The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1825-02-21 00:00:00

FRENCH CHAMBER OF DEPUTIES.

SITTING OF FEBRUARY 17.
The order of the day was the openihg of the discussion on the
Project of Law for the indemnity of the Emigrants.
51. de Girardin wished to address the Chamber on a previous
qurstlor, hut after some attempts he was obliged to desist.
M. Labbey Pot pierce spoke to the following effect :
O:I ennnen—the part of the Opposition, at the point it is
now enlaced to by the Ministry, is to watch the steps you
take in the career you are pursuing. If it (the Oppositions
hoped at any time to hare been able to have warned and
arrested you, that hope has this day completely vanished.
Follow the fate by which you arc drawn, since it is the
destiny of all parties. Our task is to expose things as
they really are, and to tear 'way the veil which at ail
over their object, in order to mask its true nature from us.
times the greedy flatterers of the powers that he, have thrown
If after the Mar,ifeato of Brunswick (Exclamation to the right)—if
after the manifesto of Brunswick, repeated the orator, the emi-
grants, by the help of the Prassians, had triumphed in the plains
of Champagne, the revolution would have 'Omitted to the law of
the conqueror, as it did at Naples and Madrid. Will it submit
after having conquered for thirty years (buzzing to the right),
whilst all its principles, and all its eonquesta are in our laws and
manners Such is the question. Toe deceased King had re-
solved upon it ; he felt that the conflict which hail just terminated
by a great catastrophe, was neither the cause of the revolution,
nor of the counter-revolution which took place at a later petaled ;
that there was in fact between them neither conqueror nor con.
quered. He allied himself to new France, and the Charter was the
covenant of it. What was just and sufficient then, shall it not
be so now ? What events, what motives can authorise the :e-
-ltraction from a covenant, sworn to by the nation and its Chief,
from acts consecrated by time ? Your mission, Gentlemen, is to
watch the interests of your constituents, by opposing the prodi-
gality of the Minister's; it is not to make donations, and still less is
it to abuse the power a factious majority gives you, in order to take
from a whole people, under the pretext of a deceitful prosperity,
thelittle ease they have, and for which they are in iebted to their
laborious industry.; to take from the artisan the price of his la.
boor. No Noon is ignorant that themost fatal emigration for France,
which armed her against herself, and which raised foreigners
against their country, began in 1791. At that time France was at
peace with all the world ; the greatest tranquillity prevailed in the
listener. (Loud exclamations to the right.) A decree of the Ist
August hail recalled the emigrants ; a Constitution, modified in
the observations of the King and sanctioned by him, soon offered
to Frenchmen the hope of a temperate liberty. Passports were
abolished, and all the gates were opened ; but a fatal obstinacy
caused the road to C.oblentz to be pursued. It was then, according
to the King's Commissary, that the emigrants rested their honour
oh a strange land ; it was then that—forgetting him to whom they
had soon fidelity—he,whom they were bound by interest and duty
to defend—he, whose days they might in all likelihood have pre.
served—in shoet,tiie head,of the monarchy—they armed against the
Sovereign and the country ; (more murmurs on the right;) it was
then only—listening to their prejudices. and without regard to the
proscriptions which menaced their fathers, their wives, and chil-
dren—without looking to the dangers they drew upon heads so dear,
they called Europe to the spoil, to the division of the country
which had given them birth, to the land which had nourished
then,, and which, even then, furnished them with bread by means
of their relations. The manifestos of Berlin and of the Duke of
Brunswick had appeared, and the war was begun when the confis-
cation 11144 pronounced. That measure was the laws of the period ;
it had been for three thousand years that of till known nations.
Vi'hat people have used it oftener than the French, from the con..
quest, which was the confiscation of the sword, to the last, which
was that of tt.e law ? A barbarous law, nursed by tyranny and
maintained by avarice,—and, for I lore to repeat it after the Go-
vernment Orator, •• an odious chastisement, which strikes the con.
denoted even in his posterity, and by which the State is enriched
by the plunder of that which it hail taken from their fathers ; a law
sit which the monarch who has been styled Greet (Louis XIV.)
made a celebrated application by his edict of 1069. " Yea, gen..
tlemea," repeated the Speaker, •• never was possession mote legiti-
mate. (Cries of " No, no," to the right.) If the possession of a
confiscated estate is illegitimate, where is the field that is free
from that stain ?—Where is the land that it has not reached
since the confiscation of Robert D'Artois, or even since the Con-
stable the Bourbon, down to our days ? What would be answered
to a new possessor, who, presenting himself in the Chamber of
Peers, or this, with a complete list of the ancient and modern con-
fiscations, and addressing himself to the heads of the richest and
most dignilitxl families, should say to some—What was done with
the lands of Coligny, of Teligny, and of the thousands of French_
teen who perished in that day of cursed memory ? To others, who
err the possessors of the spoils of Conehini, of Cinq-Mars, of de
Thou, and of Illarillac In whose are the estates of the fugitive
Cslvinists.almose all given to flattery and favour? (Much sensation.)
Here is all property called in question. To this point has an in.
