The process of electing Parliamentary representatives, which was carried out in Franco on Sunday, after the usual interval of four years, is comparatively simple and inexpensive, especially in regard to its preliminaries. Every Frenchman not less than 21 years of age and not con-viered of felony is entitled to vote. All he has to do is to present himself at the local maine at the proper time, produce Papers proving his identity and the length of time he has resided in the district, and claim his vote: A week or two later, ho goes to the maine again and is given an elector's card. These are all the formal-risters' courts, no property or fodger ities required; there are no revising bar-votes, and no squabbles over qualifications. Rent receipts and birth certificates take the place of all this costly machinery. On the polling day—always Sunday, so as to give the greatest num-ver of electors time to take part in the operation,—the voter simply shows his card to the presiding officer, and, when it has been checked and a corner torn off, he drops his paper, which may be either printed or written and of any shape or size, into the box. Should no candidate obtain a clear majority of all the votes polled, the election is repeated a fortnight later, when the greatest number wins the day, as in England.
The elections passed off, on the whole, very quietly. There were @ few local disturbances, but nothing at all resembling 'a riot occurred. And in Paris it was difficult to discover the least sign of anything unusual going on, except in the immediate neighbourhood of the voting stations. The result of the day's polling was highly satisfactory, though slightly uzthe uninitiated. All parties were
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.