In the French Assembly, the Faucher Ministry appears to gain
strength. A " motived.' order of the day, moved by M. Girar- din, blaming the telegraphic despatch transmitted by the Minister of ihe Interior to the Prefect of the Landes while the election was in progress, was negatived, and the pure and simple order of the day adopted by a majority of 372 to 233. Next day M. Leon Faucher obtained an oratorical success, one of the few that orators have obtained in the Assembly since it was constituted. In the second deliberation on the National Guard Bill, General Grammont moved, as an amendment, that only volunteers should be enrolled. In the course of his remarks the General commented in an inimical spirit on the conduct of the National Guard in June 1848. The imputations were triumphantly repelled by Faucher ; who carried not only the vote but the sympathy of the Assembly when he de- clared that the public opinion of France had attained to such ma- turity that political questions could be resolved without appeals to arms. Ministerial majorities in the Assembly, obtained by an impressive but unexaggerated enforcement of peaceable constitu- tional doctrines, are events not to be undervalued in the present state of France. The political atmosphere at Rome is murky. The Romans persist in their crusade against the exchequer by refusing to smoke
(tobacco is a Government monopoly) or gamble in the state lottery. On the other hand, the police-regulations for , disarming the citi- oens-and shaving theft*, beards-are stringently enforced ; fait domiciliary visits are the order of the day. Meanwhilk the French) garrison act as in a hostile oity, and reinforcements are about to sent to them from France.. The French soldiers have beerrprderea? not to appear in public except in bodies, and to repel all insults and attacks by force ; and measures have been taken by General Gemeau to secure a supply of rations and occupy the Castle of St. Angelo on the first symptoms of turbulence. The French com- mander appears quite as suspicious, not indeed of the Pope, but of the Papal faction, as of the Republicans.
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