The Express.
London, England, 1852-01-16 00:00:00

THE EXPRESS, FRIDAY

FRANCE.
TILE FRENCH CONSTITUTION.

The following is the text of the Constitution, which,
in the iforsiteur, is preceded by the proclamation
published in our columns yesterday :

CoxsTrrunox WADI IN VIITVI 07 tut roil/111 MI.
DATED BT TDB FRENCH PEOPLE TO LOUIE NAPOLEON
BONAPARTE ET THE VOTE OP THE 20TH AND '2IST

1851.

Taa PROSIDINT OF Till RIFOBLIC, considering that
the French people has been called upon to vote upon
the following resolution:—" Tbo people wills to main-
tain the authority of Louis Napoleon Bonaparte, and
gives kiss the powers necessary to make a constitution
on the lures laid down inelus proclamation of December 2."
Considering that the bases proposed to
-the acceptation of
the people were:
"1. A responsible chief named fur ten years ;
"2. Ministers dependent only on the executive power •
" 3. A council of state, formed of the most distinguished
men, preparing the laws and discussing them before the
legislative body •
" 4. The legislative body discussing and voting the laws,
named by universal suffrage, without scrutiny of the list
which falsities the election ;
" 5. A Second Assembly, formed of all the illustrious
men of the country, the preponderating power, the guar-
dim of the fundamental pact, and of the public liberties ;"
Considering that the people have answered affirmatively
by seven millions five hundred thousand suffrages,

PROMULGATES TILE CONSTITU'
CHAP. I.

AS FOLLOWS:

Art. 1. The constitution acknowledges, confirms, and
guarantees the great principles proclaimed in 1789, and
which aro the bases of the public right of the French.

CHAP. 11.
FORWI OF THE Gov ERNMENT OF TIIE REPCRILIC.

Art. 2. The government of the French ltepubliCis con-
fided to Louis Napoleon Bonaparte, at present President of
the Republic, for the term of ten ycan.
Art. 3. The President of the Republic governs, through
his ministers, the council of state, the Senate, and the
Legislative Body.
Art. 4. The legislative power is exercised collectively by
the President of the Republic, the Senate, and the Legis-
lative Body.
CRAP. 111.
TDB PRESIDENT OP TUR REPUBLIC
. .. •

Art. 5. Tho President of the Republic is responsible for
his acts to the French people, to whom he always has tho
right of appealing.
Art. 6. Ihe President of the Republic is the chief of the
state ; he command* the land and sea fores, ; declares war ;
makes treaties of peace, alliance, and commerce ; nominates
all persons to any official employment; and makes all orders
and decrees necessary fur the execution of the laws.
Art. 7. Justice is demanded in hie name.
Art. 8. He alone has the right to initiate laws.
Art. 9. Ile has the right of pardoning offences.
Art. 10. He &auctions and promulgates the laws and the

Art. 11. He presents, every year, to the senate and the
legislative body, in a message, the state of affairs of the
republic.
Art. 12. He has the right to declare any department in a
state of siege; but must consult the senate with the least
possible delay. (The c.msequences of a state of siege are
presided for by a law.)
Art. 13. The ministers arc accountable to no ono but the
head of the state; they are only resoonsible for their own
acts; they can only be tried by the senate.
Art. 14. The ministers, the members of the senate, the
legislative body, and the council of state, the officers of the
army and navy, the magistrates, and public functionaries,
shall take the following oath : " 1 swear obedience to the
constitution and fidelity to the President."
Art. 15. A semaius.ronsultus fixes the sum allowed an-
nually to the President of the ltepublic during the exercise
of his functions.

Art. 16. If the President of the Republic should die be-
fore the termination of the period for which he is elected,
the Senate will convoke the nation to proceed to a new
election.

Art. The chief of the state has the right, by a secret
act, deposited in the archives of the Senate, to give to the
people the name of any citizen he may wish to recommend,
in the interest of France, to their confidence and their suf-
frages.
Art. 18. Till the election of a new President, the presi-
dent of the senate will govern the country, with the concur-
rence of the minister. holding office, questions brought
before them to be decided by a majority of votes.

CHAP. IV.
THI SINAI'S.

Art. 19. The number of senators shall not exceed 150.
For the first year the number is fixed at eighty.
Art. 20. The Senate will be composed: 1. Of cardinals,
marshals, and admirals; 2. Citizens wham the President
of the ltepublic may deem fit to elevate to the dignity of
senator.

