314 



FRANCE. 



chief, the zeal and spirit which you exhibit in all the 

 details of the service. Yes, you comprehend your 

 duties ; you feel that the country has intrusted to you 

 the custody of its dearest interests. On every occa- 

 sion I count on you to defend them. You will help 

 me, I am certain, to maintain respect for authority 

 and law in the discharge of the mission which has 

 been coufided to me, and which I shall fulfill to the 

 end. 



A circular to the prefects, issued by the 

 Minister of the Interior on the following day, 

 was as follows : 



The President of the Republic appealed to the 

 Conservatives of all parties. He was heard by all. 

 They all perceived, with the head of the state, the 

 peril of the acts and tendency of the Chamber of 

 Deputies to France. A parliamentary majority, 

 dominated more and more every day by the ad- 

 vanced elements of the Radical party, was drawing 

 France toward political and social disorganization. 

 In arresting us in this career, the President of the 

 Republic has so manifestly responded to the public 

 sentiment, that men the most profoundly diverse 

 have joined together to rally round him in approval 

 of his patriotic resolution. But it must not be for- 

 gotten that the act of the 16th of May elicited among 

 the Conservatives of all shades of opinion such a 

 concord, because the President of the Republic ac- 

 complished it in the regular exercise of his consti- 

 tutional rights, affirming, with the authority attach- 

 ing to his words, that respect for the institutions to 

 which we are subject would be the constant basis of 

 his policy. Thus alone could the chief of the state 

 combine in one idea men from many sides; thus 

 only could he unite them under a programme which, 

 in consequence of the revisable nature of the Consti- 

 tution, implies the sacrifice of no conviction, but till 

 1880 closes the arena to rival claims by the faithful 



THB BOUBSE, PARIS. 



and strict observance of the first law of the country. 

 The Conservative party has always respected insti- 

 tutions regularly established. On it devolves the 

 duty of. first giving the example of a sincere and 

 loyal observance of the laws by which the National 

 Assembly constituted the Republic. You will, there- 

 fore, take care to direct publiCTJpinion well in this 

 respect. Let every one know that in opposing while 

 there was still time the predominance of an Assembly 

 which tended rapidly to annul the Executive power 

 and the Senate, Marshal MacMahon averted one of 



those violent crises of which our history affords so 

 many unfortunate examples, and in which ail regular 

 institutions succumb, in bringing the country to an 

 exact appreciation of the facts, you will prepare it 

 for the great electoral manifestation to which it will 

 soon be convened. In all times and under all regimes 

 the intervention of the Government in the elections 

 has been much discussed. This oft-debated question 

 I do not hesitate to deal with in my turn with the 

 greatest frankness. The Government has not only 

 the right, it is its duty to point out to the electoral 

 body the candidates who support and those who op- 

 pose its policy, and to say to the people, " You are 

 at liberty to choose, but, thus warned, you will choose 

 in full knowledge of what you are doing." By such 

 language the Government does nothing but enlighten 

 the electors, and it would be strange were its right 

 to use it contested. Do we not too often see our ad- 

 versaries endeavoring to influence the public mind 

 by falsehoods and calumnies, by threats, oy the most 

 reprehensible manoeuvres? Do we not often see 

 public places transformed into veritable sinks of 

 electoral corruption, where ignorance and credulity 

 are pandered to in the grossest manner ? With such 

 facts, how should we hesitate to put universal suf- 

 frage on its guard against the snares to which it is 

 constantly exposed? Your action cannot be ham- 

 pered by those who in any degree represent the Gov- 

 ernment. Functionaries of every kind are knit to 

 the Government which has appointed them by ties 

 which they are bound not to forget. We cannot 

 permit any of them to be hostile to us. Any who ar 

 not afraid to use against the Government the author- 

 ity they hold from it need expect neither toleration 

 nor indulgence. 



An effective measure of the Government in 

 controlling the elections, consisted in prefec- 

 torial changes. In addition to those gazetted 

 on May 28th, 37 more were 

 made on July 4th. On July 

 4th, a map of France was 

 issued, in which all the ar- 

 rondissements the Deputies 

 for which voted want of 

 confidence in the cabinet 

 were colored red, while 

 green and white indicated 

 those on the other side and 

 the few neutrals. The red, 

 of course, greatly predom- 

 inated, covering, with few 

 exceptions, the whole east- 

 ern half of the country, 

 from the Pas-de-Calais to 

 the Pyr6n6es - Orientales. 

 Only 30 anti- Republican 

 constituencies lay to the 

 east of this line, and these 

 were mostly comprised in 

 four or five groups, leav- 

 ing a large south or central 

 track, including 10 entire 

 departments, without a single trace of Con- 

 servatism. Turning to the west of the line, the 

 anti-Republican constituencies formed a broken 

 fringe on the coast and on the Spanish frontier, 

 constituting four or five groups, extending up 

 to the line in the southwest quarter of France, 

 but elsewhere hugging the coast. Even on the 

 coast, however, there were dots of red, some- 

 times forming large groups; and toward the 



