The French Government has not yet fixed the day for
the elections, but it is understood that it will be the 14th October. Intermediately the union of the Conservative parties, which was essential to the success of the Cabinet, has been violently dis- turbed. The Comte de Chambord has been warned that the elections may tend to the success of the Bonapartists alone ; the Bonapartists are angry at the Marshal's decision that they must, till 1880, postpone their demand for the Empire ; and the Orlean- ists do not like either the audacity of the Imperialists, or the violent strain to which M. do Fourtou is subjecting his legal power. The union is said, almost officially, to be "broken up," and the ru- mours of a coup d'e'tat are revived, it may be in order to increase the energy and courage of the rural officials, who, if there is no coup d'e'tat, will be tried for every deviation from strict law. The Marshal- President is to go to Bourges to make a speech, which is ex- pected to have a great effect, but which is almost sure to be an imprudence ; and an effort is being made to induce the Pope to compose Conservative differences,—a task from which Rome, which cares for the Church and not for any pretender, will pro- bably shrink,—though the Comte de Chambord presses for a declaration on the Legitimist side. It is to be noted as a fact in the situation that the Marshal's son is growing into a man—he will be twenty in 1880—and that Parisian gossip, probably only malignant, attributes to this fact part of the energy exhibited by the President's household. " MacMahonism by hereditary right" is, however, rather too absurd a cry, even for the most devoted friends of order.
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