The New York herald., 1869-05-26

| Danger.
The French elections terminated on Monday
evening. BY special cable telegram. dated in
London yesterday, we are enabled to submit
the general result of the ballot to our readers
this morning. The work of the scrutineers
reveals the important facts that the old party
names and classes of candidature- Orleanists,
legitimists, and moderate republicans-have
been either forgotten or ignored by the people,
and that the lines of citizen franchise contests
were strictly drawn between Bonapartism and
the worshippers of Waterloo, st. Helena, and the
"dynasty" on one side and the representatives
of popular progress, ranking as radicals or
'reds, on the other. The voters paid little or
no attention to the rOyalsms which have passed,
but looked merely at present imperialism and
it's tendency, and their own hopes and means
of recti6cation in the future. The prospect is
certainly encouraging to them as opposition
lists. Napoleon retains majority in the legis-
lative assembly, but it is vastly diminished
| the radicals having achieved an addition of
| forty-fve members to their already compact
| force, and carried the great centres of finance
and manufacture-Paris and Lyons. Tran
quillity prevailed, we are told, everywhere
but France was equally silent and quiet when,
by still larger vote, she approved the coup
d'stat, after prudently noting the bsyonets,
sabres and muskets which were placed within
convenient hail Of the ballot boxes.
NJ. Theirs, who has become very prosy,
both In debate and conversation, since he
illustrated the 'Last Cart to the Guillotine"
as a sad warning to extremists, whether clad
in democratic blouse or in purple and ermine,
was defeated. M. Olivier was defeated in
Paris but returned in the department of the
variously, and M. Rochefort has, we are told,
obtained seat The latest returns from Paris
show government gain of one in fifteen city
elections, the people expressing themselves
persistently in reputation of the zone man"
system of government and in favor Of parlia-
mentary constitutional rule. Marseilles was
deeply excited.
No better evidence of the declining fortunes
of Imperialism can be dduced than the arbi-
trary and despotic measures resorted to
during the past weeks by Napoleon ILL., and
his minions to stife public sentiment and pre-
vent an untrammelled expression of popular
will in these elections. 1t is but a repeti
ton of history to find powerful despotism
resorting to extreme measures to prolong
an existence imperilled by widespread dis
affection and exacting compulsory submis-
sion from its subjects under pain of arrest,
Imprisonment, banishment, and perhaps execu-
ton. The closing scenes of dynastic usurpation
are generally characterized by crime, tyranny
and bloodshed, and the opening acts of the
drama already inaugurated in France give full
promise Of a second reign of terror ere Napo-
leon III. will have been driven from the stage.
We can only hope that the victims of oppo-
sition will prove forerunners of enlarged popu-
lar liberties instead of unwilling and uncon-
scious promotives offs new riginae as distasteful
and oppressive as the last.
The revolution Of l84s, which drove Louis
Philippe from the throne of France, should
have marked an era of liberal progress in
government wearied Of monarchical and
aristocratic usurpation. The shortlived
republic which followed received its death
blow in the coup dStas, and subsequent
decree reviving the imperial dignity in
the person of Louis Napoleon Bonaparte.
The ephemeral dream of liberty, equality
and fraternity" vanished before the imperious
will of one who falsiied the hopes that placed
him in power and now seeks to prolong his rule
at any and every sacrifice Of public liberty.
What France could and should have been
after the expulsion of the Bourbons, and what
she is to day, lives in the hearts of patriotic
Frenchmen who have never abandoned the hope
of seeing their government coworker with
ours in the advancement of republican and
national greatness" ''years of unparalleled
prosperity" ''crowning the edilce" with
so-called liberties, cannot reconcile them to
the empire or the despot who rules and ruins.
Whether or not the people of France are
prepared for a republican form of government
no one can determine until full and fair
experiment is made; but that they are sick and
wearied Of imperialism, that they have well
nigh reached that point Of endurance beyond
which revolution becomes a national neces-
sity and a change in government and rulers
imperative, must be obvious to ALL
The beginning Of the end is too plainly fore
shadowed by the murmurings of discomfort
from all quarters of the empire, the uprisings
necessitating summary measures for their sup
preston, the growing strength of the opposi-
ton and the nervous vigilance Of the imperial
lists in arresting and imprisoning indiscrimi-
nately those whose power and influence they
have reason TO dread. The disturbances which
characterized the electoral gatherings are but
natural precursors Of others more serious.
The government may stay awhile the tide
Of popular disfavor that threatens its ruin
nv the timely publication of ssnaacof,,l mani;