te. He was elected president of the republic, and 1851
witnessed, through his instrumentality, events of great magnitude, and
which exercised potent influence upon the public mind and policy of
England.

There can be no doubt that from the hour Louis Napoleon took his place
in the National Assembly he had resolved, by the aid of the partizans
of his name, the priests, and their agents connected with the press, to
undermine the assembly, and hold it up to the ridicule and resentment of
the country. The hostility of that body to universal suffrage, and the
advocacy of that political theory by the Buonapartists, gave to the
president of the French republic a popularity with the "reds," which
otherwise he never could have obtained.

In the latter part of 1850, a great review of troops took place at
Sartory, during which cries, from many of the soldiers, of "Vive
l'Empereur" were heard, and were encouraged by the generals in the
Buonapartist interest. Some officers who repressed those exclamations,
and others who refused to join in them, were dismissed by Louis
Napoleon's executive. These circumstances raised formidable debates in
the assembly, and afterwards led to votes and demonstrations hostile to
Louis Napoleon. On the other hand a large number of the representatives,
who were indebted for their return chiefly to the priesthood, and what
remained of a landed aristocracy, used every instrumentality they could
bring into requisition to damage the executive, to lower the authority
of the president, and to create a monarchical reaction. While they
brought forth as a crime the fact that the soldiers had cried "Vive
l'Empereur" they took every opportunity themselves to utter the party
shouts of "Vivent les Bourbons!" or "Vivent les Orleans!" A singular
circumstance exhibited the efforts of a large proportion of the
assembly to bring about a monarchical reaction. During the prorogation a
permanent committee was formed, in which a small minority of republicans
was placed by the votes of the assembly. There were twelve reactionists;
these men were found to be in constant communication with the two
branches of the exiled Bourbons. Six of them spent most of the time
of the prorogation at Wiesbaden, with the _pseudo_. court of the elder
Bourbon branch; the other six went to England, and were constantly at
Claremont with the Orleanist branch of the exregal house. As M. Flaudin
taunted these sections of the assembly with desiring, t