ABSTRACT
By 4th September the Ministers had recovered their wits and drafted a scheme for power to pass into the hands of a " Council of Regency and National Defence" to be nominated by the Corps Legislatif, with Palikao as Lieutenant-General. Jules Favre and the deputies of the Left on the other hand demanded the overthrow of the Empire and the appointment of a parliamentary commission to organise the National Defence; while Thiers proposed a subde compromise which would leave it uncertain whether the Empire had been overthrown or not. When the Assembly met at midday to consider these rival proposals, a
Council and to take charge, in the middle of the disasters which he had so long foreseen, of the military destinies of France.1
