The Express.
London, England, 1863-09-12 00:00:00

PARIS, Famat Evainto.

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Universal suffrage is certainly entering upon
what the French call • " new phase." For many
years it has been worshipped as a veiled prophet,
but now the veil is dropping down, and the pro.
bable consequence is that the reverence of the wor-
shippers will very much diminish. Scarcely a day
passes but some instance of monstrous, flagrant ini-
quity on the part of the authorities, which in the early
days of the empire would have been thought too
much a matter of course to be noticed even in
conversation, and which no journal would have
dared to allude to, is laid bare to the public gaze.
A recent trial at the assize court of Chateaurouz,
in the Luke et Loire, gives a most amusing insight
to the coulisse of a country election. As the report
in the Droit is very long, I shall abridge it, without
closely following the form of a legal narrative, but
you may rely upon the scrupulous fidelity of this
resume. Here are the dramatis persona :

Sauty, president of the Assize Court., a judge who,
like moat of his fellows, perceives that the system of fistula.
lest elections is tottering to its fall.
M. Teetard Vaillant,mayor of St. 'naive (Indre et Loire),
a functionary devoted to the power which set him to rule
over his fellow citizens.

M. Henault, the mayor's assistant, equally devoted.
rouget, garde champetre, • country bumpkin, with
just intelligence enough to know on which side his bread is
buttered.

--- —.
IL de Charge, a country gentleman, and a supporter of
the opposition *end/date.
M. Lepine, so elector 98 years old, stone deaf ►nd nearly
blind, but entertaining lively recollections of the principles
of 'B9.

M. Delavand, government osndidate.
M. de Bandy, opposition candidate.
M. Silvain Roy, a "devoted" elector.
Members of the bureaus, commissaries of police, justices
of the pram, kc.
On May 31, when the bureau of St. Hilaire was
assembled to proceed to the general elections, some
time was lost in waiting for the mayor. K de
Chergi, an elector who, although a supporter of
the opposition candidate, was on terms of courte-
ous private acquaintance with the mayor, proposed
that the bureau should proceed to business and
leave a blank for the president. While the discus-
sion was going on the mayor came in, and was
playfully reproached by M. de Chergd for being
late, but told at the same time that his natural
place of president of the bureau was reserved for
him. The mayor, however, feeling somewhat in-
disposed, gave up the chair to his assistant,
M. Henault, and attended the bureau only in the
capacity of a private elector. But his worship was
in a very ill-humour, and upbraided M. de Chergo
for having placed a lad at the door to distribute
bulletins for the opposition candidate, M. de
Bondy. M. de Chergd replied to the mayor that
he had only done what the law allowed him, and
that if his worship thought otherwise, he might
make a note on the minutes of the proceedings and
get the question tried. This irritated the mayor,
who knew as well as M. de Cherg6 that there was
no question whatever, and that opposition candi-
dates have just the same right as legal candidates
to circulate their bulletins. But, as a matter of
fact, M. de Chergif deposed that so great was the
terror of the mayor and other authorities that he
could not get any tradesman in the village of St. Hi-
laire, nor even one of his own servants, to distribute
M. de Bondy's voting papers. He was obliged to
select for that purpose a little boy who had not the
consciousness of the risk he was running. As swim
the little boy had taken up his station at the door
of the voting place, M. Pouget, the garde chain-
'Are, who was distributing the government candi-
date's bulletins, began to intimidate him. and told
him that he should not stand there twenty minutes.
Shortly after the poll was opened a grey-headed
elector named Ldpine, nearly 100 years old, ap-
proached the bureau with a bundle of bulletice in
his hand, and begged that some one would be good
enough to tell him s hick was M. de Bondy's
ticket, as he could not see. After several people
had refused to help him K de Chergi, who knew
the man, went up to him, led him out
of the office, and indicated the bulletin
he wanted. Thereupon M. Silvain Roy,
an elector, told the garde champetre who was haras-
sing the little boy at the door that he would be
more in his place inside, where "atrocities" were
going on, and where M. de Chergd had been "cul-
tivating" au elector. Upon this hint Pouget, the
garde champaltre, went inside, and being hounded
on by the mayor and his assistant, who told him
significantly that he "knew his instructions," he
went up to K de Chergd, then performing his
duties at the bureau, and told him that be was his
prisoner, and must come along with him to the
commissary of police. On M. de Chergd refusing
to go, Pouget repeatedly threatened that he
would bring two gendarmes, and take him
away forcibly. Thus threatened, K de Chergd
at length gathered up his papers, said
he would go before the commissary of police,
and hastily rushed out of the office. M. de Chergi
had a horse—the garde champetre had none.
He entreated the mayor to lend him one, but this
functionary, who, although vindictive, was prudent
withal, began to think be had gone too far, and,
determining to leave the responsibility of the arrest
upon the poor mooncalf the garde champetre, refused
the loan of a horse. The man got one at last from
the landlord of an inn, and spurred after K de
Charge as hard as he could. The latter, however,
who had a great objection to be seen by his friends
and tenants in custody, especially on a Sunday
afternoon, got to the commissary of police first. The
latter laughed at the charge, and dismissed it.
Nevertheless K de Cho*, to vindicate a principle,
instituted a prosecution for false imprisonment
against the garde champetre, and the result of the
trial fully justifies him. Pouget is indeed ac-
quitted, but only on the ground that he had no
evil intention, and blindly executed what he sup-
' posed to be tbe orders of his superiors. The pre-
' aiding judge distinctly and repeatedly censured the
I conduct of the mayor and his adjoint, and said
over and over again that M. de Chergd, in placing
• the little boy at the door of the mayoralty to dis-
tribute bulletins, and pointing out the bulletin of
M. de Bondy to the deaf and short-sighted elector,
had only exercised the plainest amid most un-
doubted rights of every elector, and that it was
disgraceful in the mayor and his subordinates to
stir up an ignorant man like the garde champetre
to molest him.