NEWS OF THE WEEK.
THE French elections are to take place on Sunday, October 14, and accordingly Marshal MacMah on's Manifesto to the French people appeared on Wednesday, and has been circulated by millions in France, generally without even the signature of his Minister of the Interior,—a significant omission which adds to the emphasis which the appeal itself and the whole policy of the Mar- shal appears to lay on the strictly personal character of the trust committed to him. And the assumption of personal government runs through the whole. The Marshal begins, indeed, by saying, "I do not pretend to exert any pressure on your choice," but the whole purport of the document is, in that sentence, boldly denied. He goes on to say, "it is necessary for you to know what I have done," and he then takes credit to himself for all the peace, tranquillity, and pros- perity of France. Next, he attacks the recent Chamber of Deputies, accusing it of compromising, or threatening to compromise, all the great results he had achieved ; of under- mining the authority bestowed by the Constitution on the Chief of the State ; of denying to the Senate its due influence under the Constitution, and of arrogating to itself the powers of "a new Convention." Of all this he gives no proof, but he further accuses the Republican candidates of misusing his name, and to avoid this, he states that his Government will designate to the electors those who alone are authorised to use that name. Finally, he states that if the electors return him a majority, all will go 'well; but if not, then "his duty would grow with the peril ;" he would not do the bidding of Radicals, and would not resign, but would "remain to defend, with the support of the Senate, the Conservative interests of France," and to pro- tect "the faithful functionaries" who have been true to him. In one word,—if the Constitution leads to a MacMahonist majority, he will be true to the Constitution ; if not, the Constitution must be interpreted as strictly limited to the MacMahonist ele- ments in it, and as excluding all that does not conform itself to the mind of the chief. The suffrage of the one unsuccessful soldier is to outweigh all the suffrages of the French millions.
