Up to Friday afternoon very little was definitely known in
London of the result of the French elections. It appears certain that the Moderate Republican party heads the poll in the arrondissement of Brest, the Department of the North, the Pas de Calais, Bor- deaux, and possibly even Lyons.; but its position in Paris is still uncertain, and from Marseilles we have not even a report. The " Moderates " appear to have forgotten all that M. Thiers has done to make Napoleonism possible,—he has been accepted as the leader of their party, and will apparently be elected by half the departments. The total drift of very uncertain and scanty news is towards peace, possibly at any price, the formation of a Repub- lican-Orleanist Government, and the conversion of the Chamber into a Constituent Assembly with Orleanist proclivities ; but the news is most imperfect. In the Department of the North the majority for M. Thiers was in some places enormous, at Steen- vorde, for example, 26,000 to 80, and at Lannoy five to one.
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