THE LATE ELECTIONS IN FRANCE.

[PROM A FROSTWORTBY CORREAFONDRET4 _Avis; 18thThe English public seem to be more uneasy at the. result of ' lions than they have grounds for being. According to the colour given ! " tel

to the affair by the London papers, we are all going toperdition- in cons

sequence of the " Rouges " having carried their- elections in many

towns, but especially in the capital itself. Now the truth is, that the prodigious number of votes for the Socialists furnishes no. proof of the favour shown to Socialist doMrines. .0arnot, Vidal, and Flotte,• owe

their. -success to their :being hearty friends of the Republic ; and

they were supported by avast -fiiimber of respectable• and. sound-

headed French citizens on that gritiund. I have reason, to believe that-

General Cavaignac, for instance, voted for. the first two ; nor could

he consistently do otherwise. The, candidates, opposed to the Socialists

wens -of the reactionary party, put forward by a motley committee in the interest of the Parliamentary majority ; and since this same-

-majority makes no secret of- its dislike towards the actual consti-

tution, so the bulk of -the Paris voters were' resolved to show, by their

votes, that they wished the- Republic to endure. When a farge idea gets possession of a multitude, it carries-all-before it. People -do not

stop to ask what the secondary effect of their actions may happen to be ;

they:aim at a parpose,. and make straight towards. -it. I have: no. doubt

but that-numbers of those who supported the three persons above-named hate Socialism, and would have voted against ita_advocates had any other candidates offered themselves as declared Republicans. But isuelwere not forthcoming, and the people therefore sent up the men wha showed

Republican• colours, even though they were more or less Red. I feel rather. encouraged- than disheartened byy this result ; and you would partake of this feeling if -you saw how mu ell more calm and °orison-

taneous has been the manifestation of the popular will of late. The people begin to be conseious that they possess formal legitiniate means of making that will the rule of Government ; and they will probably remain. cons

:tented with manifesting it in constitutional forms. When that result is

obtained, universal suffrage will become tha real .basis of political.power.

Those who complain, now or hereafter, that the :French Government is dependent upon the working classes for. its direction, only complain in fact that the. French nation is become a republic; and. Mate reconvert .it into -a monarchy,' by hook or by crook," that the formidable confeders

my of leading pablic men labour night and day,—the present ruler him-,

Self hot the kest forward in the:scheme; hoping he may be the.party se- lected fornempire.

But it is not likely that Louis Napoleon will.be interrupted ia- the

Presidential course before his term is run, unless he designedly- provoke

the:pm:mks mind, as indeed he has already sought to. a... He has -for-

feited the confidence of his.countrymen, it is true ; yethe can workno great Mischief; feeble and incapable asthe has proved himself ; whilst the male- contentsin the National Assembly can, on their side, accomplish - no. sub- atantial changes in-the constitution, so long as the. people watch their proceedings. In short, my prophecy leans to this—that the - French na- tion will ocoupy itself, between the present. time and the expiration of Loins Napoleon's term of office, in selecting a more fitting, chief trate ; content- meanwhile, to- use the arms which-they possess in the

suffrage, to obstruct the designs of the plotters,against the Republic.

Though I still hold to the opinion that the Republics was forced upon the nation, and nat. desired by it, I believe -theta new -break-up- of the-

apparatus is unlikely. The blunders of the EXecutive have been many,

and ill-intentioned,- but the people know better than to.risk their remedy by another violent shock.. They will wait, and I trust put their hands to the work when the timecoraes, with theinereased wisdom derived from thepossession of political rights during four instructive years. P. D.