t to the effect that 'the
Prefecture of the Seine' gave a different result, 'arising from the
circumstance that in certain sections 2,494 votes bearing the name of
General Boulanger had been asserted to be null and void,' and that,
therefore, there would be a second election, or 'ballottage,' on October
6!

There could hardly be a more pregnant commentary than this upon the
candid admission made by the most respectable and influential Republican
journal in Paris, the _Temps_, on October 17, 1885, that these 'second
elections,' or 'ballottages,' are simply a device by which the Central
Government at Paris is enabled to 'correct' the errors perpetrated by
the voters of France at the elections which precede them. 'To learn the
true sentiments of the country,' said the _Temps_, 'we must consult the
elections of the 4th. On that day _universal suffrage was allowed_ to
choose freely between the opposing parties and policies. The vote of
to-morrow will not be as clear and precise, for it will be determined by
_tactical necessities and by all sorts of combinations_.'

Perfectly true! But, this being true, what becomes of 'popular
sovereignty' and of the divine quality of the rights derived from
universal suffrage as contrasted with rights derived from inheritance,
or, for that matter, with rights derived from a dice-box or the
shuffling of a pack of cards? Considering what the usual origin is of
'tactical necessities' in politics, and what forces determine political
'combinations of all sorts,' is it going too far to say that the odds,
so far as public interests are concerned, are in favour of the dice-box
or the pack of cards--provided the dice be not loaded or the cards
specially packed?

Some years ago, in my own country, a well-known Austrian dined with me
one night, just before he sailed for Europe after a tour in the United
States. We spoke of a public man just then filling a very responsible
position at Washington, to which he had been named after a severely
contested and very costly election. 'I thought him a very pleasant,
intelligent man,' said my Austrian guest, 'but it struck me that you
spend too much time and trouble and money on getting just such men into
such places. We get very much the same calibre of men for the same kind
of work much more economically and easily by the simple process of
marrying a prince to a princess.'

What I have seen and learned this year of the working of the electoral
machinery in