The Sun. — London, England, 1831-12-22 00:00:00

eat \i t 4.411, .--- , • . ,1 -. 4 4 ; .., #,, ,,t ~,,, 3 .;11 'N' ith parties it is the most sacred portion of :itage. hhich of us would consider himself as owing irtelfthing to the family of a benefactor, and would not look upon the son as unworthy of existence, who should not regard the gratitude of his father as pert of his inheritance ? This sentiment prevails no less its our pubic than in our pi ivate manners : Have not we all applauded the recent inscription in the hook of the Peerage, of the youthful heir of that illus trious orator who defended with so much ability and talent the cause of our liberties, and which we for public order reconstitute a support not less elo quent. France, would net she have feliciteted herself with us, if, by the side of this illustrious contem porary, and the other illustrations which the King has lively given to us, she could have returned to us some of those names that a Freneh lip can never pronounce but with respect, and whom we should all have risen to receive, but that unhappily history has alone preserved to us ? L'Hopital, Ca tinat, Daguesseau---and those great names of our modern glory, who have eo many empty places amongst us. What French 'voice will dare to say that these names had not titles, titles whteh die not in the tomb, and which the opinions of their temporaries honoured in the name of theie country ? Yes, the country which has honmetd them in the statues which she has erected to their memory, arid honours them not less in their families—living hnorm ments of their services and their glorys The dearest ambition of a public man—the re compense the most precious to which he can aspire —the greatest fortune he seeks after—is the happis ness of surviving in his descendants, in transmitting to them a part to the honour which he hae acquired nd the rank to which he has been elevated. There is not a sentiment more noble, there is not one more useful for society, or more worthy of encouragement and of respect. The hereditary character of certain political bodies has been introduced into the institu tions of people the most enlightened, and this prin ciple has become, for these institutions, a guarantee of stability—a security for duration. But political bodies, we know, do much more by themselves then by the laws. Feeble at their birth—often the ob ject of jealousy and dislike—they are not really placed at the head of their country until they have laboriously obtained the rank which belongs to them by a long suite of services which command the con fidence of nations,. Until then, they are condemned to rivalry and prejudices, over which their prudence and patriotism can alone enable them to triumph. It he thus that new institutions rarely acquire in their origin those developments which they need to fulfil their mission and their object ; and the legi slator, forced to study opinion, and sound and con sult the manners of the country, is often constrained to adjourn the completion of the social edifice, to which he cannot give the necessary solidity before the soil itself shall become durable. By a happy exception to this rule, it was other wise with this Chamber at its birth. The prin ciple of its perpetuity was not, in the first place, placed in the Charter of 1814 , but as an alternative. The fixed character of this principle was soon de manded by the friends of liberty, and solemnly con secrated by an act revocable, indeed, in its nature, but to which the unanimous sanction of public opi nion soon gave an irrevocable character. This sanction also was not refused to your services. Never was justice more decided rendered to a public body than that with which all France recom pensed the wise and persevering energy with which the Peerage has struggled for these two years against a fatal system, and defended the interests and liber ties of the country. This justice was not contested with you at the time, when rejecting the sigh's of primogeniture, your reporter himself told you, more than six years since, are you not yourselves, gentlemen, a proof and an example of that popular requisite, to be grateful and just, and of the admi rable discernment with which the people appreciate difficulties, judge of positions, and point out tasks? Far from imitating the exigency of parties whom nothing but a blind passion of serving them can satisfy—see how they receive the measures which you adopt for the public good, when they perceive the necessity to which you were obliged to sacri fee the hope of something better, but doubtful. See how they honour this independence of cha racter, which, whilst it enters into the examination of the acts of the ministry with the indulgence which it deserves, never allows you to sacrifice the paramount interests which are known to you, to this feeling, and to the fear even of displeasure. See with what confidence and by whose hands they Address to you the numerous reclamations which the Bill has created in all parts of France. What has happened since? What can have changed almost in an instant a disposition of minds founded upon justice and truth ? What has occurred ? The world, which is still shaking by the shock, knows it. An entire revolution, imposing calm even in the first cruelties of victory, which has given to the minds and to interests a generous impulse, no doubt, but which it has not been in its power to regulate. It is the same with great political com motions as with the contest of elements. The agi tation following it cannot be stopped easily. The most honourable passions, once raised, cannot be checked in one day. And God alone can, with one word, calm the tempest. Is it not natural that when laws have been insufficient for their own de fence, the people who have fought and conquered for them, thinking to find in the bad organization of the conservative bodies of these laws, the cause of their weakness, should seek in the changes of this organization a guarantee against violations, the renewal of which they wish to prevent ? It may no doubt happen that in the pre-occupation of a re cent and strong impression, persons may be led astray, and think they shall find the security they seek even in the destruction of the guarantee which might most contribute to maintain it. It is thus that, at the last and solemn trial of elections, made in the presence of the grand question upon which you are called to pronounce, that opinion was strongly opposed in the greatest part of France to an hereditary Peer age. With whatever feelings the movements of the mind are judged, its symptoms cannot be denied, or its principle misunderstood. The Ministry and the other Chamber have drawn thence the convic tion of an imperious necessity, which they have obeyed. An imposing majority has adopted the suppression en an hereditary Peerage, a suppression which the Ministry had only proposed as a painful