The French Assembly continues its discussion on the Electoral law,
but no vote has yet been taken on the third reading of clause 14, substituting election by districts for election by depart- ments. It is not expected that the vote on the second reading will be reversed, as the Assembly is evidently ready to support the Government in almost any act. A serious endeavour, for instance, was made on Tuesday to moderate the interference of officials, by forbidding them to " designate a candidate to the
suffrages of the electors by placards, circulars, or any other ad- ministrative or official document ;" but the proposal was resisted by the Government, and on a division, negatived by 318 to 314. This remarkable vote can only have been secured by a union of all the Monarchical parties, and seems to show that they all expect some benefit from official candi- datures. M. Dufaure, however, in the course of a discussion which was raised upon the vote, declared that to suppose the Government would support Monarchical candidates was to insult the entire Cabinet. Note that whenever an answer must be given in a decidedly Constitutional sense, it is always M. Dufaure who is chosen to give it. Now, M. Dufaure is, next to Leon Say, the man most likely to leave this Cabinet.
