NEWS OF THE WEEK
MONDAY, the 15th, was an important day in France. The Left Centre, which has resolved either to proclaim the Republic or compel a dissolution, brought forward their Constitutional pro- posal. M. Casimir Perier, as their spokesman, submitted to the Chamber a series of resolutions to be referred to the Committee of Thirty, which, stripped of technical phrases, amounts to this : —The Republic is established in France. Marshal Macillahon shall be President till 1880. A Second Chamber shall be created. The Constitution may be revised after a dissolution. After a sharp debate, a vote was taken, and to the surprise of the Govern- ment, the vote of urgency was carried by 345 to 341, part of the Right Centre voting with the three Lefts. At the same time, however, M. Lambert Sainte Croix, of the Right Centre, proposed another resolution, also to be referred, which does not establish the Republic, except inferentially, but creates a Second Chamber, and continues the Septennate. This was accepted without a division, and the net result was at first thought to be this,—that the Committee must choose be- tween the Septennate and a definitive Republic. Subsequent cora- ments, however, seem to show that all classes consider the first -vote a victory for the Republic, which the Chamber, when its final vote is taken on the Committee's report, will find it most difficult to undo.
