heartily enough; but at the bug-a-boo of a National Parliament, again revived by the small kings and not
discountenanced by the greater, the conscience-stricken bully turns ill and pale, and talks of calling in
Metternich to prescribe for him. So, what with the old Doctor in Austria, and the old Duke in our attempt
at a crisis here, the world would seem hardly yet to have lost faith in the old principles and virtues of the
pigtail school of politicians.

A new chance seems to have arisen out of chaos for Louis Napoleon. The Legitimists, offended with
the Orleanists for refusing to coalesce with a view to a monarchy, are disposed to consent to a prolongation
of the presidential term of power; and the fact of this promise having been given is said to account for
Louis Napoleon's refusal of the terms on which Odillon Barrot had alone consented to return to power.
The stipulations of the ex-Orleanist deputy are worth mentioning, because they illustrate remarkably the
present tendencies of opinion in France. They were, that the President should pledge himself to leave office
quietly, in case the necessity for his doing so should arise; in return for which M. Barrot would pledge
himself to use every exertion to avert that necessity, by obtaining a prolongation of the Presidents term of
power. In other words, there is not a practical statesman now in France who does not see that the sole
chance of the country lies in adhering loyally to the republic. It is the only good and healthy sign, amid
many miserable and conflicting portents of evil and disaster.

The most remarkable piece of intelligence from France
is the motion made by M. Creton in the assembly for
repealing the laws of exile against the family of the
Bourbons, and the stormy debate to which it gave rise
on the 1st inst. M. Berryer opposed the motion, on the
principle that the Duc de Chambord is not an exiled
Frenchman, but an extruded King of France; that a
sovereign could accept no permission to reenter his own
hereditary dominions. M. Thiers and M. Piscatory
supported the motion. M. Royer, the Minister of
Justice, distinctly avowed that the Government was
favourable to the principle of the bill, but deemed the
present moment inopportune for enacting it. The
discussion proceeded quietly, till it was inflamed by M.
Dufraisse, representative for the Dordogne, one of the
members of the Mountain. M. Dufraisse declared that the
laws of proscription are just, and ought to be maintained.
"The Revolution," he said, "cannot ask pardon of
the dynasties it has justly upset. Have the family of
Orleans laid aside the claims of their birth? Have they
rendered homage to the sovereignty of the nation? Do
not the descendants of St. Louis continually dispute the
independence and the conquests of the people? You tell
us royalty never dies: we reply, nor does its punishment.
If the principle of sovereignty is eternal, so shall its
punishment be eternal. This is but logic. The law
ought to chastise the voluntary representatives, the
willing heirs, of a principle which the people have
abolished. Unhappy princes! I mistrust your tenderness."
M. Dufraisse by inference vindicated the decapitation
of Louis the Sixteenth, and then exclaimed, in fierce
warning to the Mountain, "The men of old who voted
against the death of Louis the Sixteenth meditated a
return to royalty." This defiance of the Legitimists and
justification of regicide raised a storm among the Right.
Members contended with fierce violence to occupy the
tribune and denounce such detestable doctrines. M. Berryer,
trembling and pale with passion, declared that he and
his party considered themselves as not free agents in
deliberation, while such sentiments were uttered from
the tribune. He proposed to adjourn the discussion for
six months; and though this course was strenuously
opposed by M. Thiers and his party, it was carried. An
eye-witness of the scene says:—"The pale head,
compressed lips, intense expression, and resolute accent of
the young lawyer of the Mountain, reminded the
audience, not without a shudder, of such a thoroughbred
Jacobin of 1793 as St. Just, when, nothing daunted by
the fists shaken in his face and the menaces threatened
around him, he recalled to mind that the grandfather of
the princes whose banishment they wanted to repeal,
had himself voted the King's death."

The Minister of the Interior has laid before the
Committee charged with examining the different
propositions for abrogating or revising the election-law of
May 1850, a summary of the effect of that law on the
franchise. The electors inscribed on the 31st March
1850, in execution of the law of 15th March 1849, were
9,618,057; those inscribed on the lists in execution of
the law of 15th May were 6,809,281—a diminution of
thirty per cent; those inscribed on the lists closed in
September last (those for the Isle de Vilaine excepted)
are 6,711,186.

The Professors of the College of France have passed
a vote of censure on their colleague M. Michelet, the
Professor of History, on the ground that his lectures
are prejudicial to the young students in a moral and
political point of view. Seventeen out of twenty-one
professors were in favour of the vote. It was also
decided that the procès-verbal of the deliberations of the
Professors should be transmitted to the Minister for his
approval.

The affairs of Germany do not apparently tend to
any settlement. The differences between Austria and
Prussia are as great as ever. The Berlin papers say,
that in a Cabinet Council held on the 11th inst., a
memorandum of the contested points between these two
powers was drawn up, which stated that Prussia neither
directly nor indirectly supported, at the Dresden
Conferences, the demand of Austria for the admission into
the Confederation of all her provinces; and that
Prussia would not herself enter the Confederation with
her own non-German provinces. It is said that the
old Frankfort Diet will be revived.

The temporary building in which the Upper Chamber
of the Prussian Parliament assembles, was destroyed by
fire on the night of the 10th; the archives, however,
were preserved.

The Papal States are infested by banditti, who scour
the country in great numbers in spite of the combined
forces of the Pope and the Emperor of Austria. On
the 16th and 17th of February, flying columns of
gendarmes and infantry were engaged in hotly pursuing
a band of freebooters over the mountains of Casola,
Valsenio, and Monte Maggiore. Some skirmishing
took place, in which two Papal soldiers were killed.
The brigands then attempted to force their way over the
Tuscan frontier, by Modigliana and Marradi, but were
prevented by the Austrian and Papal troops. The last
account left the hostile parties still engaged in desultory
conflict on the mountains. On the 18th, eight
men were condemned to death by a court-martial, and
shot, for rapine and arson at Bologna. Accounts from
that city represent the noted brigand chief, the Passatore,
as still holding his mountain positions against the
combined efforts of the Austrian and Papal troops. On the
23rd, near Casola Valsenio, the dead body of a brigand,
who had fallen in one of the recent skirmishes, was
discovered, and the soldiers were then following the bloody
track of another wounded man. The extermination of
these bands appears to be a most hopeless affair, since
their organisation has a decidedly political character,
and is described as similar to that of the Chouans in the
revolt of La Vendée. Whilst not a recruit can be found
to swell the ranks of the Papal army, the secret agents
of the brigands find no difficulty whatever in enrolling
men for the service of the Passatore, and, in order to
prevent treachery, the greater part of these men are
unacquainted with each other, and only meet at a
general rendezvous when some important expedition is
decided on, dispersing again, and returning to their
customary avocations as soon as it is completed. The
brigands receive regular pay, whether in action or at