FRANCE.

Lyttelton Times, Volume III, Issue 118, 9 April 1853, Page 10

FRANCE.

The first day (21st November,) for taking the popular vote on the decree of the Senatus-C6n-sultum, re-establishing the empire, passed over ■without the least agitation. The eagerness of the electors in Paris was not very great. The ministerial journals state that telegraphic despatches received from the interior show that the provinces are voting for the Empire en , masse. The eagerness of the people increased on the following day, and there was a general belief that the number of voters would far exceed those of the 20th December, 1851. Of the votes, few indeed would be against the Empire, and Louis Napoleon would be elected Emperor by a greater majority than that which confirmed the coup d'etat of the 2nd December, 1851, and raised him to the Dictatorship. Of 20,000 votes in the army of Paris, only 353 were negative, whole regiments voting unanimously for the Empire. In the navy, as iar as the voting had gone, the results were similar. It is said that the Empire will be proclaimed withoutfestivities ; yet it is certain that preparations are being made at the Hotel deVille for a fete. Though the term " Sire' 1 is not applied to Louis Napoleon, we are told that his household begin to use the title of " Majeste" when addressing him. The Princes and Princesses of the Imperial family will be called Imperial Highnesses ; the Princes of the house not recognised as heirs will be styled French Princes, and with the title of Highnesses only; the Ministers, Excellency, and the term Monseigneur will, as ■in the time of the Monarchy, be applied when addressing them. The Marshals will have the same title. The inscription of Repuhlique Frangaise is beginning to disappear from the public monuments, and, from frequent practice, the labour of effacing is very light. After the revolution of 1830, the jieur de lys of the elder Bourbons were effaced rapidly; in 1848 all Hoyalist emblems disappeared sirnultaneouslv ; in 1850 Republicanism already began to lose much of its external signs, and at the present moment those that remained are making way for the Imperial adornments. There seems now great probability of the Empire being proclaimed on the 2nd of December. It is again said that an allowance will be given to the Deputies—or, at least, offered to them—to the amount of 10,000 f. each; that is to say, at that rate for the period of the session. The Baden correspondent of the Cologne Gazette writes from Carlsruhe, that the betrothin en t of Louis Napoleon with the Princess Carola of Vasa may now be regarded as a certainty; it has only been brought about after

the conquest of great difficulties. Not only were high political advisers against the match, but many warning voices were raised among the family connections of the lady to remind her of the unhappy lot of another Princess of Baden. But the policy of the Grand Duchess Stephanie, grandmother of the young Princess, and the firmness of the bride, have triumphed over every obstacle.