The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1868-08-18
FRANCE.
Propnrations for the EIectIon.


The Paris PresSe of August 8, says:-"The
independent press will be unanimous in de
manding the most complete explanations as to
these facts; for the question is one of extreme
gravity. The point at issue, in fact, is not to
know whether citizens will be able to exercise
the new right conferred on them by the law
lately voted, but whether backward step has
not been taken since the passing of that mea-
sure. What guarantees have the people that
they will be able to hold public meetings and
call electoral ones if they cannot even have
those private assemblies, on personal invitation,
which were the common right before the new
act, as M. Rouher has reco Jnized and the Su-
preme Court has affirmed by its DEGREES? The
privilege which we possessed was not trifing;
but il force and violence can deprive us of it,
what use can possibly be made of the new ones
with which the law invests US? IT. in the midst
OF an election, private meetings are dissolved by
the bayonet, what Project will refuse himself
the satisfaction of interdicting public onep
The OptniOne Ndtionde, ofParls, Aug. says:-
Let us establish the point of law. Article
eight, which declares that electoral meetings
cannot t9ke place during the five days preceding
the ballot, applies only TO public assemblies AS
in the present case persons were only admitted
on presenting card or letter OF invitation, the
meeting was private one and the Commissary
of Pol ce had no right to be present, and the
| armed force committed violation of do nicile.
1t that doctrine is doubted, reference has only
to be made to decree of the Court of Cassaton
Criminal Chamber, of the 4th of February, 1865.
That body declared that what characteriZes es-
sentlally public meeting was the liberty OF ad-
mission permitted to all comers. Such was not
the case in the present instance, as the invita-
tions were personal, and the Central Conmisary
could only penetrate into M. Breton's house by
surprise, or by force with the aid of his agents.
The totality OF these facts therefore, constitutes
a double violation of individual liberty and
privacy of domiCile, as we'll as an electoral
manuuYre."
La France, of Paris Government organ),
August g. says:-"Resistance outside the Law is
always to be regretted, and we may usefully
recall to the mind of our readers the principle
which has entered so deeply into English
habits and which lays down the rule that no
resistance may be given in an illegal manner to
steps the Legality of which even is contested.
Has the Project of the Garde, in directing the
dispersion of the electors assembled at Mines,
in The house OF N. Breton, conformed TO the
prescriptions of the law? That is point which
will be decided by the competent authority, aud
the question really merits all attention in pre-
sence of an election, for the point to be deter.
mined is the precite lire of demarcaton be-
tween private and public meeting"
NapoIsOa ard the General EIectioa.
| The London Times Of August says:-It is
| impossible not to perceive that the Imperial
| Government of France looks forward with as
| much uDeasiness as our own TO the forthcoming
| Parliamentary elections, though, happily, for
very different reasons. There is, as we believe,
much ground for regret that the Emperor Ma
| poleon should be anxious to identify his policy
| with his dynasty-that he should cbstinately
| insist on confounding what, by the nature of
things, must needs be perpetually changeable
| WIN ludC WHICH nc naturally WISHES 10 De, ana
which ought in reality to be, absolutely immu-
table. To whatever causes the votes of 1918
and 1851 may have been owing, they ought to
| be looked upon as irIevocable. The Imperial
Government derogates from its dignity when 1t
| allows itself any allusion to what are called
the odd Parties Republicanism, Bour-
bonism, and Oileaulsm cannot be di-
rectly or indirectly recognized; they cannot be
| looked upon as lawful opposition; they should
never be addressed or mentioned as such. The
Orilamme or the Red Flag could only be brought
back into France by violent revolution, and
| revolutionist till he is successful. must always
| be dealt with az public enemy. The Emperor
| Napoleon, however, cannot overlook the tact
that not only do an,i-Imperlalist parties actually
exist, but that, so long as they keep within the
| law, they have right to exist; that so long as
| they accept the Empire as ar accomplished fact,
| they are entitled to oppose Imperialism by all
| their disposal; that opposition TO the Imperial
| Government may not only be perfectly consis-
| tent with allegiance to the Empire but may also
| be the best and only means OF providing for the
Empires safety. It is hard to say what ground
there may be for the rumor that the
Imperial Government contemplated lit lie coup
detdt in the shape of an arb trdry modification
OF me Electoral law; but there can be no doubt
that the ,'so-called authorities are prepared TO
take more active share than they ever did in
the impending elections on the ground that 1.-The
Government is party in the State and that it
is its right, no less than its duty to fight its
own battles by all the weapons that power
places in lis hands, and with as thorough and
uncompromising an energy as may be disolayed
by any other lparty.' Surely there is some con-
fusion of language in all this. Whatever NAY
be said of the Imperial Government, the EN-.
peror himself takes good care to place Ii msef
above all parties. So long as his presence at
the head of affairs answers any Of the designs OF
Providence, his life, he says, is sure to be
spared and were he even to fall, the French
people would not fail, in the interest of
! y,uhl n nd N a GOUaraign M nmar