necessity, called forth by the public wish, and which imposed upon it the sacrifice of its personal convic tion, however deep it m i g h t b e . Y ours , gen tl emen , should it even be still d eeper , wou ld un d ou b te dl y n ot hesitate to sacrifice it, and your Committee would have been unanimous in the conviction of this duty, if you had in the same degree the conscious ness of its necessity, if you were fully satisfied that this sacrifice was demanded by the maintenance of social order, and the happiness of the country. But the whole Committee has not been unanimous upon this point. Seven of its members have thought that wisdom commanded them, for the tranquillity of the country, to relinquish their opinion and to adopt the Royal propositions. Seven others have thought, on the contrary, that no consideration ought to determine you to give up a vital principle, the destruction of which would be the annihilation of the Peerage itself. Your wisdom will decide. le order that you may do it with more facility, we deem it our duty to expose to you rapidly the facts and principles which have influenced the two opinions that have divided us. An hereditary Peerage, said those of us who thought it their duty to re ject this provision of the law, an hereditary Peerage is an essential requisite; it can alone replace tilt action of the elective principle from whence the Chamber of Deputies derives its origin. If an he reditary Peerage is to disappear, you might as well suppress the Peerage, and not preserve a second Chamber, mutilated and deprived of the principle which renews and vivifies it. It is vain for us to consult the wish of public opinion, the action of circumstances: nothing proves this opinion to be general, and serious,—nothing proves these circum stances to be really insurmountable. Every day may disclose, under the influence of the Press, an artifi cial erroneous opinion, demanding the sacrifice of an institution. Far from giving way to the first shock of this opinion, it is precisely in order to resist such influences, and to prevent these transitory attacks, that the Peerage has been constitutionally established upon a durable basis-. It should not, therefore, be sacrificed to the errors against which it is instituted. The dike is not rensoved, because the sea rises to throw it down.. Whatever may be the real and ap parent tendency of public opinion, the Chamber ought to maintain this Cutebtry principle, more for state than for ittstlf. It depends not on its own prerogatives, but political order, the system of go vernment of which these prerogatives form an inte gral and essential part. Thee tht; Chamber of Peers will efficaciotasb; Cerve the constitutional royalty which re quires the presence and concurrence of an element hereditary like itself. Thus it will serve the public liberties in keeping up a restraint which is useful to them, and in leaving to opinion to be come enlightened by time. T'ne members of the Chamber ought without he sitation, to sacrifice their own interests ) if that sacri fice be useful to the State 't but they should not alter the institution or which they are now the represen tati..-0, and which to be useful requires to be inde pendent, and which cannot be so without the Peer age being hereditary. Even in the most liberal mo narchy, every thing cannot be given up, carried away at every instant by the sole influence of a popular election: On the other side, every thing that does hot belong to this influence cannot exclusively de pend upon the Crown alone. The principle of he reditary representation, admitted with due propor tion, establishes is neutral independent power, which prevents collision, supports the throne without ser vi!ity,and draws its rights from the constitution itself. A similar element necessary to the reality of the constitutional system should have been created by the new monarchy, if it had not preceded it, and if it had not already, by its very nature, struggled more than once against the arbitrary acts of the ab solute power that has lost the restoration. Is it to be destroyed while it exists ? Is it not, above all, I now that we have entered upon a completely Parlia mentary Government, that each of the powers composing it should have all its means of ac tion,—all its forms of independence ? Hence, if the Chamber of Deputies cannot maintain its place, exercise its functions in the constitutional order, ex cept by this recruiting of birth, which is never but partial, which is not exclusive of personal illustra tions, but which augment the eclat of their admis sion, and places into the recompence, even of ser vices, the pledge of independence. An hereditary Peerage should be maintained ; and the Chamber, without regard to circumstances,—without thinking of itself,—should reject the law, upon higher views of Parliamentary liberty and public interest. The other members of the Committee answered these ar guments, these principles, by strong motives ofpublic interest, and by serious consideration. Sensible as they are of the service which heredi tary transmission communicates to the Peerage, and to the common stability of the power of the State ; yet they cannot but admit that the application of this principle may be sometimes retarded, or sus pended, or even supplied by another combination. They disapprove especially the threatening alterna tive of to be, or riot to be, presented as the only solution of the problem ; convinced that the force of opinion, the necessity of circumstances may re quire and sanction modification, which are nor the ruin of the State, which alter some parts without compromising the whole. Nothing in political affairs, especially after a great revolution, should be decided in so absolute and inflexible a manner. Points of view change, the same acts have not always the same scope. New public opinion demands the suppres sion of an hereditary Peerage as a liberal guarantee : in 1814 , it was reserved by the Crown as a means of influence and power. The Charter, the first homo logation of the new public right called for by France, left to the King the right of creating Peers for life or hereditary; and this unequal division, which was supposed to have been dictated by mo tives little creditable perhaps to the principal illustra tions of new France, led, as we have already stated, public opinion to a better conception of the ad vantages of an hereditary Peerage. Cannot the same attempt be renewed now in an uniform manner, and under different inspiration, without putting the State into danger ? If the ruin of the Con stitution was attached to this measure, no doubt the Chamber of Peers should inflexibly resist, and, scorning the apparent objection of being actuated by interested motives, it would venture all for the defence of social order, as it did on a recent occasion, to insure the independence of justice.