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Fmtsree.—The report of the Committee on the Revision of the Consti- tution was read to the Assembly by M. de Tocqueville, its author, on Tuesday. It is a long and very masterly document ; presenting the opinions of the parties represented in the Committee with impartiality, maintaining the opinions of M. de Tocqueville with frankness, and urging the recommendations of the majority with a conciliatory earnest- ness, which procured great praises to the author from all the members of the Committee.

It opens with the questions—Is it true that the Constitution is defective ? and if so,.are its vices of such a nature as to call loudly for revision ? A mi- nority of the Committee had maintained that the painful situation of the country is due, not to the Constitution, but to those who for the last two years have been putting it in practice, end who are unceasingly aiming at its overthrow. But the majority of the Committee thought that "independently of all the private causes which may be alleged, a great part of the evil must be attributed to the Constitution itself." Ambition, political rancour, and the passions of parties, are the ordinary concomitants of history. Good consti- tutions repress easily, or keep within bounds, these vices inherent in human nature. It is bad constitutions which favour and excite them. The Consti- tution of 1848 is marked by the latter characteristic. " It renders the Go- vernment unstable and stormy ; it requires from those who govern, a mo- deration, a disinterestedness, and a sort of utter abnegation of themselves, which it is dangerous to ask from men, and which it is perhaps puerile to look for." The two principal reasons alleged against the Constitution relate to the manner in which the sovereignty of the people is exercised in the election of the Assembly ; and to the origin, nature, and relations, existing between the two powers which make the laws and execute them. To cause ten re- presentatives to be elected by the same sorutin de lists, is to decide that the minority of the 100,000 electors shall triumphs or that the majority shall act by blind chance. It is impossible that the entire population of a department can have any sure means of appreciating properly the merit of all the per- eons who present themselves as candidates for its suffragee. What, then, is the result ? That in districts where agitation prevails, or in times of public excitement, the violent parties impose on the people, without consulting it, their ehoioe ; that in districts which are tranquil, and at calm moments, the list of the representatives is drawn up beforehand by some agitators, with a view to particular interests, and to satisfy personal hatred or friendship ; and this list is afterwards followed by the electors as the only thread which can lead them out of the midst of the darkness which encompasses them. The election, which has the appearance of emanating from the totality of the oda- Dens, is in-reality the work of a very insignificant veto-ie. Than, such relations between the two, powers as the felloWtog are not the

conditions of a strong and regular government : " a chamber charged alone to make the law, a man charged alone to preside over the execution of all the laws, and over the direction of all affairs; both of them elected alike directly by the universality of the citizens ; the Assembly all-powerful with- in the circle of the Constitution; the President obliged to obey it within the same limit, but possessed, in virtue of his election, of a moral force which permits him to think of resistance, and renders submission difficult ; enjoy- ing besides all the prerogatives which fall to the lot of the head of the exe- cutive power in a country where the public administration, disseminated everywhere and mixed up with everything, was instituted by and for Mo- narchy; these two great powers, equal in their origin, unequal by right, condemned by the law to an uneasy position with respect to each other, in- vited by it in a certain measure to suspicions, jealousies, and conflict ; obliged, however, to live, already connected together, in an eternal tete-a- tete, without meeting with any intermediate object or arbitrator to conciliate or restrain them." The Constitution is, then, defective. But if so, can calmer times and more favourable circumstances be awaited for its amendment ? Recapitulating the reasons for shunning the task, the report declares that the dangers of the moment do not permit the postponement of ameliorations. "The Com- mittee do not deny that the revision may be dangerous, but they consider it exceedingly necessary." "It is wrong, no doubt," save the reporter, "to yield too easily to the current of public opinion ; but it is not always pru- dent or patriotic to resist it. The rules of conduct of statesmen in such a matter vary according to the spirit of the times and the form of the institu- tions. In free countries, and above all in Democratical ones, where good or evil can be accomplished only by the aid of the masses, above all, their af- fection and confidence must be preserved. When they are uneasy, troubled, and suffering, and ask for a remedy, to refuse it to them because it is be- lieved to be less efficacious than they suppose it to be, is to drive them to despair—is to force them to adopt, under other conductors, a different con- duct and other political maxims. Besides, what they affirm here by a vague instinct, it is our duty to desire by a profound examination of the situation. ' The situation is both strange and novel. "If the election of the President of the Republic had taken place at the natural period pointed out by the Constitution, that is on May 12th 1840, the Presidential powers would have survived those of this Assembly by one year ; and it is only in 1861, after a twelve years' trial, that the fact of the head of the executive power and the Legislative Assembly ceasing at the same time their functions would have been witnessed. But by the accidental effect of the law of October 28th 1848, a law called for by article 116 of the Constitution, the President was elected on December 10th 1848, and will nevertheless have arrived at the end of his magistracy in the course of May next. Thus, in the same month and within a few days' distance of each other, the executive power and the legislative power will change hands. Assuredly, never will a great people, as yet ill prepared for the use of Republican liberty, have been east all at once by the law itself into such a hazard ; never will a youthful constitution have been subjected to so rude a trial. And in what country of the globe, gentlemen, is this total eclipse of the Government to take place ? Amongst that people which, although it has more frequently overturned its govern- ment per aps than any other, feels more than any other the want of being governed Even if the peril were only in the imaginations of the citizens, is it very certain that it would be the less great ? If its only effect were to over-excite the culpable hopes of some persons, and to push to an extreme the apprehensions of the greater number, would that itself not be a great peril—the greatest, perhaps, of all those which are to be dreaded ? If we do not hasten to come to the aid of the people in the occurrence which ap- pears to it, with reason, so extraordinary and so critical, who will insure to us that that people, in the excess of its anxiety, will not attempt to save itself by having recourse to some irregular proceeding, more dangerous than all the rest? . . . . The nation was surprised by the events of February. On that day it was discontented, but was not yet revolutionary. Sixty years of novelties, of agi- tation, and of political labours, had fatigued it ; it had not yet had time to rest itself completely, when the unexpected fall of the Monarch of July pre- cipitated it into one of the most singular if not one of the most violent crises of its long revolution. It was necessary for it, in spite of itself, to enter the arena, to do violence to its new habits, to neglect the affairs and the works to which it had given its heart, and to return against its wish to the field of revolutions, and there to fight. It did so with a courage and a resignation which were admirable—with a sustained energy and a practical wisdom of which its detractors did not consider it capable, and which will be to its eternal honour among men. It has succeeded, for it has momentarily put down faction, and vanquished anarchy. But it has only succeeded in this at the price of much time, of sacrifices, of struggles, of anguish, and of losses." Today again the nation is weary ' • but at the same time again dis- quieted and agitated. "Is it not to be feared that, in that moment of anxiety and anguish which may arise at the last moment, the electors may find themselves driven, not by enthusiasm for a name or for a man, but by terror of the inconnet, the horror of anarchy, to maintain illegally, and by a sort of popular assault, the executive power in the hands which now hold it? "

