, 1874-12-26

sion that calm strength which is only
to be obtained from the acquiescence
of the people. Already it is asserted
that Government will in future act
through the officials and disregard the
Elective Councils that is, will act des-
politically AMI leave anybody to protest
who pleases, thus adding day by day
to the irritation of the neglected but
legal power, and deepening the assure
which menaces all French society.
This, we say, is what we fear, Judging
from oil the recent history Of French
politics, but we do not add, as most of
our contemporaries do, that The electors
have showed their incapacity to elect.
We wish they had acted otherwise, but
it is vain to expect that large bodies
Of men not fully used to free election,
and valuiug logic as much as political
success, will permanently repress all
their views, and all their prejudices, and
all their aspirations, in order that safe
men in partial agreement with them may
have q fair opportunity to conciliate the
parties which the electors detest. They
will do it when the political instinct
is awakened by any great crisis, but they
will not do it in ordinary times, and
the burden Of responsibility must be
laid in practice rather on the represen-
tatives than themselves. The active
canyassers for any party are always its
most eager men, and whenever choice
is fairly open they will tend towards
candidates like themselves. and will
choose men apparently more pronounced
than the citizens who elect them. If
the Municipal Councillors are really
the picked mel of the parties to which
they belong-and there is much reason
to suppose that this is the case-the
duty Of displaying moderation and rea.
condolences and some little foresight
now roeto mainly upon tllom. They
have to show that the party is maligned,
that its objects have been Inexperienced,
that the existence of o Radical Council
say in Lyons, is quite consistent with
order, property, and respect for the gene
raj law. We quite admit that the
situation is annoying, that the Projects
are high-handed, that it is most vexa-
tious to any elected body, be it only
q Highway Board, to be told that its
votes have of themselves no executive
force but still the representative Radi-
calls of France ought, if they are worthy
of their position, to possess that much
self-restraint, ought to be able to dis
Germ those less apparent necessities of
the political position which their electors
have failed to perceive. That they
will choose to see them may be doubted,
for a Municipal Council differs from a
Parliament first of all in this, that it
lives among its electors, and can be
scolded, or even threatened for any de-
parture from their views, but the duty
of Councillors is none the less apparent.
Their business is to be better, wiser, and
cooler than their electors, not to be the
quintessence Of electoral passion. One
of the worst signs we perceive in modern
democracy is that it tends to forget this
idea-which is the secret of the BRITISH
House Of Commona-and that both in
America and France, though from differ
ent causes, the aggregate responsibility
Of the Representative Bodies tends to
become less. The Member is careful,
it may be, of his dignity and reputation.
but the House is not, or at al events,
instead of being infinitely more careful
than the individual, tends to become