considerate Ministry conducted us; they revive a law suppresed
since the Graccht--a law which raised the passions of Marius and
Sylla, and which terminated with Tiberius and Nero;—.this it
the law which you are called to examine. ((heat noise in the
Assembly.)
M. Agier followed in support of the project. Ile defended the
emigrants. The country, he said, consisted in the King, and he
had disappeared in the revolutionary tempest. The country con-
sisted in it. institutions and laws, and there was none but prisons
and eltatiohls. France was now prosperous, and it was her duty to
call the nohles who had suffered for their fidelity to share in her
riches and splendor.
M. hlechin opposed the project, on the ground of its pr.ta' Jay
and injustice. FFranee had already paid 1,500 millions to fo-
reigners, 600 millions of old debts, and nearly 300 millions for the
Spanish war, and note she was taxed 1,000 millions fur the most
favoured class of her citizens. lie objected also to the emigrants
themselves voting for the indemnity, which was to be divided
ant ingot them.
N. Dupille justified the conduct of the emigrants from the re-
proach of the preceding speaker. Their character, as emigrants,
deprived them neither of loyalty nor of honour.
M. de Lezardicres, a Member of the Commission, next addressed
the Chamber in support of the project. I know, said lie, that the
opponents of this measure have declaimed against the emigrants,
charging them with having been guilty of bringing upon us a
foreign invasion. These declamations are founded on the ex-
ploded dogma of the sovereignty of the people--a dogma which,
in this Assembly at least, I need not relate. A foreign invasion
is, no doubt, a calamity ; but a revolution is also a terrible scourge.
IVould to God that, in 1792, the triumphant allies hail restored to
Louis XVI. the sceptre which, in hold, they returned to Louis
XVIII ! There was no more guilt in emigrating, in 1792, with
Monsieur and the Count d'Anois, to put an end to the captivity
of Louis XVI., with the assistance of the armies of Austria
and Prussia, than there was, in 1823, in the Baron d' Erodes
and his numerous companinna in inns allying themselves with the
French army of Louis XVIII. to restore to the King of .Spain his
sceptic and his liberty. (Bravo, and applause on the right.) The
speaker then proceeded to examine the details of the project, of
which he entirely disapproved. The mode of valuing the estates
was shockingly unequal ; the sum appropriated insufficient, and
division of the indemnity into five annual instalments, calculated to
throw a fourth, or even a third part of the whole into the pockets
of brokers and agents.
The Count de Thiard spoke next against the project. After
some observations on the impropriety of the emigrants voting in
their own favour, he concluded with the following remarks on the
political character and consequences of the project :—Befcre add-
ing a thousand millions to the alremly large mass of the public
debt, cast your eyes outward, and see what passes around you.
Two great Powers divide the world between themselves. One
wishes to swallow up maritime commerce, the other astounds civilised
nations with its savage masses. One has inscrined on its
standards, " Civil Liberty for all Nations ;•• the other rests on the
old ideas of absolute power. The struggle is about to take place,
and the world hopes—(Continually increasing agitation.) Rut
what do I say ? hiss sot this great struggle already be, u ? Has
not England already taken its position ? Already do the efthrts of
heroic and Christian Greece triumph. Ought not the acknowledg-
ment of the Republics of Spanish America to be considered as an
aggression against the Holy Alliance, coalesced against the liberty
of nations ? Spain will sooner or later follow the movement which
is preparing. What is the situation of France with Portugal, with
Germany, with Italy? (Murmurs.) Abandon, then, a corrupt
system, which strikes at the national character and honour, as
well as the most sacred rights of citizens. Already are our electoral
liberties swallowed up; and, to crown the whole measure, we are
thrown into the catacombs of the Revolution, there to count
its victims, to disturb its ashes, and to divide new spoil.
To conclude, as if it had not been enough to have paid a thousand
tuitions of exaction to foreigners, we must still pay another thou.
sand millions for the emigration, the innocent cause, no doubt. but
still the beginning. of all our evils. (Much murmuring.) 1 vote
against the project of law.
At half-past five the discussion was adjourned to the follow-
ing day.

The Ring remained in town on Saturday, and received a
visit froni his Royal Sister the Princess Sophia.
The Duke of York's confinement to the house is, we under-
stand, occasioned by a pain in one of his Royal Highness's
uncles. The Royal Duke is attended by Sir Henry Hal-
ford and Mr. M'Gregor.

Yesterday the Princess Sophia visited the Duke of
York.

Yesterday the Lord Chancellor had an audience of the
King.
It is said th 3 Duke of Northumberland has become a
convert to the cause of Catholic Emancipation.—Dublin
Paper.
Lord Porchester has taken up his residence at Sidmouth.
(hi Friday, at Asliburnham House, her Excellency the
Countess Lieven was safely delivered of a son ; we are
happy to add, that the amiable Countess and her infant,
are both doing well.
Mr. Henry resumed his Lent Performances, on Friday
night last, at the Adelphi Theatre, to a very crowded
audience.

The celebrated Joseph Lancaster is at Caracas, engaged
in teaching his system of education ; but from one of his
publications, it would appear that he meets with poor suc-
cess. He complains of want of room, want of friends, and
want of scholars, having only 50 instead of sou, which be
expected.—Arnerieen Puper.