The mode of Presidential election established by the Constitution it- self facilitates as far as it can do this revolutionary and mischievous result. "A great nation, spread over a very large space—a nation in which the sphere of the executive power is almost without limit, and in which the only representative of that power is elected by the universality of the citi- zens voting directly and separately, without having had any means of be- coming enlightened, of acquiring information, or of coming to an under- standing,—that is a state of things, I do not fear to say so, which has never been seen in any nation on the earth. The only country in the world which offers anything analogous is America. But see what a prodigious difference. In America direct and universal suffrage is the common law ; only one exception to this great principle has been introduced, and it ap- plies precisely to the election of the President. The President of the United States of America emanates also from universal suffrage, but not directly. And still the duties of the executive power in the Union compared with what it is and always will be in France notwithstanding all that may be done, is small; notwithstanding that in that country, where the Republic existed, it may be said, since its origin under the Monarchy, in its habits, ideas, and manners, and where it had rather to appear than to be born—in that country, they have not ventured to intrust the election of the represent- ative and of the executive power to the direct and universal vote. The power to be elected appeared still too great, and, above all, too remote from the elector, to allow him to make an enlightened and mature choice. The American nation only elects delegates, who choose a President. These delegates represent, no doubt, the general spirit of the country, its tendencies, its tastes, and frequently its passions and pre- judices; but they are, at least, possessed with knowledge, which the people could not have. They can form to themselves a precise idea of the gene- ral wants of the country and of its real perils, know the candidates, compare them with each other, weigh, choose that which each citizen, in the depths of his home and frequently of his ignorance, in the midst of the labours and preoccupations of Eivate life, is incapable of doing. Thus we have seen, within the last six years, the Americans frequently, keep out of the first magistracy of the Republic citizens well known, and frequently very illus- trious, to choose men who were relatively obscure, but who answered better to the political necessities of the moment. If the dangers of universal and direct circumstances in such a matter had moved the legislators of the United States, how much more ought it to strike us—we who live in a country where the great majority of the citizens have not yet acquired the habit of occupying themselves with political affairs, who never think of such things excepting by accident, and who not know, even by name, the greater por- tion of those who conduct, or think they conduct, the public affairs ; an who besides have sufficiently contracted the passions which Democracy suggests not to like to place at the head of the government an equal, and have not acquired enough of the light and experience which Demo- cratic nations require to enable them to perform the duties which de- volve on them ? Where was there, with the exception perhaps of the famous demagogues whose interested and violent passions designate and recommend, or princes whose birth makes them conspicuous at a distance—where was- the personage whose name could easily arrive at the knowledge and fix itself easily in the memory of the million of rural electors who cover the surface of France, if it were not that of the man by whom the public power has been exercised for years, who has personified, during a long time, in the eyes of each citizen, that central administration which with us is to be seen everywhere, which is felt in everything, and which is to be discovered every day without being sought for." Yet does any one believe that the only consequence of an unconstitutional election would be the abolition of an article in the Constitution ? No ; • the whole Constitution would be upset, and France would be once more delivered up to the caprices of the crowd and the chances of force. Is it not to be fear- ed that in the intestine war which would arise, that party which is the na- tural and common enemy of all government would appear and remain the master ? If therefore nothing but a great crisis can result from the status quo, and if such crisis must lead almost of necessity either to usurpation or anar- chy, and in every case to the ruin of the Republic and perhaps of liberty, honest and gravely pondering men will doubtless conclude, that among the- many formidable dangers of the future the convocation of a Constituent is the lesser. Such is the opinion of the majority of the Committee.

