them to arrest Louis Napoleon and send him to
prison, to prorogue the Assembly, and to assume the
dictatorship. General Lamoriciere, also, in a pub-
lished letter, refused to take the oath required ; he de-
clared his readiness to defend France against foreign
ibes whenever she should be attacked, but he would
not take the oath of fidelity to a perjured chief. The
venerable astronomer, Arago, also refused to take
the oath of allegiance required of all connected in any
way with the government. He wrote a firm and dig-
nified letter to the minister notifying him of his pur-
pose, and calling on him to designate the day when it
would be necessary for him to quit the bureau of astron-
omy, with which he had been so closely connected for
half a century. He also informed him that he should
address a circular fetter to scientific men throughout
the world, explaining the necessity which drove him
from an establishment with which his name had been
so long associated, and to vindicate his motives from
suspicion. The minister informed him that, in consid-
eration of his eminent services to the cause of science,
the government had decided not to exact the oath, and
that he coidd therefore retain his post. " These exam-
ples of non-concurrence in the new policy of the Presi-
dent were followed by inferior magistrates in various*
parts of Franco. In several of the departments, mem-
bers of the local councils had refused to take the oaths
of allegiance. The civil courts of Paris had, also, in
one or two instances, asserted their independence by
deciding against the government in prosecutions com-
menced against the j^rcss. On the 23d of April, more-
over, the civil tribunal gave jndgment on the demand



THE ALLIED POWESS IN 1852. 403

made by the princes of the Orleans family to declare
illegal the seizure of the estates of Neuilly and Mon-
ceaux, under the decree of the 22d of January, rela-
tive to the property of the late king, Louis Philippe.
