The Sun.
London, England, 1857-06-25 00:00:00

E S-U N, I ONDON THURSDAY EV NI IN G, JUNE 25,

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POLICE INTELLIGENCE.— Day.)

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Not since the Imperial, Crown of France was
placed on the head of Napoleon 111. by the vcte
of 1852 has any political event unconnected with
foreign affairs so roused the attention of the world
as the elections which have just taken place. The
results are now sufficiently known. In Paris tl.e
Government has been defeated in thrae distracts out
of ten. General Cavaignac, formerly Chief of the
Republic and the opponent of the present Emperor
in the contest for the Presidency, has been chosen
in the third district, though, on account of the in-
sufficiency of his majority, be must go through an-
other election. In the fifth and sixth districts
MM. Carnot and Goudchaux, names well known
in former days, have been returned by large majo-
rities. It is true that in the other seven districts
Government candidates have been returned, yet
we cannot but look upon the result of the elec-
tions in Paris as a moral b'ow to the Government.
At Lille, Bordeaux, and Lyons it is also said that
Opposition candidates have triumphed. The strug-
gle, therefore, is not unlike that which seated.
Louis Napoleon, nearly nine years-ago, in the Pre-
sidential chair. Then, as now,,the great mass of
the people supported him through confidence in his
personal qualities and veneration for his family
name. But Paris, Lille, Lyon., and some other
centres of population and disaffection protested,
perhaps, even more strongly then than now.
' It appears that in the present case the number
of Opposition candidates returned is very small—.
the Ministerial papers say there are not more than
nine br ten ; so that the Emperor may well assert
that the great body of the people which chose him is
still ready to support the legislators of his choic?.
So far, then, the Government has been successful,
and no one can doubt its success. But it is not
at all improbable that from the elections of 1857
may be reckoned a period very different from that
with which the Empire commenced.
Undoubtedly, the policy of the Empire is, and
always has been, to appeal from Paris to France,
from the fickle, critical, and keen-witted inhabi-
tants of the capital, to the more domestic, affec-
tionate, religious, and money-saving provincials.
No one can doubt the determination of the Empe-
ror not to be dictated to by mobs or meetings as
long as he possesses the steady adherence of those
whose votes placed him on the throne. Yet an ad-
verse election in Paris must exercise much influence
both at home and abroad. In the first place, Paris
is not only to Frenchmen but to the world in gene-
ral the representative of France. English travellers
who visited the country prior to the first Revolu-
tion observed the complete dependence of mind
which distinguished the people of the 'provinces,
and the character is still the same. The very far-
mers and vine growers, who supported Government
candidates this week will begin to doubt their own
wisdom when they hear that a Cava'gnac and a
Carnot have been returned by a district of enlight-
ened and witty Parisians. Furthermore, Paris and
the large towns are the only places, or are thought
to he the only places, where electors ate not intimi-
dated and ballot-boxes are not tampered wit.h. In
the rural districts the Prefect and the Bishop, the
Maire and the Priest, may be said to cons itute
society. The peasantry and small proprietors,
acute and hard-fisted enough in their way, are the
most acquielcent of • mortals so far as regards
dynasties and constitutions. They will follow the
lead of Government officers and, spiritual advisers,
and their votes may always be counted on for the
support of existing authority, excepting when,
as in the case of the Presidency of 1848, the clergy
are ranged against the civil power. It is likely,
then, that bath to France and the world the elec-
tions of Paris, Lyons, and Lille may stand for the
legitimate expression of the country's will. There
there is communication and co-operation ; the
votes, though given by ballot, are no secret, and
the opinions of each elector are known to a large
body of friends. So they may be considered free,
and the result of a more instructed choice than the
decision of any body of provincials. The conduct
of the Government officials must also add to any
distrust with which the course of this conflict has
been regarded. It issnow plain to the world that
the Emperor and his advisers set their hearts on
returning every man of their own party. Paris
was especially the object of their solicitude ; so
eager were the Tuileries and the Hotel de Ville
that even in this most solemn constitutional proce-
dure, in this first essay on the rights guaranteed by
the Imperial system, the most intolerable interfe-
rence was practised. Nor was it successful. Men
who live under despotic power become disposed to
respect courage and unshaken self-confidence above
any other qualities of a ruler ; and in this affair
such acts as the warning of the Siecle, the publica-
tion of M. Haus3mann's intemperate address, and
the undignified manifesto of M. Billault may well
have prevented thousands from vot;ng for the Go-
vernment candidates, and swelled the lists which
gave the Opposition candidates a seat iu the Legis-
lature.

