d.

"The committee charged with examining the electoral returns for the
presidency entered the chamber at four o'clock, when the president
immediately called to the tribune M. Waldeck Rousseau, the reporter of
the committee, who read the report. It stated that seven million three
hundred and forty-nine thousand citizens of the republic had voted at
the presidential election, and that the votes had been divided in the
following proportion over the surface of the country:--

M. Louis Napoloen had obtained ... 5,434,226 suffrages.

General Cavaignac ............... 1,448,107 "

M. Ledru-Rollin ................. 370,119 "

M. Raspail........................ 36,900 "

M. Lamartine ................... 17,910 "

General Changamier ............. 4,790 "

Votes lost........................ 12,600 "

Among the latter were many containing unconstitutional denominations,
and the committee had besides denounced to the minister of the interior
for prosecution a few individuals guilty of acts of violence. At
Grenoble, in particular, public tranquillity was slightly disturbed.
The committee had, moreover, examined several protests addressed to it
against the election of M. Buonaparte. In one of them he was declared
ineligible, because he had forfeited his rights as a Frenchman by his
naturalisation in Switzerland. The members of the committee however
had, by a unanimous decision, passed to the order of the day on that
difficulty. By the number of the votes, and the regularity of the
operation, M. Louis Napoleon was the real elect of the nation, and the
assembly had only to order that the executive power be transferred to
his hands. After paying a tribute of praise and gratitude to General
Cavaignac, which was ratified by the loud acclamations of the entire
assembly, M. Rousseau concluded by calling upon it to proclaim the
president, and exclaimed, 'Have confidence, God protects France.'

"General Cavaignac, having then ascended the tribune, said, 'I have
the honour of informing the National Assembly that the members of the
cabinet have just sent me their collective resignation; and I now come
forward to surrender the powers with which it had invested me. You will
understand, better than I can express, the sentiments of gratitude which
the recollection of the confidence placed in me by the assembly, and
of its kindness to me, will leave in my hear