Chapter XXXI, of Cassells Illustrated History of England, Volume 9 page 5

But the Opposition included many elements; violent revolutionists like Rochefort sat on the same bench with cool-headed statesmen like Thiers. Returned for the city of Paris, Rochefort - who, to escape the severities which his "writing in the Lanterne would have brought upon him, had fled to Belgium and been condemned par contumace - was permitted by the Government, at the express desire of the Emperor, to return and take his seat in the Chamber. During a debate on a bill for a new organisation of the Constitution which had been brought in by Rochefort and Raspail, the former, nettled by some contemptuous observations let fall by the Minister of the Interior, replied, " If I am ridiculous, I shall never equal in that way the gentleman who walked on the sands of Boulogne with an eagle on his shoulder and a bit of bacon in his hat." Such rude and coarse speeches, coming from one who was unquestionably the elect of the people, must have tended to make the system of official candidatures rather less intolerable.

An incident which occurred in connection with the opening of the Chambers showed how little the system of autocracy was really altered. According to the Constitution, the latest day to which the meeting' of the newly-elected Chambers could be legally postponed was the 26th October; but a decree appeared in the official journal on the 3rd ox that month convoking the Assembly for the 29th November. A more gratuitous and annoying exhibition of the very system of personal government which the Emperor had professed himself determined to abandon could not well be conceived.

The Corps Legislative, as soon as it was assembled, proceeded to examine questions connected with election returns. Illegalities and stretches of power were re ported from all parts of the country. That odious tool of despotism, the " official candidate," had never been so generally and so offensively put forward. One election in particular, that for the Haute Garonne, in which the Government nominee, an obscure marquis, had defeated the illustrious M. de Remusat, attracted special attention from the impudent illegalities that had been resorted to in order to secure the seat. In one parish 141 electors had deposited their voting-papers in the electoral urn, which the Mayor then put away in his bedroom! When the votes came to be examined, 133 were found to be for the official candidate, and only five for M. de Remusat. But forty-one of the electors went before a notary and signed a solemn declaration that they had voted for M. de Remusat. But in spite of corrupt practices of all kinds, which a scrutiny brought to light in this and other elections, the servile majority in the Chamber usually sustained their validity. Nevertheless, the position of the Minister of the Interior, after all these disclosures, was not an agreeable one; and M. Forcade de la Roquette, together with his colleagues, resigned office. The Emperor accepted their resignations and addressed himself (December 27) to M. Emile Ollivier, requesting him to form an Administration and submit for his approval the names of those who were to fill the different offices.

In Spain, the revolution continued its desolating course. Early in the year a republican insurrection broke out at Malaga, and was not suppressed without much bloodshed. A frightful reactionary crime was committed towards the end of January, when the Civil Governor of Burgos, Don Gutierrez de Castro, who had made himself obnoxious to the clergy by his mode of executing a decree of the Provisional Government, declaring all collections of art in churches and cathedrals to be national property, was murdered by a mob of furious priests in the cathedral of Burgos. The constituent Cortes, for the election and assembling of which careful preparations had been made by Serrano and Prim in the preceding year, met at Madrid on the 11th February. In a House of 350 members, about 240 (of whom nearly two-thirds were Progressistas and the rest Unionists) were found to be sup porters of the Government, 70 or 80 were Republicans, and about 20 Carlists. A committee was appointed to prepare a new constitution. Its report was read on the 31st March; it proposed the retention of monarchy and of the principle of hereditary succession, the adoption of the system of two Chambers, and of ministerial responsibility; the Catholic religion to continue to be the religion of Spain, but all other forms of belief and worship to be tolerated, subject only to the laws of universal morality. The article of the Constitution establishing a monarchy was finally carried (May 20) by 214 to 71 votes. But the difficulty of finding a monarch remained for the time insuperable. Till an eligible candidate could be found, it was thought desirable, in order to give greater solidity to the Government, to raise Serrano to the Regency. The ceremony of his installation was per formed with great pomp and ceremony on the 13th June. Divergences of opinion manifested themselves among the prime movers of the September revolution. Prim, the ablest and most daring among them, publicly declared that the late dynasty should never reascend the throne of Spain, and that he would never, directly or indirectly, aid in any endeavours in favour of the Prince of Asturias. Serrano was more cautious; he was gene rally supposed to be a secret adherent of the said Prince. Topete was an avowed supporter of the Duke of Montpensier. The crown was first offered to the King of Portugal, but he declined to accept it. Prim then conceived the strange notion of offering it to the Duke of Genoa, a boy of fifteen, then being educated at Harrow. The young Duke is the nephew of "Victor Emmanuel, and the brother of the Princess Marguerite, the wife of Prince Humbert. With his usual energy Prim over came all opposition among his colleagues to this extra ordinary scheme, except so far as Topete was concerned. The sturdy Admiral thought it absurd, and quitted the Ministry rather than have a hand in carrying it out. But the opposition of the King of Italy and of the young Duke's mother caused this plan to fall to the ground.

