XLI. La présentation
XLI. The Introduction
Paris carpenters' strike, the Belgian frontier railway bill, and Swiss prisoner Dr. Steiger's escape dominate this issue.
- The French government deployed soldiers to building sites abandoned by striking carpenters, prompting outrage from Le National and radical papers who called the move an abuse of power.
- The Chamber of Peers adopted the Paris-to-Belgian-frontier railway bill by 103 votes to 5, definitively settling a line that had been debated and postponed since 1837.
- Three Swiss guards — Sergeant Kaufmann, Corporal Birrer, and a third man — freed condemned liberal politician Dr. Steiger from the Stadler Tower using an altered master-key, then publicly resigned from Lucerne's service.
- A Canton trade delegate in Canton reported that French merchants spent three months sampling Chinese goods, being called fanquoï in the streets, and receiving roast pigs as New Year gifts during Daoguang Emperor's 25th-year celebrations.
- Radical deputy Ledru-Rollin charged the Ministry of Public Instruction with using royal-college bursaries as electoral bribes, citing Corsica's 16 awards against zero for the opposition-heavy Aisne; the Chamber rejected his amendment by an immense majority.
- A journeyman carpenter was arrested in broad daylight removing zinc street-name plaques in the Sorbonne quarter; he had stolen between 250 and 300 plaques over a month, selling each to a dealer for 80 centimes.
- The bronze equestrian statue of the late duc d'Orléans, 4.8 metres tall and weighing roughly 80 quintaux, was transported over three days through Paris streets to the Canal de la Villette for shipment to Algiers.
- A second edition of Antoine Blanc de Saint-Bonnet's philosophical work De l'unité spirituelle, ou De la Société au delà du temps was published by Langlois and Leclercq.