Art. 21. The senators are appointed for life.
Art. 22. The funnier,' of the senators are gratuitous;
nevertheless, the l'resident of the Republic will have the
power to grant to senators, by reason of services rendered,
and of their position as to fortune, a personal dotation,
which cannot exceed 30,000 fr. per annum.
Art. 23. The president and the vice-presidents of the
senate shall be named by the l'resident of the Republic,
and chosen from among the senators. They are named for
one year. The salary of the president of the Senate is fixed
by odes:zee.
Art. 24. The President of the Republic convokes and
tres the Senate. He fixes the duration of its sessions
ael:eree. The sittinfrs of the Senate are not public.
Art. 26. The Senate is the guardian of the fundamental
pact and of the public liberties. No laws can be promul-
gated without having been submitted to it.
Art. 20. The Senate resists the promulgation: Ist. Of
laws which should be contrary, and which should tend to
be subversive of, the constitution, religion, morality, liberty
of worship, individual liberty, the equality of citizens before
the law, the inviolability of property, and the principle
of the immovability of the magistracy ; 2. Of such as would
compromise the defence of the territory.
Art. 27. The Senate regulates b 7 a macaw crosstalk,:
1. The constitution of the colonies and of Algeria;
2. All that has not been provided by the constitution, sad
which is necessary for the operation of the same ; 3. The
meaning of such articles of the constitution as may give
place to different interpretations.
Art. 28. These aenatut consulti will be submitted to the
sanction of the President of the Republic, and promul-
gated by him.
Art. 29. The senate maintains or annuls all the acts
which are submitted to _it as une"--- -•,onal by the g 0....
....

vernment. or denounced for the seine reason bj petitZus
from citizens.

Art. 30. The Senate, in a report addressed to the Presi-
dent of the Republic, may ley down the bases of projects of
law of great national interest.
Art. 31. It can likewise propose modifications of the
constitution. If the proposition is adopted by the executive
power, it will be enacted by a senatus-consuaiss.
Art. 32. Neverthe:ess will be submitted to universal suf-
frage any modification of the fundamental bases of the con-
stitution, as proposed in the proclamation of Dec. 2, and
adopted by the trench people.
Art. 33. In case of the dissolution of the legislative body,
and until a new convocation, the senate, on the proposition
of the President of the Republic, provides, by measures of
urgency, all that is necessary for the carrying en of govern-
Intent. _

CHAP. V.
THE LEGISLATIVE BODY.

Art. 34. The election will be by universal suffrage.
Art. 36. There will be one deputy in the legislative body
to every thirty-fivo thousand electors.
Art. 36. The deputies shall be elected by uniunal suf-
few, without scrutiny of the electoral lista.
Art. 37. They are to receive no salary.
Art. 38. They are to be named for six years.
Art. 39. The legislative body shall discuss projects of law
and of tuition. _ _

Art. 40. Any amendment adopted by the commission
charged with the examination of a project of law shall be
sent, without discussion, to the council of state, by the pre-
sident of the legislative body. fihould the amendment not
be adopted be the council of state, it cannot be submitted
to the legislaiive body.
Art. 41. The ordinary sessions of the legislative body
shall continue for three months ; its siftings dull be public ;
but oa the request of five members it may resolve itself into
a secret committee.
Art. 4P. The reports given of the sittings of the legis-
lative benly, by the journals or any other means of publica-
tion, at.talf contain nothing but the proces-rerbal drawn up
at the conclusion of each sitting by the president of the le-
ffills'ilire body.
A .rt. 43. The president and vice-presidents of the legisla-
fir e body are named by the President of tho Republic for
year. They are chosen from among the deputies. The
'salary of the president of the legislative body is fixed by a
_ _ _

Art. 41. The ministers cannot be members of the legisla-
tire body.
Art. 4., The right of petition applies only to the Senate.
Ne petition can be addressed to the legislative body.
Art. 46. The President of the Republic convokes, ad•
Jostens, prorogues, and dissolves the legislative body. In
ease of dissolution the President of the Republic must con-
voke another within six months.

CHAPTER VI.
THS COUNCIL Or STATZ.

