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    officially declared to be duly elected . A colourable story , malicious people say , this of the white votes—and , at all events , a very black looking business . The juggle of the votes given in favour of General Cavaignac " has led many to suppose that the officials who are charged by Louis Bonaparte ' s electoral law with the seals of the balloting urns , have taken adr vantage of their office to effect a clandestine modification of the votes in favour of Government . This supposition would explain the votes of the 20 th of December and of the 29 th of January .

    But this is not all . I will cite another fact or two to give you an idea of the electoral manoeuvres by which the free and sincere expression of the popular voice , so emphatically and ostentatiously recommended in the circulars of the Minister of the Interior , has been ascertained . In a great number of localities , the bulletins of independent candidates were seized , and their distributors arrested . At Chartres , for instance , bulletins , in . the name of Monsieur le Marquis de Gouvion Saint-Cyr , were stopped at the post , and bearers of the same imprisoned as disturbers of the

    peace . Notwithstanding all these preventive obstacles , the son of the celebrated Marshal had nearly two-thirds of the votes ; unfortunately , his bulletins were debarred access to the rural districts . In the Puy de D 6 me > M . Combarel de Leyval , ex-deputy and ex-representative of the people , a man of order , and a wealthy landowner , happened to be the candidate of a certain number of electors , who had remained faithful to him for sixteen years . He found it impossible to get a circular printed , or even a few voting tickets . Two out of four of his friends who were distributing his bulletins , were arrested , and thrown into prison .

    The prefects resorted to acts of even more glaring violence . At Avignon , about 150 electors are in prison . For some hours , a certain number of mayors were incarcerated . A host of citizens were personally threatened . M . Henou , the Socialist candidate , was elected at Lyons ; his nomination was officially announced . After a public reckoning of the votes , the Government declared his election null . At JJrest and at Nantes , the same method of getting rid of the opposition was enforced .

    - Perhaps you are not aware that the elections of the 29 th February were undertaken by M . Romieu ,- exprefect of the Dordogne , celebrated for the boisterous excesses of his youth and for his metropolitan orgies . It was he who , under the Mgis of M . Persigny , conducted the , whole electoral movement . M . Persigny was giving magnificent instructions to the prefects , in which he ostensibly enjoined the utmost freedom to all candidates at the very time when M . Romieu was summoning the prefects to Pai'is and giving them those secret orders which they have faithfully executed .

    At Paris , the number of votes obtained by the Government candidates is 134 , 487 ; that of the Opposition , 106 , 125 , including 18 , 347 votes cancelled . The difference in favour of Government is only 28 , 362 . On the 20 th of December , the difference was 100 , 588 . Subtract from this amount 28 , 362 votes disallowed . The number of abstentions is no less significant . The electors inscribed at Paris wore 338 , 843 ; the number of voters was on thLs occasion , 246 , 073 : making 92 , 770 abstentions . In the provinces the abstentions were equally striking . In the Ariege , there were 62 , 000 voters on the 20 th December : there are 32 , 000 on the

    29 th February . At ltouen , one-half abstained . At Iihemes , where last December the election was almost unanimous , there are now 6895 abstentions out of 11 , 374 voters ; there were but 4479 votes , and the Government candidate only polled 2337 . If the nonvotors be reckoned ns belonging to the Opposition , it may be said that half of Prance is adverse to the present state of things . Besides , it must not bo forgotten that a good number of the now deputies , although labelled with the title of Government candidates , are , nevertheless , members of the old parliamentary majority , who having an old score to settle , are naturally clussed amongst the enemies of the Governmont . It is then nearly certain that ovon in the heart of the legislative body there is forming an opposition which will speedily

    becoino Horious . Many of the representatives recently elected are now in Paris , and they have entreated of General Cavaignac not to send in his resignation , dosiring , as they say , to form un Opposition . Under the shelter , of her numo , tho guests of the Princess of Wogram , ai a ball on Thumlay , in estimating tho composition of tho now Assembly , wore , unanimous in their opinion that there would bo a focus of 80 or 90 members ( out of 230 ) , who would assume in tho Assembly tho character of sinccr representatives of tho people , and who would not bo content silently to sanction tho edicts brought before them . Tho clergy have overywhoro voted and caused to vote in favour of tho Governmont candidates Tho proof of this ia in a letter from tlio Bishop of Marseilles ,

    addressed to the Courrier newspaper of that city , where he says that , being consulted by several of his clergy on the line of conduct which it was proper for them t o observe at the coming elections , he did not hesitate to advise them to vote in favour of the Government candidates . This preference of the Church explains itself in the continual concessions made to it by the government- of L . Bonaparte . Such , for instance , is the suppression , of the University . ¦

