“SENATORS AND DEPUTIES,—GENTLEMEN,—The difficulties and dangers which our general situation presents cannot be compared to any of the crises through which the Empire has hitherto passed. I was obliged, first of all, in order to guard the rights of the Empire, to augment the effective force of our armies at various points, and to call under arms 700,000 combatants. Next I considered it a duty to try, by means of essential reforms, to put an end, with God’s help, to the disorder of the situation, and thus to insure our future in a permanent fashion. It is evident that, thanks to the resources with which Providence has endowed our country, and the aptitudes of our subjects, a good administration would enable us in a short time to make considerable progress. If we have not reached the level of progress of other parts of the civilised world, the cause of this must be traced to the instability of the institutions necessary to the State, and of the laws and regulations issuing therefrom. This instability proceeded from everything, being in the hands of an absolute Government, which disregarded the salutary principle of common deliberation. The progress effected by civilised States, the security and wealth they enjoy, are the fruit of the participation of all in the enactment of laws and in the administration of public affairs. This is why we thought it necessary to seek in that course the means of arriving at progress, and of enacting and enforcing laws adopted by the common consent of the population. For this purpose I have granted and promulgated the Constitution. By the promulgation of the Constitution, I have not simply designed to invite the population to share in the direction of public affairs; I have had the firm resolution of employing the deliberative system as an effective means for the amelioration of the administrative system of the country, to preserve it from maladministration and absolutism. Irrespective of these fundamental advantages, the Constitution guarantees the unity of the governed, and confirms the principle of the welfare and fraternal solidarity of the population; for our illustrious ancestors, having, by God’s grace, extended their possessions and aggrandised the Empire, have combined under their rule a large number of peoples. These peoples being of various nationalities and religions, it was desirable that a uniform law should unite and protect them all. I give thanks to Divine Providence for this legitimate aspiration being at length realised. Henceforth all my subjects will be considered children of the same country, and will be placed under the protection of one law. They will be designated by the name borne by the illustrious race of the Founders of the Empire—a name associated with the glorious annals of a history of 600 years. I have a firm conviction that from this moment all my subjects will unite their efforts to make the