Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1869-06-20
THE RRENCH ELECTIONS.
a Fatal Blow at the Empire.
Universal Suffrage Turning
Against its Author.
ARepubllc Looming Up.
The Paris correspondent of the Lon

The Paris correspondent of the Lon
don Times writes as follows:
Il II our government-that is the En-
peror-accepts, as it is said, with equa
nimity, and even qualification, the result
of our general elections, he must be
either more blind or stoical than the mass
Of men. The more we look at the event
the more threatening it seems for the
present system; and it is too easy to con-
vince an impartial observer that French
government never has been in o more
strange and diftsult situation before the
country.
| The vote of Paris, of Lyons, of Bor-
deaux, and of almost every town in the
| Empire, is not vote of opposition, but
rather an open, undisguised and unquali~
fed declaration of war. The main fea-
lures of the Partisan elections are, on
one side, the annihilation Of the govern
mental interests in that great city; and,
on the other side, the cold>blooded and
successful resolution of the electors to
send to the House not only decided op-
ponents, but the most dangerous, the
most inimical, or, as it is said here, the
most ''irreconcilable" of opponents.
| But the Partisan elections are but
the edge Of the sword, and the blade and
the handle of it have been worked out
by the whole country. The only sure
method of calculating the progress of the
| opposition since 1863 is to reckon the
votes collected against official or agreea>
bic candidates by their opponents of ali
hues, and the results Of that calculation
are such as to surpass the hopes Of the
most sanguine sdverssries of the present
government. In 1868 about 100000
| electors voted for official candidates, and
100000 against them. This year we
have about q, 100000 electors true to Off
cial or agreeable candidates, and 3, 200.
| 00) against them-thst is to say, only
majority of about 100000 voices is left
in France to the existing government.
To appreciate fully the meaning Of these
figures you must bear in mind that our
functionaries of all kinds, high and low,
are obliged to vote, and even ordered to
canvass for government; and you know
| the incredible number ofour administra-
tive community in France, where it may
be called nation in the nation. Now,
that number once deducted, what remains
but flock Of country voters, Of whom no
one can have a true idea who has not
canvassed them?
Not only the vast majority of our
peasants cannot read, but ninety out of
every hundred of them believe that
if they do not bring back to the ballot
the very ticket sent to them by the Mayor
they are committing an offense, and ex-
posing themselves TO fineOr some other
punishment. The truth is that the
French peasant does not dare even not
| to vote, and this explains the curious fact
that very often, if the husband is abs
sent from the country, or at work, his
wife comes with the ticket offering to vote
in his stead, convinced that bringing back
| the ticket is the only means of keeping
| ont Of harms way. You could every
where in our village hear of the official
ticket called the good ticket, !e bon bull
letin-which does not mean at all that
they like it better than any other; it
means only that it is the safe ticket, the
| ticket which any man can take and bring
TO the ballot without incurring trouble
or coming to grief. Such is the state Of
universal suffrage and the notions preya>
lent upon it among our rural voters.
| There is, indeed, great fact, in which
our government is blind enough to rejoice
| and glory, but which fills every wise
Frenchman with sad misgiyings. 1t is
the increasing antipathy which is to be
noticed between universal suffrage and
moderate opposition. Radical Democ~
racy, or socialism, is decidedly the great
attraction for universal suffrage as soon
as it ceases to be Indifferent or subseryi-
ent to government prompting. To obey
indecorously or to revolt sayagely, to
I'lsave things altogether as they stand or
to destroy the whole, such is, among US,
the natural inclination, or, as learned
people would say, the 'idiosyncracy' Of
universal suffrage. Either it is silent,
| uttering only now and then initiative
sounds as they are dictated by the pre-
fects and the Mayor, or it begins to growl
out its own thought-no taxes, no army,
no government, no property, no religion,
and kind of general imprecation against
everything that is. .r
| With Rochefort, a Bancel, and q
dozen others like them in the House
difficult to bear with, impossible to touch
and backed in all their attempts by the
popular sympathy of an immense capital
not to speak Of the support of the working
classes throughout the empire, the gov
l.ernment will be able, after short time
to know the falseneSs Of its calculation
and the hollowness of its present joy
But it is not the dubious fate Of gov.
ernment which makes the enlighted ant
moderate part Of the nation thoughtful
and sadly apprehensive of the future. Il
T is the real difficulty of getting any gooG
government out of our electoral system
and of maintaining along with it the ne
cessary conditions, not only of nationa
, order and prosperity, but even Of nationa
, | existence. The republic which we SCI
, | looming in the distance and which, aftel
| all, is the natural associate and logica
consequence of universal suffrage, hs
nothing in itself irreconcilable with ou
democratic society nor repugnant to ou
manners; but it has two well-knowI
faults, which make it unsound and un
safe, and which ALLEVIATE from it the grea
r majority Of reasonable men. The frs
is its fatal affinity with socialism, tn
very name Of which is feared and hate
! by the greater part of the Frencl
l nation, while it is becoming unfortunate
|. ly more and more the banner and watch
word Of our working classes over tn
whole country. The second drawbac'
! of republic is the incurable discord {
our Republican party and the internecin
+ war which is increasingly raging in il
E ranks. .F a.s ~. 1sE7H 81
Do not be surprised, then, if the eleC
I tions, however averse they may be to tn
personal system, cannot be considered b
the best part of the opposition withou
some sadness and much anxiety. To b
sure they are useful against bad preser
> but they throw melancholy light on a
alarming future They have iBfiicte
> upon the empire a dangerous, if nj
q mortal wound, but they have given ne
e tokens of the profound disease whic
= preys upon the country.
Is SIGNFICANT.-The New York Hera
n says: Zone of the most violent Radics
}, declared, the other day, that if the Pre-
d idential election were to occur to-da
st the bitterest Copperhead would be electt
g over any man the Republicans migl
v nominate. He was not a disappoint,