THE FRENCH ELECTIONS.
IT is difficult to imagine a spectacle more curious or more instructive than that now presented in France. The elections have been fixed for the first week in June, and the word has passed through the bureaus to prepare for the com- ing fray. The great personages who surround the Emperor have resolved to pack a Parliament in a style never attempted in a constitutional country, and only once tried in France. Absolute masters of the country, obeyed by the army and adulated by the press, they still shrink from the slightest breath of criticism like invalids from fresh air, and in spite of the Emperor's speech to the exhibitors, of the often repeated promises of freedom, and of the real wish of Louis Napoleon to ascertain his subjects' ideas, they have determined not merely to defeat their opponents but to extinguish them, to prove not only that the malcontents are in a minority, but that they do not exist at all. The worst days of Walpole are to be outdone, for he only wanted a majority, while M. de Persigny wants silence. If he succeeds France will, for a year or two, be concentred in the Imperial circle, and the Emperor may, at his pleasure, order expeditions or propose "laws of public safety," which will not only be accepted—that they are now— but which will appear to be in accord with the unanimous wish of France. The manceuvres just commenced are, there- fore, watched with an eagerness which Englishmen in times of the highest excitement cannot be made to feel.
Here we await, sometimes with interest, sometimes list- lessly, the result of a Parliamentary election, but we never become a prey to an all-absorbing anxiety. Politicians of every grade are curious to know whether the Tories will carry it over the Whigs, or speculate on the probable increase or curtailment of our small but compact phalanx of Radicals. The constitution, however, and the existence of Parliament are for ever out of the question ; the liberties of the subject and the fate of the nation are happily founded on a stronger basis than the possible majority to be obtained by a retrograde party. There, whilst the most subservient Chamber which any Emperor can wish for is dragging its slow length along and "dying in humility," as German deputies express it, the only important question debated is, whether Napoleon will ever consent to accept a more liberal cops legislatif, should such a one be elected by some lucky chance, or whether he is already tired of an opposition of five members, and wants a senate of mutes—an apparently unanimous House. The latter alter- native appears to be the more probable, since even the most fervent Imperialists among the present deputies are rejected as Government candidates, if they have the misfortune to differ either with the speaking or the acting ministers on some knotty points, like the Montauban dotation, the Catholic question, the Mexican expedition, or the financial policy. The ruling set intend to frighten refractory representatives of every shade, and to teach ambitious Frenchmen that if they wish to be taken to the bosom of the administration, they must lie there still, well fed, and fast asleep, without so much as stirring or giving the smallest trouble to the soft- skinned being that nurses them with such tender care. They have enormous powers for their object, and will, it is be- lieved, use them with an unscrupulousness which even in France is strange.
The second empire possesses for packing a parliament resources of which constitutional countries have never dreamt, even in their days of gristle. The Government is well provided with agents, and enlists in the electoral army not only the prefets, sousprgfets, and mares, but also the justices of the peace, the tax-collectors, the schoolmasters, and all other holders of functions revocable at will. Just now the prefets are making their tourne'e de revision, when the conscripts who have drawn unlucky lots are examined and enlisted in the army, and they take good advantage of the opportunity. Gendarmes, policemen, gardes-champetres, foresters, and keepers, the perpetual terror of the rustics, are the vanguard of the voting troops. Never did politician at bay imagine a more elastic or supple instrument than the circonscriptions electorales. The constitution which sprang from the coup d'dat providing that so many thousand inhabitants were entitled to elect a deputy, each department was divided into pretty equal districts, according to the fancy or the cunning of the prelet. At almost every fresh election these circum- scriptions are altered, and generally the agents of the central administration contrive to put together localities which have neither interest nor intercourse in common. Let us suppose, for instance, the two members for Marylebone, together with the two knights of the shire for Middlesex, were to be chosen in such a manner that one would be elected by Paddington and the villages around Edmonton and Enfield, a second by St. Pancras and part of Hertfordshire, a third by St. John's Wood and the Barnets, and the fourth by the remainder of the borough and the county, and we have on a much smaller scale, indeed, what is done in every French province. Even the administrative divisions and subdivisions are not respected, and generally one-half of one arrondissement votes with one- third of another, and one-fifth of the third one. Any common action, or any common understanding, are altogether out of the question. And this is the more the case, as there is neither freedom of the press, nor freedom of association, nor freedom of speech, nor freedom of meeting together. No independent candidate is allowed to explain his ideas to his electors, the great majority of whom have no earthly means of becoming person- ally acquainted with him. Indeed, he is lucky if he finds a printer who dares to print his circulars and bulletins de vote, for printers have licences which may be revoked at will. An election in France is a great struggle of a single, unprotected citizen against the whole administration standing up against him, armed cap-a-pie. Many a stout heart feels inclined to grow faint, and renounces at once such hopeless resistance. Then the boldest men, those who hold firm to political con- victions, are kept aloof by the oath of allegiance imposed on every candidate, and which their conscience forbids them to swear to the coup d'cltat government. Sophists may pretend that no faith is due to peijurers ; M. Guizot may feel his conscience cleared by the absolution of a majority of electors; highminded characters, endowed with self respect, will stil revere the religion du serment, and shrink from giving, by their example, a fresh stimulus to political immorality, which is already rife enough, God knows ! Nevertheless, and in spite of all these drawbacks, the Oppo- sition believe that life is reawaking in France. Every department prepares for the strife, and puts some independent candidate forward, generally chosen among the men who have already played a conspicuous part in former national assem- blies. There will, it is believed, be scarcely an unopposed election, and this unexpected agitation is a gain in itself, how- ever problematical success may be. The Liberal electors are by no means indulging in delusions, but they are bent on raising again the flag of freedom. The result will be slight enough, we apprehend ; but still it is not to be despised. Ten Republicans instead of five, and perhaps ten or fifteen Orleanists; nobody expects to obtain a larger number of independent deputies, but they may suffice, particularly if they include some experienced debaters to leaven the public mind. The five Democrats who sit now in the Corps Legislatif have, to a certain amount, made up for the fetters of the press and if any initiative is denied to the Chamber, they are, at least, at liberty to criticize. Anything will be better than that awful silence which hangs gloomily over France, broken only by the utterances of a man who is frank only after his spring is made.
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