The house was now very full; and I was surprised to perceive that, excepting in the upper rows of benches on the left, occupied by the party Rouge, or radicals, there were fewer beards than, on an average, I had been in the habit of meeting in the streets. In a button-hole in the coats of a great many was a slight appearance, about as broad as a piece of bobbin, of a red ribbon. Behind the President, on his right and left, on the platform on which he himself sat, and immediately beneath the inscription, Liberté, Fraternité, Egalité, were two tables, occupied by six clerks, one of whom, in black clothes and a long beard, I repeatedly observed intently mending a long white goose-quill pen; another, also in black, wore a bright scarlet ribbon; another a long scarlet one, and also a long yellow one. In front of the President, on his right and left, but below him appeared also dressed in black, and seated in chairs, eight secretaries undecorated. The buzz of conversation lasted nearly half an hour; the floor of the house was covered with members in groups; and I was admiring the scene, and inwardly wishing its simplicity and sensible arrangements could be copied by the British House of Commons, when three consecutive double rings of the President's little bell were followed by a call, by the black-coated gentlemen with silver-hilted swords, of " En place! en place !"* The President, totally unsupported by any distinction of dress, struck the table with a ruler, and then rang again. At this moment a man in black, ascending the steps of his platform, brought him, in a white soup-plate, a tumbler full of yellow-looking water, apparently weak lemonade. En place I en place!" resounded from all parts of the house. The President rang again, struck the table again with his ruler, waved it at an unruly member, shook his head violently in disapprobation, and, to my utter astonishment, all of a sudden, and in one single instant, just as if a wasp had stung him, he addressed the house in a state of extraordinary excitement. As soon as order was obtained, a member rose from his seat, and said a few words which elicited loud sounds of objection. He instantly fell into an astonishing passion: shaking his right hand at the Rouge party on the upper benches, who answered him furiously, he became most violently excited, until, suddenly stopping, he sat down in a regular rage. The second speaker, who, from the tribune below the Pre* Take your seats! sident, addressed the house for about ten minutes, spoke with more energy and action than is usual among Englishmen, but with great propriety. As, however, the members throughout the house, leaning towards each other, were all talking-indeed, apparently no one was listening to him-the President, sometimes sitting, sometimes standing with his arms hanging down, and sometimes folding them across his breast, repeatedly tapped hard with his ruler, but in vain. A member, stepping into the tribune, replied for about five minutes; then the first speaker came back and renewed his arguments in favor of inserting in the railway bill (which I now began to understand was the subject of discussion) a clause, insisting on a third-class carriage accompanying every train, as was, he said, the case in England. At this moment M. Thiers, entering at the door near the speaker, slowly walked up the floor of the house to his desk. His gait was plain, quiet, and easy. He was very short, had a brown face, totally devoid of any other colour, and gray, or rather grizzled, hair. Directly opposite to me were Generals Cavaignac and Lamoricière, who for some time sat talking together. General Cavaignac's form was tall, elegant, and erect; his hair, cut close all over, was a little bald on the top. He was dressed in a light olive-green coat, buttoned close up, so as to show no shirt. With great apparent affability he occasionally conversed with several other members; but whenever he was not talking he continued, without intermission, whirling his eye-glass very rapidly round the forefinger of his right hand, and then immediately whirling it as rapidly back again. The next speaker, on addressing the house from his seat, was interrupted by murmurs from different parts of the house, of On n'entend pas !"* A great disturbance and loud cries continued, which forced him to leave his seat and ascend the tribune. The President now appeared to take part in the debate. He called, he ranted, he rang, but no one appeared to hear either him or his bell. At this moment Lord Normanby, the British Ambassador, entered the "Tribune of the President of the Republic," and separated only by a low partition, sat down beside me. I could not help thinking how symbolic the uncontrolled and uncontrollable scene before us was of the extreme difficulties he must occasionally have to encounter. We can't hear! As soon as order was restored, or rather as soon as disorder was satiated, several members-a few from their seats, but principally from the tribune-made short speeches on the various clauses of the bill. On commencing, a glassful of yellow fluid, in a white saucer, was invariably placed at their right hand, on the narrow red velvet table of the tribune, by a servant in a blue coat, red collar, and red waistcoat. Usually just before they began to speak they raised it to their lips; in the middle of the speeches they kept sipping it; and on concluding, as a sort of perquisite, they