But of what sort shall the revision be, partial or total? "There was a sem- blance of maintaining," says the reporter, referring to arguments used by General Cavaignac, "that the Republican principle in France is now above every law ; that no person can deprive the citizens of the inseparable right of self-government, or fetter future generations, by founding a system of go- vernment which from its nature was, or pretended to be, immortal." "These ideas were rejected by a very large majority of the Committee. We cannot for a moment admit that out of the pale of the moral world, which isno more subject to the empire of the majority than to that of kings, there can be any- thing which is not to be under the sovereignty of the people, particularly- in a country where that sovereignty is the principle of the laws and their sanction ; that a nation can be eternally held back, and as if bound hands and feet, in spite of itself, in the political forms which it might deem con- trary to its habits, its way of thinking, its grandeur, and its happiness." On the other hand, the Committee have not felt at liberty to put forward for decision the question of Republic or Monarchy. They agreed that they have not the right, even if they had the desire,. to propose to the nation to quit the Republic. Nor has the Assembly the right to impose the Republic as a general formula of government on the next Constituent. "In fact, there- would be something puerile in attempting to enchain beforehand the deci- sions of a sovereign assembly, which absorbs within itself all the powers,. and which exercises all; for the Constitution, foreseeing that two National Assemblies could not sit at the same time, took care to declare that tbe Con- stituent, independently of its natural labours, should have the faculty of passing urgent laws. How could an Assembly which was not originally named to occupy itself with the Constitution, and which, besides, has already more than two years' existence, pretend to limit an Assembly issuing from the people, and which has just received the national will ?" The Representatives are, however, the natural counsellors of the nation— the only political men in a position to judge the ensemble of affairs, the na- tural wants of the country, . the state of parties, and what can and cannot be done. It will neither be wise nor honest in them to shrink from the office. The Committee therefore, by a majority of nine to six, adopts the motion submitted by its President, M. de Broglie, that the following resolution be recommended to the Assembly--

" The Legislative Assembly, having considered the 111th article of the Constitu- tion, expresses a wish that the Constitution should be revised in totality, conform- ably to the said article." But, contemplating the possibility that in spite of all legal efforts towards- unanimity by dignified and honest concession, the necessary votes for a legal revision might not be given, they recommend that the Assembly should at all events express its firm conviction that unconstitutional measures would' be "criminal," and its determination that the Constitution must be " strictly- and universally obeyed." The reporter concluded with a dignified and eloquent appeal to the re- sponsibilities of each legislator. " You have arrived at one of those solemn, and, happily, rare epochs in the life of nations, when an Assembly whose' powers are about to expire, but which is still master of itself and of the fu- ture, holds in its hand the destinies of a whole people, and may by a word cause them to weigh down on one side or on the other. Whatever resolu- tion you may come to, we may be sure beforehand that much of the good or of the evil which is in store for a long time to come will be justly attributed to it. We shall earn, gentlemen, the approval or the censure not only of those who this day anxiously await our decisions, but also of the next gene- ration. In the presence of so terrible and so long a responsibility, every one, doubtless, will forget his private interests, his passions of the moment, his rivalries, his hatreds, his very friendships, to think only of his country and of history."

The reading of the report was listened to in profound silence. It was that the discussion upon it should commence on Monday.

The Sub-Committee appointed by the Committee of Revision to au-. thenticate the petitions had made their report on Saturday. The petitions presented up to the 1st of July had been signed by 1,123,625 persons; thus classified—

For the revision For the revision and prolongation of powers 370,611 For the prolongation of powers 741,011

12,010131 CAPE OF Goon HOPE.—By the Bosphorus, we have intelligence to the 20th May ; vague and unsatisfactory. No striking military result had been attained ; but the embroilment of the several tribes, one with the other, on the North-eastern frontier, not hitherto; harassed by war, threatened to draw us, as allies, into operations still more distant, dan- gerous, and profitless.

