as desperation, and whose clamors were the louder in consequence of a theory that had been for some time industriously propagated by Louis Blanc, and which Ledru Rollin was supposed to favor.

There had thus arisen a party who professed to be the especial patrons of the laboring class, and proposed to defend that class from the abuses to which, in the existing state of society, they were exposed, by a system which they called "the organization of labor." They assumed that, by the effect of competition among the operatives, the rewards of labor always sunk to their minimum, which was as unjust to them as it was beneficial to the capitalists. That the legislature might and should protect them from this injustice; and the expedients they proposed for this end were to limit the number of hours a laborer should be required to work; to provide employment for those who could not otherwise obtain it, and to give to all thus employed adequate and equal compensation. To prevent the indolent from throwing their share of the labor upon their associates, a post in every workshop was to bear the inscription that there "every sluggard was a thief;" which apothegm they vainly expected to produce an effect that hunger and want often failed to produce; and which moral equation, perchance, might yet more lessen the horror of theft than increase the inclination to labor. Calculated as this principle of equal wages was to find favor with operatives of ordinary skill and diligence, who must always, as the term implies, constitute the greater number, it did not meet with strong popular support; but it soon appeared that the unsophisticated common sense of the people recognized the justice and policy of paying every one according to his individual talent, industry, and fidelity.

So much, however, was conceded to the friends of the operatives by the Provisional Government, that the hours of labor were reduced, and a workshop was provided where all persons in want of employment were to be furnished with it by the government ;-a measure which, however warranted in the first moments of revolution, when many dependent on their daily labor for the support of their families are thrown out of employment, could never be safely adopted as a permanent system, or rather, which never could become one. Our penitentiaries, improved as they have been by experience, have taught us on a small scale, the very burdensome cost of such a system.

Of the several decrees by the Provisional Government, the following, selected from those passed during the first week after their appointment, may serve to show their principles and policy.

Capital punishment for political offences was abolished.

Prosecutions against the press to be withdrawn, and the prisoners confined for any political offence to be released. The liberty of the press guarantied.

The stamp duty on periodicals taken away.

Articles pledged at the Mont Piété to be restored to the owners: the Minister of Finance to pay the amount due on them.

The palace of the Tuileries to be converted into a workshop for disabled workmen.

The abolition of titles of nobility.

Oaths of office to be discontinued.

Discount banks to be established. Ten days further time granted to pay bills throughout France. Payment of interest due on the public stock to be made some days in advance.

Every Frenchman of twenty-one years of age, to be an elector of representatives. All of twenty-five to be eligible. The number of representatives to be 900, including those of the colonies, and to receive 25 francs per diem. The vote to be by ballot.

All citizens to be armed and clothed as National Guards. Those not able to provide clothing to be furnished at the public expense. The royal residences to be sold, and the proceeds to be applied to the relief of the sufferers in the revolution, and to compensate for losses in trade and manufactures.

Taxes collected as previously. Indirect taxation to be modified. An act to be prepared for the emancipation of slaves in the colonies.

And, lastly, the decrees already mentioned in favor of operatives. Those subsequently enacted were similar to the preceding in purpose and spirit. They all aimed to give or promise relief to the needy, or to cherish sentiments of republicanism.

On the 23d of April the Provisional Government passed a decree for the immediate emancipation of the slaves in Guadaloupe, Martinique, and all the other French colonies; which measure is likely to be attended with similar tragic consequences to a like decree respecting St. Domingo.

On the same day the election of members to the National Assembly took place, and the great experiment was made of passing from a most restricted right of voting to universal suffrage. But as all the members from each department were chosen at once, and each elector of course voted for the whole number, there was a diminished probability of electing those who had only a narrow local popularity. Thus the department of the Seine contained 34 members.

The whole number of votes given exceeded five millions, which was about a vote for every six persons. This is nearly the same proportion as the vote given in the United States in the presidential elections,* first deducting the slaves; and it is a smaller proportion than is

The whole number of votes given at the presidential election in 1840, was 2,402,658; and the free population was 14,575,903.

given in several of the states. Of the 300,000 votes given in the Department of the Seine, Lamartine, who had so far proved himself the master-spirit of the revolution, and had shown as much firmness in opposing mischievous popular prejudices as in encountering personal danger, received 259,800, a greater number than any of his colleagues; and he was, moreover, returned from nine other Departments. Several of his colleagues, also members of the Provisional Government, received less than half his number of votes. Twenty-five of the thirty-four were moderates.

During the election, fears were industriously excited in some of the provincial towns by the radicals of Paris, that the enemies of the republic would obtain the ascendency, which gave rise to great excitement and commotion in those places, particularly at Rouen, to which place the government thought it prudent to send from Paris 15,000 of the National Guards, and 10,000 of the line, to quell the rioters.

The Assembly met at Paris on the 4th of May, in the spacious ball built for the occasion. About noon the members began to enter the hall, and at one o'clock the senior member, M. Andres de Poiraveau, took the chair. The members of the Provisional Government having soon after entered the hall, the president, by a messenger, invited M. Dupont de l'Eure to ascend the tribune, which he accordingly did, and there offered to read an address, but his voice being very weak from age, it was read by M. Lamartine, and was in these words:

"Citizen representatives of the People: The Provisional Government of the republic comes to bow before the nation, and to render a signal homage to the supreme power with which you are invested.