    I pointed out to you in my last letter , and three days before all the Paris journals , what were the principal features of the future law on instruction , now expected daily . I omitted , however , to remark one which denotes an immense concession to the clergy . All the ecclesiastics and the members of religious congregations ( read Jesuits ) will have the right to establish a school or college without any previous authorization , and especially without any surveillance of the State . Plain citizens , on the contrary , will be subjected to that authorization and that surveillance . This disposition , if Bonaparte lasted , would render the clergy a formidable instrument , in giving to it the absolute direction of the education of our future generation . It is not , then , surprising that the clergy should repay in votes for Bonaparte its tribute of gratitude .

    The Legislative body is summoned for the 29 th March . It was at first said that M . de Moray would be the president . Some days before the elections , Bonaparte had sent to the Moniteur the decree which called M . de Moray to that high dignity . But on an observation of the writers of the Moniteur , that the new Constitution required that the president of the Assembly should be chosen by the elected deputies , L . Bonaparte caused the decree to be withdrawn . That this supreme legislator should have already forgotten

    the articles of his own Constitution was thought very amusing in Paris . As soon as the result of the elections was known , L . Bonaparte wished to name M . de Moray . His pretended uncle , Jerome Bonaparte , would thus have been president of the Senate , and his uterine brother president of the Legislative Assembly ; but old Jerome opposed himself this time to the nomination . The Constitution confers on the president , of the Senate the right to provide a successor for the chief of the State in case of the decease of the latter .

    In the anticipation of this eventuality , which is not by any means a pleasant subject of thought to Louis Bonaparte , old Jerome of course wished to be " master of the situation / ' and desired to have no serious obstacle to prevent the exercise of this right . But he was well aware that if M . de Moray were president of the Corps Legislatif , he could interfere most materially with his views ; and he also knew that De Moray , on Louis Bonaparte ' s death , would use his influence in favour of the Comte de Paris , or even the Comte de Chambord , rather than for any member of the Bonaparte family . He therefore made use of the famous argument' with the President of which we have already spoken , the threat of exposing the family secrets , and especially

    Louis Napoleon ' s extra-Bonapartist origin . This argument had its usual effect on Louis Bonaparto . He yielded in this case , as he had on that of old Jerome ' s salary , and it was settled that De Moray was not to be president of the Corps Legislatif . In the Moniteur of this morning ( Tuesday ) , M . Billault is appointed . These preparations for the event of Louis Bonaparte ' s sudden death are not founded on a purely gratuitous hypothesis . Ho is seriously ill . Tho most contradictory rumours have been spread as to the nature of his disease . Some said ho was afflicted with a maladie de langueur ; others have assorted that his illness is occasioned by a disease of the spinal marrow , produced by debauchery . This last version is the best accredited . His familiars acknowledge thut he has acute rheumatism in tho left leg , with severe pain in tho loins , symptoms which would exactly correspond with those of disease of tho spine . Whatever it may bo , Louis Bonaparto certainly suffers soveroly ; ho has lately risen at five o ' clock in tho evening , received tho ministers until sevon o ' clock , and , except during those two hours , seen no one but his physician , Dr . Connoau . There is still much talk of tho fusion of tho two branches , but nothing more has transpired regarding tho negotiation at Frohsdorf . A decided increase of favour , however , has been shown to this solution by tho higher ranks of society . ' The coterie at tho Elyse ' are furious at this , and accounts reach us from every part of tho country of a revival of rigorous measures , against both Orleanists and Legitimists . Tho rage of tho Elyse ' o against tho hitter party is nuch , that in tho south , the Government has not hositated to turn out Legitimist mayors , and to roplaco them by Republicans . This would 1 k » hardly credible if we did not know that the strangest things are sometime * dono in tho blindness of passion . On tho other hand , the Government ia playing a dcop game against tho Orleans family .

