his department and, although he cannot
directly name its successors, he does so virtually.

'No candidate for an elective office can succeed unless he is supported
by the Government. The prefet can destroy the prosperity of every commune
that displeases him. He can dismiss its functionaries, close its schools,
obstruct its improvements, and withhold the assistance in money which the
Government habitually gives to forward the public purposes of a commune.

'The Courts of Law, both criminal and civil, are the tools of the
Executive. The Government appoints the judges, the prefet provides the
jury, and _la haute police_ acts without either.

'All power of combination, even of mutual communication, except from
mouth to mouth, is gone. The newspapers are suppressed or intimidated,
the printers are the slaves of the prefet, as they lose their privilege
if they offend; the secrecy of the post is habitually and avowedly
violated; there are spies to watch and report conversation.

'Every individual stands defenceless and insulated in the face of this
unscrupulous Executive with its thousands of armed hands and its
thousands of watching eyes. The only opposition that is ventured is the
abstaining from voting. Whatever be the office, whatever be the man, the
candidate of the prefet comes in; but if he is a man who would have been
universally rejected in a state of freedom, the bolder electors show
their indignation by their absence. I do not believe that, even with
peace, and with the prosperity which usually accompanies peace, such a
Government could long keep down such a country as France. Whether its
existence would be prolonged by a successful war I will not decide.
Perhaps it might be.

'That it cannot carry on a war only moderately successful, or a war which
from its difficulties and its distance may be generally believed to be
ill managed, still less a war stained by some real disaster, seems to me
certain--if anything in the future of France can be called certain.

'The vast democratic sea on which the Empire floats is governed by
currents and agitated by ground-swells, which the Government discovers
only by their effects. It knows nothing of the passions which influence
these great, apparently slumbering, masses; indeed it takes care, by
stifling their expression, to prevent their being known. Universal
suffrage is a detestable element of government, but it is a powerful
revolutionary instrument'

'But,' I said,