Some agreement has clearly been made between M. 011ivier and
the Arcadians. He has defended some very bad elections indeed, elections illegal on the theory that Government is entitled to interfere, and has in one case almost defied the Liberals. This was the election of M. Ernest Dreolle, whose election was vitiated by falsifications of the voting-papers, but who was supported by the Premier-expectant, by the Minister of the Interior, and by all the Arcadians. M. Forcade de la Roquette made a flourishing speech, in which he said France wanted a Liberal Government, but not revolution,—that is, in fact, a Liberal Government depen- dent on Imperial pleasure ; but in spite of all, M. Jules Favre secured 77 votes. This is a good test of the Radical strength, and the Chamber may roughly be described as consisting of three very elastic parties,—011ivier's, or the Whig, numbering 160 ; Favre's, or the Radical, rising occasionally and fitfully to 80; and Jerome David's, the High Tory, counting 50, with Messrs. Rochefort and Raspail, the Implacables, for the remaining two. None of those figures will be found correct for special divisions, but they furnish a rough approximation to the actual strength of parties.
Previous page
