nounced when the attacks of the official organs began. If he happened to reside in the district which he hoped to represent, both he and his family were placed under a surveillance which made their sojourn sometimes impossible. They were attacked with a bitter ferocity by the official journals of the locality. The candidate naturally felt the need of replying, and accordingly sought for a printer. If there happened to be two presses in the place, one of them was generally under the patronage of the prefect, and the other under that of the bishop. If by a rare chance one was found who claimed to be independent of these functionaries, he was still obliged to acknowledge his subordination to the laws for the control of the press, laws by which his office could be closed at any moment. But suppose, as it sometimes happened, that the candidate, by dint of management and the free use of money, surmounted all these obstacles. Three methods of distribut ing his documents were open to him. They could be committed to the mails; they could be distributed by hand in the street and at the places of resort; they could be put up as placards. Suppose that the candidate intrusts his fortunes to the postoffice. One of two things was likely to happen. Either the mass of his circulars found their way into the sewers, or, if they reached their destination, each one was accompanied with an official rejoinder.* But suppose the candidate determines to rely chiefly or solely upon placards. In every French village the bill-poster is an official who depends upon the authorities for his position; it therefore requires more than ordinary courage in an afficheur to lead him to post the affiche of the independent candidate by the side of that of his opponent. Both in 1859 and 1863 it happened that candidates were reduced to the actual necessity of arming themselves with pincers and paste-pot, and putting up their own placards.

M. Clapier, a candidate in les Bouches-du-Rhone, with

*That this is no exaggeration will appear from the following: "On n'entendait parler de tous côtés dans les temps d'élection que de bulletins en retard, de circulaires égarées, voire, même d'écrits électoraux jetés dans les égouts. Les paquets arrivaient quelquefois, mais, par un prodige singulier, entre chaque circulaire du candidat indépendent s'était glissée une circulaire du candidat officiel, et entre chaque bulletin libre une bulletin estampillé." — Delord, III. 407.

some faithful adherents, spent the greater part of a night in flitting along the walls and dark corners of the city, and sticking up posters with their own hands. Imagine his estimate of the freedom of elections in France, when the next morning he found his bills covered with those of the Emperor. One candidate, M. Aristide Dumont, of Noyen, more bold than the others, ventured to complain to the authorities when he found that his posters were destroyed as fast as he could put them up. His zeal subsided, however, when he was informed that, although there was indeed a law against the mutilation of posters, all complaints for violation of that law must be made by the administration. Thus it turned out that whether a man could be punished for destroying a placard depended upon the action of an imperial officer, and whether that officer would act depended upon the nature of the placard destroyed.

But there was one other method open to the candidate, namely, the distribution of documents at the hands of his personal friends. This service, however, required something of the spirit of a hero and a martyr. The distributers were constantly assailed by the jeers and the threats, and sometimes even by the blows, of the officials. Commissioners, mayors, gendarmes, gardes champêtres, and gardes des cantonni res beset them at all points, and any considerable success was impossible. There are a number of authenticated instances where persons caught in this service were seized, and deprived of their liberty until after the election.

While these difficulties were besetting the non-official candidates, the candidates of the government held undisturbed possession of the field. Their posters everywhere decorated the walls of buildings, the trunks of trees, and the sign-posts at the cross-roads. The mails did for them faithful service, and the telegraph, which could never with safety be used by the opposition, was their ready and faithful messenger. The candidates themselves travelled from place to place in state, supported and protected by a retinue of officials. These latter never hesitated to take any advantage of their peculiar positions in order to accomplish their purposes. Even the inspectors of schools required of teachers not simply a passive but an active

support of the official candidates.* So much for what may be called the machinery of the campaign; let us now look at the means by which it was operated.

Under the system of centralization of which we have already spoken, all the public authority of a given district was under the control and direction of the prefect. M. Delord assures us that even the justice of the peace was his docile servant. If an elector originated or circulated any report injurious to the official candidate, the commissioner of police was directed to cause his arrest, and he was at once imprisoned. In such cases it was not even claimed that false charges were made; it was enough that they were injurious, une propagande gênante being the usual expression. In vain did the non-official candidate offer bail for the good conduct and the appearance at trial of the accused; the prisoner was held until after the election, when he was generally dismissed without trial. In one instance, where the accused was no less a person than the municipal counsellor of Sainte-Foix, the prisoner was released on satisfactory assurance that he would leave the commune and would not return until after the result of the election should have been declared.

