Louis Napoleon has failed in two attempts to form a
Parlia- mentary Cabinet. It is now understood that he will, as on a former occasion, get up a Cabinet of Ministers who are not mem- bers of the Assembly, and charge it with the special mission of preparing and presenting a bill for the repeal of the law of May 31. Meanwhile, the President on the one hand, and M. Leon Faucher and his colleagues on the other, continue carefully to avoid any word or act that might push their dissensions to ex- tremities and render reconciliation impossible. The Assembly's Committee of Permanence, too, is equally cautious ; it has sum- , moned the retiring Ministers to hear their story, but preserves a. guarded silence. Louis Napoleon is watching his late Ministers; they in turn are watching him ; and the Assembly keeps a eat-like watch upon both. There are, however, symptoms of misgivings on the part of the President that he may be playing a losing game. His semi-official organs in the press complain bitterly of the moderate Republicans for not at once adopting Loins Napoleon as their candidate, now that he has pronounced against the law of May ; and are beginning to disseminate oracular hints, that if the law be not repealed, their chief may decline to stand again for the Presidency and endeavour to make himself the nucleus of a Mode- rate Republican Opposition. Two more departments have been declared in a state of siege.
