The Express.
London, England, 1862-02-28 00:00:00

awn WATIJ Al' 110/11101 BILIDOL

Tim sk 1114.
Tossaiow —lls. to SYR— Arifirsizoa, lb. MS.

LONDON, FRIDAY, FEB. 28.

WE are far from supposing that the French
Senate, as at present constituted, has not its uses,
designed or undesigned, in the Imperial system.
It is obvious that a better was not to be obtained
" for love or money," and the question was how
to utilize this political sewage of the old rfgimes.
The answer seems to be, that the Assembly over
which M. TsiiriAtNO presides like • drill-sergeant
disguised as a schoolmaster, serves the Empire, on
the one hand, as a bugbear to the Liberal
parties, bringing out the revolutionary farce of
Bonapartism in strong relief, and, on the other,
suppresses, or at least neutralises a certain number
of influential malcontents, and plays off their reac
tionary violence and legitimist leanings against the
disaffection of incorrigible Republicans. This is
the eternal seesaw which describes alike the foreign
and the domestic policy of the Empire. There is
nothing very profound, after all, in a system which
everybody at home and abroad sees through, and
which succeeds, at best, in alienating one party
without securing the other. M. BILLACLT as •
Minister without a portfolio may discharge the
functions of an oratorical pendulum to perfection,
but he cannot alter the, hour of day. Satis-
fied Senators and the outside may applaud
the Minister's mellifluous equivocations ; but the
hour moves on, and sooner or later the Chief of
the State will have to make his election between
his natural enemies and his necessary friends. One
annual debate in the Chambers on public affairs is
quite enough to save public spirit from sleeping
the sleep of death. Old watchwords are sounded,
old war-cries are re-echoed, old principles are
restored to life. Timorous men cease to be afraid
of the sound of their own voices, and earnest men
take heart again. If the Emperor NAPOLEON
desires, for a moment, to encourage agitation, the
Senate plays his game. But a licensed ebullition of
party rage once a year will never fit a people
for free institutions, or teach the decencies of Par-
liamentary discussion and the dignity of Perlis,
mentary independence.
The liberal press, however, is improving the occa-
sion with all its usual ability and more than its
usual boldness. In an article written with all his
cunning of fence, M. SAINT MARC GIR•RDIN ex-
presses satisfaction at the vivacity of the recent dis-
cussions in the Senate. There is nothing very
terrifying, he thinks, in the re-appearance of
those old champions " Revolution" and "Coun-
ter-Revolution." order and Liberty will never
be reconciled in France if they are not permitted
to speak out.
M. SAINT MARC GIRARDIN sarcastically suggests
that Society has as little to fear from the level-
ling doctrines of a Prince of the Blood, as demo-
cracy from absolute theories of the hereditary
monarchical principle expounded by a Legitimist
so versatile ill his loyalty as M. ux La ROCHR-
JACQUCLEIN. Nor need those big words, " Revolu-
tion" and " Counter-Revolution," pronounced by
discontented or docile linperialsenators, &term those
political elders who fought the battles of ordered free-
dom under the Restoration and the Monarchy of
July. At any rate, if unrestricted debatedegenerates
into license, sileuc,3 is nut order, nor are political
animosities appeased because they are suppressed.
Order and freedom are only to be recouci'ed by
discussion; by the discussion of all pretensions, all
rights, and all wrongs. It is not of violent scents
in the Senate that M. SAINT MARC GIRARDIN, as
a sincere though moderate Liberal, would complain,
but of the attempt of certain zealous Conservatives
in that to give the lie to history, and
call it a " rectification" of notorious facto. Prince
Nsetizeux, alluding to the return of the founder of
the Imperial dynasty from Elba, reminded the
Senate that, on the triumphal march of NAPOLEON
from Cannes to Paris, the population in the South
saluted him with cries of " Afire trills the
"emilitt..! pown with the nettles ! Doirti with
" lA. priest, ! " This allusion to the priests
threw the pious congregation in the Luxembourg
Palace into • paroxysm of rage, and, at the sug-
gestion of M. us Persaiiisv, it was explained that
the Pasees's words were " d bets les tetittrrs," not
" n bus les pe:tres "—as though traitres were no:
an equally injurious expression to the ears of
Senators ! Nevertheless, as M. SAINT MAZE
GIRAILDIN insists, the population of the South in
1815 did cry " trith the priests !" and it
would be better to take warning from the truth
of history than to falsify it. Why did the French
people, after a year's experience of the restored
134.11: it WON tt, cry " Down with the emigris, the
rp.hles, awl the priests," when NAPOLEON ap-
peared once more on the scene 1 Because the
liovesiss had learned nothing and forgotten
nothing, and had brought the " counter-
" revolution " in their train. Because, more-
over, N•POLEoN the FIRST had betrayed the
Revolution which swept him to a throne ; had
created a new and spurious nobility; had attempted
to seduce the allegiance
.of the legitimists; had
re-organized the Church and signed the Concordat,
in order to make religion itself an instrument of
national servitude. These cries of the French
people in 1815 are full of significance in 1862 ;
and Prince NspoLrox, not because he loves the
Emezeoa less, but because,let us suppose, he loves
liberty more, felt, no doubt, that he was perform-
ing a conscientious duty to the Senate and to his
Cousin,when he showed bow a people could remem-
ber, and how Kings and Emperors could forget.
Creating titles, paltering with priests, coquettiag

