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    Among the vicissitudes of the law courts , which have been rather abundant this week , is the disclosure of the betting enormities in the case of Regina versus Alleyne . Young captains and clergymen mingle with fancy men , exchange characters with them , and play their part , sacking booty to the amount of several thousands sterling ; and the Times accepts the scandal as a picture of " life " in " fast" society . Enoug h substance was wasted among the young men and their companions to have provided for many a poor family , or to have set many an honest man up in business .

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    THE BONAPARTIST REVOLUTION IN PARIS . " The atmosphere is charged with Revolution , '' said a representative , a few days since , as he passed through the restless and agitated groups in the balle des Conferences . Knots of men absorbed in anxious consultation , now in hoarse whispers , now breaking into angry murmurs , now with hurried and eager gesticulations , as contempt , suspicion , or rage seemed to be uppermost ; standing apart in corners , or undulating to and fro ; dispersing into fresh groups ; darting at every fresh comer with a fire of questions ; drinking in all kinds of desperate and alarming rumours , according as the wishes or the fears of the reporters and the listeners prevailed ; such was the physiognomy of the Salle des Conferences of the French National Assembly towards the close of the last

    weekt In the streets , profound indifference to the political agitations ; the boulevards thronged with loungers in pursuit of the " pomps and vanities "; Paris , in a word , in its happiest , gayest mood of elegant vivacity and buoyant activity of art and pleasure . Such at least was the superficial aspect of a city and of a People to whom every " situation " seems normal , but dulness and tranquillity . In the faubourgs , no unusual excitement ; the workshops busy , and all hands employed .

    But in the high places of power and law , mischief is brewing ; violence , intrigue , distrust , irresolution in the very citadels of order and legality ; the factions plotting and counterplotting ; arming and disarming ; conspiring , and denouncing conspiracies ; each lying in wait to take the other by surprise . From , the first day of meeting after the recess , the Executive and the Legislative became irreconcileable

    . The President ' s Message , proposing the abrogation of the law of limited suffrage , and hinting vaguely , but not obscurely , at a personal appeal to the national will , in favour of an unconstitutional prolongation of his term of office , was held by the majority to be a declaration of war . We have recorded week by week the phases of the growing discontent , and the increasing exasperation , and our readera will have foreseen an inevitable struggle . By every form of insult and provocation that could sting a reckless ambition to madness , the Parliamentary chiefs hastened the crisis of which a gang of

    adventurers who had neither character nor fortune to lose , but rather all the prizes of power to gain in the chances of a conflict , would not be slow to take advantage . The audacity of professional brigandage was not wanting at the Elysee . Neither menace nor warning was spared to the distracted and decrepit Parliament : the military force ostentatiously paraded and sedulously debauched by inflammatory appeals and artful promises : the President would lead them ( " the 61 ite of the nation" ) to the conquest of Imperial favours ; his Minister of AVar , a rash and ready instrument of unscrupulous ambition , a thorough despiser of constitutional fictions and civil oaths , tore Barracks the effete decrees

    down from the walls of the of the Assembly as bo much waste paper , and laughed to scorn the right of " direct requisition" of troops for the protection of a Bet of UBeless palaverers : the Bonapartist organs in the Press announced a quick solution of all obstructive forces , without ambiguity and without reticence : the pen of the crapulous quack doctor was exchanged for the stylus of the Gascon fire-eater—then came the speech in the circus denouncing alike Itoyalism and Democracy : stigmatizing the Legislative Power , and proclaiming u fixed xeBolvo to fulfil the mission ( of Imperialism ) " even across a spuce where there wu » no road marked out" : altogether a Homeric hnrungue before the combat .

    The Assembly , meantime , vacillating and vindictive at a momunt when vigour and deciHion wore most urgent ; ever willing to wound , and ever afraid to strike , inviting the assaults it denounced ; llinching from its own acts , endeavouring to burke at the last the bill on the responsibility of the Kxoeuonce moru , when it wan too late , to patcli alliance of hypocrisy and hate ; Buffering itw ; lf outstripped in every popular advance , and away the glory and the thanks of an umllt * enHt ot ll <; ol » n » utation of punishment riHonerH of Lyons ; a fatal and wilful blind-/ Huicidal *««« i >«« : ity for all but sound , fury , » obstruction ; and then , at the last , a dishonest * fulbilieiilion of un uncertain ballot ;—tllc * uttHt IlH l ) ect ° f lll ° National Assembly attt ^

    moment . " '• C , - tive , and ^ W ^ s < tt « mi . ^ yf ' ¦ •"'" ' " t ^ ijc t *»' j ?[' *""" ¦ , , m ») £ \ &ffwin £ {/?* Jr ' C'i ' , ' , ! . ^ SftHte » SC ' j . *' - ¦' ' , / , ' ^ SttBrno ^ C ^ jiff ^ T-ii ^ l * " 1 *^* iffi * y ~ 3 j" $ fy ' jj * f ? f * ' A- Jj * "fc [ T t ^ iiSKlWHfSf K'lw &A corrupt V ^^ a'HotsI ^' wuB ^^ cj yL- ** ' ^ & ^^ * m ** w » .- « moment 1 /''' V ' - 'T ' . tive , and . V ^ M , ' ' Un an alii , ^ ™ , 1 '"' . " tt ^ bo ovi ^^»^ w ^ s ^^ cjyL- * * ' ^

