It is said that the first result of these Elections
(to be followed up a few days before the Assembly returns to Versailles by others to be held at Lyons, which will result in the same way) will be to ensure M. Buffet his re-election as Speaker by a much larger majority than before,—that being the Conservative re- joinder to the Radical success. The French papers are recalling the lugubrious th.smories of 1850, when a similar election at Paris, that of M. Eugene 8ne, precipitated a legislative Assembly of like reactionary tendencies into the law "of the 31st May," by which universal suffrage was mutilated, and the fierce contests which ended a year and a half later in the coup d'etat were begun. Thiers, however, who was then amongst the bitterest of the -assailants of universal suffrage, has profited greatly by the experience of the last third of his long life, and besides M. Thiers is not a Prince-President. There will be plenty of trouble at Versailles, but M. Thiers will throw cold water on the flames, and not feed them with gunpowder.
