The Reds in Paris, like the Reds in Switzerland, are
trying to turn their representatives into mere delegates, forcing on them a anandat impe'ratif of the most detailed kind. They define an enormous number of measures, contained in twelve propositions, for which every candidate must vote or resign his seat. Thus he must support an amnesty, the abolition of the punishment of death, the dissolution of the Assembly, the return of the Government to Paris, universal military service, compulsory gratuitous and secular education, abolition of all payments to the clergy, freedom of the press, of meeting, and of association, election of mayors, restitution of all communal powers, the removability of the judges, establish- ment of the impot progressif, and abolition of monarchy, with some other smaller matters. Victor Hugo has swallowed the whole, though they extend considerably the ordinary Republican plat- form, and intensifies his promise by calling it a contract made with the electors, which, of course, he is not at liberty to break. In England, the wildest Radical only insists on resignation after an unpopular vote ; but in France, the member must assume, first, that his constituents never change, secondly, that they think a particular-vote more important than his services, and thirdly, that he is not member for the people, but only for those who voted for him.
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