of Napoleon; and his conformity with the wishes of the representatives was shown in another instance the same day, by the same minister bringing down to the house the list of the chamber of peers, which had been refused the day before. An excuse was made the next day for the intimation, given respecting the chamberlain, by M. Boulay de la Meurthe, counsellor of state, who informed the chamber, that his majesty, on receiving the provisional president, testified his regret that he had not been before informed of his presence in the antichamber. The Emperor has seen M. Lanjuinais, and has addressed him, as the story goes, to this purport: "Mr. L., some "tell me that you are a Bourbonist, others "that you are my personal enemy, others that

you are a true lover of your country; you "will conclude which of the three I believe "when I congratulate you and the chamber

on the choice it has made of such a presi"dent."

Neither the quick impatient tone of the president, nor his bell, is able at all times to command silence in the assembly, which occasionally breaks out into the tumults incident to a popular body in its first meet

ngs.

The imperial session takes place to-morrow, and Napoleon will then open his two houses in form, at the palace of the legislative body. There was some noisy discussion this morning, relative to the method in which the members of the imperial family should be received, and two or three indignant hints were thrown out, deprecatory of all such renewal of formal ceremonies, which, however, the president very prudently discouraged, by stating that the matter, being a mere form, was unworthy the suspicion, and consequently the reflection, of the free representatives of the people. A more serious attempt was made to convince the Emperor that he must expect no sort of subjection, either in form or reality, from this new parliament; for a Mr. Dupin objected, in a set speech, to the oath to be taken at the imperial session, which he asserted should not be in virtue of a decree, but only of a law made bý the whole legislature. He demurred also to the inference which might be drawn from that oath in favour of the immutability of the constitution. However, this opinion was overruled by Mr. Dumolard, who nobly observed, "that if they "had to choose between their country and their Emperor he should not hesitate an instant; but "that the case was not so, since in the critical

"circumstances in which they were placed, the "nation was to be saved by and with the Empe"ror :" he protested, therefore, against affording ground for suspicion of distrust and disunion to the open and the secret enemies of France, and moved the order of the day. The speech of Mr. Dumolard had an unexpected effect in inducing General Sebastiani not only to object to Mr. Dupin, but to make use of his proposition, by grounding upon it a pointed declaration of the chamber in favour of the oath to be taken to-morrow, of obedience to the constitutions of the empire and fidelity to the Emperor. The resolution was passed, and was followed up by a proposal from General Carnot, to declare the army to be national, and to have merited well of the country; which would have been adopted, had not Mr. Regnault suggested that it would be better to reserve that measure for an act of both houses and of the Emperor. I should mention, that M. Boulay de la Meurthe, in declaring for the oath, stated expressly that in so doing he judged that the house reserved the right of ameliorating the constitution. You will agree with him and M. Dumolard, in thinking the objections of M. Dupin to be groundless; but will see in these objections, as well as in the whole course of proceeding in the cham

ber, how false are all the assertions of your Bourbonist partisans relative to the subserviency of the pretended representatives of the people to the will of the Emperor. According to the present system of representation, it is calculated, that only a seven-hundredth part of the people of France enjoy the elective franchise; and that the mass of citizens have only the privilege of choosing once in twenty-five or thirty years an elector, who is to vote once in five years for a deputy. for a deputy. Many objections may be made to the present formation of the electoral colleges, which is contrary to the decision of the constituent assembly, that determined the number of electors by the number of citizens; but if the present chamber shall display, as it appears will be the case, a spirit of liberty and moderation, I shall think them as fair a representation of the wishes and interests of the nation as the convention parliament was of those of our own country. They will, most probably, be called upon to display every virtue of patriotism, and that very shortly; for the rival armies are in presence, and wait but for the signal to commence the mighty mas

sacre.

Napoleon seems to have taken a last leave of the people of Paris, in the fête of Sunday,

f

the 4th. On that day there was a distribution of bread, and fowls, and sausages, and wine, in the Champs Elysées, where ropedancing, horsemanship, greased poles, mountebanks, conjurors, and all the fooleries of Bartholemew fair were let loose, gratis, to that portion of the Parisian populace which requires a Frenchman, as well as a French word, faithfully to represent. The canaille were, indeed, in all their glory: but notwithstanding there was as much drunkenness as can be expected, from the effusions of sixteen fountains of wine, I saw only one disturbance, and that was occasioned by a boy, who was instantly hurried off by a picquet of soldiers-those efficient coadjutors of the police being stationed at intervals in every part of the fields. Bands of musicians played to dancers, who, though of the lowest order, figured in a manner that would have shamed the awkward essays of some of our cotillion beaux. Not a melancholy nor an angry face was to be seen throughout the vast concourse thus celebrating, as it were, the eve of a day which must make widows and orphans of half the officiating crowd. But the life of this people is liveliness, which is their mode of existence. I recollect that when on one side of the Tuileries the twelve thousand federates were