M. Lamartine as well as M. Odillon Barrot declines the
am- biguous and compromising honour of being elected a member of the General Councils under the existing Government of France. Nor is it merely the leading intellects who pertinaciously refuse to be- come the colleagues and associates of the men now in power ; the great body of the electors disdain to go through the empty formality of tendering their votes. In the manufacturing departments of the Rhine and the French Netherlands, all along the courses of the Rhone and Loire, in the wealthy and industrious Gironde, Govern- ment have in a majority of instances failed to induce as many elec- tors to come forward as are required to render the elections valid. There is no active opposition to the existing French Government, but there appears also to be a general lack of sympathy or co- operation with it on the part of Frenchmen. Yet a few Liberals of note have recently given in their adhesion to-Louis Napoleon ; of whom perhaps the most notable is M. Cormenin. And it is rather curious that the same week which is marked by his entry into the Council of State should have witnessed the publication of a long letter addressed by him to the Secretary of the English Peace So-
ciety. The present ruler of France would appear to be seeking for recruits in the region of Utopia : he has, however reluctantly, consented to the publication of M. Proudhon's " La Revolution Sociale, demontree par le coup d'etat du 2 Deeembre."
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