New-York tribune., 1874-10-28
FRENCH POLITICS.
The LATE ELECTIONS yO THE COUNCILS
,sENERAL.

THE KxrENT TO WHICH POLITICAL QUESTIONS WERE
INvolyEp-oPPREssIvE ACTS OF THE oRLEAN-
Isr rMINrsIERs-CURoUs POLITICAL BED-FK1Lows
--BIIND LEADERS.
IyRoM TIE REGULAR CORRESPONDENT OF THE TRIBuNE]
PARIS, Oct. THE term of portion of the men,
hers tsomething over 1,4OO) of the Departmental
Councils having expired. elections were held
last Sunday to fill the vacancies. The proper func-
tions of the Councillors in the ordinary exercise Of
their Office in ordinary times relate especially to the
local material interests of the Department. law
originating with the Royalists of the present Ma
tional Assembly, who were ardent decentralizers
three years ago. considerably enlarged the very mar
row limits within which, in these respects, the
action of the Departmental Councils was restricted
under the Empire, restoring to them some OF the
powers Of q local legislature. to be exerted in
dependentlv of the Projects control. Still, they
had no right of direct action in the domain
of politics under any circumstances, could at most
only respectfully express their wishes views under
qualified circumstance, certain political questions
But another and later law, originating with these
same Royalists, known as the Treveneuc, provides
that in case of the National Assembly being broken
ND by a coup detdt from above OF by revolutionary
violence from below, the Councls-General become
ipso cto deposiares of the national political power
legal guardians aud restorers of the legal national
authority. Furthermore, the uneasy ferment. in
ing rest and finding none. fatally entertains the
hopes, ambitions, and intrigues of all parties and
gives political quality to any act of popular suf
frage.
The ministerial organs have been constantly
urging for the last fortnight that electors ought to
have regard for the political views of candidates
and that candidates were very wrong-well nigh
guilty of illegality-in declaring their political
opinions when proposing themselves. Nevertheless
=. l.
MS constantly applying their rhetorical administra-
tive and other of pressure first of all against
republican candidates and for their own favorites
next for their disliked allies Bonapartists and
Ieetimsts The sef-cOntradictions, the sacrifices
of dignity the tangle Of sbifty expedients into
which this point-by-no-point tortuous course Of
impolicy has led and keeps them struggling is pita-
bly, curious.
The Orleanist Minister of the Interior, who only
FIVE weeks ago, speaking in his official capacity as
serted respect and love for legally protected liberty
of the press has within that time, shut up warned
OF interdcted from street sale pretenses and pre-
texts always frivolous and in at least one instance
patiently erroneous mot to say falsel some of the
most moderate liberal journals published in France.
Among these are the Journal des Debats the Steele
and the XIXme Steele, every of which fully and
freely accepts the seven years Presidency Of the
Republic in the person of MacMahon. Only, the
question being an open one they will not maintain
him as President of seven years Republic, which,
for that PERIOD may be worked as a preliminary
system to the rule of an Orleanist Stakeholder
or King, or of Bonapartist Emperor. In the great
arsenal of the statutes and legal customs 1T would
one would think. not be difficult for the Oreanist
Minister of the Interior to find enough readysharp-
ened laws against the press. He prefers the easy,
prompt administrative punshments, whose uncon-
trolled application is opened him by the
State of Siege" declared over Paris and half
of France under war stress four years ag0-an
heirloom of the Empire, jealously preserved by its
prot6ges for the wearing of law-proof garments
to cover the shame and feeble-nakedness of Or
leanism.
From feebleness to fear, from fear to immodest
boldness, and violence such as courage would not
dare bashful schooboys and scared sheep make con-
stant normal passage. To this chapter, as well as to
the history of present of party spirit In France
the Journalde Paris, ministerial but wholly init
mate house-organ of the Orleans family in its num-
Der of to-day gives with cheerful naivete, brilliant
illustration Observe order to appreciated value
that this journal is not merely the specially inspired
trusted and trustworthy organ of the Duke dAumale
and his house but that its editor-nchiefs man of
fair natural ability of superior culture and OF ordl
narily good Judgment. Yet Monsieur Herve sane
tions the writing and publishing of long article OF
which the chief assertion is as follows:
In the mind Of it's honorable author, as In the minds
OF the [Royais, majority who voted it, the Treveneuc
law was especially aimed against the enterprises of the
Republican party. for this is really the only party that
ever dreamed of arriving at the control of Dubcl a
fairs by breaking up the assembly OF national represent
atiyes.
The mau who writes this, and the man who has it
published, and the princes in whose misunderstood
ambitions it is published are all of them Of to
recoect the coup d<dt of 1851 aud are not so ignO
rant of the history of their country not to have
read of the 18th Brumaire. The gentleman who thus
edits the History of French Revolutions ad asunl-
delpkini fancies that he put out of sight, be-
cause he chooses to overlook what happened to the
National Representatives" in 1880. In the same
category may be placed the rotten Legislative Body
Of the late Empire, whose dissolution by the pres
ence of the indignant people the 4th September,
1870, the of pleasure to none more hearty
than the family, the Inexperienced interests OF
whose aspiring princely members the Journal dc
Paris supports,
1t is difficult to mention so much a nearly com
pete set of select characteristic indicative facts ex-
employing the position of the Government aud the
pose Of Orleanism in respect 70 the recent depart
mental elections. The Government is not honest.
The Ministers are less honest than the Government
The Ministers have done their utmost practically to
contradict and render futile the appeal" which
MacMahon last month was credited with having
made to all moderate men of all parties" Since
that appeal" was uttered by the ordinarily retcent
military President, OF his Ministers ia Legiti-
mist has with unconsidered frankness, presented
the President to his provincial auditors as pilot OF
the French Ship of State to its only port of mon
srehical safety.
The real question, which no openly asks, and
which every one puzzles himself to answer, is