The mayors of the cities were no less zealous than the justices of the peace. The manner in which they were expected to perform their duties may be judged of by the mandate of the prefect of La Manche, which is given merely as a sample of its kind." Gentlemen," said he to the mayors of his province, "if you do not expect to vote for the official candidate, resign your scarf the day before the election, in order that it may not be taken away from you the day after." Perhaps the threat was hardly needed; at any rate there was no hesitation on the part of the mayors in making themselves the most

* Numerous examples in support of this statement might be given. The Inspector of the Académie de la Côte d'Or wrote to the teachers: "Combattre les candidatures administratives, c'est combattre l'Empereur lui-même. En adopter et en patronier d'autres, c'est également servir et recruiter contre lui. Ne pas les combattre, mais aussi ne pas les soutenir, c'est l'abandonner, c'est rester l'arme au pied dans la bataille. Votre indifférence me causerait de la surprise et du regret, votre hostilité serait à mes yeux une lâcheté coupable et sans excuse.' The Inspector of the Académie des Vosges wrote to the teachers under his supervision in a similar strain. Vide Delord, II. p. 409.

active agents of the official candidates. The mayor of Ouistreham appealed to his people in these terms: "Inhabitants of Ouistreham, agents more or less paid boast of being able to make you vote against the candidate of the government. I know your spirit too well to believe that you will allow yourselves to be influenced by any means whatever. Here you have only one sincere friend, and that is I! And when I say to you: Vote for M. Bertrand, it is because this vote is in your dearest interests!!!" The mayor of Jonvelle warned the electors of his precinct that the opposition candidate, M. D'Andelarre was "the protector of the party of the nobility and the clergy; the party which wished to see again such times as those seen when our grandfathers were obliged in turn to beat the water and impose silence upon the frogs in order that the sleep of this or that marquis, or this or that prior, might not be disturbed." "Electors, know that in voting for M. Galmiche you vote for yourselves, for your honor, for progress, for the Emperor who loves you; love him also. Vive la France régénérée! Vive l'Empereur!" The mayor of Kermaria even mounted the pulpit on Sunday, in the place of the curé, and preached in favor of the official candidate. Illustrations might be multiplied, but it is perhaps unnecessary. In all parts of France, as might be shown by examples in abundance, the mayors brought the full weight of their official position to bear upon the result. The full significance of this interference with the free expression of the will of the people will be understood only as it is remembered that the mayors in France were not elected by the people, but were appointed by the Emperor. Moreover, it must be kept in mind that the authority of the mayor over the voters of his district was in many respects similar to the authority of a customhouse officer in the United States over his subordinates. Both are officers of the general government, and both have the power to make the interests of their official inferiors depend upon the nature of their votes. If this comparison should seem to any one to be unjust to the French, we have only, in reply to any accusation of such a nature, to refer to the array of threats and promises given in the pages of MM. Ferry and Delord.

But the work of the mayors did not stop with threats and VOL. CXVII. NO. 241.

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promises. They betook themselves everywhere to the pollingbooths, in order to exercise an active surveillance over the work of voting. To a foreigner who simply reads the law it would seem that ample provision had been made for the protection of the voter. It was specifically required that the election should be by secret ballot, a fact which would seem to be sufficient guaranty that the elector would be insured in the privilege of voting as he wished; and yet it was found to be not difficult to evade the provisions of the statute. It was necessary that those who had promised and threatened should have some means of knowing positively whether a given elector would be entitled to the promised reward, or whether, on the contrary, he would be deserving of the threatened punishment. Το accomplish this end, various devices were resorted to, any one of which would raise an irresistible outcry of indignation in any free country. A common method was to post along the approach to the ballot-box a double line of military and civil officers, each one of whom was commissioned to examine the ballot, and in case of need to exchange the non-official for the official.* In other places the official ballots were printed upon paper which was easily recognized.† The law that the voting should be secret was interpreted to mean that the ballot should not be opened or scrutinized by those in official charge of the election; accordingly there was no protection for the elector against the interference of the mayor and those other dignitaries who had no such official connection. Even when those in charge of the boxes performed their duty faithfully, of what consequence was it after the elector had already been robbed of his non-official vote,

* "Les électeurs de la campagne, pour se rendre dans la salle du scrutin, sont obligés de traverser une sorte de couloir où secrétaire de la mairie, officiers de pompiers, brigadiers de gendarmerie, fourriers de ville, gardes champêtres, cantonniers, sont en permanence et demandent à chaque électeur son bulletin, qu'ils remplacent par le bulletin du candidat officiel si celui qu'ils ont porte le nom du candidat de l'opposition." — Delord, III. 416.

t "Quelques-uns auraient bien envie de voter pour l'opposition en s'en rapportant au secret du vote guaranti par la loi, mais le candidat du gouvernement a écrit son nom sur du papier transparent, et pour plus de précaution, le maire a envoyé aux électeurs dont il se méfie le bulletin officiel piqué ou collé sur leur carte d'électeur." - Delord, III. 416.