Art. 47. The number of the councillor. of state on service
on ordinary occasions will be from forty to fifty.
Art. 48. The councillors of state are named by the Pre-
sident of the Republic, and revoked by him.
Art. 49. The President of the Republic will preside over
the council of state ; and in his absence the person whom ho
shall name u vice-president of the council will preside.
Art. 50. The council of state is charged, under the di-
rection of the President of the Republic, to examine pro-
jects of law and matters concerning the public administra-
tion, and to decide on any difficulties that may arise in the
administration of affairs.
Art. 51 It will discuss, iu the name of the government,
projects of law in the presence of the Senate and the Icing-
Wive body. The councillors charged to speak in the
name of the government will be designated by the l'red-
dent of the Republic.
Art. 52. The salary of each counsellor of state is twenty-
flve thousand francs per annum.
Art. 53. The ministers will have a right to sit and rote
in the council of state.

CHAP. VII.
Ties limit COURT OF Jrfericr.
Art. U. The High Court of Justice will judge, without
appeal, all persoas brought before it charged with crimes
against the l'resident of the Republic or against the safety
of the state. Its decision cannot be annulled but by decree
of the l'resident of the Republic.
Art. ti.i. A inialui.constiltus will determine the organi-
sation of the High Court.

CHAP. VIII.
GENERAL AND TEMPORARY UNDULATIONS.

Art. Ra Artit!fe of exiaing codes, laws, and regulations,
I which are not contrary to the present constitutien, will re-
main in force till they are legally abrogated.
Art. 57. A law will determine the municipal organisation.
I The mayors will be named by the executive power, and
it will not be absolutely necessary to select them from the
municipal councils.
Art. 58. The present constitution will have force from
the day on which the great bodies of the state which it
organise. shall be constituted.
fhe decrees issued by the President of the Republic from
the '2nd of December to that date will have the force of law.
Done at the Palace of the Tuileries,
Jan. 14, 18.52.
LOUIS NAPOLEON.
Seen and sealed with the Groat Kai,

The Keeper attic Seals, E. Ennui*, Minister of Justice.
The following are the letters of our correspondent:
PARIS, TllyitzillAYNOliNlNO.

The submarine telegraph will already have put
you in possession of the main features of the consti-
tution, promulgated this morning in the Moniteur.
The recognition of the principles proclaimed in
1780, with which it leads off, is a hollow and
mendacious homage to a revolution, all the
liberties achieved by which are entirely effaced.
The corps levislatif does not possess a shadow of
the independence and influence iu the state due to
the representatives of the people. Its president and
vice-presidents are nominated by the president
of the Republic. The only form in which its
debates arc allowed to be published is a copy of
the minutes of the sitting drawn up by its president.
Not only can the deputies move no propositions, but
an amendment adopted in committee cannot even be
submitted to deliberut ion in the Chamber without being
previously sanctioned by theConseil d'Etat. All the
great organic laws, and all measures left incomplete
by tho constitution are to be enacted by the senate.
All the great matters, even modifications of the con-
stitution, arc to be managed, it 114.4:11111, by arolus-
consultes. The part of the representatives
of the nntion is reduced to registering the
decrees of the executive power and senate.
It is remarkable, by the way, that the number of
senators is confined to 80 for the first year. In fact,
no men of distinction can be got to form part of it.
Hence the list, which was originally intended to be
published at the same time with the constitution,
does not appear, and will not probably for some time.
By returning in his power the means of giving
handsome pensions to senators, the President se-
cures the obsequiousness of the less opulent members
of that body. In case of his demise, the Pre-
sident reserves to himself a sort of initiative
in the appointment of his successor, by indicating
to the nation for whom they are to vote. In the
meantime, the decrees of exile have swept away the
most eminent men in the country who might have
raised in the Assembly of Deputies a protesting
voice against the utter annihilation of all liberty
implied by this constitution.
The Mondeur contains the following report of the
Minister at War, approved by the President of the
Republic :

Monsieur le President,-137 the terms of the regulation
of I)ec. 2J, 1837, officers authorised to go into a foreign
country lose their right to pay.
Oa account of the special position of Generals Changar-
nier, de Lamoriciere, liedeau, and Leflo, who are sent
out of French territory fur the moment, by virtue of the de-
cree of Jan. 9, 1 have the honour to propane to you to de-
ride that, by way of exception, these officers shall, from
Dec. 2 keit, receive the pay of " dispiuibiliti•," according to
their rank, in the countriis which are assigned to them, or
which they may have chosen for their residence. The pay-
ment to be made as they mny direct by powers of attor-
ney, which they will be called upon to execute.