— This is not the case, and the duty is not the same. This time the question is not a question of judiciary conscience and personal danger, but a government and political question. We have to consider how, under the influence of the late events, in the present disposition of public opinion, the Chamber of Peers can in the best way fulfil its mission of maintaining order, serving the throne and the public liberties within the limits of the law. The relinquishment of a right may in a given circumstance be the means of force against anarchical pretensions. On nearly every social question, the immense majority in France is moderate and friendly to order. The question is not to give to this majority any occasion to com plain, or let it join grievances with those violent opinions horn which it generally keeps aloof; were it even necessary, in order to obtain this end, to give way to some susceptible minds, to modify certain guarantees until they are better understood and re , gretted. Without admitting the lawfulness of the imperative mandates, and taking them only for symptoms of the domineering spirit, must we not acknowledge that the electoral opinion reproduced by the votes of the other Chamber was to a great majority contrary to the maintenance of an here ditary Peerage, and that an immediate trial at tempted upon this opinion would excite it still more ? The Peers, in uniting against the im posing majority of the other Chamber, will un doubtedly make a painful sacrifice ; but can they hesitate, if, at this price, they insure the actual harmony of the powers, in saving them from a struggle which would weaken them more than a concession itself ? Permanent members of an as sembly, the ascendancy of which it is the interest of the Crown to strengthen by choices worthy of them, they will have on their side the popularity of a noble disinterestedness, the ulterior influence of public dis cussion, and that authority of principles and experi ence which is necessarily attached to the immova bility of a political body. With the suppression of an hereditary Peerage, the legislative vote of the Chamber of Peers will not be less powerful to modify, suspend, or reject every resolution, which might be contrary to the interests of the State. Secure from the reproach of personal interest, having satisfied the exaggerations of anti-aristocratical sus picion, the Chamber of Peers will possess more moral strength to repel new pretensions. It will no longer be accused of seeking and defending its own privileges in all social questions. It will be ac knowledged that it has no other interest and aim in its efforts than the maintenance of the constitutional throne, public liberties, private property, and the common right of civilized men, which is at present threatened by a spirit of anarchy ? Thus the Chamber of Peers, a necessary part of the State, would preserve its conservative mission ; it would be more closely connected with the throne; and it is a public guarantee after a change of dynasty. It would have nothing offensive to the spirit of equality so prevailing in these times; and it is also a happy con dition for a power charged by its nature to check and to maintain. In this new situation the Chamber would perhaps gain political credit with the people, and affinity with the public mind, that it would have lost by the relinquishment of a contested privilege ? But will not this relinquishment be the beginning of a greater sacrifice ? Will not the Chamber of Peers, stripped of its hereditary right, be hereafter, attacked in its existence ? We have shared this fear, assured as we are' by the good sense of the public which has sprung up in France, and learned so much for the last forty years. It is not !un doubtedly sheltered against prejudices and against being attacked ; but it is invariably fixed upon cer- ' tain political maxims, which have been unfortuna . ely too long understood, The existence of a second legislative irremovable Chamber—the necessity that it should be independent of the popular vote, and that, faithful to the best interests of the nation, it should not comply with the capricious opinions of the times,—such are the Government maxims which henceforward enter into the domain of public rea son. Some minds may still, and will always attack them ; but all shades of enlightened opinions com bine in defending them, and they have the sanct ion of principle and of experience. Thus, with the strengthening of order and public liberty, the legal rights of the Chamber of Peers, seconded by its services, far from ever being in danger, will expect every thing from the progre,s of public opinion, which cannot always misunderstand the advantages of the salutary principle now rejected, and not keep an account of the duty which will be imposed on your patriotism. Such are, gentlemen, the principal considerations which have determined one-half of your commission to give their suffrages to the royal project. We have not re-produced in this summary all the motives of anxious foresight and political necessity presented elsewhere in support of this opinion ; the Chamber is not unacquainted with them, and in its wisdom will know how to appreciate them. Atten tive alone to the well-being of the State, it will ad mit no other moral influence than that of its con science and its enlightenment. Among the motives of prudence, we will not place a consideration so frequently re-produced, but too improbable to determine your decision, if the Chamber had not otherwise much graver motives. The constituent power had been spoken of as a supreme solution, held in reserve, and which may at any time be produced, if you do not accept the pro ject of law which has been submitted to your con sideration. Such a supposition, such a fear, would be equally unworthy of both Chambers. They would not be less offensive to the royal power, the adherence or powerlessness of which is pre-supposed. In fact, the Chamber of Deputies, and the royal power, have recognised that the Chamber, in sub mitting its 23d article to the revision of the session of 1831, had thereby intended to place this revision in the domain of the Legislature. It is a law pro posed by the Crown to the other Chamber, it is a law which the latter has adopted and amended, and which is now laid before you for your examination and adoption. _ _ By law, how could it have been otherwise? How could the Charter, the first of all laws, but doubtless a law, since the three powers voted and proclaimed it, have been revised by any authority other than that of the Legislature ? And what could this au thority be, which, superior to the three powers, should impose on them immutable laws at its will, and should enchain them even to futurity, Thus, like the popular sovereignty, the consti tuent power exercises itself a day, a moment, in the absence of the law and of the regular powers, to found or organize those powers, and