No. 108.
Mr. Washburne to Mr. Fish.
Paris, April 11, 1873. (Received April 23.)
Sir: Buffet was elected president of the assembly a week ago today by a majority of nineteen votes over Martel, who was the candidate of the government. This success of Buffet is considered a very serious check to M. Thiers, and may lead to important results after the assembly comes together again on the 19th of May. There is no doubt that [Page 251] the country is getting restive under the action of the assembly. The opposition to M. Thiers, and particularly to the republicans, is getting compacted, and the bitterness of feeling against the controlling element of the body is daily increasing. * * *
In my dispatch of last week I spoke of the probability that Count de Rémusat would be a candidate for the assembly to fill a vacancy for this department, (the Seine,) and of the certainty of his election. It is not now so certain, though probable. The recent action of the assembly in the election of Mr. Buffet as its president, and the act it passed some days since suppressing the municipal government of Lyons, have created a profound impression among the republicans of Paris, or rather the more advanced type of them, and they have brought out as their candidate M. Barodet, late mayor of Lyons, legislated out of office, while the more moderate republicans sustain the candidature of Count de Rémusat. The great mass is rallying around the standard of Barodet with a sort of revolutionary ardor. * * *
The assembly adjourned for the recess on Monday night last. M. Thiers came into Paris the next day. I made an official call on him night before last at the Elysée. He seemed very well and cheerful. What do you think of a man seventy-six years old who gives a dinner-party every night of his life, and holds a reception till midnight, and then is up the next morning and at work at five o’clock?
I have, &c.,