    —misled , depopulated , sacrificed by the impotence of a factious majority to the most inglorious of despotisms . Rumours of an intended Socialist insurrection on Sunday ( the day of the election of a representative ) , in Paris , were industriously circulated by the Government , in order to afford an opportunity for the concentrating of a large force in the capital ; for never was the Socialist party more calm within the As-• embly and without . Ministerial circulars had warned the Prefects of Departments to take measures of precaution against the outbreak of a general insurrection . The War department had surrounded the

    railway stations with troops , and had given orders for the conveyance of regiments from all points . These pretended insurrections had been so often announced , for the purpose of similar demonstrations , with the complicity of the Royalist factions , that they had ceased to alarm ; but on this occasion the farsighted alone discerned that beneath the pretended , lurked a real , insurrection , —an insurrection of power—the long-threatened Coup d ' etat . The forced resignation by General Perrot of his command of the civic force , and the appointment of M . Vieyra ( a man made infemous by acts of brutal violence , and by the wanton destruction of property in the affair of the 13 th of June' 49 ) , as the chief of his staff , and the

    substitu-, tion of General Laewestine , a devoted familiar of the Elysee , in the place of a man esteemed by all parties for his long services and his moderation and integrity of character , was in itself a revolution of authority of the gravest nature . Yet at the same moment M . Guizot was endeavouring to reconcile the two powers , on the ground of an adjournment of aggressive laws and of a proposed revision of the constitution , with some incipient success ; but the hour of reconciliation was past . M . de la Moskowa presents seventy-five Bonapartist petitions , and is received with jeers . He says , " It is no laughing matter , however . " M . de Tinguy , from the opposite benches , sounds his alarum : —

    " If the National Assembly should be obstructed in the exercise of its mandate by a revolutionary event , the members of the Councils General will meet immediately and on pain of dismissal , at the capitals of their Departments , in order to form with the civil and military authorities , which are required under the same penalty to lend their concurrence , a council of public safety , the duty of which shall be to organize and maintain legal resistance until the restoration of the Parliamentary power . "

    The election of the candidate of the Electoral Union , discountenanced by the Executive and by the Opposition , proceeds in the midst of an ominous tranquillity . M . Devinck ( the candidate ) obtains about 4500 votes above the lowest number required to render the election valid . A protest against the law of the 31 st of May , and so in favour of the President ' s initiative in proposing its repeal . Another fatal blow to the dignity and popularity of the Assembly—represented by the majority .

    On Monday last , Paris was calm , lively , and indifferent ; but in the Salle des Conferences of the Assembly disquiet , indignation , ill-concealed alarm and suspicion of the Executive seem to blanch every cheek , and to make every lip quiver with a presentiment of the gathering storm . Where is the pretended republican outbreak ? Wherefore thesecirculars to the prefects , organizing a panic throughout the country , paralyzing industry , and disturbing commercial operations at this critical season of the year ? Is this the way to promote tranquillity ? Yet he told the people not to fear disturbances this winter , but to trust to his fulfilment of the mission , &c , " path not traced out . ' " But it is traced out—by the Constitution ? " Here is a letter 1 have received

    from an elector asking the meaning of it all : he says his town is occupied as in a siege ; the National Guards disarmed ; and yet never were matters more calm . " A crowd of representatives speaking all at once , not without gesticulations , reading letters from the Departments , written by indig nant and timid commercial bourgeois , asking the meaning of it all ! " Interpellations from the Tribune . " " Ah bas ! nothing cornea of it ! " " But the obstinate silence of the Elysee on revision , and reelection , and prorogation : the doubtful threats in the Circus ! " Doubt , indecision , rage , at once ludicrous and painful , on every face .

    Passports for Belgium ! The new emigration has begun . It was whiapered that M . Mole had privately obtained this obliging leave of absence . M . Mole , the Premier emigrS forsooth I Have you seen the new pamphlet , Revision of the Constitution t a rampant diatribe against representative institutions ; a glorification of Cassarium ; suid to be from the pen of a high functionary— " M . ltomicu , par exemple ! " Interpolations , Interpellations ; To such a depth of

    wtuiknt'HH and of fear this poor Assembly has fallen . On this Monday , too , M . Leo de Laborde has to make inquiries about a certain proportion of his on the rccutablishment of " the legitimate and truditional monarchy . " What has M . Dupin , that ancient admirer of the right divine , done with this wholesome proposition ? M . de Larochejucquelin Hies to the succour of his brother cavalier , lie , too , had laid a similar proposition on the tablo ; mo had M . Bouhier

    de l'Ecluse , another most resnectahlZTlTI "" want to know ( says ^ M . LeoTetSdJS 'J ' and how we are to get out of this « RepublS T only propose an Appeal to the People ^ ' ^ * bantering between the honourable Legitimist B 1 , 5 ° . S ? malin President , who . it seems , had advS i \ - drawal of the proposition as likel y to i ^^ - cauae . No ! No ! , says M . Dupin , ' •" dXu t ° ? into my mouth ; I . aid it did not affect 2 n rds way . " " Surely / ' repliesM . de Laborde , «? he e * 7 sibihty of our President would not suffer bv th ? ceptance of my proposition more than by his « ii J ? " at the Banquet of Dijon" ( when M L BT T * L ce denounced the bad will of the Assembly ' and K ^ at a " personal" Government ) . y * filnted