In the autumn republican risings took place in many of the large towns. The insurgents at Valencia pro claimed the democratic and federal Republic in a high- flown and flowery manifesto, the chief parts of which consisted in an infatuated and ridiculous eulogy on their own brilliant virtues. But the troops remained faithful to the Government; Valencia was reduced after a three hours' bombardment, and in the other cities revolt was ultimately put down. A law was passed in October, similar in its object to a Habeas Corpus Suspension Act in England, for the suspension of individual guarantees. Against this law, and against the project of raising to the throne a Prince of the house of Savoy, a speech of marvellous eloquence was made in the Cortes, in December, by the great republican orator Senor Emilio Castelar. "I know not how it is," he said, " but as often as I pronounce those words, ' the Revolution of September,' I feel a bitter pain enter into my soul. Ah, Senores, this assembly should be converted into a temple, and this house of political business into a house of prayer, the eloquence of politics into the eloquence of religious fervour, and one should be able to borrow the inspirations of Jeremiah to lament appropriately the fate of a revolution engendered yesterday in the purest fire of the new ideas, and agonising to-day in the cabinets of monarchical diplomacy, to die to-morrow in the barracks! It was said fundamental rights should be inviolable, and all have been violated; it was said the magistrate, and not the police, should enter our dwellings, and our homes have been invaded; it was said that under the empire of our Constitution no citizen should be transported more than 250 kilometres from his domicile, and multitudes have been taken so far beyond that radius that their feet scarce touch the soil of their mother country, but the solitude of ocean has begun; it was said that the press should be entirely free, and the military authorities have suppressed and insulted the newspapers; it was said the rights of meeting and of association should suffer no eclipse, and they have suffered a night of two months long! " Speaking of the youthful candidate whom Prim had proposed for the throne, Castelar said, " This setting up of the Duke of Genoa proves to me that you do not understand one word of monarchical theology. Your king reminds me of that fantastical being, created artificially by Wagner, the disciple of Faust, who came out of an alchemistic composition of acids, phosphorus, and other substances, in the midst of grand cabalistic words, and in conjunction with I know not how many stars; and the very first thing he did on bursting the retort was to fly off in the arms of the devil, and leave his padre scientifico in abandonment and despair. Yes, your artificial king differs from natural kings as the creation of Wagner differs from the grand creations moulded in the bosom of the universe."

General Grant was inaugurated President of the United States on the 4th March, 1869. The convention for the settlement of the Alabama and other claims, which had been agreed to by Lord Stanley and Mr. Reverdy Johnson, was rejected by the Senate in the course of the year, and an important diplomatic correspondence on the subject passed between Mr. Fish, the American Secretary of State, and Lord Clarendon. But, according to the intention already intimated, we post pone a fuller notice of these transactions in order that we may consider them in connection with the Treaty of 1871, and the Geneva Arbitration, by which these claims were finally disposed of.