The fact that no great military scheme had yet been put into operation is partly due to the slowness with which troops had been sent out from this country, and partly to the want of foresight in Sir Harry Smith, who had suffered himself to be surrounded by a whole nation in arms; and who could not be made to believe that, with his name and fifteen hun- dred men—reduced practically to eleven hundred actually at his back— he could not bring all the border tribes to his feet. Detachments of troops, however, were beginning to arrive, a few hundred at a time. They were finding their way with difficulty to King William's Town, Sir Harry Smith's head-quarters in Caffraria, and to Graham's Town, on their way to General Somerset.

That officer, with a body of nine hundred men, somewhere on the Kat River, within the colony, found himself too weak to face a small division of Sandilla's guerillas, composed of Caffres and revolted Hottentots! The Seventy-fourth Regiment was landed at Port Elizabeth ; whence it had to march nearly a hundred miles to Graham's Town, and thence some fifty or sixty miles further, to the place where the enemy would be, or, more probably, the place where the enemy would have been. More troops, however, were on the voyage from England; so that by September or October, Sir Harry Smith may find himself at the head of an army of ten or twelve thousand men, including Burghers and "Levies," or Colonial Coloured Volunteers.

As to the intelligence for May, the main incidents are, that Colonel Mackinnon and Major Wilmot had made forays into the Amatola moun- tains in pursuit of the enemy, and had returned with some cattle ; but even the Government organ admits that, while the Caffres were sought in the mountains, they were dispersing themselves in bands of fifty or a hundred over the whole of the country which we nominally hold in mili- tary possession. A remarkable change in the weather had taken place : scorching drought had been followed by great rains and heavy snow—the Amatolas, it was said, were covered with snow, in some places to their bases; and the severity of the weather had driven the Caffres from the high fastnesses : their cattle were therefore scattered in the remotest dis- tricts, while they themselves scoured the country round us, in imitation of our own tactics, and kept our troops ever on the alert in defensive measures. The mails had again been stopped between King William's Town and Graham's Town; which is about the same thing as if in this country they were stopped between York and Newcastle Zinc we held the whole Scottish frontier and its Eastern and Western capitals, with numerous strong posts through the counties on both sides of the border.

While this was the state of things in Caffreland, the rebel Hottentots and Caffres in the Kat River district seemed not at all humbled by the death of Hermanus, or by their subsequent defeats : Fort Armstrong was again in their possession ; and places in the immediate neighbourhood of the forts which we now garrisoned with full strength, were boldly at- tacked by small flying parties. In this direction, however, the Burghers were manifesting considerable activity. Commandos were frequent ; and the enemy were sustaining constant minor defeats and losses of cattle. So it was, at least, according to " General Orders" ; in the ac- curacy of which, however, the colonists seem to place little confidence. In the midst of these unpromising accounts, some perceive a gleam of encouragement: Mr. Shepstone had gathered a considerable force of Zulu auxiliaries, on the South or Caffre side of the Natal colony, and, in April, had already approached the Tambookie country, to put himself in co- operation with Sir Harry Smith : from this move the hopeful anticipate a considerable advantage, both in the military reinforcements and in the moral effect on the Caffre and Hottentot tribes of the Zulu name. Others take a totally different view of the measure ; and among them is the Lieu- tenant-Governor of Natal, who fears that it will greatly add to Sir Harry Smith's embarrassments. The Zulus are not British subjects, and have no quarrel with the Caffres; their main object, of course, is plunder : such native auxiliaries are unmanageable in predatory warfare, and they treat unsuspecting allies more savagely than enemies who are on the alert.

In fine, the mail brings bad tidings. The British commander was not in a better but in rather a worse condition than he was in January last. The hostile spirit was spreading; nothing had been done to reassure friends, or to damp the audacity of enemies ; and little better was to be expected for some time to come.

BRITISH NORTH AMERICA.--The Humboldt steam-ship, which arrived at Cowes on Thursday morning, brought from New York the following -telegraphic despatch, dated Toronto, June 27.

" It is understood, though not officially announced, that the Government are prepared to extend liberal aid to the whole line of railroad from Halifax, Nova Scotia, to Detroit, Michigan, via Quebec. An agent of Baring Brothers is here and it is understood that the whole loan can be obtained under the Imperial guarantee at three and a half per cent. In the House of Assembly, last night, the Ministry stated, in answer to an inquiry, that no overtures have been made to the Opposition to form a coalition Government. Mr. Mackenzie moved for a committee to draught a bill to abolish the Court of Chancery. The Government resisted, and nar- rowly escaped a defeat; the vote for the motion being 30 against 34. Many of the ablest lawyers advocated the abolition of the court."