“The succession to the Chamber of Peers has received a blow from which it cannot recover itself.
“The tri-colored flag is re-established throughout all France, and carries into all foreign countries the love and the example of liberty.
“The municipalities, the councils of departments, chosen by the old government from amongst the enemies of liberty, have been replaced by elective administrations, and established as a sort of republican and administrative federation. Behold then, in spite of hesitations, obstacles, and delays, we have advanced thus far at present! It remains to know what we have to do, for a complete revolution.
“1. To lower as much as we can the census of the new electoral law; even to introduce there, if possible, such amendments as shall tend to give an indirect participation of the representation of the people to those who are not admitted by election.
“2. To render the administration, communal and departmental, as popular as we can, increasing their importance and diminishing that of the prefects who have not been commissioned by the executive power.
“3. That each Chamber of Deputies should find itself reorganized into a large party by more than one hundred resignations, which will give to each side a force of nearly one hundred voices; and as it will be at present impossible to dissolve the Chamber before the end of the session, as certain laws pertaining to the National Guard necessitate the continuation of the actual session, it is desirable that the next session should give to us a new Chamber; since the new law, though imperfect, will necessarily be very much preferable to the actual law.
“There will surely be a great diminishing of the civil list, and of the reforms appertaining to the budget. As to the rest, those of the budget can be modified at each session. It is necessary to demand the reform of the penal code.”
La Fayette here leaves this paper unfinished, but enough is given to form an opinion of his ideas of political reform.
The following is from Galigani’s Messenger:—
“A deputation of gentlemen from Philadelphia have been received at the Hôtel de Ville by the prefect of the Seine. The Americans presented an address expressive of the admiration entertained by the inhabitants of Philadelphia for the noble conduct of the Parisians during the glorious days of July. The deputation was introduced by General La Fayette. In the evening a grand dinner was given in honor of the occasion, at which Mr. Rives, the American minister, returned thanks for a toast of ‘the United States and the health of President Jackson’; in this speech Mr. Rives addressed the company as follows:—