H. D’ORLEANS.

The greatest problem which demanded solution from the Provisional Government was how to make twenty-five cents do the work of a dollar.  The first Minister of Finance appointed, threw up his portfolio in despair.  Lamartine refused to sanction any arbitrary means of raising money.  At last, by giving some especial privileges and protection to the Bank of France, and by mortgaging the national forests, a sufficient sum was provided for immediate needs.  The people, too, throughout the provinces, made it a point of honor to come forward and pay their taxes before they were due.  The priests preached this as a duty, for the priests were well disposed towards the Revolution of 1848.  Lamartine had put forth a proclamation assuring priests and people that his Government was in sympathy with religion.

In the Provisional Government itself there were two, if not three, parties,—­the party of order, headed by Lamartine; the Socialists, or labor party, headed by Louis Blanc; and the Red Republicans, or Anarchists, headed by Ledru-Rollin.  The latter was for adopting the policy of putting out of office all men who had not been always republicans.  Lamartine, on the contrary, said that any man who loved France and desired to serve her was not incapacitated from doing so by previous political opinions.

Elections for a Constitutional Assembly, which was to confirm or to repudiate the Provisional Government, were held on March 24, and the new Assembly was to meet early in May.  Meantime all kinds of duties and anxieties accumulated on Lamartine.  The Polish, Hungarian, Spanish, German, and Italian exiles in Paris were all anxious that he should espouse their causes against their own Governments.  He assured them that this was not the mission of the Second French Republic, whatever might have been that of the First, and that the cause of European liberty would lose, not gain, if France, with propagandist fervor, embroiled herself with the monarchical powers.  A deputation of Irishmen, under Smith O’Brien, waited upon him to beg the assistance of fifty thousand French troops in Ireland, “to rid her of the English.”  Lamartine peremptorily refused, saying:  “When one is not united by blood to a people, it is not allowable to interfere in its affairs with the strong hand.”  Smith O’Brien and his followers, deeply mortified, repaired at once to Ledru-Rollin’s Red Republican Club, where they were loudly applauded, and Lamartine condemned.

Meantime there were disturbances everywhere.  Men out of employment, excited by club orators, were ready for any violence.  At Lyons they destroyed the hospitals and orphan asylums, out of mere wantonness.