The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1877-09-07
The French Election.

/ IN france tne SeheFdi eieCtfOu5 always
! take place on Sunday, on the theory, per
: haps, that the better the day the better the
deed. Iu accordance with this rule, OF
! custom, decree was published last week
, fixing Sunday, the l4th of October, as the
/ day for holding the election for members Of
| the next French Assembly. This election
! is as important an appeal to the ballot as
has ever occurred in France, and upon its
result her future veal or woe largely de-
pends. Although Marshal MacMahon is
President of the French Republic, it is well
known that he is anything but a Republican
himself. His sympathies are all with the
conservatives, as they call themselves, rep
reseuting the different parties in France
opposed to Republican form of govern
ment. All these factions, while seeking to
promote their own political interests, stand
on common platform of deadly hostility
to the Republicans. The late repressive
and high-bauded measures of the govern
nient towards the leading men in the Re-
publican party, but especially its assaults
upon the liberty of the press, are AS suicidal
as they are certain to defeat the object at
which it aims, the control of the election
against the SUCCESS of the Republicans.
No ruler, whether King or President, ever
waged a successful warfare upon the free
dom of the press, and the man who embarks
on such a hazardous enterprise will be sure
to find ont in the end that the pen is might
ier than the sword. There is not to-day a
AZ IL i'm oil
itor dare give expression to his honest con-
victions without running the risk of a
criminal prosecution by the government
Nor can any leading Republican give ut
terance to his true sentiments in a public
meeting without incurring the same swift
penalty, Next to Thers, the leader Of the
Republican party, Gambetta exercises a
greater political influence than any man in
France, and only few days ago he WAS
arrested for what he had said a short time
before in speech delivered by him at the
city o: Lille. 1t is supposed that the fol-
lowing extract from his speech is what has
given mortal offence to the government and
furnished The pretext for his arrest a:
when millions of electors make their choice
w
France pronounces her sovereign will, there
must be either submission or surrender"
This is nothing more than the assertion
of the well recognized doctrine in a Re
public, that the voice of the majority, when
legally expressed, must prevail. What
would be thought in this conntry of the
arrest of Republican or Democl attic
speaker for maintaining so plain propo-
stion as the supremacy OF The popular will {?
And yet to do So has come to te "a criminal
offence in the eyes of the President of the
French Republic. If the Republican party
succeeds i'll returning a majority of the
members of Assembly, no man in France
will have contributed more to effect that
result, without intending it, than Marshal
Mac Mahon. 1t will simply be another in
stance of political history repeating itself
When the dissolution og the Assembly took
place last May the Republicans had 3G3
They have all been renominated and the
Republican leaders claim that they will all
be re- elected, with the addition of 40 or so
which they expect 10 gain in conservative
districts. If all This shnuid happen, Pres
ideut MacMahon will he confront, d with
hostile majority in the lower branch of
the Legislature representing the popular
will, and the destinies OF France hang upon
the Legislative action Of that majority after
the meeting of the Assembly.