2-889-331 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The President in the Rue St. Jean, at Caen, 1850. Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte, the first President of France, on his way to Cherbourg. 'The progresses of the President of the Republic through the departments, for the purpose of ascertaining with his own eyes and ears the feasibility of his retaining the office in the State for a longer term than that fixed by the new Constitution of the Republic, are accompanied by an almost simultaneous movement amongst the great municipal bodies of France...the President, indefatigably pursuing his object...set out from Paris for the Western departments, the ostensible object being a visit to the important naval station and dockyard at Cherbourg, and the French squadron lying there. He arrived at Caen en route...'. From "Illustrated London News", 1850.