NEWS OF THE WEEK •
Tr HE French elections of Sunday carried consternation into the
Conservative camp. In three widely-separated departments, the thoroughly Breton department of Finistere, the department of the Aude (Languedoc), and the department of the Seine-et- Oise, of which Versailles is the capital, the candidates of the Government were beaten completely and by large majorities. In Finistere,—where the vacancy was caused by the death of a Clerical,—M. Le Guen, "the candidate of Marshal MacMahon" received only 39,800 votes, against 59,300 given to the Liberal Republican, M. Swiney. In the Aude there were two vacancies, caused respectively by the death of a Conservative and of a Radical deputy ; they are re- placed by two radicals, M. Alarcon and M. Bonnel, elected by vast majorities over both the Bonapartist and Legitimist candidates to whom they were opposed. It is said that even had all the voters for these candidates united upon the Bonapartists (who polled twice as many as the Legiti- mists), the Radicals would still have beaten them by nearly two to one. In the Seine-et-Oise, M. Calmon—M. Thiers's special friend, and his last Prefect of the Seine—beat the Conservative, M. Levesque, who is most popular in his depart- ment, and President of its Conseil-General, by 57,000 votes against 38,000,—a defeat which means the more, that this department is not one cgntaining many manufactures, but is wealthy and suburban. The Government of Combat com- bats in ain. France has at last an opinion of her own, and it is not at all favourable to Marshal MacMahon or to his advisers. But the opinion of France does not affect the Assembly, except by making them rack their brains to consider how they can make France appear at least to recant her opinions. A ' Government of Combat' should have the honesty and courage to dispense with the anomaly of representative forms.
