lectoral district of Neufchateau, and the elections
of 1889 do not show that the 'laicization' policy has given the
Republican cause a great impulse in this region. The Monarchist
candidate in the Neufchateau district received in September 1889 6,571
votes, and the Republican 6,590. This is one of the microscopic
majorities which were so common in 1889, and which conclusively show
what a difference in the general result was made by the open pressure of
the Government on the electors. The Department of the Vosges sends up
six deputies to the Chamber. In 1885 it sent up a solid Republican
Deputation, including M. Meline, who was so conspicuous in 1889 in the
matter of General Boulanger and M. Jules Ferry, the standard-bearer of
'laicization' and irreligion. In 1885 the Deputies were chosen by the
_scrutin de liste_. The Republican majority shown by the vote for M.
Meline was 6,949 on a total poll of 87,635. M. Meline, who headed the
poll, received 47,292 votes. His Conservative opponent received 40,343.
In 1889 the elections were made by the _scrutin d'arrondissement_. Five
Republicans, not six, were chosen, and the defeated Republican candidate
was no less a person than M. Jules Ferry himself! The first district of
St.-Die gave him 6,192 votes, and elected a Monarchist to replace him by
6,403 votes. It is not easy to overestimate the significance of this
change. Probably enough the majority will emphasize it by 'invalidating'
the election of the Monarchist!

A comparison of the total votes in the Vosges of the two parties in 1889
with those of 1885 is instructive. In 1885 the strength, of the two
parties respectively (the Conservatives not having then openly declared
for the Monarchy) was, as I have said, 47,292 and 40,343. In 1889 the
Republicans polled in all the districts of the department 47,116 votes,
and their opponents 42,124. Here we have a falling off of 176 votes in
the highest Republican strength against an increase of 1,781 in the
highest Opposition strength, or, in other words, a falling off of 1,957
votes in the aggregate Republican majority, together with the defeat in
his own district of the recognised leader of the Republican Government
party. And yet the total of the votes polled rose from 87,635 in 1885 to
89,240 in 1889. The inference is obvious: that the Monarchists are on
the upgrade, and the Republicans on the downgrade. If, with such results
in such a region and in the face of such a contest as tha