    The Due de Bourbon , in his will in favour of the Due d'Aumale , had inserted a clause which granted an Annual sum ¦ ¦ of a hundred thousand francs ( 4000 Z . ) to the descendants of the Vende ' , who were killed in the civil war . Louis Philippe , under the pretext that this legacy was " anti-national , " but really in order to appropriate it himself , had managed to get it annulled Andnowthe Bonapartists have exhumed this old business ; they have induced spine aged Vendeaiis to cmne forward , and to demand the arrears of this annual grant . M . Boisviel , a Legitimist advocate , is engaged to support their claim against the Due d'Aumale ' a

    estate . By raking up this business , the Bonapartists especially wished to cause dissensions between the Legitimists and the Orleanists , as the former party might be expected to defend , and the latter to oppose the claim . But events have now rendered the union of the two parties so imperatively necessary , that the Bonapartists will , in all probability , find all their ingenuity wasted . The Elysee fears nothing so much as this union , and , therefore , does everything in its power to prevent it . M . de Persigny lately gave vent to his Bonapartist zeal , in a drawing-room , in the following language ; A general officer , distinguished for

    his faithful services to the elder branch of the Boutbons , objected in very moderate terms to the decrees of the 22 nd of January , and expressed his astonishment at seeing all the fear and all the mistrus t of the Elysee exclusively turned in the direction of the Orleans family . ( tJ £ h , mon IHeu ! General , " saidDe Persigny , vehemently , " we are not disposed to spare the Legitimists any more than the Orleanists , and we suspect Frohsdorf just as much as Claremont . If at this moment we strike at the house of Orleans—and , in my opinion , on just grounds , — -it is because they

    could by themselves re-establish the monarchy in France j but the Legitimists ^ reduced to their own resources , could give us no cause for fear , although , if they were united to the Orleanists , they might make a serious fight against us on a good opportunity . We strike the first blow against the princes of the Orleans family , and we are well assured that by the same blow we shall do the greatest damage to the Comte de Chambord and the Legitimistsi" In short , the plan of the Elysee is to separate the Orleanists and th » Legitimists , and to conquer them in detail .

    M . Bocher , who was accused of having hawked about Orleanist pamphlets , was tried last week , and only condemned to a fine of five hundred francs . The Elysee was enraged at this , for such a sentence amounted to an acquittal . The Government has appealed against it . A new decree , which has appeared this week , confirms the condemnations pronounced by the Departmental Commissions .

    One measure has been received more favourably ; the Bank of France has reduced its rate of interest from four to three per cent . The Bank , however , did not effect this reduction voluntarily ; it simply obeyed an injunction from the Government . The President had only one object in making this order , —he wished to influence the elections , and especially those in Paris This measure was , in fact , a mere electoral reclame . As for tho octroi duties , the future suppression of

    which was announced by the Bonapartist organs beforfl tho 2 nd of December , the Government appears to have suddenly found out that it is not possible to do without them at present . A mere shadow of reform has been paraded when it was necessary to give an appearance of satisfaction to the working classes on this point The duty of ton per cent , which the State raised from tho octrois of all tho cities of France , has alone been suppressed , and by this boon the tax on certain articles of food will bo slightly reduced .

    Coercive measures continue in force all over France . Tho popular poet , Lachamboaudie , is still on board tho Dugnesclin , in which ho is to be transported to Cayenne The transportations to Algoria have cominonced . Many shiploads of prisoners have sailed from Cotto and Marseilles for that colony . And still arrests continue to bo made Thirty persons have been arrested this weok in tho single town of Condowi ( Gors ) , and the neighbourhood . Tho number ot political prisoners in tins little town amounts to moro than a hundred . . . A terrible disaster has occurred in Algeria . A column commanded by General Bousquot was expose for a day and a night to a Hiiow-Htorm . More tlian three hundred men died from tho cold , and vtroro

    buried in tho snow . . . Tho political world i » still m occupied witn Switzerland . Tho diplomacy of Europe is divided on tho subject . Austria will consent to an armed intervention by Louis Bonaparto , on condition that mo ] permitted to co-operate on the Italian frontier . "JJ ™ consents only to pacific intervention , and M . de IN " Holrodo has written to thia effect to tho Hussion 0 hm » -

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    240 fffe ^ [ Sa ^ ukday ^

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), March 13, 1852, page 240, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1926/page/4/