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Stamped Edition, 6d, THE ILLUSTRATED DEPARTMENT LONDON ONE PENNY LONDON REGISTERED AT THE GENERAL POST-OFFICE FOR TRANSMISSION ABROAD. No. 1575.-vol. LVI. SATURDAY, JANUARY 8, 1870. THE OLLIVIER ADMINISTRATION. WITH A SUPPLEMENT, STAMPED, 6D. FIVEPENCE. "All's well that ends well." France has got a responsible Ministry at last. We are entitled to say thus much, not because any new legal security has been given since the changes initiated by the Emperor's Message, and effected by the Senatus Consultum, in behalf of Constitutional freedom, but because Napoleon III. has liberally interpreted his own meaning, and has actually divested himself of personal rule. When, on New-Year's Day, he addressed these words to the members of the Corps Législatif, Intrusted at first with the whole responsibility of power, I feel happy in relegating a portion now to the representatives of the country," and, I am like a traveller who relieves himself of a part of his burden in order more quickly to reach the end he has in view," the Emrunderstated his intentions. His subsequent acts have gone further than his words. He has called to his aid what, in the strictest sense of the phrase, may be designated a Parliamentary Cabinet. From the instant of his requesting M. Ollivier " to point out the men who could form with him a homogeneous Administration," to that in which the Prime Minister submitted the list of his colleagues for the Imperial approbation, the Sovereign has borne himself towards the man on whom he has conferred the trust of forming a Government with considerate and even delicate loyalty. He has scrupulously refrained from rendering a hard task still harder by any personal interference. He has generously sunk individual enmities. He has interposed no conditions. He gave M. Ollivier carte blanche, and that gentleman, guided-or, perhaps, we may more accurately say, driven-by the exigences of the case, has, after much difficulty and many failures, succeeded in surrounding himself with colleagues whose ability as well as political liberality promise well for the future. M. Ollivier needed all the indulgence that was given him. The present Legislative Body, it must be remembered, is a packed assembly. It is the offspring of universal suffrage under the manipulation of the prefects. It represents in the main not the political judgment, but the submissiveness to official authority, of the people of France. The disputed returns, the verification of which has occupied the extraordinary session, proved how completely the Emperor's Government was master of the machine it undertook to work. But the last general election indirectly expressed a far other result than it formally recorded. The numerical majority does not embody the moral power which technically belongs to it. The town populations in France defeated the electoral forces of the Government in too many instances to admit of being dealt with as a minorityfor a Parliamentary minority representative of the national will is usually too much for a Parliamentary majority representative of little else than official determination expressed without scruple. Nevertheless, it was from the Parliamentary majority obtained by unscrupulous Ministerial arts and influences that M. Ollivier was bound, by the letter of his commission, to choose his colleagues. His first overtures seem to have been made-for in such matters popular rumour is not implicitly to be trusted-to members of the Right Centre," he himself belonging, by profession at least, to the Left Centre We need hardly explain that the Right Centre is made of moderate Imperialists, the Left Centre of moderate Constitutionalists. We are not yet in possession of sufficiently authentic and precise information to state what were the reasons which finally prevailed upon M. Ollivier to select his Cabinet chiefly from the Left Centre-that is, from those whose political sentiments are in A DUTCH WATCHMAN.

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Stamped Edition, 6d,

THE ILLUSTRATED

REGISTERED AT THE GENERAL POST-OFFICE FOR TRANSMISSION ABROAD.

No. 1575.-vol. LVI.

SATURDAY, JANUARY 8, 1870.

THE OLLIVIER ADMINISTRATION.

WITH A SUPPLEMENT, STAMPED, 6D. FIVEPENCE.

"All's well that ends well." France has got a responsi- ble Ministry at last. We are entitled to say thus much, not because any new legal security has been given since the changes initiated by the Emperor's Message, and effected by the Senatus Consultum, in behalf of Constitutional freedom, but because Napoleon III. has liberally interpreted his own mean- ing, and has actually di- vested himself of personal rule. When, on New-Year's Day, he addressed these words to the members of the Corps Législatif, In- trusted at first with the whole responsibility of power, I feel happy in relegating a portion now to the representatives of the country," and, I am like a traveller who relieves himself of a part of his burden in order more quickly to reach the end he has in view," the Em- runderstated his inten- tions. His subsequent acts have gone further than his words. He has called to his aid what, in the strictest sense of the phrase, may be designated a Parlia- mentary Cabinet. From the instant of his request- ing M. Ollivier " to point out the men who could form with him a homo- geneous Administration," to that in which the Prime Minister submitted the list of his colleagues for the Imperial approbation, the Sovereign has borne him- self towards the man on whom he has conferred the trust of forming a Government with consi- derate and even delicate loyalty. He has scrupu- lously refrained from ren- dering a hard task still harder by any personal interference. He has gene- rously sunk individual enmities. He has inter- posed no conditions. He gave M. Ollivier carte blanche, and that gentle- man, guided-or, perhaps, we may more accurately say, driven-by the exi- gences of the case, has, after much difficulty and many failures, succeeded in surrounding himself with colleagues whose ability as well as political liberality promise well for the future. M. Ollivier needed all the indulgence that was given him. The present Legislative Body, it must be remembered, is a packed assembly. It is the off- spring of universal suf- frage under the manipu- lation of the prefects. It represents in the main not the political judgment, but the submissiveness to of- ficial authority, of the people of France. The dis- puted returns, the verifica- tion of which has occupied the extraordinary session, proved how completely the Emperor's Government was master of the machine it undertook to work. But the last general election indirectly expressed a far other result than it for- mally recorded. The nu- merical majority does not embody the moral power which technically belongs to it. The town popula- tions in France defeated the electoral forces of the Government in too many instances to admit of being dealt with as a minority- for a Parliamentary mi- nority representative of the national will is usually too much for a Parlia- mentary majority repre- sentative of little else than official determination ex- pressed without scruple. Nevertheless, it was from the Parliamentary majority obtained by unscrupulous Ministerial arts and influ- ences that M. Ollivier was bound, by the letter of his commission, to choose his colleagues. His first over- tures seem to have been made-for in such matters popular rumour is not im- plicitly to be trusted-to members of the Right Centre," he himself belong- ing, by profession at least, to the Left Centre We need hardly explain that the Right Centre is made of moderate Imperialists, the Left Centre of moderate Constitutionalists.

We are not yet in pos- session of sufficiently au- thentic and precise infor- mation to state what were the reasons which finally prevailed upon M. Ollivier to select his Cabinet chiefly from the Left Centre-that is, from those whose poli- tical sentiments are in

DEPARTMENT LONDON ONE PENNY

LONDON

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