Year: 1874

fPRoM THE REGULAR CORRESPONDENT OF THE TRiBUSE.I


PARIS, Oct. 2f-At the elections held last
Sunday in these departments to fill four seats In the
National Assembly, there were nine candidates'
but no one representing the formless actual govern
ment was found to run the risk of such trial. Hth-
erto but one such has been found IN all France
Bruas in the Maine-et-Loire, who found himself
wanting more aid than the administration could
give though it gave all it could 1t is one OF the
characteristics of the followers OF the Duke de
Brogle, who specially yaunt the merits OF par
liamentary government to avoid appeal to voting
constituents Their aim, as members or partlsans
of this Provisional Government OF combat, IS,
having already theoretically divided the nation
into their party of respectable" folks and
the Others to make this division practical.
This is the scope of all De Broglies measures and
intrlgues of the law ON the Septeana of the exag-
gerated interpretations and proposed restrictive
notifications of that law of the municipal electoral
law already passed (which proves less effective than
was hoped of the general electoral law, of the law
for fabrcating Senate and of other sO-called con-
stitutional laws which he hoped to impose on the
nation by never so scant majority Of the Assem-
bly, who notoriOusly do not represent the natiOn'
and could not at the rate of two in five, obtain re-
election from the constituencies that, in haste ana
pressure, sent them under their false pretenses to
the National Special Assembly of 1871. When these
arrangements are all made De Broglie will be ready
to appeal to the division of the nation for new
lease of socalled parliamentary power, which he
trusts vigorously to employ for further clearing the


ground of rooted Republicanism aud Imperialism,
and making the crooked path Of tortuous Oreanism
into q straight royal road.


1t can hardly be said that this is evidently DE
d. l;oJ, for MI nd ayi1ancp hardly
predicable of Government whose very name is
neologsm whose existence, without past or future,
was born of an accident whose only, yet defined
principle, is Indebtedness; whose Ministers are
without accord with each other and with their past,
and not in full accord with their chief, who, with
all his honest simplicity" is an enigma for six
years guessing. But we are obliged to assume this
to be the plan because it helps partly to explain
what no other hypothesis does at ALI the otherwise
wholly nexplicable, unmethodcal expedlents OF
what for lack of filter word. is called the policy
of the Government. The Academical Duke de
Broglie, though longer ttular Prime Minister, Is
still, as he was when nOmInally in power, the most
trusted governing counselor of tie regDing martial
Duke. This is even more apparent from the So
called political acts aud polite inaction OF the nom
inal President of the nominal Republic. than from
the frequent public displays OF their intimately
friendly private relations. The inspired appeal
to men of all moderate parties" uttered
last month by this travelling President, meant an
appeal the least republican of the members OF the
Centre Left to become moderate that is, renounce
their republicanism; an appeal to the least Bona
partst Of the Imperiaiss to renOunce their lmper-
alism and unite with the respectable Oreanlst con-
servatives first for the stamping out of Republl-
cansm second for the future accession OF the
Younger Branch. That the appeal did not mean
more than that, after the disgraceful and
alarming defeat of Bruas the candidate OF the Sep
tennats nless if meant as, at this time, very con-
cevable, an Oreanist offer of temporary alliance
with Bonapartism for defeat.of the common enemy,
Republicanism and defiant menace to Legitmatsml
the conduct and misconduct of the Government In
respec: of last Sundays elections sufficiently shows


Opposed to the two Republican candidates in the
Alpes- -Maritimes that department which includes
Nice, which. along with Savoy. was annexed to
France after Garibaldi generously more than full
filled Louis NapOleon's broken promises to secure
Sardina's independence were two Conservatives"
Although the first two were gentlemen OF most mod
crate temperament and the last two were better
Italians than Frenchmen the French Project OF the
Department and the French Mayor of Nice most
ostentatousy and actively lent their moral and
other aids to the two Separatss The scandal OF such
incivism on the part of subordnates of the French
Minister of the Interior swiftly became so great that
Gen Chabaud- LatOur, who is the Minister, tardlY
became aware of it and, toward the end OF the can
vass so far transgressed the rules OF neutrality
in elections, which the Government pretends to
have fixed for itself mildly to express his Official
deficiency of appreciation of the active elecloneer-
ing maneuvers practiced by his subordlnates III
favor of the anti National but Conservative candi-
dates The story current, now that all is over. is
that the Mayor and Prefect will be removed. lt Is
needless to say that had they displayed much
sighter affection for the Republican candidates,
they would have received their walking orders by
return telegram from the Minister of the Interior.
1t is worth noticing here in passing that the two
Conservatives, favored indeed by official authority,
but well understood to favor remuneration OF the
department to Italy, run their Republican French
opponents hardly, the minority to the majority vote
being roundly, in the proportion OF 10 to H.


In the Paw de Calais, which next to Corsica is OF
all French departments the best stronghold OF
Napoleonism, the Bonapartist candidate ran nearly
5000 ahead of his Republican opponent; but here a
Legitmlst with his 1900 followers has deferred the
final choice to a second trial The Republicans in
this department are plainly in minority, but, as
they have proved under diiiculties-Government
neutrality" being strongly armed against them
and kindly indulgent to the Bonapartsts-they are
strong enough to make a good fight and are not
without hope of triumph fortnight hence But
the most interesting contest was the one waged IN
the Seiue-et-Oise, out of which Republican senard
came victorious over the Duke de Padone, Bona
partst of the Bonapartists, by 10000 clean majority
wbereupon both parties cry 10 Triumphe" oddly
enough. too, not wholly without reason on
either part This department lies next TO Paris,
and its original deputation of eleven members
was entirely Republican. with perhaps say
one questionable Liberal" 1t is not
then quite idle for Bonapartists to boast