The Express.
London, England, 1862-04-21 00:00:00

EXPRESS FROM PARIS.

(PION 0011 OWN

PARIS. SUNDAY EVINIIIG.

Since I called your attention, some time ago, to
an insidious clause in a bill for " modifying several
articles of the penal code," by which it was pro-
posed to punish " libels and caricatures of magis-
trates, even although not made public," the pro-
jected innovation has made a great stir ; and now
the public mind is so thoroughly aroused that I
think the whole bill, which contains much obnoxious
matter besides this particular provision, will share
the fate of the Palikao dotatiuo, the salt tax, and
other schemes whose failure marks the revival of
public spirit in France. The government journals,
pressed by the consideration that it is monstrous to
contemplate that a unto is to be treated as a cri-
minal for &sentence written in his diary,or a sketch
upon a slate, which would never have been known
beyond the precincts of his own house but for a
domiciliary visit by the police, have argued
that the true meaning of the bill is that
the sending of any libel or caricature to a
magistrate, which, in French law, would not
be a publication, is to be punished. But M.
Prevost Paradol very well says in the "Ards, and
cites many pregnant cases in support of his asser-
tion, that the most positive contemporaneous pro-
mises of official people afford no guarantee what-
ever to the subject against the worst possible con-

struction of an enactment. In England such a
subject of discussion could not arise. There it is
familiar knowledge that an act of parliament is to
be construed by its text, without the slightest
reference to what may have been said by ministers
when the bill was passed. Aud in spite of
occasional loose practice, the law of France
is necessarily the same. In Louis Philippe's
time a law—passed to prevent certain political
meetings—was objected to in its passage
through the chambers, on the ground that
its terms were calculated to restrict religious liberty.
The most positive ministerial assertions were made
that it was not intended to have any such effect,
and yet many protestant meetings wore subse-
quently broken up by virtue of that law. More
recently a bill to prevent hawking immoral books
in the country was made available by the Emperor's
government to treat the distribution of a candi-
date's bulletin as an offence against the law d
colportage, unless it was authorised by the govern-
ment. Therefore, says M. Paradol, we can place
no reliance whatever upon promises in a matter
of construction. But other and far more serious
attacks upon liberty have been detected in
the new bill. Under the pretext of miti-
gating the severity of the penal code by
reducing certain offences now qualified as
"crimes" to the category of "misdemeanours,"

it is sought still further to restrict the jurisdiction
of juries, and to enlarge that of correctional judges,
from whom convictions are more surely obtained.
This is not all ; the discretion of the judges in
passing sentences is to be abridged, and many cases
are put in which they now inflict but six days' im-
prisonment, whereas the new bill would leave them
no choice but to give at least six months. These
projected changes "in the interest of repression,"
es the preamble to the bill has it, are most sus-
picious, coming from a government whose ante-
cedents do not shine as an example of respect for
law. When M. Jules Fevre said the other day
that the government mistrusted its judges, he was
violently interrupted by Count de Morny ; but
the presentation of this bill shows that he was
quite right. The government is annoyed at the
light sentences passed in many mint cases, and
wishes to impose a minimum upon the judges more
severe than that of the present penal code. The
Corp/ Legislatif is very hostile to the bill, and I
repeat that its success is doubtful.
Tcpday being Easter Sunday there are no even-
ing papers. The Mather is extremely fine for the
holiday makers.
A telegram from the Minister of Marine, re-