Parliament will be controlled by the Irish Nationalists, and Ireland by Mr. Parnell, or, in opposition to the Nationalists and the Radicals, there will be formed a Government which will be Conservative in its respect for the great social institutions, in its antagonism to the levelling and centralising spirit, and withal Liberal in the manner in which it will handle the agrarian question. Judging by what I see here, where over three millions of rural proprietors are 'a tower of strength' for the Conservatives, I am persuaded that in England also the Conservatives have no greater interest--after the defeat of the socialist and revolutionary plans of Mr. Chamberlain--than to work vigorously at the formation of a numerous class of small landowners. _Mutatis mutandis_, we have here also the corresponding phenomenon of the transformation of parties. We are unquestionably entering on a period of lassitude. The Conservatives have gained one hundred and twenty seats at the last elections, for four principal reasons, all of which spring from the faults of their adversaries. 1. The Tonkin expedition. 2. The waste of the national and municipal finances. 3. The aggravation of the agricultural and industrial crises by the gross errors in the conclusion of treaties of commerce and the establishment of transit tariffs. 4. The war on the clergy, foreshadowing the separation of Church and State. To these particular reasons must be added the general dissatisfaction with an administration at once weak and corrupt, which is not in accord with those instincts which a thousand years of monarchy have impressed on our manners and tone of thought. The moderate Republicans have been beaten because they allied themselves with the Radicals, and because they themselves have not shown the governing qualities which could gain the confidence of the country. If the check has not been still greater, it is because the country has a horror of all change; because the interest of the Government is exceedingly strong; because the electors do not care to vote for the opposition candidate, who cannot do anything for them; and lastly, because, at the second _tour de scrutin_, the Government, in the most shameless manner, brought pressure to bear on all who are directly or indirectly dependent on it, the number of whom is very great.