As we expected, the Republicans of France and the Catholic
Legitimists are alike furious with the manifesto of the Comte de Paris. The Univers declares that he had no right to give up the claims of his House, and to promise to rest his title not on his historic right, but on a mass vote of the people. Many French Conservatives share this feeling, avowing that to them, the recommendation of Legitimacy is that it sets something above the popular will. On the other hand, the Radicals are furious, and will, it is believed, on the opening of the Chamber, demand the retirement of M. Bouvier, and the expulsion of all Princes and their recognised agents, if not the confiscation of their property. It is rumoured, we fear truly, that the Government, to prove its Republicanism, will consent to the expulsion. The alarm is deepened by an idea, not much talked about, but widely spread, that the Army may accept a King, believing that Russia would in that case sign a treaty of alliance, and that the revanche would be at hand. It was to this impression that Prince Bismarck alluded when he sanctioned the apparently absurd statement that Ferdinand of Coburg was an Orleanist agent sent to Sofia to create a pretext for a European war.