to give life to the social body ; the powers once constituted, and the law proclaimed, there exists no longer any au thority than that of these powers—any other cove• reignty than that of the law. How shall we comprehend, especially in one of the branches of the legislature, an authority superior to the whole legislature—the right of suppressing the action of the two others, and of attributing to itself a power, unique, sovereign, and above the Constitution—above the law ? Who does not see that it is the 14th Article, borrowed of another power ? But, except in Article 14, effaced from the Charter, not on the Bth of August, but the 25th of July, for every power which usurps abdicates by the very act of usurpation, where shall we find the right of this exorbitant power? To exercise it, a man date is doubtless requisite. Who has conferred this mandate ? The electoral colleges? But in the electoral colleges all electors and elected have taken the oath of fidelity to the King and the Charter. This oath is the only mandate given and received— the only one which could be, the only one which can be, fulfilled. Thus your Committee have given no attention to such fears. It has gone to a higher source for the considerations which have determined it, and which it has, by the medium of myself, sub mitted to your judgment. In the system of hereditary right, the nomination of Peers being exercised as it were but accessorily, and in order to complete the Chamber, or act against its resistance when this the resistance appears to the Crown contrary to the wishes of the country, the mode of nomination is much less important than if the Peerage, no longer recompensed by order of succession, were destined to become totally the work of choice. Your Com mittee has, however, hesitated in its opinion, that in every hypothesis the nomination of Peers could be intrusted only to the Crown. If your Committee has not dissembled the incon veniences which the suppression of the hereditary right would attaxli to this attribution, it has per ceived sill greater ones in any other mode of nomi nation. That of popular election, direct or indirect, is so contrary to the principle of the division of the powers, to the object and to the spirit of the Peer age, that it would be destructive of the institution itself. It would not be less so of the elective Chamber, which would cease to be, as soon as a per manent Chamber could be produced by the electoral urn, and could represent the nation with the same rights, with the same power, increased by the inde pendence it would acquire by its being irremovable. This mode of election could then be applied to the composition of the Chamber of Peers, without altering in its basis the system of constitutional Go vernment. But if the project reserves to the King the direct nomination of the Peers, it is in restraining it within the circle of a certain number of categories, in which the selection must be exclusively made. The categories, all of them taken in honourable classes or functions, are not unknown to you, it is useless to , recapitulate them. Your Committee proposes but one alteration. It is not, however, without a division, that it has arrived at this determination. Many of its members strongly insisted on the entire suppression of the categories—too numerous in their opinion to be useful, if any guarantee against a bad choice were derivable ; too restricted, if they are considered a limitation of the rights of the Crown, or the exclu sion of numerous classes of citizens. They have seen in them a distrust justified by no circumstance ; a distrust more manifest by the minute and vain precaution so unworthy of being recorded in a Charter which prescribes that the ordinances of nomination shall be motived and individual. The Royal authority needs the confidence of the people; and how shall it attain this confidence if it has not that of the law ? Undoubtedly the choice may be abused, but is not the responsibility of the choice a better guarantee than the narrow and elec tive circle of the project ? Who does not see how easily the warranties of the categories may be eluded ? May it not be feared that certain public functionaries will degenerate into a mere candidature for the Peerage, and that by wishing to avoid a bad nomi nation, the country may be exposed to see useful offices converted into titles of expectation ? Is it besides, answering the object of this institution to make it the almost necessary retirement of all the functionaries of the State ? Is it the public offices which the Charter called us to represent ? Opinion is invoked. Is it for the administration that its soli citude is awakened ? Is it in its ranks, however honourable they may be, that its defenders and its guarantees are generally sought ? On the other hand, restraining the choice 'of the Crown, is it not restraining the rights of all ? The Charter calls Frenchmen without distinction to different employ ments in the State. Why should the most elevated one of all be inaccessible to any one ? Why, then, should we take from all the emulation of this noble object —an emulation generous and useful ? What ever services a citizen may have rendered the State, however illustrious his talent or family might be, he could not represent with you whatever the na tion has of eminence, if he has not solicited or ob tained of power, or of tliie electors, and exercised for a certain length of time, one of the titles or offices containel in the categories? Even the Lieutenant- General whom may have gained a battle, cannot, before he has held his rank three years, find in the Peerage the recompense of a great service, if before that time another has not been decreed him by a special law, or unless he has been elevated to the dignity of a Marshal of France. But the majority of your Committee has consi dered that these inconveniences, however grave they might be, could not balance the advantages and guarantees which resulted from the limits which the project set to the choice of the Crown. It has thought, that, deprived of its hereditary right (the Principal element of its independence), the Cham ber of Peers required others beyond the Royal no mination. The limits set to this nomination by the Project are less a guarantee against the Crown than a guarantee for the Peerage itself—than a sanc tion of opinion—a sanction so much the more necessary as that of time and duration are taken away. This limitation is no more an act of distrust towards the Crown, than the condi tion imposed by the laws on the nomination of officers in the army, of which, however, the Charter proclaims the King the supreme chief. These categories, are, besides, so extensive, that there is not a real situation of eminence not comprehended in them, by the functions to which such person may be called by the choice of the communal or de partmental electors, by that of the