2o8 HISTORY OF FRANCE. [chap. several times. Early in 1849, when the Romans, like the French, had set up a republic, troops were sent by the French Republic to put down the Republic of Rome, and the pope was brought ba:k to reign for twenty-one years under the protection of a French garrison. The army was so devoted to the name of Buonaparte that the president had the power of overawing Paris, while he had only to wait to see the conflicting parties in the Legislative Assembly clash to have an excuse for interfering. On May 31, 185 1, a change was made in the ele:toral law by •which the franchise was confined to those who had lived three years in the same place. In 1851 Buonaparte began to demand a change of the law which forbade his own re- election, and in various ways began to show his intention of destroying the constitution. Later in the year he de- manded the restoration of universal suffrage. Various disputes went on between him and the assembly, and at last, on December 2nd, 185 1, he declared the assembly dissolved and universal suffrage restored. Along with this he proposed that the people should vote on a new constitution, which should make him president for ten years, with a nominal stnate and assembly, much like his uncle in 1799. At the same time he seized and im- prisoned General Cavaignac, M. Thiers, and other of the most Cvninent men in the country. The assembly declared the president deposed, but his soldiers drove them out, and for the next two days they slew whom they would by Buonaparte's orders. Othirs were sent to the pesti- lential colony of Cayenne to die there. This rebellion of the executive chief against the national legislature is called in French a coup d'etat. 9. The Second Empire, 1852. — The new constitution was now put to what is called a plebiscite or vote of the people, after the usual way of misapplying Latin names. For the RouRn p/ediscif urn was a real vote of the assembly, while in the French plebiscite there is no real choice, but only to say whether a man shall keep the power which he has already got. So a vast majority of the people, voting in this fashion, approved of the new constitution. So later in the year, when he called on the people to declare him emperor, they did the same, and on December 2nd, 1852, the anniversary of his rebellion, he took the title, calling himself Napoleon TIL This was like Lewis XV'I I L, as there never was Napoleon II. any more than a Lewis XVII. As he had before sworn to be faithful to the
