After this, the whole of the direct taxes of 1878
was voted at once, and two-twelfths of the indirect taxes and expenditure for the coming year. The right of out-door sale has been restored at once to the Republican journals. Eighty-one prefects have been changed, of whom some have resigned and some have been dismissed, either for the disrespectful language in which their letters of resignation were couched,—language frequently offen- sive to the Marshal himself,—or for their unconstitutional conduct. The political prosecutions have all been dropped, an amnesty for all political offenders between May 16 and the present date having been introduced by M. Dufauro, and the Chambers have adjourned without any serious discussions. The transition in a few hours from the highest tension of excitement to the most perfect tran- quillity is almost preternatural. Indeed the Marshal, it is said, has recovered amongst the people a good deal of his former popularity, the events of Thursday week having convinced them that it was not he, but his advisers, who had conspired against the Republic. And this, after all, is most likely the truth. The Marshal has acted with all the obstinacy of George III., but his ideas have not been, as George III.'s generally were, his own, but the Due de Broglie's,—a fact which offers rather more hope that it may be possible, by skilful moral surgery, to sunder the bond which connects them with the Marshal's mind.
Previous page
