BETWEEN THE CZAR AND THE SULTAN. 317 arrested, and charged with the offence of distri- chap. buting negative voting - tickets, or persuading others to vote against the President. It was soon made clear that, so far as concerned his means of taking a real part in the election, every adversary of the Elysee was as helpless as a man deaf and dumb. In one department it was decreed that any one spreading reports or suggesting fears tending to disquiet the people, should be instantly arrested and brought before a court-martial.* In another, every society, and indeed every kind of meeting, however few the persons composing it might be, was in terms prohibited ; -j- and it was announced that any man disobeying the order would lie deemed to be a member of a secret society within the meaning of the terrible decree of the 8th of December, and liable to transportation.! In the same department it was decreed, that every one hawking or distributing printed tickets, or even manuscripts, unless authorised by the mayor or the juge de paix, should be prosecuted ; and the same prefect, in almost mad rage against freedom, proclaimed that any one who was caught in an endeavour to 'propagate an opinion' should be deemed guilty of exciting to civil war and instant- ly handed over to the judicial authority. § In another department the sub-prefect announced
- Arrets du General d'Alphonse, Commandant I'&at de sieg6
dnns le Departement du Clier, Article 4. t ArrCte" du Trefet dc la Haute Garonne, Articles 1, 2, 3. X Ibid., Article 3. § Ibid., Article 1.
