Messieurs the Ministers, messieurs the senators anil mestieurs the deputies, not to mention many other messieursof the political world, plunge into a whirl of excitement as soon as it is known that there is a vacancy at the Elysee. The presidents of groups—one can hardly call them party leaders—issue frantic whips to their adherents. Swarms of cabs rattle over the Pont de la Concorde and disgorge heated legislators, who dash through the lobbies of the Chamber, storm the committee rooms and proceed to deliberate ina far from deliberate manner. The groups disss vote send emissaries to sound the candidates, adjourn to the refreshment room, meet again, argue, dispute, send more delegates, disperse to the four winds for information, and hurry back again like flies to the honey-pot. The senators, la the academic groves of the Luxembourg, are also deliberating, though with not quite so much every. The wildest rumours are passed round with the utmost confidence. Candidate A has been told that Candidate B has said so and so about him, and has replied that His a liar. General surprise is expressed, A being regarded as a man of courteous manners and B having a reputation for truthfuluesss—in a P: jiamentary sense. Other rumours have it that A cannot possibly consent to stand against his old friend B, and that B has irrevocably and absolutely refused to let himself be put forward in opposition to 'A. Finally it becomes evident that no one else is in the running, and A and B, metaphorically shrugging their shoulders, cause it to be understood that they will sacrifice themselves, after all, ov the altar of duty.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.