New-York tribune., 1870-05-10
TIE ANSWER OF FRANCE.

TIE ANSWER OF FRANCE.
The result of the election in France on Sun
day is for Napoleon at the same time victory
and defeat. For twenty years he has tried
to cover successive usurpatiOns with trans
parent vail of popular suffrage. 1t was In the
outraged name of 100000 voters that he JUS
titled the crime of December, 1851; 1t was
AGAIN by the farce of a forced election that
he sought absOlutiOn for the murders OF 1852.
He has never ceased to style himself the
choice of the French people; he has never
ceased to implOre their favor, md beg
them, not for obedience because thai he could
enforce, but for pledge of confidence in
himself and fealty to his dynasty. At every
trial he has encountered rebuff, and the last
rebuff is the worst of all. OF the
actual result of Sundays balloting there
has never been any doubt. Elections
under Napoleon can never go against the
Government. But no exertions have been
spared to secure grand majority that by its
moral effect should depress the party of free
dom and strengthen the foundations of that
throne which awaits the Fourth NapOleon-lf
a Fourth Napoleon there is ever to be. Euge-
ME on her knees before the altar, and battal-
ions on guard around the polls, alike besought
Providence for an affirmative vote. Police
spies filled the air with the horrors of imagin-
ary plots, Republicans by the score were thrown
into Jail on fictitious charges, liberal news
papers were suppressed on the eve of election,
| liberal soldiers were drafted off to Algeria,
and all the cunning devices of a despotic
power were employed to fill the timid
with fear of avowing democratic SEN
! timents and the selfish and uncertain with
dread of socialist designs which had no exist
ence Olivier at the same time addressed an
appeal to his "dcar fellow citizens" setting
forth the horror of revolutions. "Do not lis
"ten," he cried, "tO those who would counsel
"you to vote Mo- If they were to be tri-
"umphant on the 9Th of May, they would
"take vengeance, they would imprison and exile,
"they would establish the social republic, they
"would assail the rich. If on the contrary our
"friends should triumph, long period of Sc
"curity, confidence, and peace would be as
"sured to us. Relieved from constitutional
discussions, from interpretations, threats of
disturbances, prophecies of revolution, the
emperor and his Ministers will be able to
occupy themselves with even more sOlictude
ethan heretofore in finding means to improve
" the position Of those who possess nothing
"without violating the rights of those who
"have property, and we shall not have to fear
"those times of civil war when SONS, instead
"of closing the eyes of their fathers, have
"their own eyes closed by their parents"
No one who knows the French people can
doubt that in the provinces the influence of
such terrorism and such appeals must have
been enormous. 1t is in the provinces that
ignorance and vice abound and voters are
most readily swaycd by fear or favOrs. In our
country it is to the rural population that we
trust for the honest and enlightened express
sion of the popular will; in France it is Paris
and few other large cities which embody
nearly all the education, the strength, and the
moral force of the country. In Paris the ma
jority against the plebiscitum has been over
whelmng in the whole empire NapOleon's
majority in spite of official counting, seems
from present returns to fall far below the
figures he obtained at the beginning of his
reign; and though by actual enumeration Of
ballots his measure has been carried, the real
answer which France returns to the question,
whether she approves his past course and his
plans for the future, is an unmistakablc, No.
We suppose Napoleon must have anticipated
this result; we cannot doubt that he will in
terpret it in his own manner, and take it as q
carte-blanche for whatever measures of per-
sOnal government he may have in cOntempla-
ton. Still it must be q bitter sorrow. He feels
that his reign is drawing to q close, and the
darling object of his ambition, the restoration
of the NapOleOnic dynasty, is further from re-
| alizatiOn now than it was ten years ago. Old
age, the sickness that knows no cure, is creeping
upon him; the sins of a misspent youth are
wreaking vengeance upon his wasted body :;
the friends in whom he trusted have one by
one been taken from him; st. Arnaud, the
agent of the coup ftat; Pelissier the inexorable
soldier; de Morny, Walewski, Marshal Mel, the
soul of the army, the only man, perhaps who
could have insured the succession of the
Prince Imperial had Napoleon been suddenly
| taken Of-all these are dead; and what has the
Emperor in his age and sickness to look for ?
| Eugenie has given no proof of ability; Prince
Napoleon, the Red Prince" is not to he
trusted, dor he has more than once bid un-
mstakably for the succession in his own
name. Even the army, though yesterday it
| swarmed over the barrcades and crushed the
feeble protest of the liberal party, has cast An
unexpectedly heavy vote against the plobis.
citum AS a last resource the Emperor appeals
to France and France svllenly turns away.
-----
Already opposition to the Tariff bill in the
House has begun to bear its legitimate fruit