M. Thiers made an important statement on Tuesday with reference
to the Electoral Law. He had all his life opposed universal suffrage, but that mode of election had not turned out so terrible as he expected, and he could not forget that a restriction on the suffrage had given Napoleon his best weapon. He was therefore afraid to touch it, but was willing to accede to modi- fications intended to restrict the ballot to persons who could be identified. The Committee might demand from one year to three of unchanged domicile, but he doubted the utility of any further restriction as to the age of voters. The requirements about domicile will diminish the working-man's vote, and will be strenuously resisted by the Left, and it is said the Committee will also recommend that the minimum age of Deputies be raised to thirty. 'The idea of this proposal is to ensure grave men not likely to be revolutionary, but its effect is to compel all ambi- tious persons between 21 and 30 to seek power by agitation, and to destroy the utility of the Assembly as a training school for statesmen.
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