invariably, on leaving the tribune, swigged off whatever was left, and then gently licking their lips, and sometimes their mustachios, walked quietly towards their seats. Several, in the course of their speeches, drank two glasses full. A young man now ascended the tribune, and with a superabundance of galvanic-looking action, which really neither explained nor expressed anything, he opposed, in a short speech, one of the sixty clauses of the bill. The next member began his speech from his place. A number of voices instantly called out, "On n'entend pas!" on which, with the whole energy of his mind, he gave one great convulsive shrug of his entire person, and then with great dignity walked to the tribune. In merely explaining that the line he advocated would be more direct from Paris to Cherbourg than the one proposed in the bill, he threw away an extraordinary quanty of action, and on reading a long list of cold figures, he gradually became so miraculously excited he got into such a violent perspiration, and evinced so much activity and gesticulation that literally I expected to see him jump over the rails of the tribune. One of the ministers, M. Leon Faucher, now rose, and, in repelling some accusations which had been made against the Government, spoke with more than English energy, but with great dignity, eloquence, and effect. In the course of his speech, starting up from his seat close to the wall on the uppermost line of benches on the left, one of the Red Republican members, with his hair almost cut to the quick, with a beard nearly a foot long, and with his right arm diagonally uplifted, suddenly, furiously, and very loudly exclaimed, twice over, alluding, I believe, to some statement in the Government newspaper, "C'est un calomniateur!"* On M. Thiers ascending the tribune a marked and very complimentary silence prevailed. Notwithstanding the disadvantages of his voice, which is not only little, but that little squeaky, he spoke with great ability and effect. Occasionally his wit caused from all parts of the house a joyous laugh (described by the reporters by the word "hilarité "). Very frequently, after making an assertion, he interlaced his short arms upon his chest, but almost before the action—" I pause for a reply!"—was completed, he entirely spoiled its dignity by quickly unfolding them. In the course of his speech, which was not long, to my utter astonishment, I saw him drink off, one after another, three tumblers of the light yellow mixture. - Something that he said I could scarcely comprehend a word of it seemed suddenly to prick very acutely the feelings of the house, for he was contradicted on all sides. A general conversation took place, and for a few seconds everybody seemed as vigorously employed in making the utmost possible noise as the fiddlers at a London oratorio, piled above each other up to the ceiling, when they come to the word "Fortissimo." Amidst this scene, or rather at the heel end of it, the President, on his platform, sat ringing, then arose, then stood beating the table,-then waved his ruler violently at an unruly member, then shook his left hand quickly in disapprobation, and then, with both hands uplifted, appeared as if entreating, but to no purpose whatever. Several members now spoke; the House, however, all of a sudden appeared to be tired; and as the black fingers of each of the three clocks pointed to 6h. 5m., the impatience increased. The Speaker, by bell, by ruler, and by actions of dumb entreaty, endeavoured to prevail on the House to allow the speech from the tribune to come to its close. Everybody, however, seemed to object, and their determination reaching its climax, the House, at 6h. 10m., arose, as if by acclamation, and the members, crossing each other in various directions, all walked out. *He is a calumniator! On coming into the fresh air I found the conrts of the Assembly-as I had left them-swarming alive with soldiers. In various directions I heard sharp words of command followed by the sound of butts of muskets in masses heavily striking the pavement. On passing beneath the great entrance arch, from the summit of which a tricolor flag was flying, and on each side of which was a dragon with a drawn sword, on horseback, I saw before me a large clock, and beneath it, in long large letters, the words "LIBERTÉ, EGALITÉ, FRATERNITÉ.” Lastly, in the square before the entrance-gate, on a pedestal surrounded by iron railings, was seated a colossal statue, holding in her left hand a long staff surmounted by a human hand; her right arm was resting on a shield or tablet, on which was deeply engraved in large letters DROITS LYONS RAILWAY. ALTHOUGH my rapid inspection of the terminus and workshops of the "Chemin de Fer du Nord" had made me slightly acquainted with the mode of working their line by the principal railway company in France, yet, as I afterwards learned that the Paris and Lyons railway was not only under the management of the French Government, but that every effort had been made by it (the Government) to construct the line on the most scientific principles that could be devised, I obtained from the "Ingénieur en Chef" an order, stamped and signed, authorising me, without limitation, to enter every portion of the works I might wish to inspect; and as he was further obliging enough to provide me with a very intelligent guide, I proceeded + Chief Engineer. *The Rights of Man. |