[From the Constitutionnel, May 2, 1865.]
An important communication was made yesterday to the senate and legislative chambers.
The report of the sitting of the legislative chambers is now before our readers; that of the senate we will publish to-morrow.
The communication refers to a despatch addressed by the minister of foreign affairs to our representative at Washington, to apprise him of the sentiments of the imperial government on learning of the horrible crime committed in the United States.
France is a country of noble feelings and generous thoughts; in this direction no nation goes before it; here all countries follow France: everybody knows that on the first news of the assassination of President Lincoln and of the Secretary of State, Mr. Seward, the Emperor charged one of his aides-de-camp to express to the minister of the United States the affliction and horror which these abominable outrages occasioned him.
To-day his excellency M. Rouher, in the admirable language of a statesman and an honest man, stamped with infamy, and in the most indelible manner, the crime that had been committed, and showed that its first punishment was its impotency. The reading of the despatch of M. Drouyn de Lhuys did not make a less powerful impression. It was impossible that a noble policy should meet with more faithful and more eloquent interpreters. Thus the observations of the minister of state and the despatch of the minister of foreign affairs have obtained the unanimous approbation of the legislative chamber. The language of Mr. President Schneider is not less noteworthy, and it may be said that this sitting will send across the Atlantic the thoughts of the Emperor and the voice of France.