LETTERS FROM PARIS, BY 0. P. Q. No. XVII.

THE MONOPOLIST ELECTIONS. TO THE EDITOR OF THE SPECTATOR.

Paris, 25t1 June 1834.

Ste—"Nous sommes aujourd'hui, ce que noes etions trier," said the im- mortal SIEVES to the States-General, after the old Monarchy of the CA PETs had uttered, in the presence of that assembly, some of its vain and powerless menaces. The friends of liberty in France are obliged to-day to adopt the same language, and, in reply to the empty mirth, idle ribaldry, and savage joy of the Doetrinaries and Juste Milieu, are compelled to say—" Laugh on ! laugh on ! We are to-day the same as we were yesterday.'" I mean in plain terms, that the Monopolist Elections in France have not sutprised, deceived, or alarmed us; that we never expected to gather figs from thorns or grapes from thistles ; that if, with such Ministers, such laws, such an electoral system, and such a French constituency, any other result had occurred, we should have been disposed to believe in the subversion of the order of nature—should have ex- pected to see the rivers of the world flowing towards instead of from their source—should have substituted in our minds causes for effects, and effects for causes—and should have anticipated the speedy commencement of air. la vi NO'S reign of miracle and wonderment. In my last letter, I endeavoured to prepare you for the then anticipated results of the elections in France, by transmitting you the details of a most interesting conversation hell in my presence between .AR3IAND CARREL and A. 11. an Englishman. If your readers perused that letter with attention, they are prepared to learn that the Monopolists have done their duty to themselves, their principles, and their party ; that they have elected those who faithfully represent the men who have returned them ; that as their constituents are lovers of wealth inure than of liberty, of ease more than of improvement, amid of tranquillity more than of civilization, so their representatives are prepared to sell their votes to the Doctrinaire Cabinet, and to pass all such laws, budgets, taxes, loans, and violations of the Constitution, as may be demanded of them. The Monopolists have been perfectly consistent. At Paris, they have rejected Onir.i.os BARROT, ARA GO, LAEITTE, DUPONT DE L'EURE, SAIVERTE, DA U SOU, BERARD, and CHARDE L ; and in the Departments the same clique have refused to have upright, honest, enlightened, or patriotic Deputies, and have turned out such men as DE LUDRE, BRICQUEVILLE, AUDRY DE FUVRA. YEA U, DE CORCELLES, SAL VERTE, VERGER D'ARG ENTON, General BER- THA n, and a host of others who tirade the Revolution of July—raised the Throne of the Barricades—headed the people in the streets—saved property from destruction, and life from peril—and to whom at least these ungrateful renegades now in office owe all their power, influence, and even perhaps exist. rwe. But all this is per feetly consistent. The Monopolists do not want liberty, hut gold —do not care for a charter, but for trade and commerce—do not desire that France should advance at the head of civilization, but only that she should be on good terms with the fag-end of the Holy Alliance—and are fully pre- pared to get back to Legitimacy and the Restoration whenever this can be done without convulsion. They do not, it is true, elect many Legitimists just now, because they fear lest the Legitimists should endanger the success of the Counter-revolution, by pressing it on too (prickly, and by opening too soon the eyes of the country to the destinies which await her. But if many avowed Legitimists are not returned, a vast number have nearly been so ; and four-fifths of the present Ministerial supporters weep and groan and grieve over the fact that a revolution was ever made. Why, in Paris alone, look at the contest which has just terminated between LA EITTE and LEFEBVRE. LA EITTE was the roan of the Revolntion ; LEFEBVRE, the man of the Counter-revolution. LA FITTE was the man who dictated in his own hotel to Tuteus and MIG NET, the proclamation which was first issued in favour of the Duke of ORLEANS. LEFEBVRE at that time was the man who went about canvassing the mercantile aristocracy in favour of the eldest branch of the house of Bourbon, and against the danger of changing the national colours. LA EITTE was the man who was charged by the Houses of Parliament to present the crown to Louis POMP. LEFEBVRE was the man who refused to sign the document which called Louts Put tie to the throne. Since then, LA EITTE has remained the same ; but LEFEBVRE has partially changed. He has adopted the Monarchy of the Revo- lution, without adopting the Revolution itself. He has taken Louis Piritte as a necessity, and now is an out-and-out Orleanist ; but he is so not from love, but from avarice, from fear, from an instinctive horror of change : and now LEFEB- VRE is one of the most active and insolent representatives of the Counter-revo- lution, not against Louts PUMP, but against all public liberties. LA FITTE had btrt 702 votes, whilst LEFERVRE had 920. I told you, in the first letter I wrote to the Spectator, that the Counter-revolution was advancing with ra- pidity., and that we were being hurried on to a third Restoration. You thought that my imagination had been excited, and that I magnified the evils I appre- hended. No such thing. I knew what must be the result of Monopolist Elec- tions; 1 knew that the Doctrinaires were prepared to go to all lengths in order to assure themselves a majority ; and I knew that there was an abundant harvest to be reaped by a Minister who would (1st) press on the elections months before- hand, to prevent the 25,000 young electors from having a right to vote,—who would (2d) fix such days for the elections as should be least agreeable and favourable to their opponents,—who would (3d) enforce most rigorously not only the oath of allegiance, but also prohibit the Royalist and Republican electors from protesting against such oat h,—who would (4th) otter and publish and circulate all sorts of slanders and reproaches directed against their political on • ponents, to discredit them in the eyes of their electors,—who would (5th) of1Cr new bridges, new churches, new roads, new canals, new halls, new markets, public libraries, and every sort of local improvement, to those districts whieh should elect only Counter-revolutionary Deputies,—who would (6th) confer titles, advancement, and even money on those who engaged to vote for Minis- terial candidates,—who would (7th) resort to every low and petty expedient to keep those from voting who would not support the DoctriLaire representative. And further than this, I knew the corruption of the Monopolists, and their desire to be yet further corrupted, and the full intention of the Minister to gratify their desires and expectations by offering sops and bribes to each electoral dog who would accept dim). And it was therefore that I told you, mouths ago, that we were rapidly marching not only towards the pi inciples, but even to- wards the men of the Restoration. And, without any vanity, ant I not entitled to ask, if my anticipations are not realizing, and if my fears are not being con- firmed by the Monopolist Elections of Pa34? I kuow that we shall be told by the ignorant and 'superficial, that we are not so returning ; but what says M. itovEic COLLA RD—even i1. COLLA RD—who was President of the Chamber of Deputies many times under the Restoration ? What says he, the most eulighteued of the Doctrine school, to the electors of Vitre, who have returued him?

