to the executive power; and mentioned two or three facts of unjust arrests which had just taken place within his own knowledge. M. De Valence, also inclining to a disapproval, moved, that the subject should be referred to a committee, which was accordingly named, and the chamber shortly after adjourned. A communication was read from the commission of government to the chambers, relative to the state of the army, in which Marshal Grouchy was said to have arrived at Rocroy with 20,000 infantry, 6000 cavalry, and a corresponding train of artillery; but adding, that in three days from the 19th the enemy would be near Laon; however, the Major-General Duke of Dalmatia was taking every step for rallying the army. The armies of the Moselle, the Rhine, the Jura, the Var, the Alps, and the eastern Pyrenees, were in a satisfactory position.

On the 26th the government transmitted to the chambers a bulletin tending to confirm the favourable accounts from the army, and to assure them, that their affairs wore a more favourable aspect than at first could have been hoped; that they would neither exaggerate nor dissimulate the dangers, and in all emergencies would stand true to their country. On the same day, the following placard was affixed to the walls,

66

66

Acts of the Government.

Extract of the Minutes of the Secretary of State's Office.

Paris, June 26, 1815.

"The commission of government, upon the report of the minister of state, entrusted provisionally with the portfolio of the ministry of justice, decrees as follows: The decrees and

judgments of the courts and tribunals, the acts "of the notaries, shall provisionally be intituled, "In the name of the French people. The "minister of state entrusted provisionally with "the portfolio of the ministry of justice is charged with the execution of this decree, "which shall be inserted in the bulletin of the "laws.

(Signed)" DUKE OF OTRANTO, President.

"CARNOT.

"QUINETTE.

"CAULAINCOURT, Duke of Vicenza. "Count GRenier.

"The minister of state entrusted provisionally "with the portfolio of the ministry of justice.

(Signed)

"Count BOULAY (A true copy).

"The secretary annexed to the minister secre

"T. BERLIER."

Thus Napoleon the Second, after a reign of three days, has been replaced by the French people. I have found no one here who is able, or who cares, to reconcile this ordonnance with the succession of the son of Maria Louisa. You will observe, also, that the five commissioners were ordered to treat in the name of the nation. This confirms what I before said, that the Duke of Otranto will not be embarrassed in his communications with the allies, by any premature adoption of a sovereign. There are not a few who think that he inclines to the Duke of Orleans; but his enemies must allow that he has as yet taken every measure, which can give the nation a chance of maintaining their independence.

By a decree of the 24th, the Marshal Prince of Eckmülh, minister of war, was ordered to take every measure relative to the defence of Paris; and his seal was, ad interim, intrusted to his chief secretary, Baron Marchant. By another decree of the 25th, all soldiers absent from their regiments were commanded to join the nearest corps, or to march to Paris. He proposed also to the chamber, on the 27th, a law enabling the state to borrow 150,000,000 francs, for the payment of the debts and arrears on the military and other establishments; and to whatever men he may incline, there is no reason to think that his wishes

or opinions respecting things are different from those of the great majority of the nation, or unbecoming the great part which he is called upon to perform in this momentous juncture. He is known, as I have before said, to have no personal attachment to the imperial dynasty; and to have been chosen by Napoleon, as one of the guarantees which he offered to the French nation, of his re-adoption of the principles of the revolution. Fouché of Nantes, is a name and character lost in the Duke of Otranto; and so much are the sanguinary propensities, for which he was once so fatally distinguished, changed long ago, as they say, by paternity, that the day of his succession to Savary, as minister of police, was a jubilee to Paris and all France. He has contrived to keep the confidence even of the royalists of the capital, who now dishonour him with the suspicion that he is in their interests, and is acting only for Louis XVIII. The chamber of representatives has as yet shewn no repugnance to his measures, with the exception of M. Felix Desportes, who, observing the new name of the French people, asked " if the constitution "was abolished." It adopted his project of a law relative to requisitions, in the sitting of the 20th, but with a long debate, and after some amendments, which might have been spared:

some one stated, that there was no urgency in the case; when a member exclaimed, "how far is it from here to St. Quentin ?"-intimating that the allies were arrived at that town.

But in the peers, in the discussion on the law of arrests, a considerable opposition arose, on the parts of Counts Lameth, Cornudet, Boissy d'Anglas, Latour Maubourg, and d'Aubusson; the latter of whom said, " that he would ask for "a passport for Constantinople, if the law passed "without amendment, as he would rather live "under a pacha than a denunciator, made de"spotic during three months." The law, however, was passed with some immaterial amendments, and sent to the representatives; but M. Boissy d'Anglas stated that he should the next day propose a project for the abolition of the commissions of high police. In the sitting of the next day, the law of requisitions was agreed to by the peers, but not until the Duke of Dantzick had observed, "that if the requisi"tions were not made according to law, they "would be made without law; and that as to "the observance of forms and regulations, so "much insisted upon, it should be recollected "that when they were made, the enemy was "not in full march upon the capital." Count Latour Maubourg read, in this sitting, the pro