TOPICS OF THE DAY.
THE FRENCH ELECTIONS.
TutAssembly of 1871, like the Assembly of 1849, will, is evident, be. reactionary. Paris, always accused of fickleness, but in politics the most consistent of cities, has, it is true, once more sent up representatives pledged to the Republic and to war. She has brought in Louis Blanc, ablest and most moderate of Ultras, at the head of the poll, and in her long list of civil representatives there is not one Imperialist, one Orleanist, or one of the Republican Government who has agreed to peace. The only exceptions to the uniform colour of her representation are the Admirals, who are elected irrespective of politics—though one at least is Re- publican—because they defended their forts like ships, and were always in favour of the most daring policy. Utterly helpless, fed by permission of the invader, with her forts in the hands of Germans, and her guns turned inwards upon herself, Paris still finds strength for the protest that she at leasts submits only to force majeure. That, however, is not the feeling of France at large. Upwards of 100 Republicans of different types have been returned by the provinces, and in many of the departments the minorityvote in their favour was very heavy ; but the immense majority of the Chamber is for peace and a Monarchy, either Orleanist or Bourbon. No traditional or other impulse appears to have had any serious weight outside Paris,—Alsace, the "German" pro- vince, having sent up men to reject any treaty involving her cession ; Lyons, the Red city, having returned Moderates ; Bordeaux, Gambetta's own city, electing Jules Simon ; but the majority of the electors appear to have been governed by a feeling of despair alike of their country, of themselves, and of all accustomed leaders and poli- tical ideas. France cannot fight any longer, therefore let there be peace. Napoleon was beaten, therefore we will not vote for Imperialists. The Republic was beaten, therefore we will none of the Republicans. We cannot govern ourselves, and so we will select men to govern us who have had no part in our defeats, men of the pleasant old time—so long ago it seems—when we had no Emperor and no Prussians, no power and no liability to be shot, and so for a time be at rest. The nation in its thirst for rest—thirst like that of a woman whose nerves have broken down—has rather shouted than reasoned ; but the shout, as we predicted, has been loud enough to 'drown opposition, and it is for monarchy and peace. It is possible, even probable, that when the struggle for the throne begins, the Legitimists may be found so strong that the Orleanists may be fain to accept Republican help, compro- mising their own ideas in favour of an Orleanist Republic, and nearly certain that there will be difficulty about the individual person, Frenchmen believing rather in the Duke d'Aumale than in the heir of Louis Philippe ; but the circumstances are extreme, the general will of the nation is unmistakable, and an Orleanist regime of some kind, be it that of President' or King, will, we imagine, be voted by acclaim, and if voted, will be accepted by the people. There seems no reason to believe that the elections were not free. The Prussians cannot have interfered, for in the very pro- vinces they claim the people have elected none but patriots, one of them, M. Schneegans, a man whose only claim is the fury of his hatred to Germany ; the Imperialists count but twenty-five members ; the only Bonaparte elected, Prince Napoleon, is elected for the only department (Corsica) which the Prussians cannot reach, and Count Bismarck has always expressed a distinct hostility to an Orleanist restoration. His theory has been that the dynasty would have no strength, unless it yielded or appeared to yield to the cry for a future vengeance. M. Gambetta's Prefects cannot have in- terfered, for he himself is only elected for five departments, and Oran in Algiers ; while M. Thiers is sent up by nineteen; and he stands highest in Paris, where he never exercised any direct authority ; while the general result of the elections,—as, for example, in Lyons and Bordeaux, suffices to prove that there has been no terror applied from the Democratic. side. We neither approve the result nor believe in its permanence, but of the result itself we will not affect to entertain any doubt. Loyalty in France, except to ideas, does not exist, or if it exists, is directed towards the Napo- leons alone : and apart from loyalty to a dynasty, we see nothing in the Orleans family or the Bourbons which should single them out from mankind for the per- manent Government of France. The ablest member of the House is not its head, and to choose a man because of his de- scent, when his election is at variance with the very principle of hereditary transmission of power, seems to us almost absurd.- Still, elective monarchy, with the right of candidature con- fined to one family, is a conceivable form of government ; and logical or illogical, wise or unwise, whatever the motive or whatever the result, the election of some descendant of St.. Louis to the highest position as King or as President is mani- festly for the moment the will of France. And with that will so expressed no foreigner can have the smallest right to inter- fere, save by the expression of a hope that an irrational popular instinct may once more prove to have been wiser than the reason of politicians.
As to the modus operandi of the election and of negotiation we know little, nor can we affirm that we greatly care. All the talk about decrees, and disfranchisements, and commis- sioners, and what not, is talk upon details merely, though they are often details of high intellectual interest. The Assembly has met, and the Assembly is evidently de facto. as well as de jure Sovereign in France. Indeed, the one satis- factory fact in the situation is the rapidity with which, the instant it had assembled, all rival power, all power of every kind, accreted to the Chamber. It became in forty-eight hours, supreme Government, as well as supreme Legislature, dele- gated its own Executive power to men of its own choice, ratified or suspended candidatures as it pleased, generously seated the Prefect of Belfort, though a prisoner ; ungene- rously, but finally, silenced Garibaldi ; and declares itself in every act a Convention, with nothing beyond it except the people. Decrees, and even laws, are worthless before its decisions, and if it wills to accept an Orleanist Prince, it can make his elec- tion legal by a fiat. The Assembly means peace, perhaps at any price, certainly if peace be possible ; and unless the Ger- mans are utterly maddened by the speed and magnitude of their victories, the Assembly, hopeless of resistance, despair- ing of alliances, will stumble through to peace somehow with as little debate as possible, and throwing as much as possible of the odium of peace upon some temporary Council, of which it is said M. Thiers will be the head, and the Legitimist Duo Decazes the Foreign Representative, until the Assembly has in the same manner stumbled its way through to the more permanent settlement upon which, as we conceive, it has already decided. Whether the electors have chosen the Chamber, as is asserted, under clerical influence, or with any knowledge of the regime they are about to create, or with any definite purpose beyond submission, must be decided hereafter. For the present, they have, in a spasm of hopelessness an& hatred of all that is active, set up voluntarily a Chamber which is peaceful and reactionary, and looks, therefore, back with hope to the ancient ways, and the good old times when the kindly earth was lapped in a universal hope of —place.
We question if the resolution of the Chamber depends in any great degree upon the terms, of which, as yet, it publicly knows nothing. M. Jules Fevre may know them, or M. Mien ; but if the Chamber knows them, which we doubt, the secret has been kept by all parties alike. The rumours during the week have pointed to moderation as understood in Berlin, but what moderation means there it is still impossible to decide. There is no moderation in the repeated menace to take Metz, none in the reported resolution to parade through Paris and so risk an emeute, none in the statement that Ger- many will demand £120,000,000, thus imposing on unborn generations an income-tax of at least 9d. in the pound for the benefit of the military treasury of Berlin. Force, however, is with Count Bismarck, the British Parliament declines to interfere, Mr. Gladstone repudiates his own Envoy when he speaks of war, thereby making his position at Versailles hope- lessly untenable ; and Europe must wait in humble silence the decision of its new master, trusting that he may be content, out of mere statesmanlike foresight, to leave its most interest- ing people their skins. If he takes them, Europe in its fiery indignation will be almost tempted to protest. .
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