The .Voniteur also contains a decree for enabling
the local authorities in Guiana to take speedy pos-
session of, and to award compensation for, any land
or houses which may be required by the government
in consequence of many
having been made a penal
colony.
M. ltautian, ex-representative for Allier, was ar-
rested yesterday.
The court-martial at Lous-le-Saulnier has sen-
tenced 9 prisoners to transportation. One of them
is M. IL Burbler, editor of the Tribune de C.Est of the
Jure.

The number of prisoners now awaiting their trial
in the Saone and Loire, before courts martial ordered
by General Castellon, is 467.
General Launorieiixe, on arriving at Cologne, wrote
his name in the visitors' book, aid added to it tho
word " proscribed."
M. Michel (dc Bourget) has arrived in Brussels
from Paris.

Abd-el-Kader has written a letter to congratulate
the President of the Republic, and to renew his re-
quest for liberty. The cx emir promises to refrain
from any participation in any attacks which the
Arabs may make against French domination.

PARIS, TILI'ILSDAY EVENING.

The most important feature of the constitution
promulgated to-day is the last article, which pro-
longs the present dictatorship without assigning
any definite term to the system of legislating by ar-
bitrary decrees. It is said that the present constitu-
tion will be in vigour from the day on which the
great bodies of the state which it organizes are con-
stituted. But not a word is added to fix this im-
portant date, or to enable the public to form a con-
jecture as to the period when the great bodies of the
state will be constituted. In the meantime the decrees
promulgated by the President are to have the force
of law. The constitution, therefore, with all its
other shortcomings, has not even the benefit of a
hpresent reality, but is as untangiblo as a rainbow
ung in the clouds, while all the foreground of the
political landscape is usurped by the bleak and rugged
waste of sword-law and ruthless despotism. fhe
only reason why the promulgation of the constitution
was urgently demanded by this public wish was that
people might know when the ordinary law is to re-
sume its course ; when their lives, proper-
ties, and personal liberties are to cease to
lie at the disposal of absolute caprice; when
they may lay their heads to sleep without fear of
being awakened at dead of night by a commissary of
police, and packed off to Cayenne ; when they are to
be released from apprehension of ordinances subject-
ing the exercise of their callings to the control of
prefects; when, in short, they are to be treated as
Frenchmen, and not as Itussums It matters lees
to a man to know the law under which ho may live
some future day, than to feel the assurance that its
benefits will not be forestalled by an edict of pro-
scription. Without assigning a more positive epoch
for the commencement of its execution, the constitu-
tion is not a payment in cash, but a bill drawn
at an uncertain (late. !So far from satisfying the
public upon this leading point, there is no mention
made of when the elections of the corps lvisitsin are
to take place, or of any electoral law according to
which this representative body is to be chosen. krom
the circumstance of there being one deputy to every
35,000 of electors, we may estimate tho number of
deputies at little short of 300. As the system of a
scrutin de list is to be dropped, we may infer that
the territory will be divided into small electoral die-
tricts, each of which will return one deputy. Paris
will return about ten deputies.
From what I can gather from conversation with
several representatives of the late Assembly, the mo-
derate conservatives of that body, at least such as
are not proscribed, will allow themselves to be pro-
powd as candidates for a seat in the corps legislatif
I may mention by the way as certain that M. Leon
Faucher will not decline a scat in the Chamber of

Deputies should he be chosen. When it is remem-
bered that abstention can only mean despair or em-
bracing the hope of a violent and speedy revolution,
a determination not to lose any ground, however
narrow, upon which the Hag of discussion
can be planted, can only deserve approbation.
It was thus that the germs of liberties at the resto-
ration were gradually unfolded, and a regular field
was broadened by degrees for sedulous cultivation by
public opinion. Me only patent way, barring acci-
dents, to an improvement of the present deplorable
state of things, is by making an earnest and energetic
use of every handle given for bringing home to the
public conscience those political convictions, which
are at present utterly prostrated and exhausted. Any
regular and open way of thus cherishing public opinion
is better than the smouldering agitation, whose explo-
sions will only's) succeeded by aggravated oppression.
Hence it is to be hoped that the system of absten-
tion will not be widely followed as regards elections
to the corps kyislatifi Eminent liberals may with

fG, JANUARY 16, 1852.