,fortigu ad Colonial.

FRANCE. —The debate on the resolution submitted to the Legislative Assembly by M. de Remusat's Committee was maintained till Saturday, when it ended in a division fatal to the Ministry.

M. Baroche, General Changarnier, and M. Thiel's, occupied Friday. M. Baroehe had to follow with a Ministerial confirmation the eloquent defence of the Republic by M. de Lamartine against the Legitimist on- slaught of M. Berryer : he met many of the imputations of Imperialist conspiracy scattered against the Government, by matter-of-fact com- ment on M. Berryer's own course in raising the standard of the Count of Chambord as the first of Frenchmen and King of France. In the hands of M. Berryer, said M. Baroehe, the discussion had taken a range infi- nitely-wider than that with which it began. The question of blaming the Ministry for dismissing General Changarnier had almost vanished, and the principle of the Monarchy had been boldly opposed to that of the Republic. M. Baroche knew not what form of government Providence has reserved for France, but at least he trusted, with the President, that neither passion, surprise, nor violence should dispose of the fate of so great a nation. There would be no salvation but in the maintenance of the epublican form ; for that least divided the country, and least troubled a people who are tired of revolutions which do but destroy each other and engender new animosities.

General Changarnier appeared in the tribune but to utter some personal apostrophes of that rather melodramatic character which engages the sympathies of our Gallic neighbours— When the Government established his residence at the Turneries, the par- ties existing were five —the Moderate Republicans, the Traditional Monarch- ist; the Conventional,Manarchists, the Demagogues who conceal themselves under other names, and the men who desire an Imperial restoration but have neither the glory nor the genius of the past. He determined to be the in- strunient of neither of these ; he refused to serve any faction, any conspiracy, any conspirator : but the two parties whom he last mentioned, devoted to him a hatred which, to his honour, contributed to his downfall. His sword, said he with a faltering voice was to be temporarily sheathed, but it was not broken, and it would still be obedient to the inspirations of a patriotism guarded against every trial and disdainful of the tinsel of a deceitful gran- deur.

According to the French fashion, the General's friends crowded round him to congratulate him as he descended from the tribune : three hundred representatives offered this complimentary tribute, but we read the signi- ficant statement that M. Mole did not leave his seat.

The speech of M. Thiers is described by the French journals as one of his greatest and most successful efforts : the English reader sees less of political power or ability than of verbal ingenuity ; and suspects that a portion of the French admiration is due to the result, which followed the orator's efforts but perhaps did not flow from them. In a style of per- sonal narrative calculated to depreciate the importance of the President and elevate himself' M. Thiers described how M. Bonaparte did him the honour to consult him twice ; after his elevation' and when agitation manifested itself in consequence of the Socialist elections of Paris—

"The President having been long out of France was not aware of her wants" ; he was "frightened at the ardour of the public mind," and pro- posed to occupy it by some enterprise of war abroad, or some great popular creation." M. Thiers combated the first, "as one of the immense faults committed under more excusable circumstances by Napoleon ; and under his counsel all efforts were made to reestablish security." M. Thiers claimed scene of the credit of the result. When the dismissal of the Cabinet of M. Odilon Barret "proved that if the Bonapartist family had become familiar With Republican ideas, it had not become so with those of representative go- vernment," M. Thiers still drew no unfavourable conclusions, and continued the stanch supporter of the President's Government. On the occurrence of the Socialist election; he advised the modification of the electoral law. The flotation he granted with reluctance, in a spirit of sacrifice for the sake of union. But then came the prorogation ; and during that interval occurred those marked tendencies which caused M. Thiers and the majority of the Assembly to pause in alarm. Imperialist cries had been raised at the re- views and General Neumayer had been dismissed because he would have suppressed those cries ; General Changarnier issued his order against those cnes, and in that act signed his own dismissal. The majority in the As- sembly has been faithful to the terms of its compact ; the President with ingratitude commences the attack. " There are now two powers in the state—the executive and the legislative; if the Assembly now yields there will be only one power—the government will have been changed, and the Empire will be upon us."

The feature of the last day's debate, on Saturday, was a speech by Ge- neral Cavaignac, which must confirm his position as the head of the Re- publican party : it was a pure exposition of the Republican policy iiirefer- ewe to the motion before the Assembly, without a single personal allu- sion, and yet strongly marked by that stern enthusiasm which character- izes the individual— Though there had been no cause for congratulation in the good accord that had so long existed between the majority in the Assembly, and the Go- vernment, still General Cavaignae and his party had beheld the commence- ment of the present struggle with regret. The dissension must either lead to a better understanding between the minority and the majority,—and ex- perience had taught how much these better understandings cost of opinion, —or the struggle must be continued till one is the conqueror. Thus the Republicans were placed in presence of two adversaries, between whom the choice is delicate. From the Government the Republicans have received injuries keen and numerous ; indeed if there has been a motive of exclusion with the Government, it has been not the avowal merely but the bare sus- picion of a tendency to Republican opinion ; and if there be a title to favour it has been the avowal of aversion and contempt for that which is entitled to the respect of the Republicans. One of the Ministry [M. Rouher] came in- to the tribune, and, without provocation, declared that the Revolution, which he and others had made something of, was a catastrophe. On the other hand, on that same day, the majority was unjust to the Republicans ; it refused them the reply ; and it sympathized with the Ministerial reproach. M. Berryer has declared that there is somewhere a man whose mere appearance on the soil of France will cause the national sovereignty to disappear ; he and others have implied that a day approaches when all will again be put in question. The Republicans accept not this theory : if the Charter could not be discussed under the Monarchy, much less can the Sovereignty of the People or the Constitution be discussed under the Republic ; for while the Charter established the Monarchy, the Constitution did not invent the So- vereignty of the People. There are but two things possible—a Monarchy or a Republic : those who made a bad Monarchy prepared for the Republic, and those who now make a bad Republic prepare for the Monarchy. But what- ever restoration be attempted, it will be but the preface of a new revolution, a fall and a flight.