institute, if he owes his elevation to letters or the sciences, or by his fortune if he contributes to the amount of 3,000 francs in direct taxes to the charges of the State. Whatever his personal dignity or that of his family might be, a citizen who does not belong to any of these classes, and who has not a revenue suf ficient to support the rank of a member of this Chamber, and to perform its functions, could not, with any degree of utility, have u seat in it. If these motives have induced your Committee to adopt the categories, it has found no reason for the restriction in the paragraph relative to the citizens paying 3,000 francs in direct taxes, and by which means the possessor of property, whatever his fortune may be, is excluded from the candidature of the Peerage, unless he has been elected a judge of a tribunal of commerce, or unless he has sat six years in a general council. It is, perhaps, to be regretted, that the sum of 5,000 francs was not fixed on, as it had been at first adopted by the Committee of the other Chamber. We were tempted to propose to you the sum as it originally stood, but we reflected that it would still more restrict the circle already too limited in the estimation of several among us of the candidatures imposed on the Crown. We also con sidered that 3,000 francs paid in taxes represent, in a great part of France, considerable property in capital, if not in revenue ; and that the number of persons possessing property in this class did not amount, perhaps, to 3,000 in all France, exclusively of those who do riot unite the other capitalists : it is, besides, six-fold the guarantee of fortune required by the law for admission to the popular represen tation. At whatever amount you may fix the sum, it has appeared to us, that the possession of property car ried with it sufficient guarantees ; that it had by its own nature sufficient rights, and represented suffi cient interests for nothing more to be demanded of it. 'We should much rather have understood a eel- taro rate of property being demanded of the func tionary, than the promotion to certain functions, which sometimes proves rather favour than capacity being required of the possessor of property. We should have understood it especially of functionaries removable at pleasure, who may lose, the moment of their entrance into this Chamber, the functions which have opened its door to them, and with those functions the titles which have procured them an honour, refased to the quality of being irremovable, which is inherent in the possession of property. Like the charter of 1814, the article proposed fixes no limit to the number of the members of this Chamber. Many of the members of your Com mittee have thought that the hereditary right des troyed, it would be impossible to leave to the Crown the right of augmenting unlimitedly the number of Peers, and of destroying the institution by the abuse of the power left it. This right has existed, say they, it is true, these 16 years ; and whatever use may have been made of it, it may be said that the number to which the Chamber may without incon venience have been increased has not been surpassed; but the hereditary right was then to serve as a coun terpoise. If this counterpoise could not be brought to act against abusive nomina'ions, the Chamber would soon cease to be a power. It would be but a Committee—a fearful danger when we consider what judicial powers the charter has conferred on the Peerage. Undoubtedly there would be great n convenience attached to the limitation, if the num ber were so restricted that it might be easily com pleted ; but in fixing it, for instance, at the number of the Chamber of Deputies, double the number of the present Peerage,what difficulties are tobe feared ? The majority of your Committee has been more struck with the dangers of this grave innovation than with those of the present disposition of the Charter. This disposition has been in one grave circum stance carried so far that it cannot in future be car ried further. The abuse was so great that it brought with it its own corrective. In great part to the no mination of the 76 Peers are we indebted for the triumph of the constitutional principles in the me morable election of 1827, a triumph which shows what the true remedy for the danger is, and which proves that the danger is not real. On the contrary, an immense danger would result from the adoption of the limitation. The number being once com pleted, where would be the means of defence against the pretensions of the Peerage ? The foresight of the Chamber has preserved the equilibrium of the three powers by the reciprocity of the means of action and resistance which it has given each of them. The Chamber of Deputies holds in its hands the taxes, and thus resists the pretensions of the Crown. The Government answers by an appeal to the country, to the encroachment of the elective Chamber ; a hostile majority is destroyed in the other Chamber by a nomination of Peers. But if the limited number be attained, what resource has the throne or the country against this majority, how ever factious it may be ? The Chamber of Depu ties and the King must receive the law from the Peers, or the law must be violated. The alterna tive allows of no hesitation. We propose, then, to declare the number to be unlimited. The para graph declaring that the conditions of admissibility may be modified by a law may have the greatest consequences. There is in the legislation of nations a supreme law, —that of the common safety and necessity. The law which should condemn society to perish would not be a law, but the overthrow of the law. That of social preservation can alone be immutable —not in prescriptions and its application, but in its principle, which is that of natural defence applied to States, a principle which governs all for States as for individuals. The law ought, then, always to have in itself the means of satisfying the wants of the country. The law unites all—subjects and powers, king and nation, all except herself are subject to her: she cannot ab dicate her power. Vainly, indeed, would the present desire to legis— late for the future. What power does it possess to do so ? The disposition of the law which would en chain the future, would then be null and vain. Be sides which, it would be most inconvenient to en deavour to restrain a right which cannot be limited ; it would be to attack a fundamental principle, which it is important to preserve. But the majority of your commission have thought that this right and this privilege were so incontestable that they could not but propose in consequence to you to maintain it. Here, gentlemen, finishes the task of your commis sion. Your duty now commences. We were de sirous of rendering it easy to you, in offering you a result less incomplete of our united efforts. We are sure, at least, that we have in this our first