THE NEW PRESIDENT OF THE FRENCH REPUBLIC.

Lyttelton Times, Volume LI, Issue 5599, 4 February 1879, Page 5

THE NEW PRESIDENT OF THE FRENCH REPUBLIC.

Oar telegrams yesterday. moaning: rather suddenly informed us of an important: chance in French politics, which haatreeoltedf in the displacement of Marshal M'Mhhon front the' post of President of the French. BbpoWio. “Men of the Time” gives the following sketch of M, Grevy, his successor. “ Geevy, Feancois PatteJ Jnsaa, -a trench statesman, born at drez, in the Jura, Ang. 15* ISISt. waa edu* cated in the College of Poligny, afterwards studied law in Parts, and .ia due-coarse was admitted an advocate. He took past in the Revolution of July, ISSO.jand suLsiwentlT was much employed at the bar asTdefender of members of the Radical, party who were charged with the commission of mVliMcal offences. In 1848 he was apponfcecl Commissary of the Provisional Government in his department, and’ was returned to the Constituent Assembly, .heading the list of the successful candidates for the Jura. As a member of the Committee of Justice and Vice-President of. the Assembly, M. Grfvy frequently ascended the tribune, and proved' himself to be one-of the most aide speakers among the democratic- party. While maintaining an indspandont attitude, far removed from the Socialists and, not so far from the Mountain, ho-usually voted with the extreme Left. Above-all, his name is connected with a Radical amendment on the question of the Presidency. He proposed that Articles 41, 43, and 4S of the Constitution should run in the following terms r— ‘ Article 41. The National Assembly delegates the executive power to a citizen who receives the title of President of tho Council of Ministers.* ‘ Article 43. The President of the Council of Ministers is appointed by the National Assembly by secret ballot, and an absolute majority of votes.’ ‘ Article 45. The President of the Council is elected for an unlimited period. The appointment is always revocable.’ This amendment was rejected by 633 votes to 158, at the sitting of Oct. 7, 1843, when the Assembly decided that tho President of the Republic should bo elected by universal suffrage and hold office for four years. After the election of Nor, 10, M. Gravy opposed the Government of Napoleon, and protested against the expedition to Rome. After the coup d'etat , ho held aloof from politics, and confined himself to the practice of his profession. In 1868 he was appointed hatonnier of the order of Advocates, and the following year ho was again returned as Deputy for the Jura. On Feb. 17,1871, M. Gravy was elected President of the National Assembly, then sitting at Bordeaux, and now removed to Versailles, and in discharging the duties of this important office he displayed remarkable tact, judgment, and moderation. He resigned this office in April, 1873, when he was succeeded by M. Buffet. In Oct., 1873, he published a pamphlet, entitled, ‘ The Necessary Government,’ in which he declared that ‘ France has been transformed, and has become a pure Democracy;’ that ‘her first mistake was net to have founded a Constitutional Monarchy when she possessed the elements of one;’ and that ‘ her second mistake would be to attempt to establish it when those elements no longer exist.’ ”