We have described elsewhere the last proposal by which it
seems possible to unite a majority in the Assembly. This comes from the Left, and is to declare the Republic, with liberty to the Assembly to revise the Constitution in any sense it pleases in 1880. It was hoped this plan would have attracted the Orleanists, who through the Due d'Audiffret-Pasquier had offered to concede the Republic, provided revision in 1880 were made obligatory ; but the difference, though slight in form, is really vital, and the agreement has not been obtained. The Orleanists, however, who have not masses behind them, are more alarmed at the progress of Imperialism than any party in France, and may be induced by the result of the election for the Hautes Pyrenees to accept the only possible compromise. In that election, thousands of Republicans have voted for M. Cazeaux, a Bona- partist, rather than let a Septennalist get in. It is hinted that Republican leaders ordered this vote as a warning to the Marshal, but it is more probable that the feeling in the popular mind is,—" Either the Republic definitively established, or the Empire." That is the true question in France.
