The Government of M. Floquet is considered to have been
greatly strengthened by a vote given in the Chamber on Tuesday about a singular affair. In last October, M. Jour- danne was Mayor of Carcassonne. There was an election, and the numbers being insufficient, M. Jourdanne, to avoid a second ballot, forged some voting-tickets. For this he was very properly dismissed the Mayoralty, and sentenced to one month's imprisonment. The Prefect and the citizens were, however, on his side ; and while the citizens re-elected him
Mayor, and the Magistrate who convicted him was degraded, the Prefect tried to have him incarcerated in his own house only, called on him in prison, and gave him a cigar. The Government refused to punish the Prefect, and the Senate unanimously censured the Government. On M. Flourens, how- ever, bringing forward the matter in the Chamber, M. Floquet made it a question of confidence, and the Chamber voted con- fidence by 326 to 173. It seems probable, from some hints in the debate, and from the action of the citizens, that M. Jourdanne may have been unjustly sentenced ; but the French theory evidently is that the Chamber agreed with the Senate, and only voted as it did to keep M. Floquet in office. Conse- quently, M. Floquet is regarded as indispensable. M. Floquet, on the face of the affair, has behaved very badly, staking his Ministry to protect a political forger; but he may very well have known facts that he could not produce.
