by MoLe, that with respect to the number of soldiers there was no difference between the present and the TRIERS Ministry ; but the production of this document dumbfounded MOLE; and, of course, there was an exhibition of much virtuous indignation on the part of the Doctrinaire partisans, at the breach of trust committed by THIERS in keeping copies of official papers. The fresh crusade of PERSIL against the press has met with a check, in the acquittal of the Courrier Francais, prosecuted for attributing to LOUIS PHILIP that interference in the management of public business which he notoriously exercises;and that respon- sibility which ought to be laid upon his shoulders, and would be, if French statesmen really understood and acted upon the prin- ciples of a free and representative government. The Sicle was convicted of the same offence of which the Courrier Francais was acquitted, in consequence of the non-appearance of the editor, or any counsel for him, in court. Verdicts have been obtained against the editors of several Carlist newspapers, for articles, termed selitious libels, on the death of CHARLES the Tenth.
The trials of the Strasburg conspirators are in progress. The only point worth mentioning ill connexion with them, is the ad- missioo of General Voraor. that the French Government were all along aware of the intentions of LOUIS BONAPARTE.
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