The Message of the new President was read to the
two French Chambers on Tuesday. M. Casimir-Perier begins by 'denying that he is of any party. "I belong to France and the Republic." " The weight of responsibility is too heavy for me to venture to speak of any gratitude. I love my country too sincerely to be happy on the day when I become its Head." The President is proud of the easy transmission of power, and of a country which showed itself possessed of " so much moral discipline and such political virility." It will "know how to join those two social forces without which nations perish,— liberty and Government." He has the " firm design " of being ?resident for only one term, but "will feel it his duty not to allow the rights which the Constitution confers upon him to be either misunderstood or forgotten." He notes the touching 'sympathy shown' at the calamity which has befallen the nation, and declares that "France, with head erect, can affirm her love of peace." The Republic is, in its essence, "the 'Government which is stirred by undeserved sufferings," and the honour of which it is never "to deceive those to whom it owes .something else than hopes." The Message is accepted by all Conservatives as full of promise; but Radicals detect in it a tendency to personal rule, and are exceedingly angry. The Socialists in particular denounce the President, and the Anarchists are said to have condemned him to death.
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