HE ministry¹ had fallen. M. le préfet Worms-Clavelin felt neither surprise nor regret at this. In the depths of his heart he had always considered it too restless and too disturbing, an object of suspicion, and not without reason, to the agriculturist, the large merchant, and the small investor². Without affecting the fortunate indifference³ of the masses, this cabinet had exercised, to the préfet’s grief, a vexatious influence over freemasonry, the organisation⁴ by which, for fifteen years past, the whole political life of the department had been drawn⁵ together and held in check. M. le préfet Worms-Clavelin had been able to turn the masonic lodges⁶ of the department into boards vested with the preliminary choice of candidates for public offices, for electoral functions, and for party favours. Exercising in this way wide and definite prerogatives⁸, the lodges, being as much opportunist as they were radical⁹, combined, acted in concert with one another, and worked together for the109 republican cause. The préfet, rejoicing to see the ambition of some restraining the desires of others, gathered together, on the joint¹⁰ recommendation of the lodges, a band of senators, deputies, municipal councillors and road-surveyors, all equally loyal to the government, yet sufficiently¹¹ diverse in opinion and sufficiently moderate to satisfy and reassure¹² all republican parties, save the

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