CUTTING AND WOIINDING. —AN Inisff ROW.—Ann
Bryan, a young Irishwoman, was brought rr:p in custody,
charged with cutting and wounding Cathetin e °WIWI),
by striking her on the head and arms with a poker.
The complainant, whose head was bandag.ed up and
If fr, arm in a sling, raid that about twelve o'clock on the
previous night she was going to her lodgings, Metropoli-
tan-buildings, New•slley, White•street, with. her sister,
and as they were passing the house in which tie prisoner
and her friends resided, one of them attackx). her sister,
who called out loudly for assistance. Witn es 3 went up,
and was immediately attacked by the pr is over as she
was trying to get her sister away. - Then Abe prisoner
snatched a poker from some one, ar.d dealt 'itwo or three
blows en her head and arm, until she became insensible.
0.) her recovery she was taken to the hospital, where
Ilea wounds were dressed, and 13'..e was sent Ibome. After
that she g tve information to the police, and. the prisoner
was given into custody.
In cross-examination by Mr. Solomon& for the pri-
soner., witness said that she was quite sol ier, and said
nothing ta-any one, neither did her sister. ''hey were al
erfectly s,ber.
Mary Bryan, sister to last witness corr 3bsrated her
testimony, and added that she was attacked • by eight or
nine persons as she was passing up the alley, and she
said nothing whatever to them. Her sister merely came
up to her assistance, when the prisoner str ack her with
t-ie poker. She was sure that it was a poker that she
used,

Po!iceolnstable 134 M, said, that at eig'at o'clock on
the same morning, he was called ,to take the prisoner
into custody. When told what the prisoner w as charged
with, she said, "Oh, dear; I am very sorry for it."
it." Witness produced a certificate from this house sur-
geon of the hospital, setting forth that the vrnunds were
very bad, and the prosecutriz was not out orf danger.
In defence, Mr. Sulomons contended that his client
wai first attacked, and in protecting himself, she took
a stick fr3m a by slander, and struck. the complainant.
She denied using a poker.
The Magistrate said ha should remand her for the
attendance of the surgeon who dressed the wounds.

Now, however, we must look to the future. The
new Legislative Body is chosen. It is, as before,
devoted to the Government, but has among its
number a knot of men who, under the various
names of Constitutionalist, Liberal, and Republi-.
can, are hostile to the system which is now esta-
blished in France. The queston is—" What will
these now Representatives do ?" The Minister of

the Interior has declared that they are merely
frondeurs who have sought election under the pre-
sent Constitution in order that they may publicly
express their contempt for it, and refuse their alle-
giance 'to the Throne. A great body of French
then, and probably thousands who voted for the
Opposition candidates, think so too. We cannot
doubt that many a workman who hes smelt the

powder of the barricades, and who-Jo friend or
brother has disappeared either to the grave or to
Guiana, after some insurrectionary movement,
voted in the hope that the caud:date of his
choice would indignantly refuse the oath to
obey the usurper, and quit the Chamber, ex-
claiming " Vive la Republique I" But we can-
not think that the Opposition members wil be
so ill-advised as thus to play the game of the
Government, and acquire for themselves the repu-
tation of factious and theatrical disturberi of the

peace. Even if they do not recognise the legality
of the means by which the Emperor mounted his
throne, yet he is on it, and a majority of the nation
has not only condoned but approved the excesses
of 1855. Napoleon 111. is Emperor of the French ;
the elections have taken place under the Imperial
Constitution, and to accept the pirt of a candidate
is to accept ►he Government which authorised the
election. For the few Liberals who have been re-
turned to quit the Chamber with an affected pro-
test against the regime which alone allowed them
to enter it would be a display highly detrimental
to their cause. It would justify all that the Go-
vernment organs have raid respecting the vanity
and intemperance of the Opposition, and would
furthermore be a betrayal of those who have endan -
gered their prospects in order to restore to the con-
stitution au element of vitality. We have said that
possibly these elections will be the beginning of a
new period. This may be so, if the Liberal candi-
dates whose claims have been supported by the
people go into the Chamber with a determination
to play the part of honest and independent legis-
lators. Without speeches treasonable or seditious,
without protests against the misdeeds of past days,
they may effectually, if they desire, check the self-will
of the Court and the insolence of its functionaries.
Even a dozen men, if they hold together, and make
moderate and well-timed speeches about matters on
which they are sure to be right, must in a few
months exercise a moral control over any number of
benches filled with the puppets of a Government.
The small end of the wedge has been forced into
the fabric of the Imperial system ; whether it will
be driven home depends on the judgment of the
men to whom- the Opposition has confided its
cause.