    " I am not here ( says M . Dupin , with all the dienitv at his command ) to put the Monarchy to the vnl President of a Republican Assembly , for me as f ' all , the Constitution , is the law of laws ; to infrim ? upon the Constitution so long as it exists unrevispH is the shortest road to anarchy . " These words a saluted with general cheers . The order of the day is carried by an immense majority ; only four voices in favour of Legitimacy i Even M . Berryer , the Avocat du Rot , and the conciliator of the Elysee , smuggles himself into a corner and in visibly interrupts his friend . Ah ! M . Berryer you would serve two masters ; and you , MM . de Laborde and de Larochejacquelin , propose an Appeal to the People ! Really a capital solution ; perhaps the best and the only one ; if you should have it sooner than you expect ; Appeal to the People !

    So on Monday , December 1 , 1851 , exit Right Divine ; its pall borne by three devoted friends of the family ! But the Appeal to the People ; that is a game others can play too . On Monday night there was a grand reception at the Elysee . Never was M . Louis Bonaparte ( we are told ) more gay , more light hearted , more selfpossessed . Perhaps there was even more of ease and abandon in his manner than usual . It was more like the air of a man whose heart grows lighter with his purse , and who feels all the world before him where to choose . The saloons of the Elysee were crowded . The Minister at War is the last to take his leave at two

    a . m . The other Ministers were present as usual . All Paris is gone to bed quietly , without dreaming of revolution . The Cercle de l'TJnion , the Maison Doree are alive with lamps and petit soupers , and sparkling with wit , and beauty , and frolic . The new partition of MM . Limnander and St . Georges , at the Opera Comique , is critically discussed , and the delicious melodies of the score are ?• humming " about you . Others are planning mischief for the approaching

    Bals d'Opera . At the Jockey Club , whist parties , at high stakes , are taking no note of the hour , Among the players is M . de Morny an intimate of M . Louis Napoleon , an habitu 6 of the Jockey Club , a nightly player . He cannot be thinking of coups d ' etat . All the rest of Paris , the bourgeoisie , the English quartier , the Faubourgs , the prisons , are asleep ; happily forgetful of President and Assemblies , of revolution and reaction , M . de Morny is playing

    whist at the Jockey Club . All the guests have left the Elys 6 e . The President has retired into his cabinet , and is w riting " affectionate letter to M . de Thorigny , and also to the Ministers , declaring that his mind is made up—that he cannot allow himself to be sacrificed by his enemies , who are conspiring at that mo ment ; but that , ashe is unwilling to compromise them in any way by implicating them in his acts , he thinks it better theshould resi "

    y gn . . , Between two and four a . m . a whole army ia suddenly in motion . Before certain houses , notably at 6 , Faubourg St . Honor 6 , soldiers are g rounding arm s ; and an officer demands admittance at this untimely hour for a visit to Changarnier , who attempts to harangue the soldiers , but they drown his voice with jhe beat of drumn . At the same moment in other ' streets similar visits are taking place . December

    On tho morning of Tuesday , the 2 nd of , the anniversary of the battle of Austerlitz , the peaceable citizens of Paris awako to find the ** " * occupied by troops , and to read the proclamations oi the walls , announcing a military revolution tommenccd if not accomplished , and " amoio Bw eepwg extinction , " nays the Times , " of legislative autho rity , and a more utter contempt for tho reprcaentativc of a great people , than has been witnessed « mcc i dissolution of the Long Parliament or tho ox vtoo . of the Council of 600 from the Orangery oi o C 1 Tlie"ion . thrcatencd coup d'ttat has at last come off . It has been prepared de lonyue mam . JNot . u two and four a . m . could thcao V ^ maU ^ * been written , printed , and posted , tho new M « J ^ Hummonedf n-host of representative *" ^ f ' \ 0 the Paris covered with troops . The P" ^"" *^ „« , * People , is countersi gned by M . de Mori jr . t « nt Minister of tho Interior , who was p laying the Jockey Club at two a . m . invited to This is tho hrst proclamation wo are mvi read : — , ,, , " In the Name of the French People " Tho l » roHidont of tho ltopubhc dcc " ;* T . " Art 1 . Tho National Am >« mbly is du ^ lved .

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    1150 ffftl Heaiie V * [ Saturday ,

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Dec. 6, 1851, page 1150, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1912/page/2/