Only one important figure will be missing from the Chamber.
X. Jules Ferry has been defeated by the peasantry, who cannot forgive his expenditure of conscripts in Tonquin. He is a loss to the Opportunists, to whom he gave backbone ; but, on the other hand, M. Leon Say, who resigned the Senate, has been elected at the first ballot. He is the Mr. Goschen of France, and the natural pivot round whom all moderate men will fall into rank. Besides his claims as a politician, he has long deprecated extravagance, and may be able to devise the large economies upon which the constituencies are believed to have insisted. He is a Free-trader in principle, but may possibly bring himself to declare that, as regards agricultural produce, he cannot resist the universal demand of the corn-growing peasantry. The Ministry will, it is said, resign after October 6th, in order to leave M. Carnot's hands free, and a new and stronger Ministry, with a new programme, will be ready to meet the Chambers in November. M. Brisson will, it is believed, be President of the Chamber ; and it will soon be seen whether a steady majority can be organised, or whether the party just now united by its fears will divide again in its security.
