France can exhibit her reaction and her renegade. The Com-
mittee on the Roman expedition, who had chosen M. Thiers for its reporter, sanctions his report applauding the expedition, and laying the power of France at the feet of the reactionary Pontiff. M. Thiers seizes the occasion to complete and proclaim his de- sertion of the Liberal faith. He passes with the contempt of si- lence President Bonaparte's letter to Colonel Edgar Ney, which Sketched a liberalized policy towards the Romans ; he "perceives in the [last] motu proprio ' of the Pope, giving a mock consti- tution to his subjects, ' a first-rate benefit of a very real charac- ter "; for that document "gives desirable municipal and provincial liberties ; and as regards political liberty, . . . that, it is true, • the motu proprio does not accord, or at least it does not give more than the mere rudiments," but "the word of Pius the Ninth is sufficient to chi away with all doubts" as to the future concession of supplementary details. So M. niers vindicates the right of France "to supplicate the Holy Father to adopt measures to satisfy . his populations and to appease whatever leg itimate discontent ex- line This was too much for the President and his' Cabinet : a few, indeed, were prepared to go with M. Tlaiers, and their ob- stinacy induped a Ministerial crisis, which continues while we write ; but such a view can hardly prevail. It seems that M. niers is preparing to be Prime Minister to Henry the Fifth. Another curious scene happened at the Versailles trials of the June rioters. Among the witnesses was M. Emile de Girardin, of the Presse ; who deposed that the Italian expedition violated the constitution, and that the demonstration of June 13 was therefore legal. The Procureur-General stopped this awkward Witness; the prisoners demanded more of his exculpatory opi- nions ; and a heated controversy terminated in M. de Girardin's compulsory retirement. M. de Girardin certainly belongs, more than his antithesis M. Thiess, to the present day ; and if this French recover from the collapse of a reactionary apathy, some statesmen in Paris may discover the fact.
