In the French Chamber of Deputies, on the 14th, there
was a discussion of considerable interest relative to an important clause in the new departmental law, which is to regulate the mode of election, and the number of deputies which each arrondissement is to send to the general Council. •The Minister of the Interior contended that the wealth, population, and 'real importance of the several districts, should be taken as the criterion by which the number of members they should be entitled to elect ought to be regulated. On the other hand, M. GLAIS BIZOIN, LAS CASES, CHARLEMAGNE, and others, thought that each Canton should have the privilege of returning a member without reference to its population or property. The Chamber was almost equally divided on this point. There were two divisions, but the result of both was doubtful. A ballot was then demanded; when there appeared —for M. GLAIS Bizonv's proposition, 168; against it, 164. The Ministers and their stanch friends of the Centres were thus beaten," by a 'majority of 4. This decision goes. to prove the in- dependence of the Chambers, notwithstanding inmost points the Ministry command a very great majority. The Chamber of Deputies has passed a bill for the repeal of the Ultra Royalist law of 1816, which prescribed the observance of the anniversary of the execution of Louis the Sixteenth as a close holyday. This bill was sent up to the Peers ; who amended it, after their fashion, by dividing it into the two following .articles—
.1. The 21st January shall continue to be a day of national mourniug. 2. The law of the 19th January 1816 is repealed.
This amendment wasintended, as the reporter of the Committee , iirformed the House of Peers, to "keep the remembrance of that Melancholy • event alive in the minds of the population of the country." But the Chamber of Deputies have rejected this amendment, by an immense majority232 to 43. It was ex- pected that; at their 'next meeting the Chamber of Peers would reject the bill altogether, unless the Government interposed, and _ made it a Cabinet question,—which was improbable. it is worthy of remark, that out of the 63 new Peers created .before the opening of the session by the Ministers, only 20. voted .1 with them 'on this division. The extreme impolicy of the Peers placing themselves in opposition to the will of the Nation upon a • question-so trivial in itself, but now become one of importance, must be manifest to. all. .
The French correspondence of the Daily Papers has been occupied with speculations on the probable designs of Russia upon Turkey, and the details of a religious quarrel which occurred at Clichy; a , village in the neighbourhood of Paris. The only importance which can attach to this last circumstance, is derived from the fact, that the Government has taken side with the old Catholic and bigoted party, with the ArchbishOp of Paris at their head. . For some time paste a considerable number of the more enlightened inhabit- ants of Paris and its environs have chosen to have the mass per- formed in the French instead of the Latin language. This is con- - sidered a damnable innovation by the rigid old bi■Tots„ who have no notion of the peasantry and shopkeepers understanding the language in which they are commanded to pray. Accordingly,: they have endeavoured to force upon the inhabitants Cliehy a curate of the old school ; and haVing' received the sup- pt- of a party of dragoons, . they. broke open the church and: turned out the.curatewho. was ehosen by the pebple. . This affair is not likely to reader the1V1inistry'rnere'popular ; though it Semis that the letter of the law .was not transgressed by .theenthorities;
