The Senatorial elections held in France last week have resulted
in a net gain of thirteen seats for the Government. This is good news for France, and it is still better to read that the Nationalists have been worsted in almost all the Departments. Their sole success of any importance is the election of M. Andrieux, ex-Boulangist and ex-Prefect of Police. That a Radical Government should thus find its strongest support in a body chosen by indirect election is a very curious and interesting fact. We take it to mean that the sober, thinking middle-class men, who have almost all of them a stake in the country—that is no unfair description of the members of the Conseils-Generaux, who elect the Senate —believe that what France now most needs is to have stability given to the Republic. This stability will, they think, be best secured by opposing the Nationalists, and keep- ing in power those—i.e., the present Ministry—who are most strenuous and sincere in their opposition to that dangerous party. All friends of France should rejoice in the fact. The Ministry has its faults, but it is composed of men who are loyal to the Republic, and who desire, while maintaining it, to avoid both revolution and militarism.
