But another steamer has come in with news; and France is all the talk. The elections are over; the _Modérés_ have triumphed; the National Assembly has convened, and the Provisional Government is at an end. _Vive Lamartine!_ Of course the stock of the republic takes a rise, but holders are not firm. The bloodshed at Rouen, the _émeutes_ at Elbœuf and Limoges, and the threats of the _Communistes_, do not precisely inspire confidence. Still, we are so far surprised, and those who have predicted favourably for France grow a little more sanguine in their hopes. I am glad to say that Louis Blanc has no sympathisers here. All are convinced that Lamartine will make the best of it, and that, if he fails, the republic will be suffocated and expire in a stench. For one, it seems to me that Lamartine is not bad enough to encounter successfully the frantic malice of his opponents, and that their eventual success is certain. Already, things have very likely taken a decisive turn, and by the time this letter reaches you, the doings of the Assembly will have enabled you to conjecture whether the nation is going by the long way, or the short cut, to Henry Fifth. As all will be stale before you can read what I now write, I will not presume to predict the immediate results; but I am sure that the assembling of such a set as have been returned to the legislature, would be enough to blow up the strongest government on earth. Jew, Dominican, pastor and bishop, poet and butcher, all in their tricoloured sashes--was there ever such a full-blown tulip-bed of liberty, equality, and fraternity!