e six million electors for
the most part owners of the soil they till, and on whose decision hinges
to a large extent the future of France. These _paysans_ will vote for
one of two things--the Republic or the Empire, the marshal-president
before the 16th of May, or the marshal-president who "belongs to the
Right."

In France this is, in some degree at least, understood, and even now
each party is mustering all its forces so as to be prepared for the
October elections. The Republicans are already well organized, with
their committees and sub-committees awaiting the instructions of their
leader. They will proceed to the polls encouraged by their success at
the last elections, taking credit for the tranquil state of France up to
the 16th of May, 1877, setting forth their moderation when in power, the
guarantees they have given for the maintenance of order, and the almost
unanimous approbation their conduct of affairs has met with at the hands
of the foreign press.

The Bonapartists will put on their panoply of battle, strong in the
support of the marshal, his prefects, his mayors and the cohorts of
inferior appointees, such as the gendarmes, the rural constabulary, and
all that powerful mechanism at the disposal of a government which sets
up official candidates with the avowed intention of carrying the
elections by the almost irresistible force of French centralization. All
who have seen in motion that formidable political machine called a
French prefecture know what this implies. It will be recollected that
nearly all the prefects have been changed since the 16th of May. The
prefect is appointed by the Minister of the Interior, and receives from
him every day by telegraph the word of command, while the post brings
him official circulars. These orders he in turn communicates to his
subordinates, the mayors. The mayors are, it is true, not all appointed
by the prefects, those in the rural districts being elected by the town
councils. Nevertheless, they are all more or less under the thumb of the
prefects. They need the prefect's signature almost every day to stamp
some official act; they require government grants for the maintenance of
schools, roads and other purposes in their communes; they dare not
offend the prefects, under penalty of having men appointed as rural
constables, mayors' secretaries and letter-carriers who shall be so many
enemies of the mayors and shall thwart them at every step. The prefect
thus exercis