existing conditions, hardly be a matter of doubt.

In accordance with the President's proclamation, a popular election
was held throughout France, on the twentieth and twenty-first of
December, at which the Coup d'Etat was signally vindicated. Louis
Napoleon was triumphantly elected President, for a period of ten
years. Out of eight millions of votes, fewer than one million were
cast against him. He immediately entered upon office, backed by this
tremendous majority, and became Dictator of France. In January of
1852, sharp on the heels of the revolution which he had effected, he
promulgated a new constitution. The instrument was based upon that of
1789, and possessed but few clauses to which any right-minded lover
of free institutions could object. On the twenty-eighth of March,
Napoleon resigned the dictatorship, which he had held since the Coup
d'Etat, and resumed the office of President of the Republic.

It was not long, however, until the _After That_ began to appear.
Already in the summer and autumn of 1852 it became evident that the
_Empire_ was to be re-established. In the season of the vintage the
President made a tour of the country, and was received with cries of
_Vive L'Empereur_! In his addresses, particularly in that which he
delivered at Bordeaux, the sentiment of Empire was cautiously offered
to the people. The consummation was soon reached. On the seventh of
November, 1852, a vote was passed by the French Senate for the
re-establishment of the imperial order, and for the submission of the
proposed measure to a popular vote.

The event showed conclusively that the French nation, as then
constituted, was Bonapartist to the core. Louis Napoleon was almost
unanimously elected to the imperial dignity. Of the eight millions of