The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1825-01-07 00:00:00

Z 44. *•4- - „
7.;1' •


FRENCH CHAMBER OF DEFUTIES.
On presenting the project of law for indemnifying the
Migrants, M. de Martignac, the Director-General of the
Royal Demesnes, addressed thiethanther of Deputies to
the following effect t—
elilegillfeetestsiaahe King hnicommanded us to lay before you
the project of a w, ludo/ for its object the ranting of an Milan-
arty so the ancient pootonors of property confiscated and sold for
the good of the nee% the times of civil dissension. There is nip
need of develvtfig at length the motion which have determined
the King to sefopele to you this great act of wisdom: and of justice.
When political templets are laid, when the fury of passion and of
• party is terminated, mean and truth make themselves understood ;
shat which is generous ad wad. that which is useful and just,
awakes Itself manifest to all minds, makes itself felt by all hearts,
add` re ulres no longer to be justified, or even pointed out. You
know, Gentlemen, at that period of melancholy recollection which
. empazated the family of our Kings from France, that the of
man of pregman were uncertain and divided. Some sup that
peedencemnd the interests of the throne soil the country *Meld
&Meth them to the ravaged but always beloved soil of their
eisemery. Others saw honour in hemp lands. whwor_ regal
• nebanity sought an asylum, and whart4 their opitloadZipeleti
ghoul follow misfortune. Many she French
ehdr osoatry, already threatened with all the evils whlehormeby
Wee be lb train. God forbid, °endogeny that we shesM retrace
• the oolowthousevents which distinguished thererioda of trouble and
• eilimmem—emots, the memory of which we theirld took@ every effort
Stibmpobb. We will only allude to sash evils as justice and
eideene to repair; for we wish the past to be buried
llevere and threatening Deems recalled to France
bass whodgml betaken themselves hum it : a refusal, with which
dl thvooddla now acquainted, drew upon them laws of blood and
atesor, awed exile, or death. These lima were not found suf-
ficient; It *as necessary to find a method of striking at once at their
properties and families. The genius of revolutions is inventive;
their properties were auccessivey sequestered and put to sale; nu.
memos laws decreed (and stilt decreer end required, with all the
fore: of power and terror, aviolent deprivation, and these properties
have beer. divided. subdieided, and &sally sold. Many years pared
away when mans chsoged the sit uat icm of the VD igrants, and enabled
theta so reviait•France. A considerable number returned,and some of
them obtaiiietfthe restoration of such of their domains as remained in
the hands of-tbeState. Things were in this situation, Gentlemen,
when louts XVIII. ascended the throne of his forefathers. One
of the first wishes of hi. heart was undoubtedly to maid those whose
honourable sufferings wore linked with his own misfortunes; hut
the aim exertion of his wisdom was the assurance of the public
tenigufflity of that kingdom which was restored to him. Twenty-
In years had passed over Francs, and traces of our calamities pre-
sented themselves at every step. The Charter, that guarantee of
race,
.that monument of moderation and wisdom, declared all
ririinviolable, anti it expressly comprised in this inviolability,
eristrZled national ; it declared that the law nude no distinction
between these description,' of property. You have followed this
niederation of the Monarch. The law of the State has been scru-
pulously observed. Nevertheless, families deprived of their pro-
perties during an absence, clearly recognieed as legitimate. stripped
upon their return of all hope of restitution. have, in the benevo-
lence of the King, and in public justice, rights which canna be
overlooked. Their properties, their mansions, the inheritance of
their families, have been confiscated and sold for the benefit of the
State. Gentlemen, with a nation generous. just, and loyal, this
nil:veld be a possession which should not be delayed. An indem-
nity ought to be the consequence of the inviolability of contracts
made under the empire of confiscations. All hearts feel this,
•but duty of expressing these sentiments first should be.
