Page:A Scene from Contemporary History.djvu/9

518 M Leon Faucher, Minister, of the Interior—The orator

(Interruption from the left) the orator

Voice from the left—You have not the word!

M the President—Let M Victor Hugo explain himself

He is called to order

M The Minister of the Interior—how,gentlemen, an orator may hero insult the President of the Republic (Loud interruption from the left)

M Victor Hugo—Let me explain I do not cede the word to you

M the President—You have not the word It is not for you to act as the police of the Assembly M Victor Hugo is called to order, he demands to explain, I give him the word, and you render the police impassible if you wish to usurp my functions

M Victor Hugo—Gentlemen,you shall see the danger of precipitate interruptions (Louder! Louder!) I have been called to order, and an honorable member whom I have not the honor of knowing

M Bourbousson  It’s I M Bourbousson

M Victor Hugo—Says that it is necessary to pass a censure on me

Voice from the right—Yes! Yes!

M Victor Hugo—Why? For having qualifed, as it is my right to do (Denials horn the right,) for having qualified the authors of the Cæsarist pamphlets (Cries horn the right—M Victor Hugo leans forward to the shorthand reporter of the "Moniteur" and asks instant communication of the phrase of his discourse which has provoked the emotion of the Assembly)

Voice from the right—M Victor Hugo has not the right to make a change of the phrase in the "Moniteur”

M the President—The assembly rose up against the words which must have been gathered up by the shorthand writer of the "Moniteur" The call to order applies to these words, such as you pronounced thorn, and as they shall certainly stand Now, in