.

G. H. P.

THE COMING ELECTIONS IN FRANCE.

The crisis brought about in France by Marshal MacMahon's _coup de
palais_ of May 16, 1877, has thrown the country just four years back.
Circumstances widely different in character from those which caused the
overthrow of M. Thiers on May 24, 1873, have once more placed the
government in the hands of men of whom the Republic might well have
thought itself for ever rid. At that time the blow was struck by a
parliamentary majority. This time it is the representative of the
executive power who has thought fit to interfere, seeking to substitute
an authoritative for a parliamentary government. When MacMahon assumed
power he declared that his post was that of "a sentinel who has to watch
over the integrity of your sovereign powers;" but it would appear as
though the recollection of his own earlier career, his clerical
associations and other secret influences at work, had made him ambitious
to occupy a higher position. From the post of sentinel he leaps to that
of generalissimo; and there can be little doubt as to the cause which
the transition is intended to serve.

There is no longer anything to fear from the Legitimists: the
death-knell of that party was rung by the Count de Chambord's famous
letter of October 30, 1873, declaring his continued adherence to Bourbon
principles. Nor is aught to be apprehended from the Orleanists.
They--the Centre-Right in the two houses--long hesitated whether to cast
in their lot with the Republic, which would annihilate them by
absorption with the Centre-Left, or to join the ranks of the so-called
Conservatives, who are undoubtedly destined to swamp them in the stream
of imperialism. After much swaying to and fro they have, it would seem,
at length determined to follow their usual party tactics and go over
bodily to the side which appears to them to present the least immediate
danger--viz., the Imperialist. There is no disguising the matter. The
battle this time will be between the Republicans and the Bonapartists.
M. Gambetta, in the course of his eloquent speech of May 4, 1877,
cried, "Le clericalisme, voila l'ennemi." Powerful, however, as is the
clerical party to embarrass, it is not strong enough at the urns to
over-turn the Republic. Imperialism alone can hope to do that when,
arrayed in fight against the present form of government, it seeks to win
over to its side the country population, thos