11 JANUARY 1851, Page 1

NEWS OF THE WEEK.

Peals is agitated by more -violent heavings of the political world than it has suffered for some time. We say Paris, because it is only in the overbearing combination of trading politicians of the capital that agitation exists ; France itself being quiescent, or mystified by the movement. For the movement is a huge mysti- fication, understood, we believe, in all its motives and bearings, by nobody whatsoever, since there is a common consent not to ex- rt avowals of real objects. The litigants are like thieves who are quarrelling amongst themselves, but who keep the subject of quarrel untold, lest it should reach the ears of the police outside, and the booty be lost to all. rt avowals of real objects. The litigants are like thieves who are quarrelling amongst themselves, but who keep the subject of quarrel untold, lest it should reach the ears of the police outside, and the booty be lost to all. Louis Napoleon's Ministers resigned on Friday last ; but when you ask why, the answer is conjectural, or is supplied only by the unauthentic statements of gossip. The provoking cause was the conduct of the Legislative Assembly, in refusing, with a marked insolence of demeanour, to hear the explanations of the War Mi- nister, while it listened to the explanations of its favourite General Changarnier at the moment. The Ministers resigned, but were indnced te suspend their exit from office, while various negotia- tions proceeded.; until, on Thursday night, after bearing down many an opposing threat and doubt, the President appointed his new Cabinet. _ .

If we look upon authentic accounts of the " crisis " as things hopeless to be attained, we may turn to rumour for some proxi- mate idea: and although it is more than probable that the ac- counts current in Paris are far from accurate, they have a veri- similitude and coherence which induce us to receive them as adanabrations of the truth. The story, then runs somewhat in this form. There is a standing contest, indirect but violent, be- tween the President and the Assembly General Changarnier being set %why the Assembly in some indefinite post of rivalry. The President is also understood to be negotiating a " dotation " of 120,0001. a year for his own office. It is patent to the public that the _President is taking at least his usual pains to keep on good terms with the people ; and to show that he is so, he visits pic- ture-galleries and uses other opportunities of going abroad with an ostentatious simplicity and confidence, which is well received, and rEPaid in popular courtesies. The ocioduct of the Assembly is not quite so obvious and simple to the view. The majority of that body, elected by universal suffrage, has always shown jealousy of the President, also elected by universal suffrage. The Legislative Assembly appears to con- sider itself as the heir of the Constituent Assembly which preceded it; a palpable mistake in constitutional theory, but not unwar- ranted by certain provisions of the Constitution, which retain to the Assembly some of the powers usually confided to an executive government. There have been other accidental reasons why the Assembly, or rather the majority -which wields an absolute vote in the Assembly, has attained its present positien• In the first place, its earlier contests with the Mountain resultedin complete victory, and it became inflated with a sense of its own power. It so hap- pens that the objects of the Mountain were quite opposed to those entertained by other antagonists of the majority, so that it was spared from any practicable alliance between the Mountain and those othe'r antagonists. The majority became insolent. It was an accident that it had elected as its President the man who, lam developed an amount of insolence scarcely paralleled. Dupin. would seem to dislike Louis Napoleon personally ; he oer- tahdy dislikes adherents of that personage. For various reasons, chiefly perhaps incompatibility of views and mutual depreciation, ' Louis Napoleon has not been able to secure the attachment of lead- ing politicians in any party. His appointments, certainly, have not indicated any disposition on his part to favour the advance- ment of the most eminent men. The consequence has been, that they are driven, one and all, to seek their objects through the As- sembly ; and whatever may be their ulterior intentions, a certain esprit de corps unites them against the parvenu from Gore House, whose sole claim to his Republican elevation was an hereditary. pretension. The sameseries of circumstances has thus rendered this Parliamentary majority strong for present purposes, over- whelmingly strong against the obscure clique that constituted the Ministry. The claims of the majority, or as we may as well call it the Assembly, to sovereign power, have recently taken a turn hostile to the President through his Ministry. It tried to uphold Yon, the Commissary of Police who fell into so ridiculous a scrape with Allais. It has released M. Mauguin, who was under arrest for debt, in defiance of the civil courts ; and on Friday last it added a sting to its rebuff of the War Minister, in the shape of laughter ostentatiously disrespectful. Changarnier, whose importance is the creation of these con- flicts, occupies a position still more difficult to define with pre- cision. That he dislikes the President personally, came out last summer, when he took such pains to suppress the Imperialist cries of the soldiery. He was the military commander of Paris ; he played into the hands of the majority; some thought him aspiring to be the Monk of France, or its President. President Bonaparte in- sisted on displacing him from his command. Meanwhile, a charge is advanced against Changarnier in the Assembly, of having issued instructions to his troops, such as might have emanated from a Itadetzky or a Windischgratz ; directing the most summary mea- sures against civilians, and. reserving an absolute authority to himself as commanding-officer,—the Representatives of the People being specially mentioned as having no authority. This was the charge on which the General's explanations were so readily re- ceived. He declared that there were no such instructions ; but he alluded to two sets of instructions permanent and temporary, as the probable originals of this caricature. The documents to which he alluded have been published. They are signed, the one by himself, the other by himself and General Parrot; but the Pattie insists that there is a third set, or supplement, bearing the countei- signature of General Reibell—who maintained silence during most of the dispute, and at last uttered a very guarded statement in aid of his military chief. -Under these circumstances, General Changarnier's explanation was not likely to prove satisfactory any- where but in the Assembly.

The relation of political parties to the foremost antagonists in this quarrel is very uncertain. Both the Legitimists and Orleanists are said to be divided, some of each party supporting the President, others Changarnier. The one fact, however, which stands pain- fully prominent, is the total absence of any fundamental political principle in the whole of this warfare. It is the selfish struggle, still proceeding, of adventurers plotting for personal advantage.