n Whom have we now occasion to fear? No nue but ourselves. We have now to fiat lcu we shonhl sacrilice the cause of liberty, which we have purchased so dcadv, to a love of power.- And remember, this is the admission, not of a Republican, or Royalist, or Li- beral; it is the admission of ROVER COLLARD, the chief of the Doctrine, but who is now far outstripped by his puny coadjutors, PERSIL, VIEN NET, TILLERS, IA EBERT, and even G IZOT. ROYER COLL A R o knows and feels, that the school to which he belongs, and which he hopes to govern and to guide, but which will, as usual, elude and deceive him, is a school which hates liberty_ which is opposed to freedom—which will urge on the new Royalty to the saute limits as the old one—which will call once mole for the famous September or- dinances of the Duke DEC A ZES. SO ROVER COLLA RD is in a panic of fear ; and he tells his electors, that now they have most reason to fear themselves. Thus, even the chief af "the Doctrine" perceives to what we are hastening, and, with the inspiration which is insepalable from true talent, points out before- hand the rocks which will beset and the shoals which will interrupt U9.

And allow me furthermore to reply to those who say that these elections of 1834 do not move that we are going back instead of forwards, by pointing out the falling off—the great falling off—in the number of voters in sonic of the Paris elections. Let us take seven as specimens of the rest—and they are not the most striking. In the ;311 arrondissement, in 1831, In the 4th 1230 electors voted. In 1834, only 921 1108 842 In the rith 940 896 In the 6th 1360

ti35

In the 7th 945 763 In the 9th 547 488 In the 12th 512 457

6642 5512 Thu., in only seven arrondissements of Paris, 1130 electors voted in 1831, who did not vote at all in 1834. And do not imagine that this is because the num- ber of electors inscribed on the lists is fewer. On the contrary, the number is greater ; but the Munopolists are for leaving all to the Government—the Pa- triots are discouraged by persecutions, and even prosecutions, fines, and itu- prisonments; and, in one word, the Counter-revolution is marching.

But these results are natural, such as every man who understands the question might foresee, and such as should excite no astonishment, but only pain and in- dignation at the causes and the authors of these calamities. For let me call your attention to another fact, which 1 beg you will remember, and which will serve as a useful key to enable you fully to understand all these Monopolist Elec-

tions. Souls. The population of Paris and its immediate suburbs, in 1834, amounts to 935,082 The electors inscribed in lists amount, in 1834, to 14,651 or one out of every 55 persons, and no more.

The electors who voted in 1834 only amount to 11,475 or one out of every 80 persons, and no snore.

The Ministerial votes amount in 1834 to 6,908 or about one out of every 145 persons. And yet, notwithstanding this state of things and this deplor- able Electoral law, still the independent votes, in 1834, have amounted ia Paris and its suburbs to 4,567 It is wonderful, under such a law, and amongst the privileged classes, to find so many who are patriotic and independent, as the privileged have alone the right of voting. But remember, that in Paris and its environs only one out of every 145 persons has voted for the Ministerial candidate; that only one out of every 65 persons has the right of voting at all ; and that only one out of 80 persons took any part whatever in the elec-

tion at l'aris and the suburbs, just now completed. If I wrote for a year, I could say nothing more than this, to show the Monopolist spirit and character of this electoral system. Nothing could show you more satisfactorily, that such elections, so made, must be very far indeed from satisfy ing the 935,082 persons constituting the population of Paris and its suburbs—when only 14,651 are allowed to vote at all, and when not one half of those so allowed—i. e. only 6908 voted for the candidates of the Goveniment. But there is another fact worth reconling, and which I should do wrong to omit— In Paris and its suburbs, i. e. the Banlieue, are inscribed

National Guards to the number of 101,000 And yet the electors only amount to 14,651 Thus, 96,349 National Guards, who mount guard, who leave their business or their shops, their fields or their manufactories, in order to discharge the duties imposed on them as civic soldiers—who pay taxes, are liable to serve as soldiers in the regular army, and are citizens in every sense of the word as much as the 14,651 electors—are yet not allowed to vote for their representatives in Parlia- ment. And this smile observation applies, in nearly the same proportion, and to neatly the same comparative extent, to all the capitals, towns, cities, and vil- lages of France.

Let then the Monopolists triumph—let them erect scaffolds—let them esta- blish a censorship—let them return to the principles of the Restoration, and to the men of the Restoration too, as early as possible : let France know her worst —and then, when that moment shall arrive, let the Monopolists beware—for the next Revolution which shall be made in France will be any thing but bloodless.

Your obedient servant, 0. P. Q.