with legitinikt nobles, did not save the First
Evr►aua ; will it iicrve the Third 1 This WY the
question which Prince NAPOLEON raised, and which

neither M. TROPLONG'II adroit defects of hearieg,
DOT M. Briartrix's Wowed periods, nor M. lia
ROCHeII courtly phrases, suffice to parry Cr
pervert.

THE LORD CHANCRILOR last night fulfilled a
general expectation in announcing some important
changes in the law of lunacy. The exciting cause
of the proposed reform was furnished by the
proceedings recently taken to ascertain the men•
tal competency of Mr. WINDHAM, an inquiry
which it is now 'stated on authority was conducted
at an expense of 30,0001. To prevent the re-
petition of a waste so scandalous to the adminis-
tration

of the law, the CHANCELLOR propose•
for the future to refer cases of lunacy to one of
the judges in Westminster Hall, to be
tried there like any other question of fact.
It is also provided that, subject to the discretion
of the judge, the personal examination of the
alleged lunatic shall be taken at an early instead
of a late stage of the proceedings. But a yet
more important change consists in the value which
the new Bill assigns to scientific evidence, which
is considerably less than has hitherto been attri-
buted to it. The LORD CHANCELLOR must
expect to see the opinions he enounced last
night hotly contested by the faculty ; although
we believe that few candid members of the medi-
cal profession will deny that the embarrassments
in which courts of justice have often been placed
by the unphilosophical and arbitrary theories of
the doctors, which they were expected to receive
as authoritative, rendered some reform also-
lutely necessary to the administration of the law.
When the Bill is published it will be our duty to
examine its provisions more precisely : in the
meantime we are glad the matter is in good hands.
The CUANCELLOR'S Bill was received, on the whole,
with favour by the Lords. We must, however,
note with surprise • remark by Lord Sr. LEONA/IDS
as the recent triaL That learned person is
reported to have said :—" It bad been suggested
" that if the jury had been allowed to examine
" Mr. Wistutut at the clue of the petitioner's
" case it would have saved a great deal of expense.
" But he (Lord Sr. Leo/rums) had no doubt that
" the learned person who presided at the trial
" pursued a proper course, and one which led to
" the right result. Whether Mr. WINDHAM was
" ruined or not was • matter of perfect indiffer-
" ence to the Court; all that could be
" regarded was the due administration of justice,"
Of course the noble lord's language must not
be construed too literally. Lord Sr. LZONARDS
doubtless meant that any necessary trouble and cost
must be encountered rather than a wrong judg-
ment should be given in the name of the law ; but
the noble lord would hardly deny that the indirect
consequences of the administration of the law are
the proper concern of those who preside over our
courts when those consequences are under con-
trol, and especially where, u in Mr. WINDHAIeS
case, they involve a loss equal to the value of •
considerable landed estate.