"Elect of the people! we welcome you to this great capital, where your presence excites a sentiment of happiness and hope which will not be deceived.

"Trustees of the national sovereignty, you are about to found new institutions upon the broad basis of democracy, and to give to France the only constitution that can suit her-a republican constitution. (Here the whole Assembly rose, and with their right hands raised, cried Vive la République!)

"But after having proclaimed the great political law, which is about to organize definitively the country, like us, citizen representatives, you will proceed to regulate the possible and efficacious action of the government in the relations which the necessities of labor establish among all citizens, and which ought to have for their basis the sacred laws of justice and fraternity. (Renewed cries of Vive la République!)

"In fine, the time has arrived for the Provisional Government to resign into your hands the unlimited power with which the revolution had invested it. You know that, with regard to ourselves, this dictatorship was only a moral power, exercised in the midst of those difficult circumstances through which we have passed.

"Faithful to our origin, and our personal convictions, we have not hesitated to proclaim the Republic of February.

"To-day we shall inaugurate the labors of the National Assembly to the cry that should always salute it-Vive la République!"

This cry was repeated by the Assembly with the greatest enthusiasm.

M. Crémieux then, from the tribune, informed the Assembly that its session was opened, and its labors commenced on that day. He suggested to the president to invite the representatives to retire to the standing committees to verify their credentials. This being done, the Assembly adjourned amidst cries of " Vive la République!"

The deputies having completed the verification, re-entered the Hall at three o'clock. Members then successively ascended the tribune and proposed the admission of the deputies whose election was found valid by their respective committee. But after the first motion of this character was made, it was proposed that each members, after his admission, should take an oath of allegiance to the republic; and objections being made from several parts of the hall to the oath, which they said the Provisional Government had abolished, M. Crémieux, the Minister of Justice, then rose and stated that the oath of allegiance had been the occasion of so much scandal during the last sixty years, the Provisional Government had thought proper to abolish it. "The oath," said he, "of every true republican is in his heart, not on his lips."

This rejection of oaths received the unanimous sanction of the Assembly amidst shouts of "Vive la République!" "Vive le Gouvernement Provisionnel !"

The next day, May 5th, the credentials of the members having been verified, it was moved and carried that a president should be appointed to hold the office for one month. M. Buchez, on the first ballot, received 390 votes of the 727 given, and consequently was elected. M. Trebat, who was next on the list, received 231 votes. It was understood that he was the choice of the Provisional Government. MM. Recurt, Cavaignac, Cerbon, Guinard, Cormenin and Lenard were chosen vice-presidents. The temporary president then yielded the chair to the president elect, and the assembly, after a vote of thanks to the pro-tempore president and secretaries, adjourned at half after twelve at night.

Some questions relative to the seats of members having been first

disposed of on the following day, M. Dupont de l'Eure, enfeebled by age, asked permission to make the report of the Provisional Government through M. Lamartine, who accordingly read it. This paper, being an introduction to the reports of the several ministers, confined itself to general views of the character of the revolution, its principles, and consequences, and briefly adverted to some of the peculiar opinions and doctrines which had already received the sanction of the government, particularly the right to labor and instruction. Such loud applause interrupted the reading of this address, that the President was induced to remind the Assembly that marks of approbation or disapprobation of this character were forbidden. They were, however, often repeated.

He was followed by the Minister of the Interior, M. Ledru Rollin, who, in the report of the acts of his department, justified himself for the commissioners he had sent into the departments, and for the large powers confided to them. He had also armed and equipped the national guard, the movable and the stationary guards, (la garde mobile and les corps sédentaires.)

M. Crémieux, Minister of Justice, communicated the acts of his ministry. Such as the abolition of capital punishments, the release of prisoners, &c.

M. Louis Blanc then ascends the tribune, and adverts to the establishment at the Luxembourg for the "organization of labor," over which citizen Albert and himself had been placed. The principles on which they had acted he briefly explains.

M. Carnot, Minister of Public Instruction, discloses his views on the new system of instruction, primary, secondary and superior.

M. Lamartine being then called upon by the President for his report as Minister for Foreign Affairs, solicited a postponement on account of fatigue, and after a partial reading of some other reports, the Assembly adjourned to Monday the 8th.

M. Garnier Pagès, Minister of Finance, who had begun the reading of his report on the 6th, finished it on the 8th. After showing the state of the treasury, and the probable results of the impost and other taxes, he notices the union of the banks in the departments with the Bank of France, and the loan of fifty millions made by the government of the bank.

M. Arago reports his acts as Minister of the army and navy. He says that the Republic has the means of opposing to its enemies 500,000 men, and 85,000 horses, seconded by the national guard, and a population ready to take up arms for its independence. The Assembly gave especial marks of approbation when the minister stated that the lash had been abolished in the navy.

M. Lamartine explains to the Assembly the policy of the new