n France continue to present features of extraordinary
interest. The election, of which we gave the general result in our last
Number, seems to have fortified Louis Napoleon, for the present, on his
Presidential throne, and he has gone on without obstacle in the
accomplishment of his plans. The official returns show 7,439,219 votes in
his favor, and 640,737 against him. On New Year's day the issue of the
election was celebrated with more than royal magnificence. Cannon were
fired at the Invalides at ten in the morning--seventy discharges in all,
ten for each million of votes recorded in his favor; and at noon the
President went to Notre Dame, where _Te Deum_ was performed amid gorgeous
and dazzling pomp. The scene was theatrical and imposing. All Paris was
covered with troops, and the day was one of universal observance. From
Notre Dame Louis Napoleon returned to the Tuileries, where the reception
of the authorities took place, and a banquet was given at which four
hundred persons sat down. The day before he had received the formal
announcement by the Consultative Commission of the result of the election.
M. Baroche, the President of the Commission, in announcing it, said that
"France confided in his courage, his elevated good-sense, and his love: no
government ever rested on a basis more extensive, or had an origin more
legitimate and worthy of the respect of nations." In reply Louis Napoleon
said that France had comprehended that he departed from legality only to
return to right: that she had absolved him, by justifying an act which had
no other object than to save France, and perhaps Europe, from years of
trouble and anarchy: that he felt all the grandeur of his new mission, and
did not deceive himself as to its difficulties. He hoped to secure the
destinies of France, by founding institutions which respond at the same
time to the democratic instincts of the nation, and to the desire to have
henceforth a strong and respected government. He soon issued a decree
re-establishing the French eagle on the national colors and on the Cross
of the Legion of Honor, saying that the Republic might now adopt without
umbrage the souvenirs of the Empire. On the 28th of December, the
Municipal Council of the Department of the Seine was dissolved and
re-constructed by a decree--thirteen of the old members, most distinguished
by intellect, experience, and character, being superseded because they
would not make themselves subservient to L