The period of delay expired yesterday; Monsieur de Sallenauve continues to absent himself from your sittings, and no letter has reached M.le president asking for further leave of absence.This indifference to the functions which Monsieur de Sallenauve appeared to have solicited with so much eagerness [slight agitation on the Left] would be, in any case, a grave mistake; but when connected with an accusation that seriously compromises the deputy elect, it must be regarded as altogether unfortunate for his reputation.[Murmurs on the Left.Approbation from the Centre.] Compelled to search for the solution of a difficulty which may be said to be without precedent in parliamentary annals, your committee, in the adoption of suitable measures, finds itself divided into two very distinct opinions.The minority whom Irepresent--the committee consisting of but three members--thinks that it ought to submit to you a resolution which I shall call radical, and which has for its object the cutting short of the difficulty by returning the question to its natural judges.Annul hic et nunc the election of Monsieur de Sallenauve, and send him back to the voters by whom he was elected and of whom he is so unfaithful a representative.Such is one of the solutions I have the honor to present to you.[Agitation on the Left.] The majority, on the contrary, are of opinion that the will of the electors cannot be too highly respected, and that the faults of a man honored by their confidence ought not to be discussed until the utmost limits of forbearance and indulgence have been passed.
Consequently your committee instruct me to suggest that you grant to Monsieur de Sallenauve a further delay of fifteen days [murmurs from the Centre; "Very good! very good!" from the Left]; being satisfied that if after that delay Monsieur de Sallenauve does not present himself or give any other sign of existence, it will be sufficient proof that he has thrown up his election, and the Chamber need not be dragged on his account into irritating and useless debates.[Murmurs of various kinds.]
M.le Colonel Franchessini, who during the foregoing speech was sitting on the ministers' bench in earnest conversation with the minister of Public Works, here demanded the floor.
The President.--M.de Canalis has already asked for it.
M.de Canalis.--Gentlemen, M.de Sallenauve is one of those bold men who, like myself, are convinced that politics are not forbidden fruit to any form of intellect, and that in the poet, in the artist, as well as in the magistrate, the administrator, the lawyer, the physician, and the property-holder, may be found the stuff that makes a statesman.In virtue of this community of opinion, M.de Sallenauve has my entire sympathy, and no one can be surprised to see me mount this tribune to support the proposal of the majority of your committee.I cannot, however, agree to their final conclusion; and the idea of our colleague being declared, without discussion, dismissed from this Chamber through the single fact of his absence, prolonged without leave, is repugnant to my reason and also to my conscience.You are told:
"The absence of M.de Sallenauve is all the more reprehensible because he is under the odium of a serious accusation." But suppose this accusation is the very cause of his absence--["Ha!
ha!" from the Centre, and laughter.] Allow me to say, gentlemen, that I am not, perhaps, quite so artless as Messieurs the laughers imagine.I have one blessing, at any rate: ignoble interpretations do not come into my mind; and that M.de Sallenauve, with the eminent position he has filled in the world of art, should seek to enter the world of politics by means of a crime, is a supposition which I cannot admit a priori.Around a birth like his two hideous spiders called slander and intrigue have every facility to spread their toils; and far from admitting that he has fled before the accusation that now attacks him, I ask myself whether his absence does not mean that he is now engaged in collecting the elements of his defence.[Left: "Very good!" "That's right."Ironical laughter in the Centre.] Under that supposition--in my opinion most probable--so far from arraigning him in consequence of this absence, ought we not rather to consider it as an act of deference to the Chamber whose deliberations he did not feel worthy to share until he found himself in a position to confound his calumniators?
A Voice.--He wants leave of absence for ten years, like Telemachus, to search for his father.[General laughter.]
M.de Canalis.--I did not expect so poetical an interruption;but since the memory of the Odyssey has been thus evoked, I shall ask the Chamber to kindly remember that Ulysses, though disguised as a beggar and loaded with insults, was yet able to string his bow and easily get the better of his enemies.[Violet murmurs from the Centre.] I vote for leave of absence for fifteen days, and that the Chamber be again consulted at the expiration of that time.
M.le Colonel Franchessini.--I do not know if the last speaker intended to intimidate the Chamber, but, for my part, such arguments have very little power upon me, and I am always ready to send them back whence they came.[Left: "Come! come!"]
The President.--Colonel, no provocations!
M.le Colonel Franchessini.--I am, however, of the opinion of the speaker who preceded me; I do not think that the delinquent has fled to escape the accusation against him.Neither that accusation, nor the effect it will produce upon your minds, nor even the quashing of his election would be able at this moment to occupy his mind.Do you wish to know what M.de Sallenauve is doing in England? Then read the English papers.For the last week they have rung with the praises of a new prima donna who has just made her first appearance at the London opera-house.[Violet murmurs; interruption.]
A Voice.--Such gossip is unworthy of this Chamber!