In the days when the Beginning of Summer has passed and Xiaoman is approaching, the election of the Paris Legislative Assembly is drawing to a close.
On the night when the election results were announced, it rained heavily in Paris.
Although the rain was pouring down, the lights in the Palais Bourbon were still bright.
All the candles on the crystal chandelier hanging from the ceiling have been lit, and the entire National Assembly Hall is enveloped in candlelight.
Not only the crystal chandelier, but also two candles were lit on the rostrum. Under the candlelight, Speaker Mastela sat on the rostrum with a straight face, waiting for the parliament to begin.
The time gradually came to 8 o'clock in the evening, the rain gradually decreased, and the sound of insects came from the alleys in Paris. Amidst the continuous sound of insects, the first session of the Legislative Assembly officially began.
Speaker Mastela banged the gavel in his hand and shouted: "Quiet!"
The originally noisy parliament fell silent for a moment, and people all looked at the "roly-poly" Mastela on the rostrum.
"Cough...cough." Facing the silent parliament and the members who were all looking at him, Mastra cleared his throat and said: "Members, after two months of preparations and elections, we wave goodbye to the Constituent Assembly.
We have finally established a legislative assembly. The French Republic has moved from constitution to legislation. This is a victory for democracy!"
As soon as Marast finished speaking, thunderous applause erupted from the audience. Among them, the original Party of Order and now the "Freedom Alliance" applauded most vigorously.
After experiencing military exercises and coup threats in January, the Republicans and the Montagnards completely lost their ability to compete with the Party of Order. Many moderate republican MPs joined the Party of Order, which directly caused the Party of Order to lose power in the next two months.
The Party of Order, which gained 450 seats in one fell swoop and occupied a majority of seats, successfully changed its name to the "Free Alliance". How could they not be grateful to the Legislative Assembly.
The Mountain Party, which played the loser role in the January military parade, also won 240 seats, naturally becoming the "second largest party" in parliament.
[There are three major parties in the parliament.]
As for the Republicans, they were even more miserable, winning only 60 seats.
Under the strong opposition of the Party of Order, the Republicans, who once had a close number of seats to the Party of Order, were completely driven out.
The Montagnards instead became the second target of expulsion from the Party of Order.
The giants of the Party of Order, including Thiers, obviously do not want to see the existence of a guy who retains the mark of Robespierre, especially Catholic rightists like Montalembert, who hate this guy even more.
Already gearing up to take action against the Mountain Party.
The Montagnards know nothing about all this. Having inexplicably become the second largest party in parliament, they can only choose to take it one step at a time.
After Chief Mastracon finished his official speech, the next step was the speech and report by government representative Odilon Barrow.
Odilon Barrow, who held the speech in hand, walked up to the rostrum, put the speech on the rostrum, straightened his body, made a move like a competitor, and said in a standard Parisian accent: "First of all, on behalf of the government, I would like to express my congratulations on the establishment of the Legislative Assembly.
!”
"Okay!" the Party of Order shouted loudly.
Odilon Barrow showed a confident smile and continued: "In the past six months, our government has overcome all difficulties and tried to reduce expenditures as much as possible while keeping everything unchanged..."
Odilon Barotian shamelessly claimed that under his wise leadership, the French government's expenditures in the first half of the year not only did not exceed expenditures, but also had some surpluses.
However, he forgot that his two policies of restoring salt tax and wine tax brought France nearly 100 million francs in fiscal revenue. However, the fiscal expenditure balance was only less than 20 million francs. In other words, in the first half of 1849,
Annual expenditures have exceeded those in the first half of 1848.
"I believe that France's economy will definitely get better and better in the future!" After finishing his report, Odilon Barrow bowed to the congressmen present like a victorious general and waited for their inquiries.
"Mr. Prime Minister, I would like to ask!" Ludru Roland stood up and questioned Odilon Barrow. He wanted to expose Barrow's lies: "You keep saying that the government has not overspent, but as far as I know the government has greatly
It exceeded the government’s budget for the previous year, and you must know that one second ago we had not restored the salt tax and wine tax!”
"At that time, we did not abolish the personal progressive tax!" Odilon Barro sneered. After the June Revolution, the Montagnards and the Republicans joined forces to abolish the personal progressive tax.
"Now is not the time to talk about this!" Ludru Roland said angrily, and then calmed down and said: "I would like to ask Mr. Prime Minister how to explain the public bonds recently issued to the society by the Ministry of Public Works. I heard that Guangdi
The issuance amount of a batch of bonds is already nearly 20 million. Are all these bonds used for government expenditures?"
[The actual amount of the first batch of public debt is 200 million francs.]
"This is a bond specially issued by the Department of Public Works for the purpose of building railways! Everything is financed and lost by the Department of Public Works, and of course it is not included in it!" Odilon Barrow responded immediately and said confidently: "We have already
We have formulated complete railway investment and management regulations to ensure that the previous situation will not occur! Senator Ludru, we are stimulating France's weak economy and boosting employment and consumption in France. Moreover, the public works department is responsible for its own profits and losses. Parliament
It has no power to interfere with the operation of the department!”
Odilon Barrow's explanation left Ludru Roland unable to refute. Unemployment has always been a major problem in the Republic.
"As far as I know, the construction of the Paris-Marseille railway has begun. I believe it won't be long before we can reach Marseille directly!" Odilon Barrow said, changing the concept: "These railways do not need to cost the country a penny.
!”
The Party of Order, who knew the inside story, immediately applauded, which made both the Montagnards and the Republicans, who wanted to find trouble, a little reluctant.
Having achieved his goal, Odilon Barrow stepped down amidst applause. Mastela came on stage again to announce to all the members present the seats of their respective parties. After the first legislative assembly, everyone left the assembly.
Odilon Barrot, Thiers, Molay, the Duke of Broglie (legitimist), the Count of Montalembert, and the Count of Falou met to talk in the Rue Poitiers after the parliament.
"Mr. Prime Minister, your speech was so good! That guy Roland was almost driven crazy!" Montalembert, who was sitting on the sofa, praised Odilon Barrow in a gloating tone.
Duke Broy suddenly interjected: "By the way, you noticed that the Italian boy's loyal lackey didn't seem to be here today!"
[Referring to Chief Secretary Pesini]
"Persigny may be helping his master build his "little toy"!" Thiers said with a slightly sarcastic tone.
"Little toy?" Duke Broglie's eyes were full of doubts. Having just entered Paris from the countryside, he didn't understand what Thiers meant.
"It's the Military Secretariat! Our President's thinking seems to be still stuck in the Revolutionary Era. It's no longer an era when whoever controls the army controls Paris!"
Thiers, who had experienced two dynasties, obviously no longer believed in the idea of relying on the army to dominate Paris. In his view, the army was just a dispensable armed force.
You have not seen how Charles X and Louis Philippe, who controlled the army, fell from the throne. Only by firmly holding on to the National Assembly can we seize the future.
