THE FRENCH ELECTIONS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XVIII, Issue 523, 7 November 1857, Page 3

THE FRENCH ELECTIONS.

(From the Times.)

Not since the Imperial Crown of France was placed on the head of Napoleon 111. by the; vote of 1852 has any political event unconnected with foreign affairs so roused the attention of the world as the elections which have just taken place. The results are now sufficiently knowh.; In Paris the Government has been defeated in, three districts out of ten. General; Cavaigriac, formerly Chief of the Republic, and the opponent of tka present Emperor ia the contest for

the Presidency, has been chosen in the thin! district, though, on account of the insufficiency ' of his majority, he must go through another election. In the fifth and sixth districts M.M. Carnot and Goudchaux, names well-known in former days, have been returned by large ma*, jorities. It is true that in the other seven districts Government candidates have been . returned, yet we cannot but look upon the, result of the elections in Paris as a moral blow .: to the Government. At Lille, Bordeaux, and ->' Lyons, it is also said that Opposition candidates have triumphed. The struggle,'therefore, is not unlike that which seated Louis Napoleon, nearly nine years ago, in the Presidential chair. - Then, as now, the great mass of the people supported him through confidence in hia per- ; sonal qualities and veneration for his family name. But Paris, Lille, Lyons, and some other centres of population and disaffection protested, perhaps, even more strongly then than now. ."-*•.;.

It appears that in the present ease'the number of Opposition candidates returned is very small—the Ministerial papers say there are not more than nine or ten; so that the Emperor may well assert that the great' body of the people which chose him is still ready to support the legislators of his choice. So far, then, the Government has been successful, and do one could doubt its success. But it is not at all improbable that from the elections of 1857 may * be reckoned a period very different from .that with which the Empire commenced. Undoubtedly, the policy of the Empire is, and always has been, to appeal from Paris to France, from the fickle, critical, and keen-witted inhabitants of the capital, to the more domestic, affectionate, -religious, and money-saving provincials. No one can doubt the determination of the Emperor not to be dictated to by mobs or meetings as long as he possesses the steady adherence of those whose votes placed him on the throne. Yet an adverse election in Paris must exercise much influence both at home and abroad. In the first place, Paris is not only to Frenchmen but to the world in general the representative of France. English travellers, who visited the country prior to the first .Revolution observed the complete dependence of mind which distinguished the people of the provinces, and the character is still the same. The very farmers and vine-growers who supported Government candidates this week will begin to doubt their own wisdom when they hear that a Cavaignac and a Carnot have been returned by a district of enlightened and witty Parisians. Furthermore, Paris and the large towns are the only places, or are thought to be the only places, where electors are not intimidated and ballot-boxes are not tampered with. In the rural districts the Prefect and the Bishop, the Maire and the Priest, may be said to constitute society. The peasantry and small proprietorSj acute and hard-fisted enough in - their way, are the most acquiescent of mortals, - so far as regards dynasties and constitutions. They will follow the lead of Government.officers and spiritual advisers, and their votes may always be counted on for the support of existing authority, excepting when, as in the case of the Presidency of 1848, the clergy are ranged against the civifpower. It is likely, then, that both to France and the worid the elections of Paris, Lyons, and Lille may stand for the legitimate expression of the country's will. There there is communication and co-opei-a-tion; the votes, though given by ballot, are no secret, and the opinions of each elector ar& known to a large body of friends. So they may be considered free, and the result of a more instructed choice than the decision of any body of provincials. The conduct of the Government officials must also add to any distrust with which the course of this conflict has been regarded. It is now plain to the world that the Emperor and his advisers set their hearts on returning every man of their own party. Paris was especially the object of their solicitude ; so eager were the TuiJeries and the Hotel de Ville that even in this most solemn constitutional procedure, in this first essay of the rights .guaranteed by the Imperial system, themost intolerable interference was practised. Nor was it successful. Men who live under despotic power become disposed to respect courage and unshaken self-confidence above any other qualities of a~ruler; and in this affair such acts as the warning of the Siecle, the publication of M. Haussmann's intemperate address, and the . undignified manifesto of M. Billault may well have prevented thousands from voting for the Government candidates, and swelled the lists which gave the Opposition candidates a seat in the Legislature. • Now, however, we must look to the future. The new Legislative Body is chosen. It is, as before, devoted to the Government, but has among its number a knot of men who, under the various names of Constitutionalist, Liberal, and Republican, are hostile to the system which is now established in France. The question is,—" What will these new l'epresentativrs do ?" The Minister of the Interior has declared that they are merely frondeurs who have sought election under the present Constitution in order that they may publicly express their contempt for it, and refuse their allegiance to the throne. A great body of Frenchmen, and probably thousands who voted for the Opposition candidates, think so too. We cannot doubt that many a workman who has smelt 'the powder of the barricades, and whose friend or brother has disappeared either to the grajeor to Guiana, after some insurrectionary movement,, voted in the hope that the candidate of his. choice would indignantly refuse the ofith.to obey the usurper, and quit the Chamber, exciaimin^. "Vive la ttepublique ! But we- cannot think that the Opposition members will- be so illadvised as thus to play the game of the Govern-

-<ment, and acquire for themselves the reputation -of factious and theatrical disturbers of the peace. Even if, they do not recognize the legality .of the means by which the Emperor mounted his throne, yet he is on it, and a majority of the nation has not only condoned but approved the excesses of 1851. Napoleon 111. is Emperor of the French; the elections have taken place under the Imperial Constitution, and to accept the part of a candidate is to •accept the Government which authorized the -election. For the few Liberals who have been returned to quit the Chamber with an affected protest against the regime which alone allowed them to enter it would be a display highly detrimental to their cause. It would justify all , that the Government organs have said respecting the vanity and intemperance of the Opposition, and would furthermore be a betrayal of thos? who have endangered their prospects in order to restore to the Constitution an element of vitality. We have said that possi- . i»ly these elections will be the beginning of a flew period. This may be so, if the Liberal candidates whose claims have been supported by the people go into the Chamber with a .determination to play the part of honest and -independent legislators. Without speeches ..treasonable or seditious, without protests against the misdeeds of past days, they may effectually, if they desire, check the self-will of the Court and the insolence of its functionaries. Even a -dozen men, if they hold together, and make moderate and well-timed speeches about matters : .on which "they are sure to be right, must in a, view months exeercise a moral control over any' (number of benches filled with the puppets of a The small end of the wedge has been forced into the fabric of the Imperial system ; whether it will be driven home depends on the judgment of the men to whom the Opposition has confided its cause.