, 1874-07-18

sunnorters ready to back him whenever any
GREAT measure was to be carried through. Inc
Dnc de Broglie also had a majority to rest upon,
a coalition of Bonapartists, Legitimists, and Or
l~eanists, bound togetheroby the spirit of reaction,
but still a working majority of forty or sixty
votes. This majority dissolved when the Due de
BrogIie tired to pass from a system of merely
negative measures to the positive enactments
which he deemed necessary to prop up Marshal
MacMahon's authority Thus effected the split
widened every day. The Bonapartists turned
upon those they had so long supported, and I'M
furled their own standard. The Legitimists were
still louder in their complaints of treachery, and
professed to hope nothing now but from some
great national disaster, dreadful enough to bring
back mems mind to the necessity Of a rlghttul
King. The Right Centre itself was divided INTO
two fractions, some inclining towards an agree
ment with the Left, while the others hardly con-
cealed that even the Empire was preferable IN
their opinion to the Republic. A symptom, and
at the same time an aggraVatlon, OF this dlHerence
among the moderate of the Right was their late
manifesto. This document, you are aware, was
adhered to by merely a third of their number,
and has left them at war between themselves, full
of distrust and uncertainty. Such is the present
state of the old majority, a number OF small
groups which move about without being able to
coalesce again into a whole.
This disagregation of the Conservative party
has become manifest on two recent occasions.
"A deputy Il SLIO1S ClG4 yin plCPODNN3
a few DAYS ago, a Bill for the better observance
of the Sunday. The objections to the Bill were
not so much the subject matter of it, as the
motives alleged for its introduction, strongly
savouring as they did of the theory of a State
religion. Such a Bill the Orleanists would have
voted a few weeks ago, without difficulty, out Of
Difference for their Legitimist and theocratical
allies but the alliance being at an end, such
considerations could have no more weight with
them. They could enjoy the luxury Of voting
according to their own personal views, and the
Bill was lost. The SAM thing happened on
Wednesday. The municipal Bill, actually under
discussion in the Assembly, proposed to raise the
age of municipal electors to % years inst ad
of 81 the debate was long, eager, interesting,
and, different fractions of the Conservatives using
their present liberty of voting without regard to
party interests, the proposed alteration was lost,
and the age Of q maintained by a majority Of IL
votes. This result produced a considerable sem
sation, and deseryedly so, since besides the bear
ing of the question considered in itself, it gave
new and striking evidence Of the breaking up Of
the majority which had ruled The dPstinies Of the
country ever since the gath June, 1873. My con-
clusiOn from all this is, that we have just now no
majority, and therefore, that the Assembly is
unable to discharge ITS proper fuactions. | sh~Il
say as much of the Cabinet. The present Minis
4rv does not deserve the name. 1t is Il mere col
lection of public officers, with no common bond of
policy. Instead of taking the lead OF the Assem-
blV, it follows tamely Whatever me II supPoSG5
most likely to fall in with the pleasure of the
greatest number. Nor does it show, in such
guesses, the sagacity which might make up for
the want of a policy. Thus it is that on the two
occasions l have Just mentioned, on the Sunday
Bill and on the Municipal Bill, the Ministers re-
corded their votes as members of the House, and
were so unlucky as to find themselves on the
wrong side-I mean on the side of tho minority.
As they had taken no part in the debate, this
mistake of theirs had no other consequence than
to shake their already very feeble credit, and to
prove more evidently that they held office on
sufferance, and merely because the state of par
ties IN the House does not admit of forming a
stronger Administration
You see l was justified in saying that we had
neither a Cabinet nor a Parliament. Shall l be
farther from the truth if | add that we are equally
lacking in all that constitutes a real Executive
Power! Poor Marshal MacMah0n had something
to stand upon as long as he was supported by the
same coalition which had raised hun to power.
But now that the coalition is broken up, he re-
mains as it were between heaven and earth, with
out any ground to stand upon. The constitution
al enaotments which were TO regulate and estab-
fish his functions have not been voted his Minis
tiers have no hold on the House the Assembly is
powerless and so we have a mere de- dct0 Presl-
dent, whose authority would be purely nominal it
he did not happen to have the command OF the
army in his hands. Who can wonder, under such
circumstances, that Comparison should make
the most alarming advance in the country +!
What right have we to expect that the agrCultur-
al population and the labouring classes should not