ex amination brought to the subject that spirit of con ciliation and of disinterestedness which will also pre side over your deliberations. If our opinions have been divided, our wishes have been unanimous, as will also be yours, in order that those grave and so lemn debates may be the last of these discussions which have interested so many parties, and called into action so many passions. Never was this union of honourable sentiments more necessary or more commanded. If the duty of citizens is to contribute in the sphere of their actions to aid the Government in the mission of which it is always so difficult to fulfil, this duty is more than ever imperious after one of those great political commotions which has overthrown thrones, which has reversed the social edifice, and which will leave even the soil for a long time shaken. It is not, then, too much—it is not, unhappily, always enough—that the friends of order should aid the Government in re-establishing society, and in as suring to it the force it will so much need, and fair which it must look exclusively to honest and upright men. This confidence the Government has, above all, a right to expect from that Parliamentary power on the states which has received more especially the mission of preserving and defending, of sustaining and consolidating, society and the laws. You will then, gentlemen, fail thus to fulfil your mission of reconciliat'on and stability. The nation has a desire to see terminated these contests without object be tween the past and the present—contests already too much prolonged, and which compromise the security of the present and the firure. The country re quires to put an end to these afflicting divisions which occupy party feelings and passions, and which permit the enemies of order and of property to attempt the most criminal measures, happily re pressed; but which can only be prevented from re turning by the union of all good citizens. 'Whatever may be your determination, gentlemen, inspired by these sentiments, we are sure that de liberation will carry conviction into every mind : we doubt not the conviction which will dictate the de termination, viz., that of an important duty having been fulfilled. ARTICLE UNIQUE. 1. The nomination of the Members of the Cham ber of Peers to belong to the King, who cannot choose them but among the following classes : (Here follows a list of the categories from which the King must name, such as President of Chamber of Deputies, Deputies, Marshals, &c., as proposed by the Chamber of Deputies, except in Art. 21. The commission proposes to leave out the words which require that a proprietor, manufacturer, merchant, banker, &c., paying 3,000 francs of taxes, shall not be eligible, unless he shall also have been, during six years a member of a General Council, or of a Cham ber of Commerce ; the Commission of the Peers pro pose to omit this, and to declare that a proprietor, ma nufacturer, &c. may be named a Peer by the King, though he should not hare been member of a Gene ral Council, or of a Chamber of Commerce. The object of the introduction of this qualification was to prevent the King from naming sons of Peers of France, simply because they were such, and paid 3,000 francs per annum, and the Peers, therefore, desire to dispense with this condition.) 26. The conditions of the admissibility to the Peerage can be modified by a law. 27. The ordinances naming the Peers shall be individual, and shall indicate the services and titles in respect of which the nomination shall be founded. 28. The number of Peers is unlimited. 29. Their dignity is conferred for life, and is not to be transmissible by hereditary right. 30. They take rank among themselves, by order of nomination. 31. For the future, no pension, nor salary, nor dotation can be attached to the dignity of a Peer. The 23d article of the Charter as it exists : " The nomination of the Peers of France belongs to the King. Their number is unlimited. He cin name the dignities. He can vary them for life, or render them hereditary according to his pleasure." (Fromt : the Messager des Chambres, dated Deo. 20.) LYONS. DEC. ls.—The following proclamation was posted on the 12th : . _ _ " Hotel of the Mayor of the city of Lyons. " VOLUNTARY ENROLMENTS. 4 ‘ We, the Mayor of the city of Lyons, give notice, that by virtue of instructions from the Minister of War, we are authorised to receive voluntary enrolments, either to serve in the army or to join the new corps which are forming in Africa. In consequence such enrolments will be re ceived here from this day forward, from nine o'clock in the morning till four in the afternoon. " Lyons, Dec. 12. " PRUNELLE." The disarming proceeds rapidly at Lyons. A great number of muskets have been delivered up, and though we are not able to give a decided account, we think there must be few arms out of the depots. " DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE AND PUBLIC WORKS. " PARIS, DEC. 17. " TO THE PREFECT OF --. " I am informed, that in a small number of departments workmen in the manufactories apply to the authorities to obtain an increase of wages ;—that for this purpose they hold assemblies, organize themselves into corporations, and appoint chiefs or delegates. These meetings are an infrac tion of public order, they may lead to offences still more serious, as a recent example has proved. " I am confident, Sir, that if such irregularities should take place in your department, you would find means to repress them. I think it proper to recall to your mind the laws which exist on this subject. You will not hesitate to apply them if need should be. " 1. You know that no law gives authority to tax the wages of manufacturing workmen. " 2. The councils of prndhommea have no more juris diction in these matters than the administrative authori ties. Their office is solely to conciliate differences be tween the manufacturers and the workmen, and to decid clte tween them if they cannot make them agree; but they have in no case a right to fix tariffs and such other regu lations. " 3. But if assemblies of workmen or of corporations have been held, if they have chosen delegates, if the pre sent petitions, in which pretended presidents, secre•aries, or commissioners, make demands in the name of the profession, you will state to them the enactments of the law of the 17th of July, 1791, which prohibits such proceedings, and declares them to be illegal. " You are not to tolerate such assemblies, nor to recog nize their delegates, nor to receive their petitions. Now it results from the laws, that as the workmen and the ma nufacturers cannot make a corps, there can be no conven tion between them binding on the whole profession. Each individual is at liberty to make a contract at his o arn op tion, and the assent of an y m a jority whatever cannot bind the minority. This assent is invalid before the magistrates and