and the voting tickets issued by the anti-official party to be held back at the post-office until the day after the election. All these means, and others besides, are used to intimidate the country population. The strength of the administration is paraded before them. A great show of energy--or, to use the expressive French word, _de poigne_--is made. This is done in order that the French peasant, instinctively attracted by a display of power and repelled by an exhibition of weakness, may cast his vote for the man who appears to be the stronger candidate, and who enjoys the friendship of Monsieur le Prefet. In February, 1876, M. Buffet, then Minister of the Interior, only employed the means above described sparingly and stealthily. The favor with which he viewed the aspirations of the clerical party caused him to allow the Bonapartist machine to get somewhat rusty. In October, 1877, M. de Fourtou, the Bonapartist Minister of the Interior, selected by the marshal and his advisers as the fittest for the post, will, we may rest assured, make ample use of the levers of administrative centralization. His past career furnishes evidence that he will not hesitate an instant to declare as the official nominee, and energetically to support, any anti-Republican candidate having the least chance of success. Under such circumstances in almost every electoral district in the north, centre and west of France there will be a Bonapartist candidate. The situation insensibly recalls Dryden's well-known lines: To further this, Achitophel unites The malcontents of all the Israelites, Whose differing parties he could wisely join For several ends to serve the same design. Even in 1876, when they were left to their own resources, the Imperialists were able to carry the election of about a hundred of their adherents. Now, with one of their own party as the leading wire-puller, and with the aid of the not over-scrupulous _prefets a poigne_--who have scarcely forgotten the instruction they received during Napoleon's reign--the Imperialists will not despair of getting another one hundred and fifty, perhaps even two hundred, members into the Chamber. C. H. H. VON MOLTKE IN TURKEY.