The discussion has served to illustrate the condition of the
poli- tical world in France in a remarkable manner. That country seems to be destitute of a class of politicians which is rather re- dundant with us, called " practical men." During a fierce and protracted contest, there has been observed a singular concur- rence of parties with the most opposite purposes ; each has let escape some indication of false and dangerous, if not sinister motive ; yet these glaring symptoms of what must be the imme- diate practical results of the measure seem to have been wilfully overlooked by all parties, while theoretical questions have been as hotly mooted as doctrinal points in the schools. For the bill has not been unopposed. 31. DE LAMARTINE, among other opponents, made a brilliant speech, in which he showed that France was to be defended, not by hemming in her capital, but by the forward march and "enthusiasm" of her armies. And Marshal SOULT rose, according to the compact of the Government with the Commission of Deputies, of which AI. ',BIERS is the repre- sentative, to defend the measure : he did so with his vote, while he poured forth the records of his military experience to prove the plan to be useless, and totally different from the one which he would recommend for the defence of the capital. He begged the Chamber to discriminate between his official adoption of the mea- sure, and his opinion as a military man. The Marshal's authority on military matters, however, is of no avail against NI. THIERS'S com- pilation of scraps of old writers ; and though M. DE LAMARTINE'S abstract reasoning is said to have created a " sensation," it is pushed aside as if foreign to the purpose. Politicians in France seem to think and ratiocinate, but they show an incapacity to form a practical judgment of the consequences of their own acts.
Some excitement has been created in Paris by the seizure of a few Opposition newspapers, which published three letters attri- buted to LOUIS PHILIPPE, containing what the French must regard as treasonable avowals—promises to England to deliver up Algiers, and admissions that the fortifications of Paris are meant for use against popular movement. There seems no doubt that these letters are forgeries.
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