The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-05-26
THE FRENCB ELECTJOUs


THB elections for members of the Corps Leris-
latif of France, which commenced on Sunday
were completed yesterday. In a large number of
districts where there were more than two candi-
dates, majority of the votes cast being re-
quired, there was no result, and supplementary
elections will be held on Sunday next In 6il
these vacant positions. The reports received in
Paris up to the hour of midnight showed the
election of 1876 official or Government candidates
and of 26 who affiliate with the different
branches of the opposition. The Corps Lepis-
latif which was recently dissolved by the limi-
tation of law was composed of $40 members so
that 154 districts are yet to be heard from. The
opposition in the late body numbered As men in
its ranks, and it anticipated that it would be
greatly increased; but the returns would seem
to indicate that it has been diminished instead
The strOngholds of the opposition are the great
Cities and as the result in most of these has
been ascertained there is but slight hope that
the 26 members of the opposition already an
nounced as elected will receive many additions
to their ranks.
Although the result of the elections is so flat
tering to the Imperial Government, it affords no
indication of the true sentiments of the people.
In Paris, Lyons, and Marseilles, where the oppo-
nents of the empire are emboldcned, by the con-
centration of numbers, to make decided stand,
nearly all the official candidates have been repu-
dated. But in the country districts the Napo-
leonic dynasty has been equally triumphant,
oVerawing the minority by all those appliances
of power which Louis Napoleon has learned to
use to such good advantage. While the opposi-
ton may not have increased, il has not been de-
privcd OF its boldest and most aggressive lead
ers Many of these, in order to make assurance
doubly sure, presented themselves rs candi
dates in two districts, and if defeated in
one, will probably secure an election in the
other. The general result of the contest at the
polls WILL of course, be contorted by the Impe-
rialists into an almost unanimous endorsement
of the present ruler and his policy:
but, as has already been said,
it cannot be regarded us a
fair expression of the sentiments of the
masses of the people. What the anti-Imperi-
alists lack is an opportunity. The Emperor,
while taking every precauton to cement 'his
personal and family power, and to ensure the
perpetuation of his dynasty, is perhaps the best
ruler that has held the rcins of government in
France since the days of his ilustrious uncle.
He has given to the country safe and stable
Government, and to the people all that social
and moral license which compensatcs them in
great measure for the deprivation of personal
the organized opposition is cut up into three or
four rival factions each of which is more bitter
in its hostility to all the others than in its oppo
sitiOn to the present Imperial regime. The
old-fashioned Legitimist, who foudly hopes
to witness the restoration of the
house of Bourbon, regards the Napolconic
rule with kindlier feelings than the visionary
republic, because 1t is based on the principle of
absolutism to which the Bourbons clung so
tenaciOusly. The Orleanst cannot forget that
it was the republic, and not the empire that
supplanted the throne of Louis Philippe. The
out-and-out Republican does not conceal from
himself the fact that the empire is infinitely
better than either the Bourbon or the Orleanist
kingdom Not until all these factions are united
by more aggressive and oppressive policy than
Louis Napoleon has as yet seen fit to adopt
will the present Emperor have cause to cOntem-
plate the possibility of dethronement And the
chances are ten to one that in the present state
of affairs in France, the fall of the empire would
be followed by an indefinite reign of anarchy.
WHILE the English journals are bitterly de
nOuncing Senator Summers speech on the Ala
bama claims, and while they are endeavoring to
create public sentiment adverse to this coun-
try, they are at the same time heartily euogiz-
ing the free-trade agitation in the United States
and giving utteranCe to their fervent wishes for
its success. John Bull is never so well pleased
as when he is Withholding the just dues of dis
tant nations with one hand, and stripping them
of their wealth with the other 1t is a settled
point of his creed that the world was made
chiefly for the benefit of the governing
classes OF Great Britain, and that its affairs
should be so ordered as to contribute
in the largest degree to the increase of
their wealth and power. Nothing would
suit the governing Englishman better than to
secure our tame acquiescence in his denial of our
claim for reparation for the most deadly nju
ries, accompanied by the admission of British
manufactures on terms that would destroy our
own diversified industry. The Pal Mall Gazette,
in a recent article discussing free trade in the
United States confesses that the abolition of
protective duties on manufactured goods means
'the closing of American factories" and that
the 'result of the depreciation of American in
dustry is TO fill the pockets of the foreigner" 1t
kindly argues, however, that it is our true in
terest to submit to these inhctions, on account
of the loss we suffer in efforts to naturalize
'eXotic forms of labor" But we agree entirely
with its conclusion that the people are scarcely
prepared to surrender manifest advantage for
the benefit of grasping foreign rival, merely
on account of the promulgatiOn of theory
which is not well founded in fact, and which is
a modern product of British selfshness.
PLATITUDINARIANIsM IN ART-As we remarked
yesterday, the New York Academy Of Design is in
the same kind of trouble as the institution which
processes represent art culture in Philadelphia.
The New York World thus comments upon the
article which we published few days ago on the
subject Of "Art Education':-
'Who that had soul would be an academy?
HI,aD DaaF, ,gVlV nin a