NEWS OF THE WEEK.
Tip relative positions of . the President and the Legislature of the Prenchlepublio,hti'Ve.hot been materially changed during the past ieek-; but the- mutual exasperation increases, the words of de- fiance are louder and niorelAtter. --An ill-concealed: in.veteracy of personal antagonism to Louis. Napoleon continues to animate the party of the Majority in the Assembly, divided though that coalition has appeared to be on more than one vote. The bill for regulating Ministerial responsi- bility. is almost acknowledged; by some of its promoters, to be an occasional and exceptional measure intended to humiliate the Pre- sident and, check his ambitious aspirations. Such a measure is ne- cessarily invidious;: and the vague nature of some of the offences 'exiled as ground of :iiiiPeactiment aggravates the sinister taint. The-Isinoessful attempt to engraft apon the Responsibility bill the rejected prOpisel.Of- " Aie -cluestorsplacing a part of the army at tie di's-poet-4.9f -the-Assemblythas also led the public to regard the Majority as net Only poStponing -higher considerations to the in- dulgence:of -perinul:animoeity,-:bit as seeking to usurp executive in addition to legislatiVe authority and concentrate the whole power of thy state in the Assembly. Eneekagerrather than. alarmed by the " acharnement " of the Majority against his .person,:mis Napoleon has assumed a bolder One of defiance. Charg_ei of conspiracy, and threats of forcible re- pression, levelled against -Ale leaders of the Majority in a news- paper articlethathadlimic.disclaiined. by Ministers, have been re- Irith;e7Vel inore ' of .p.ositive averment and emphasis,. by the P.resident,hiniself, in his address at the 'distribution of prizes won by Freneh-manufaCturers .the Great IndUitrial Exhibition in London. And it cannot be denied, that in thus throwing down the gauntlet to .the AsseMbly, :Louis Napoleon was warmly ap- plauded by, a 'crowded audience of, the French middle classes.' Much of the 'applause,. hay/ever, may fairly be attributed to the sympathy of the moment with the felicitous thoughts and well- turned phrase's of the speaker, rather than to any abiding convic- tion that he is capable of higher statesmanship and less purely personal ambition than his adversaries.
What a lamentable spectacle, that of a great, an intelligent, and generous nation, like France, abandoned as a prey to the rival ambitions of an unscrupulous voluptuary and a herd of reckless intriguers for predominance !