No speech of interest succeeded General Cavaignac's. After much discussion upon the order of voting on the various propositions, original and amending, which had been offered to the Assembly, it was agreed that the resolution moved by M. St. Beuve should have the prece- dence. This resolution omitted the specific vote of confidence in General Changarnier, which was included in the resolution submitted by M. de Itemusat's Committee ; and was thus worded- " The Assembly declares that it has not confidence:in the Ministry, and passes to the order of the day." The removal of the tribute to Changarnier enabled the Republican party to join in a protest against the Imperialism of the Executive, and the hostile motion was carried by 415 to 286—majority against Ministers, 129.

On Monday, the Moniteur announced that all the Ministers had placed their resignations in the hands of the President ; and that their resigna- tions had been accepted, but that the Cabinet would continue in office till their successors were nominated. Since that announcement, the journals have been filled with programmes and speculations on the Ministry that is to come next : the list of the evening was displaced by that of the morning from day to day ; but the last and most probable report was that M. Leon Faucher would undertake the task of forming a Cabinet from the minority of 286 who voted with the Executive.

Seem—The fuller accounts of the downfall of the Spanish Ministry do not distinguish it from former similar events : the act is ascribed to the Queen-Mother, and the retreat of Narvacz to the French frontier is according to all modern precedents on the downfall of a great Minister in Spain. A new Cabinet has already been formed by Bravo Murillo, which is described as more respectable than able.

BELGIUM.—King Leopold's Ministers have gone through a crisis on a point of economical finance ; they have resigned, and been reinstated with a modification. General Brialmont, the Minister of War, took office on the understanding that he should reduce the army expenditure to twenty- five millions of francs ; but since his installation he has refused to carry out the economy : his colleagues were scandalized, and resigned; Thiel- niont was thus forced to retire ; and the old Cabinet was reinstated, with a vacancy in the War Ministry, filled ad interim by M. Rogier, the Pre- sident.

GeRmAxy.—The Conferences at Dresden still proceed with mysterious silence. Rumour at once declares that the most profound secrecy is kept by all the members, and professes to describe the undivulged plans of the plenipotentiaries. There appears to be no doubt, one account ventures to say, that the new Executive Council will be composed of eleven votes instead of seventeen ; and that of these eleven Austria and Prussia will have two each, the four minor kingdoms one each, and the thirty petty states the remaining three votes between them. By this process, says the same ac- count, "the whole of the component parts will have a direct voice in the Executive ; and if each series can agree among themselves, the fractional voice will have the greater weight, as it is understood that resolutions are to be adopted by absolute majorities." It is also believed that the Ple- nary Council will be intrusted with legislative powers, and be composed of plenipotentiaries nominated ad hoc by each of the thirty-six states of the Confederation. "it is admitted at last by the Ultra-Constitutional journals, that all attempts at a nearer approach to unity at the present time are impracticable, and that years are requisite to pave the way to the realization of that which has hitherto proved to be a mere dream."

PRIISSIA.—On the 18th of January 1701, Frederick the Second Elector of Brandenburg was crowned by the name of Frederick First 'King of Prussia : that event was the consummation of wars by which he wrested from Sweden and Poland those dominions which formed the nucleus of the monarchy, which the Great Frederick enlarged by further conquests, and which has now become consolidated into one of the "five Great Powers of Europe." The hundred-and-fiftieth anniversary of this great day was celebrated in Berlin on Saturday last, by a festival of the Orders, unparalleled in splendour and magnificence. The King and Queen came into Berlin from Charlottenberg at eight in the morning, and the arrivals at the Palace commenced at ten The King held a Chapter of the Order of the Black Eagle, and conferred the investiture upon two Princes of Hohenzollern, and upon Duke William of Mecklenburg- Schwerin, who is his nephew and a Major in his body-guard. There were present at the ceremony all the Knights of the Order, vested in their robes, consisting of a doublet of dark blue velvet, with a crimson velvet mantle, and wearing their collars, together with all those persons who had been appointed Knights of the Royal Order since the last Chapter, as well as those a numerous list, upon whom the King in- tended to confer other chivalric distinctions. The grand cross of the Red Eagle was conferred on Baron Mantenffel. After the presentation of each person to the King, Divine service was heard in the new Palace Chapel; Bishop Neander preaching the sermon. The celebrated Dom Chor sang the Te Deum with inspiring effect ; the Bishop pronounced the benediction with deep solemnity ; and then a salute of 101 guns from a field-battery in the Lust Garten completed the official demonstrations of thanksgiving. In the evening a banquet was given by the King to all the distinguished men in Berlin, including the British Ambassador, the Earl of Westmoreland, who is a Knight of the Prussian Order of the Red itsigle. His Majesty proposed the toast of the evening in the following speech— 'Gentlemen, I beg you will fill your glasses, and empty them in three draughts.

"The first draught we devote to the past—to the time when the princes and people of Prussia, loyally and faithfully united, performed so many deeds of greatness. "The second draught we drink to the present time, and especially to the People in arms,' whose rising has again shown that the corruption of 1848 has spared the marrow of the nation. This draught is for you too, gentle- men, whom I have decorated with orders as a reward for your loyalty. "The third draught is for the future. Few of us will live to the end of the next fifty years ; but I am sure we all wish that those years may be blessed for this dynasty and this gallant people.

"Now- then, gentlemen, to the past, the present, and the future ! "

The gala terminated with the representation of Schilleea Had of Or- leans, at the Theatre, in the presence of the Royal Family.