The Corps Legislatif communicated the result of the Ple'biscite to
the Emperor on Saturday. M. Schneider, President of the Chamber, made a speech, the point of which was that the Emperor had laid down the basis of a Parliamentary system, and then Napoleon read his long-expected reply. It is rather vague. Our adversaries, said the Emperor, extended the Plebiscite, originally intended to confirm a liberal reform, into a question between the Empire and Revolution. The country has decided in favour of the Empire. The Government, without partialities, but also without weakness, will know how to cause the national will to be respected, "will calm party passions, insure public security, preserve social interests from the contagion of false doctrines," and seek the means of increasing the greatness and the prosperity of France. "To diffuse education ; to simplify the administrative machinery ; to carry activity from the centre, where it superabounds, to the ex- tremities, where it is wanting ; to introduce into our codes of laws, which are monuments, the improvements justified by experience ; to multiply the general agencies of production and riches ; to promote agriculture and the development of public works ; and, finally, to find the best distribution of the burdens which press upon the taxpayers. Such is our programme." It is a good programme, but its goodness does not prove that the Emperor is less than master, or that France could not carry it out without his aid.