the tribunals. " 4. The law of 1791 specially prohibits contributions to raise or lower the rate of wages. " Y , .0 have not only, Sir, to see to the execution of these laws, which are the protectors of order, but also to i►upress on the minds of those who might be tempted to disregard them, that they are necessary and conformable to the interest of the workmen themselves as much as to Justice. For if competition,—if a temporary decrease in the demand,—if the diminution of consumption which al ways follows disorders committed by the workmen,—or any other cause, produces a decline in the selling prices, it is evident that the manufacturer cannot employ workmen at a loss, and that if he attempted to do so, his capital would be speedily exhausted. " Thence it is impossible to keep up a high rate of wages for the benefit of the workmen, when the price of the ma. nufactured article has fallen. It then becomes necessary to choose between work at a reduced price and a total want of work. " Undoubtedly the manufacturer must have regard to circumstances, and in moments of difficulty reduce his pro fits to what is strictly necessary. His own interests prompt him to act thus, so long as he is not absolutely a loser ; for his paramount interest is, that his business may not be interrupted, that he may not lose his market and his customers. The force of things and the common in terests of the workmen and the manufacturer lead them to agree together. But competition alone, and freedom of arrangement between the master and his workmen, must ead to their agreement on the rate of wages. The strates have neither the right nor the means to in these arrangements, still less to fix: the rates " Such, S r, are the rules which I send to yot tion, and the observance of which, you will enfol the greatest vigilance. " Accept, Sir, Bc, " Count D'ARG Tlie Prefect of the Isere, Prefect ad interim partment of the Rhone, had addressed a circu, Mayors of the department, exhorting them to alarms which are spread by evil-minded persons, nounce that on a certain day flesh boobies will M. Von Pfuel, the Prussian commissioner chatel, declared that town in a state of siege oi inst., in consequence of the menaced attack by On closing the session of the legislative body, h, their thanks for the zeal for the constitution, and fidence in th• Government, and declared that thi ment looked forward without alarm to the ay crisis, for there seemed no doubt that the rebels rhortly Attempt an attack. FRENctt FL - NM-P.lms, DLc. 19.-Five per Cents., 35c. 30c. 50c. 40c. 35c. 40c. 45c. 50c. 97f. 60c. 55c. 50c 40c. 45c. 50c. ; Four and a Half per Cents., 90f. ; Cents., S2f. 20c. 75c. ; Three per Cents., 60f. sc. 69f. 96f 69f. 10c. 69f. 6Sf. 95c. 69f. 69f 10c. sc. 69f. ; Bank Stock, Rente de Naples, 78f. 90c. 75c. 70c. 55c. tiOc. 78f. 50c. d'Espagne, ; Royal Spanish Loan, 79 ; Re' tuelle d'Espagne, }‘ % ;34 .58Y, % change on London, one month, paper, 25f. ; 2.5 c. three months, paper, 25f. 20c.; money, 25f. Authentique. (From the Morning Herald.) We have just received the French Papers of and the Gazette de France and Messager des of yesterday. These Papers are chiefly filled with the Repo] Committee of the Peers on the Peerage Law, an( in the Deputies on the affairs of Lyons. The on the Peerage Law was fixed for this day. ' Peers had already inscribed their names to speak The debate on the Ministerial communication the affairs of Lyons commenced on Monday, continued on Tuesday. At three o'clock on thi M. Perier rose to reply to the attacks that had on him by the Opposition—not so much rest affairs of Lyons as the general character of his Go' These Papers contain further accounts of emeute probable in Paris at one period of Mond*: three thousand students of the Schools of Law cine had assembled at the Place du Pantheon, proceeding with an address to General Bo nari conduct in Poland, when they were stopped of Neuf by Commissaries of Police, supported by a of cavalry (Carbineere and Municipal Guards), some difficulty dispersed. Some groups contin Boulevards during the evening, but no distui cowed. The Oppo;itien Journals continue to conten , Emperor of Russia would not concur in the ' The Duke de Mortemart, the Ambassador of the C. urt of Russia, long since appointed, h, Paris on Tuesday last. FRENCH FUNDS, DEC. 20.—Five per Cents. 97f. 25c. Three per Cents. 6Sf. 90c. 6Sf. 50c. ; Bank Acti 1,8:35f. ; Rent de Naples, 7Sf. 60f. • ' 78f. 40c. ; Rente ' 10% • Royal Spanish Loan, 79; Rente Perpetuelle 58% 59.—Exchange on London, one month, pat.. money, 25f. 25e,..; three months, paper, 25f. 20c.: money Z - COUNCIL DAILY 1 Ite m .SUS 4 'ned at las • tv Cages —vere c i ''''''' Frpßemair - the commq at la e tt ••• .. era,...... •—• ered Remai -tzt the Comm I' F; 4 () , II TH SHI li e ;Z.inecl at la It'°l•ered Ronal From tl H OU( Remained at la New r ases I teeover ed ...... Rernai From t )I,lllltintd at 1, to o Catet :I ttl t a4t iS fuuri ‘ ei V with t 4 4 , is Paper, t t !'era at Hu the Hull th t ' lle ge of S it, 4t it w as g , 1 4 It seen 4, 1 ,,g e1 'Y of sl " e cl probl had St Itl et! OF THE s' The 3 , ,,i b o. y Au ta Tt r .te : o; :zieenettl C: 7ert.t : eßcAoneidennst:i...., 'force wiP "n t _lnt. • ""'"' ice.. I of the (le tl ; ;', t. 1 €4•26 n. 1726 ular to 0 1 46 s, l l An n to exp dispel ill In ,85(539 It D 4 o a 9 is. w ho lr 5 : iBelo 1 ensue. Z rll s, 1 8: 0 1 r at NO , 6 . IRTO an the 11v t eas or • the rebeittn' '° Bo r°"lG' (I ,..h h e e . their FG rec ouv e l e i I ri :1 , 4 ,, ~ ,,,17 4: 2 44 1 4 tOl;7:G"ialzdd:s:;cd:. e1—n.......,...........a ' ipproachl 4, would Ye itt o k I ,lOZd a 4.14:t5 ktS., g7f, 1 0 111414.... .. 50c 40c 1 , .._ 43, 14 / "tra . ******* 'Gf. loc. 00 1 cH ,„, ock, 1,10",; jag ...ATER 50c. • lter ".L3 minute lente' Fee, t b r2f `‘C.AD-STR money T 15c.— th _ cou ~,, for . day, the Eli : )p port f C r T h t u a t : r 'l t a r v i; i: 7 , l ll ;" ;: i.,,, w hsho,t o r.t r. vt li Eh i pe pr c u tio i rsd , ind a de f bt ° ril l 4 t Mr. W le dist:v.o,446k" NtooreF Thirty-0° I t ak on it• , , ` P ower '‘,,aepirpoiinntteendel n ref PctOt l to k P ' 6. "or their ie latter 01 , I ,_ o report th d been 0 10 tt a ua t the Tha lii r cliall • apectiog ', L k . Y given ilovernsi'D, ,7tir, 7, 4 of the W the aeriol;l.4%,:ne Chair tl ay, in el 4v . Ittli-:l,te'Y =nil and Aide 1,1, That of the ' r ' in a o n , d oil l t Lh of this Cornet' on the F°°;N,:nis War d . urbanee a l ar ge fn nt I ti t .' and attent ), and Or, Cr t : i tie e during inued on or ltd. 'Y to the end tha ' t cll ' l' 24. artitltt , til I‘ , ll _at the fo f France ;$ Lurl izLand had not i 25c..61 ,5 ! 