The National Assembly of France,—i.e., the Chamber of Deputies and
Senate sitting in one body,—met on Thursday to consider the amendment of the Constitution, in relation to the return from Versailles to Paris, and decided by a majority of more than two to one on abrogating the article in the Con- stitution which prohibited the Chamber from meeting in the capital. The numbers were 526 for the repeal of the article, and 249, according to the Times, against it; or 549 for its repeal, to 262 against it, according to the more probable statement of the other daily papers. In this majority, however, some of the Bonapartists voted, M. Paul de Cassagnac openly declaring that he should vote for the repeal of the article, because it would tend to discredit the Republic, and that this was what he desired. His speech was short, and shortened probably by the dry humour of the President, M. Martel, who, when M. de Cassagnac ascended the tribune, said, without the slightest vestige of a smile, " I recom- mend to the Assembly profound silence, in order not to lose any of the speaker's words." M. Martel, as a President, has the advantage of M. Gambetta. He knows the power of irony. The constitutional obstacle being thus removed, the return of the Legislature to Paris will be settled by an ordinary law.
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