NEWS OF THE WEEK.
iur BUFFET read to a frigid Assembly yesterday week a sum- Ale mary of the principles of the new Government, and chal- lenged fer it some expression of immediate disapproval, if it were _notin harmony with the wishes of "that body. The challenge was not taken up, and as far as appears, the principles of the new Govern- ment command a tepid acquiescence in the National Assembly. But they were evidently acceptable only to the Bonapartists, who re- ceived what was evidently intended to be the "message of peace" addressed to them,—a message which we have elsewhere discussed, • —with surprise and delight. We are not at all sure, however, that IL Buffet's Republican colleagues have not judged better in this matter than those who would have placed the great Orleanist .antagonist of Bonapartism, the Duc d'Audiffret-Pasquier, at the Ministry of the Interior, in order to make war on Bonapartist Prefects. Is not the Bonapartism of the great majority of the Bonapartist Prefects and Sub-Prefects rather a matter of personal interest than of public sentiment ? And if they began to .feel officially safe under a Republic, would they not very soon'find themselves dreading the return of the Empire ? At all events, they furnish as yet the only trained staff of public servants in France, and if they are completely alienated, they could certainly promote disaffection in the interests of Bonapartism far more -effectually than any equal number of Monarchists or Republicans could promote the interests of the throne or the people. The rather startling message of peace may have been a stroke of high policy, after all.