1/ ctions I , , re dd:g4 , I I 1 f er, '25 1 iTne;, 0 1 " ° Ili t ,, 4SDAY 1 IY tlifi t ENT an!! ; i sr AllA Al °C '4ll4.4l7''''aLunrd,t, '3 ittehl eiiffiru:' COURT CIRCULAR. Their Royal Highnesses the Duchess of KRIS. rid Princess VICTORIA went yesterday to Mr. FOzARD's school, for the Princess to receive her first lesson in rid" ti o; Their Royal Highnesses will ride there regularly for Princess's instruction by Mr. FOZ A RD. i t b The Archbishop of CANTERBURY had an interview' - ft Earl GREY on Tuesday, at the Treasury, previous to t departure of the Noble Earl for his seat at East Sheemotr The Baron DE WESSENBURG, the Austrian on a special mission, transacted business yesterday ° office of the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs. t o Sir BunsoN LowE, the Lieutenant-Governor of CO arrived in town on Tuesday. Sir HUDSON attended leS terday at the Colonial-office, and bad an interview' Viscount GODERIC Ff. t The Duke of RICHMOND has left town for his s e/ Goodwood, Sussex. tlif Th.. Right Hon. E. G. S CANLEY left town yes ter morning, on a visit to his Grace. The AI irquis of LANSDOWNE left town yesterday ol eff ing, for his seat at Bow-wood, Wilts. t b Viscount MELBOURNE left town yesterday, for pens Herts, on a visit to Earl CowrEns Viscount PAL3trac.sToN lett town yesterday afterrwwo OPERA INTELLIGENCE.—Mr. 11101 4 P NiAsoN is returned to town after an extensive acr i t :i peditious tour through the Continent. We undo" he has a splendid corps dramatigue close in the reart r o the campaign will open with becoming eclat calico January. In Opera, of course, we shall be strong', only in numbers but in talent and tasteful selec t s / The Ballet department, withal, has been by no meads glected. TAGLIONI is permanently engaged, but W i t " There be six RICHARDS in the field !" and se, c ° ,4o believe our eyes? there are not sir but three TAG' on the stage, and we shall have them all at once. / STANDARD NOVELS AND ROMANCf S ; e O This popular work has now reached its Tenth NO," and has every where obtained approval and eneoi.ll7o meat. No kind of literature is so generally attract': pot fiction. But well-wrought fiction is characteri ou alone by amusement ; it is made subservient to the P fd poses of instruction, in acquainting us with the b e ol and motives of our fellow-creatures—in familiars"l 1 0 with many coloured life—in telling us what it is b el l ip imitate—in warning us what we ought to shun , a p nea . demonstrating demonstrating the fatal consequences of rashness an d To the young, in particular, the lessons afforded b 1 'c' fictions are inestimable ; and the young will eag er /d e o! ceive advice thus proffered. No one, however, cat , le tt that, until within the last thirty years, the great riled; of fiction have been, if not immoral in their aim , ingly impure in their details. The " Standard P° 6o o l are not liable to this charge. A body of popular 6c,'01! not 1°4 1)1 Ili a , are now, for the first tim e , printed in this series, • 0 0 ktl, my. equal in talent to those in other collections, but i I e % as wel accordance with morality and decorum, and pre c uts' ' h ull , thal just and interesting pictures of life in all its aspects , o bel i T illie out the slightest danger of contaminating the minds ° k i le S into t wr itte lo r re tilers. lil falTlollB ~ 0 1) ; 11 1 , 1 1 4 , e to the MELANCHOLY CATASTROPIIE.-It hiol cit b e • puni painful duty to record a most afflicting accident, in v V i , ' 4) s' d• ltect s. a noble and illustrious family in the deepest distreo, f , til t , terday afternoon, Earl TALBOT was amusing hinise' d ,for 11 44 th e enclo shooting rabbits, on his domain at Ingestre, when " i tt' ° ( tunately a rabbit attracted his Lordship's attention' t if e ht fired, but, alas! the intended object of destructi c tell "Is;„, 11, --The Ce precedence to a human being, who stooped at the ill - f 11' his Lordship fired, and in whose head the contet lo e t PI L k vt li • I ' 4 null, v Lordship's piece had lodged, and wounded, we tiro re' I th aPPear th add, in a manner that leaves hut little hopes of n - c oe, , 14 t , t latter gei -- reall il l ' !" t,,lick4t•e a case 143 a gross no tim4 corery. His Lordship's distress may be more _ "001 ceived than described. He evinced the mot 11 :; 11 ' anxiety for the unhappy man's misfortune--d i T t , messengers in all directions for the necessary t o '` ' d Pe i ; personally bestowing every care that humanity s ° l ,lo citude could devise. The wretched sufferer is an O d . Ao o °t he Editor favourite domestic of the Earl, named PARZXR, at the time the accident occurred, enjoying tne - o • be and comfort of a retired keeper. He has been •tb ' tt °otta 3nLE of years in the family, and was especially honou red t te'ted ,;,e. two of former L Td.—Staffordshire Advertiser. ,oSP , 41v, ^sv-mtate thi s EXTENSIVE FIRE AT NEWARK, SlJl)`l,puiit TO BS TILE WORK: OF AN INCENDIARY. —The n'' s „ to be me hood of Newark, Nottinghamshire, was thrown• °ifet ing ;5, the cot utmost alarm at midnight on Saturday last, in cnO e cf of a report that the extensive steam eorn-mill belortgi Ito° of this g Messrs. WILLIAM TAYLOR and Co., situate at C rr ‘ i r T he ll ' lion. Ed about seven miles from Newark, was in flames. gines from Newark immediately repaired to the t the report was observed to be too true, as the 01iv burning in all parts with the utmost fury, illulol'tooll k.ltte4 AIIAI the surrounding country for many miles. An , r l° e: t hta in , 4 l) was made on the first discovery of the fire to resole Piot!: the-le"t the moveable property from the flames, consistiog ° O• t ri :Dape r , I L ; of flour, wheat, barley, and oats, of which an t tot i ; 4 °f . the n quantity was deposited in the mill ; but the atterfe ki,, l t 'streei fruitless they were compelled to desist, and give 1 100 1 1 4 t 4 tl th l death o prey to the devouring element. It appears that tb e l .o htt kn( nese of Messrs. WILLIAM TAYLOR and Co., t' b f i' l° 4 % '; ''"l of carried on both in Newark and Manchester, Yi keZeeurred r of al magnitude as to render it necessary for the mill , 1 1/e' l k work both night and day, and the workmen left °P O tl. 4l , Nit labour at tweive o'clock on the Saturday night ; al:mut:o4l ton -upon upon before afterwards the fire was discovered. The fire is suPPijrtli have liter' the act of incendiaries ; for, unlik e a`;ctittl tires, it did not appear to have broken out in one po i , 0 place in the mill, but seemed to have been fired .d t ferent parte of the prem i se s, and if it had bee n ac L O the progress of the fla m e s from the time the worlo;,‘ the mill, .when all was r i ght , to the time the fire itfat covered, could not possibly have been so rapid. Wr nately for Mews. TAYLOR and Co. the propertY h ; insured. It was a recently-erected mill, and t" - 0 it co st of the fabric was 10,0001., worked by ' tee n ' situ ite on the Great North Road. A part of the destroyed has been ascertained: there were 3,00° flour and 1,600 quarters of wheat, and the tom' of loss will exceed 12,0001. t urk It seems 1 4 u lthCes t. .;111, ih Whi( distu r l , i , r4 ellt, Ul Y author ti'ette street red Th in i' e stud,