New-York tribune., 1869-06-05
VOL. XXIX.....N0' 8, ,786.
FRANCE.
THE POLITICAL MEETINGs-TFFE RIOTs-MPEND-
ING MARRIAGE OF MRS. LINCOLN
fPRoN orr OWN CORRESPONDENT

any assembages of this sort during the hye Gays
next preceding the opening of the polls. Inc iis'
day on which they permitted was the "a u 'i'
month. During this fortnight we have had III inc
Department of the Seine 2l5 of these meetings. Aho
restrictions with which the law that pelln'o 'no"'
hedges them about, you have already prlnIeu SUM
mary Of Considering the irritating nature Vi tne'o
restrictions and considering that all persons taxing
mart in them under the age of 40 years, a. e. nne-
tenths OF all the participants, were exercising
their right Of assembling for the hrst time in
their lives il ought to be admitted that the
Paris people have credtably carried out their
share of the experiment. And even the
authoritcs-considering what they are-amost de-
serve a good mark. They have not dissolved more
than 20 or 80 meetings during the fortnight under
pretext of preserving the Constitution or Public
order-oftenest the frst-frOm violation; when IN
fact the Senatus COnsultum foTbidding the discus
sion Of the French Constitution by Frenchmen mas
been constantly disregarded For hardly single one
of the numerous candidates, and few OF the other
speakers that have not openly demanded, and more
or less fully argued n.defense of such enlargement OF
public rights and denunciatiOn of the personal I'M
peral mower as are strictly inhibited by the Constl-
tuition and can only be-! obtained by an elementary
emendation of that paper.
To say now that these meetings have always been
conducted in decency and in order would be an ex-
travagance equal to that of which they have so often
been guilty There has been in too numerous instances
on tue part of the speakers afflicted with flow OF
language, superabundance of sonorous common
place of noisy defamation, envelopng vague OF
hOpelessly impracticable ideas in words of strained
viOlcnce-with gestculation TO match. But this TOO
frequent prominence of "elOquence" and passion
over thought and argument is not unhappily,
monopoly of the French. Tammany and Mozart, let
alone our halls familiar with the sound of Republi-
can voices echo to much the same thing-to more Of
il in quantity in the fortnight preceding any OF our
important elections Only we are accustomed to 1t
both as speakers and listeners. Doubtless there is
something in our national temperament-a beat less
per 5ecOnd in our blood-that better enables us to
listen for an additional second TO the expression of
an opinion that is not ours. Now it is just in the
other second-the time requisite to complete the SEN
tence and the sense of it, if it has any-that French
impotence breaks out.
This French defect appeared with painful promi
nence in the Emile OliYier meeting at the Chatelet
Thelter last Wednesday. Could he have obtained
silent hearing at the outset for three minutes,
that audience might have listened to him for the
next thirty minutes, in which time he would have
uttered connectedly speech worth the attention of
all parties which it took him more than hour to
get delivered Of with great travail in dsected frag
ments Broken IN on at his first word by those hos
tile 20 him, then again impatiently interrupted by
his partisans and they in turn by imparally nery-
ous persons impelled by irritable sympathy or an
tipathy to add their contributions to the confusion
till il rose to chaotic fullness. Then, from mere ex
haustion there came a lul; then, from the lul rest
and new sign for refreshed lung exercise At one
MON, mt two rival inteupters in the orchestra
10 clachng their noisy arguments with their hands
1t was the only instance of muscular violence there
have heard Of but two others of the kind occurring
in all the 2l5 opportunities presented to the Paris
publy by the Law Of Political Meetings since May 2
Itvould be surely unjust to blame the French for
want of that habit we and the English have ~ of
quietly listening to the end Of political dissidents
remai ks For the past is years they have had no
possible chance of acquiring It, The simplest justice
demands that, in comparing their performances Tor
the past fortnight with the peaceful and IN all ways
decent humors Of an English or American electoral
canvass we do not put out Of sight an essential ele-
ment If the campaign, the fact that they forced
noycs trying under peculiar difficulties and after
all only in partial experiment after what we were
born 10 as an requirement Iof ancestors Partly
from enforced want of practice partly from the con-
ditor imposed not only by the May law Of lastyear
that PARTIALLY destroys privilege the light of poli
cal m citing but an indefinite body Of other laws and
an uncertain jurisprudence there is in the very con-
stitut;on Of these meetings latent element OF con-
fusion that if it existed with us, would be reused to
the rampant state quite as often perhaps as 1t has
been here.
To keep stin to the third circonscription for our
comparative illustrations The only rival candidates
are Mcssrs Olivier and Baucel In general way, and
meaning 10 oense to any Of the four legs Of the COM
parisoa we may say that they differ from each other
as Democrat from War Democrat NJ. Olivier hires
the theater for the evening with the advertised pur
pose o. giving NJ. Olivier opportunity TO confer
with lis electors From which it does not necessa-
rily follow, according TO the French experimental
system in vogue that it is only, nor, indeed. as
it NAV happen mainly the electors already belong
ing to the Olivier party who fill the hail. The
principle of the French system is excellent one,
and not dssimilar aR fond to what has long been
practied in our West where rival candidates in turn
sustain their claims before great audiences. The
theory Of it is that the electoral meetings should be
debating clubs, where the questions of the day and
the representative candidates at issue regarding them
should be discussed and these last freely questioned
and allowed to freely answer as to their position on
those hrst
The consequence has been, in this first experiment.
what you will have supposed: too frequent noisy
fusion and effective suppression of free speech by the
noisiest of its pretended advocates. The cOnse-
quency has not been, what many sincerely liberal
timid folks feared, what many reactionists hoped,
what o section of these last, represented by lie Pays
Government newspaper, falsely represent 1t IN their
mad howlings to be- Except the instances men
toned above to which it is possible one or two
others might be added the noisy confusion has in no
case degenerated to material riot in any of tho
2l5 meetings, held within the past IS days, within
the department of the Seine.
Outside of some of the meetings, in the course Of
fbrea tays last vveak there have been street dis