The Pretenders were nowhere during the election. They were, in
fact, disconcerted by the rapidity with which the devolution of executive power was effected. The Bonapartists announced in the Congress that they should not vote, and twenty votes which were given for the Duo d'Orleans were treated as spoiled paper, he being legally ineligible. He had greatly impaired his chances by recently issuing a proclama- tion in which he treated the fall of the Union Generale, the Catholic Bank, as the beginning and justification of the Anti- Semitic movement, a statement which suggested to Parisians that his family had lost money in the speculation, and, being descendants of Louis Philippe, could not forget it. Prince Victor also has rather offended the Army by refusing to join in the Anti-Semite cry, and declaring that "patriotism cannot be a justification for forgery." Practically, their chances have been weakened by the quiet of the election, in which there was no striking incident, and by the possibility— the distant possibility—that President Lou bet may be as strong a man as President Faure undoubtedly was not. That " exeellent " person is already almost forgotten. Stay, he is still thought worth slandering.
