The Sun.
London, England, 1863-05-27 00:00:00

THE ELECTIONS IN FRANCE.

The following is the full text of the article in the
Constitutionnel, signed Paulin Limayrac, a sum-
mary of whicn has already appeared :
" When a Government has succeeded to a series of
other Governments whose adherents have been deprived
of their posts or of their influence, it is a natural conso-

quence that all individual malcontents feel inclined to
coalesce against it. As each cannot inform the public of
the secret of his regrets and of his disappointments, he
invokes great principles and broad reasons, and all en-
deavour to deceive the electors by a display of fine doctrines
and of noble sentiments. Liberty is a sonorous word,
which lends itself to everything. The emigres both
' within and without, who have learnt nothing by experi-
ence, and who imagine that all the past has been forgotten
—the men of 1815, of 1830, and of 1848, the enemies of
all liberty in the past as well as the enemies of all order in
; the present, cling without a blush to that grand word.
They clamour loud for liberty, as if France ever could be a
slave. But let us pass over these outbursts of ridiculous
professions of faith, In what is actually taking place
there is a great fact upon which we congratulate the
Government; it is that henceforth all equivocation is at an
end. Hitherto, former parties had confined themselves to
attempting to undermine the ruling power by those under-
hand intrigues in which they excel. Working their way
into the centre of the Administration, by means of their
former relations, they endeavoured by a thousand petty
arts to vitiate the principle of the Government in attack-
ing it in the detail of its management. The tendencies
of a popular and vigorous Government, full of sap and
energy, full of love for the masses which created it, full of
devotion,
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of bygone influences. In their ignorance of this under-
mining work, public opinion was often astonished at acts
and occurrences opposed to the interests of the Government.
' How comes it,' has often been said in the provinces, ' that
Mr. So-and-So, a known enemy of the Government, has so
much influence upon the resolutions of the Administration?
Behold functionaries appointed and dismissed by his in-
fluence— such a favour granted or declined at his bidding.'
It was enough to puzzle and mislead public opinion, Many
devoted friend- of the Government became alarmed at these
intrigues. Bat others, on the contrary, approving and
justifying this state of things, from an interest of concilia-
tion, turned these petty acts of treason into a State doctrine.
Thanks to Providence and the mistakes of former factions,
all this will be put a stop to. Urged by their impatience,
one by a sort of frenzy, they unmask themselves before the
Government and the country. The enemies of universal
suffrage, they attack it. Under the leadership of men older
in ideas even than in years, they attempt to storm the
Government with their ancient weapons and worn-out ar-
mour. All these follies of old age will encounter the fate
all such follies meet with. Bat what a great service will
they not render to the Government in putting an end to the
system of equivocation, by unmasking false friends, by
showing up false devotion and false services I Placed face
to face with declared enemies, the task of the Government
will be free from all the obstacles which impeded its action,
and the genius of the Empire will be strengthened in pro-
portion to what the spirit of intrigue will have lost."