y the monarchists of both branches of the Bourbons. The great
aim of these parties was the prolongation of the president's official
term, and the enacting of laws to prohibit and punish public banquets
and public meetings of a political nature. For this purpose, and for
any purpose of repression (as he had said in a speech at Djion), the
assembly was always ready to respond to the demands of the president
of the republic. Although so ready to uphold the ministry in their
repressive measures there was a determination in the assembly to
frustrate their power as the ministry of Louis Napoleon. This they soon
effected by a formal vote of censure, for using improper influence in
order to obtain from the provinces, through the medium of the public
functionaries, petitions for a revision of the constitution.

The new ministry was still in the interest of the president of the
republic. The assembly, which had been prorogued on the 10th of August,
recommenced its duties on the 4th of November. Business began by a long
"message" presented in the name of the president of the republic, the
main feature of which, and that which excited most attention in the
assembly, and in France, was a proposal to abolish the electoral law of
the 31st of May, 1850, and to re-establish the electoral law of the 15th
of March, 1849. The last named provided that all citizens of age, who
have resided six months in the commune were electors. The law of May,
1850, abolished universal suffrage. That act of the legislature was
a revolution; the assembly by passing it virtually abolished the
constitution, which could be only legitimate as the act of a constituent
assembly. The assembly was to a large extent elected under the influence
of the priests, who struggled incessantly to accomplish a reactionary
policy. From the moment that universal suffrage was abolished, the
great mass of the people abetted the pretensions of the president of the
republic, whose writings had always advocated universal suffrage. Thus
the assembly secured the ascendancy of Louis Napoleon by the very
means which they believed most efficacious in thwarting his power and
restoring that of the Bourbons. When the reading of the message of the
president of the republic terminated, the assembly presented a scene
of strange agitation, which was rendered still more intense when the
minister by whom the message was read, M. Thurigny, demanded "urgency."
A violent discussion ensued upon this d