THE inform the Committee, been a member of no less
than four FRENCH GOVERNMENT AND THE FRENCH safely assume that we have those, not of an individual, but WE have heard a good deal lately of the moderate and officers." serious, they would wish to enlist on their side. This The Admiral was very sanguine that this arrange. pamphlet tells how he has been treated by the Republican ment was popular, though he admitted that the arti- Government during the last twelve months ; and as we read ficers had "sent in to the Admiralty a representa- it, we feel that the Cabinet of which these things can be tion of their case." "For a considerable time we have said, can have no more title to be called moderate than the had the command of the market, and we have had most extreme of its predecessors.
devoted their best attention in the interval. In the principal communes of the arrondissement, the electoral lists were falsified on a gigantic scale. About four hundred voters who were known to be friends of M. Leroy-Beaulieu were struck off the lists, and about the same number of strangers known to be well- affected to M. Menard-Dorian were added. After these wholesale frauds, there could be no doubt as to the result. Even as it was, M. Leroy-Beaulieu polled more votes than at the previous election, but the gains of M. Menard- Dorian were greater still, and he was duly returned by a majority of nearly 400. M. Leroy-Beaulieu gives precise and minute details of the various means by which the electoral lists were brought into the required condition. In nearly every commune they were cooked, and in nearly every commune the fact that they were cooked was so notorious that formal protests—in some cases several dis- tinct protests in a single commune—were presented to the Mayor. Sometimes these were accepted ; more often they were rejected, either on some technical plea, or with no reason assigned.
Assuming that this story is substantially true—and when we take into account the character of M. Leroy- Beaulieu himself, and the universal suspicion excited by the acts of the authorities, there can be little doubt that it is substantially true—it suggests two considerations of importance. The first is, the difficulty of putting any trust in the professions of moderation that the Govern- ment are so constantly making. What is the use of their zeal for the Moderate Republic when they treat in this way a typical Moderate Republican ? What would have been thought of the English Conservative Government if, while declaring its desire to win over the Liberal Unionists, it had at the same time moved heaven and earth to bring about the defeat, say, of Mr. Courtney ? There are reasons enough why M. Leroy-Beaulieu should be distasteful to Radicals of every shade. But the present Ministers are not Radicals ; at least, they do not profess to be Radicals ; and if they are not, what is the ground of their dislike to M. Leroy-Beaulieu? How intense this dislike must be, is evident from the nature of the means which they have adopted to keep him out of the Chamber. Wholesale falsification of the electoral lists would not be resorted to save for very urgent cause. It is just possible, indeed, that the real authors of these frauds are the local Republicans, the Prefect, or the Mayors. It must be remembered that these authorities have, for the most part, been appointed or elected under those Radical influences which are now beginning to grow weaker, and the very fact that they are growing weaker may make those who have benefited by them more determined to run all risks to arrest their decay. But, in that case, it is the duty of the Government to make prompt and full inquiry into the alleged falsifications, and if they are proved, to inflict the severest per- missible punishments on all concerned. There can be no excuse whatever for Ministers sitting silent under so grave a charge as that now brought against them. Under any circumstances, it would have been an act of singular folly to oppose M. Leroy-Beaulieu ; but to oppose him by such weapons as those employed in the interval between the September and April elections, would argue something so very much worse than folly, that the Cabinet ought not to attempt to cover its subordinates. It is an additional reason why they should not do this, that such manceuvres as these are a direct invitation to the enemies of the Republic to possess themselves of the government by a coup de main. So long as the elections are the free expression of the mind of the electors, such an attempt, even if momentarily successful, is always liable to be upset by an appeal to the country. Pretenders, whether they be a General Boulanger or a Due d'Orleans, know this, and the knowledge of it acts as a very effectual dissuasion from violence. But if the party actually in power is allowed as a matter of course to doctor the electoral lists in such a way as to secure in a great number of cases the return of its own supporters, there is a constant temptation offered to minorities to resort to sudden and violent action. Once at the head of affairs, a party can soon have local authorities after its own heart, and by their aid it can make the electorate just what it wants it to be. The policy which has been pursued in regard to the Lodeve election might be judicious in a party which had no hope of carrying the country with it. Among Republicans, it is as short-sighted as it is immoral.
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