[From the Siècle, May 2, 1865.]
We yesterday expressed our opinion that the legislative chambers had a great duty to perform; we are able to state to-day that that duty has been nobly accomplished. The words uttered by M. Rouher, minister of state, respond to the feelings of the whole of France.
The despatch of the minister of foreign affairs is written in the same spirit, and these two declarations corroborate each other, and perfectly agree with the national feeling.
The American republic is partly the work of France. Our most eminent fellow-citizens watched over it in its infancy. In troublous times it has served as a counterpoise to the omnipotence at sea which England pretended to exercise, who was then our rival but now our ally.
When all the European parliaments had testified their sympathy with the United States, it would have been an anomaly if the legislative body of France failed to honor the martyr to progress, the firm and devoted virtuous man, who, in the midst of the horrors of a protracted civil war, never for a moment despaired of the future of the great cause of civilization, and who vigorously upheld [Page 143] the great principles of the American Constitution. Let us observe that the president of the legislative body, in carrying out the wishes of the government with respect to these communications, gave expression to noble sentiments, with which the Chamber identified itself; and this unanimous concurrence is not the least significant sympton of the power of public opinion in our democratic France.
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