The manifesto of the Conservative Members of the French Senate
to the Senatorial electors appeared on Wednesday. It is a weak paper, and shows that the Conservatives are at a loss for a rallying-cry. They charge the Liberals with intending to -change the Senate from a barrier against revolution into a mere Court of Record, and with wishing to tamper with the magistracy, to expel religion from the schools, to hamper the Church, to remove experienced officials on account of political opinions, to relax discipline in the Army, to place the Gendarmerie under civil -control, and to impose an income-tax. With the exception of the absurd remark about the Army, these charges are, in the -main, true ; but as they would be at once affirmed by the Liberals, their truth will do the Republicans no harm. They merely amount to assertions that Republicans are Republicans. The absence of the usual statements that the Liberals intend to -confiscate property, to abolish marriage, and to proscribe religion, indicates an improvement either in the temper or in the judgment of the Conservative Senators. Either they do not any longer believe -these customary charges, or they know the electors will not believe in them, if they are made. In either case, the manifesto, bitter as it is in tone, is full of good omen for France. Parties can quarrel about Disestablishment and the Income-tax without :shooting each other down.
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