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50 BONAPARTE (NAPOLEON III.) seeking to condone for this rigor by releasing over 1,300 persons who had participated in the outbreak of the preceding year. The acces- sion of a number of ultra republican members in 1850 increased the disappointment of the con- servatives, and on May 31 they passed a law restricting the universal suffrage which had made Louis Napoleon president ; and they fur- ther marked their hostility by grudging him an increased allowance, and by appointing a permanent committee to watch over the public interests during the recess of the legislature. This permanent committee was composed ex- clusively of conservatives; and while several of their leaders conferred with the count de Ohambord in respect to a fusion of the two branches of the Bourbons, Louis Napoleon courted popularity with the masses and the army. After a demonstration in his favor by the troops at Satory, near Versailles, Chan- garnier issued an order prohibiting such man- ifestations, which the president resented by removing him from the military command of Paris (Jan. 9, 1851), whereupon the as- sembly passed a vote of censure against the administration. This led to the formation of a new cabinet and to a conciliatory message, which, like most of Louis Napoleon's state papers, was pervaded with a peculiar philosoph- ical vein of thought; but a majority again de- clined to accord him a larger allowance, and their ill feeling against him was greatly in- creased by the petitions pouring in from all parts of the country demanding an extension of the presidential term, and by Louis Na- poleon's speeches at Dijon and other places, in which he assumed to be the providential pro- tector of France against both legitimists and socialists. Many of the provincial authorities protested against the rejection by the ma- jority of the proposed revision of the constitu- tion for the extension of Louis Napoleon's term of office ; and in this conflict between the assembly and the numerous Bonapartists among the people, the president ingratiated himself still more with the latter by proposing, in addition to the abrogation of the law of May 31 restricting the suffrage, the exercise of the franchise after only six months' res- idence in the place of voting. These mea- sures were rejected by the assembly, and a res- olution was at the same time introduced tend- ing to place the military forces of the capital under the control of the president of that body. This capped the climax of the contest, and Louis Napoleon immediately appointed a new prefect of police, M. de Maupas, and a new commander, Magnan. The latter selected a new corps of officers, composed of devoted Bonapartists, and the president declared that in a crisis he would not, like previous chiefs of state, follow the army, but expect it to fol- low him. The assembly, torn by party wran- gling, was unable to concert measures for the defence of the constitution, while the president matured his schemes. Finally, on Dec. 2, 1851, Louis Napoleon, assisted by Persigny, Morny, Saint-Arnaud, Magnan, Maupas, and other life- long adherents, overthrew the assembly by military force and took possession of the whole government. During the preceding night and early in the morning of that day about 180 mem- bers of the two extreme parties were placed under arrest, and some of them at once sent out of the country ; the national assembly was declared to be dissolved, and its place of meet- ing was guarded by soldiery ; universal suf- frage was proclaimed, and Paris placed in a state of siege. Several members of both par- ties in the assembly hastily assembled, but in vain, to protest against the usurpation, and de- clare the president deposed ; resistance was attempted, but without concert or plan, and chiefly resulted in deluging the principal boule- vards with the blood of innocent spectators, shot down by the soldiery under Canrobert and others (Dec. 4). Louis Napoleon had made such effective preparations that order was speedily restored. His appeal to the people in the general elections (Dec. 20-21) resulted in the confirmation of his usurpation and his election to the presidency for ten years, by over 7,000,000 against less than 1,000,000 negative votes. He promulgated a new constitution, Jan. 14, 1852, reaffirming the principles of 1789, and declaring organic changes in the form of government to be admissible only by the consent of the people ; and on March 28 he relinquished the dictatorship which he had assumed since the coup d'etat, to resume the office of presi- dent. But it soon became manifest, especially from his intimations at Bordeaux on Oct. 9, that he was again bent on disregarding his pledged faith to the republic. The senate, obedient to his behests, voted almost unanimously on Nov. 7 in favor of the restoration of the empire, and he resorted once more to his favorite measure of appealing to the people. The voice of the senate was ratified, Nov. 21-22, by nearly 8,000,000 votes; and on Dec. 2 he ascended the throne as Napoleon III., hereditary em- peror of the French, by the grace of God and by the will of the nation. On Jan. 22, 1853, he in- formed the legislature that, after having become the peer of the anointed heads of old monarchies by the force of new political principles, it would be hardly dignified to gain an artificial admission to their families by intermarriage ; and uttering such democratic reflections, he announced his approaching marriage with Eugenie Marie de Montijo, which union was celebrated on Jan. 29 and 30. Although he had won supporters by declaring peaceful in- tentions, this illusion was speedily dispelled by the Crimean war, in which he embarked with Great Britain, Sardinia, and Turkey. It was alleged that, as the emperor Nicholas had declined to address him as his brother, as is usual among sovereigns, he was the more anxious to join in the war, which resulted in the defeat of Russia. The treaty of peace of March 30, 1856, was concluded in Paris under