long to one of the most illustrious Chiefs of that army, which
was sometimes the consolation, sod constituted at all times
the glory, of France. France will preserve the recollection
of the appeal made to its loyalty by a Noble Peer (the
Deice de Tarente) daring the fine months •hich followed the
restoranon. Other obligations. other wants, compelled the ad-
journment of the execution of a measure of which all honest minds
and generous heteu perceived the justice and necessity. The Char.
ter had also declared the public debt is guaranteed; every des-
cription of engagement entered into by the State with its creditonlis
nnolable. 'this great and solemn prontim must be fulfilled, and
the first foundasinos of public fortune moat be laid by this testi--
mony of respect for all engagements in which the name of the State
is to be found. We will then be content to extend to all the fami-
lies of the emigrants the restoration made to some of them of the
properties not sold. To this will be joined the abandonment of the
portions of the motes which were not as yet entered in the list of
domains. Such, you are to recollect, are the dispositions of the
law of the 16th December 1814 Soon new calamities pressed upon
France ; a long occupation was added to charges already existing.
The King and -France united in liquidating them. The time, ma-
son, that spirit of justice and of loyalty which animates French-
mesh and the power of credit, gave a happy facility to the effort.
Louis XVIII. was on the point of proposing to the Chambers the
means of adopting a general reconciliation, when the dangers which
threatened the King of Spain and the safety of our frontiers, im-
posed new sacrifices upon us. Finally, the war waged against the
Spanish Revolution delayed the accomplishment of the project
long conceived by the royal wisdom. You must remember,
Gentlemen' at the openirg of the last Ses,iim, that this just and
'benevolent Monarch, whose paternal voice you shall never hear
attain, expressed to you his wish of closing the last wounds of the
Revolution. Your feelings may comprehended his, and your
witeltes applied his consoling words to fidelity, unfortunate and
plandered. The moment is at length arrived when this wish
can be accomn' hed, when this act of deep and sound policy can
be carried into effect. The liberation of King Ferdinand. the
prosperous sate of our finances, the general peace, the sure and
good undemanding that exists between all the goretninenta, per-
mit us to probe the wound that the restoration left bleeding, and
-which presses upon the entire body, though it appears to affect but
some of the members. The time is now arrived when it is possible
to say to those who have been stripped of their inheritance, and
who have euppened their misfortunes with such resignation " The
State has deprived you of your property, and has transferred it to
nthati reasons of Mao Id and trouble • the ;date, restored to peace
and legitimacy, tillers you now the only reparation in its power ;
receive in, and by mean, of this indemnity, may all hatred vanish
and disappear." Such, Gt ntlemen, is the plan of the project of the
law which the King order' us to submit to you. It is a measure
which appears just : sanctioned by the general interest, it has some-
thing about it true and satisfactory, which seems. from its nature,
to an:albite all minds, and which has no need of justifies:ion. Of
MI those rights of which society promises, and ought to assure, the
preservation, that of property is undoubtedly the most sacred. that
to which 4 united most forcibly the guarantee of all others. Of all
those penalties which laws can pronounce, and which human
justice can inflict, the most cruel is the confiscation of property. It
11 a punishment which strikes the condemned even in his posterity,
and by which the State enriches itself with the plunder of those
whom it has already deprived of their parent. In the year 1790,
you will remember that confiscation was abolished by a solemn de-
cree in the name of justice and humanity ; and a few months after
it was restored in the name of violence. It was re-established by
a general measure, pronounced a 'd applied by the law itself, and
which comprehended all the families of those whom duty or whom
danger had compelled to fly their country. The law didno: con-
fine itself to the plunder of the children ; It ascended for the pur-
pose of wounding; it seized upon the portion promised by nature
to emigrants, which was in the possession of their parents still
living. These fatal laws hare disappeared ; judicial confirms.
lions is effaced from our codes, into which it was introduced.
The King abolished it upon his return, and his wisdom. •
strugglinp against the possibility of future injustice, has
declared that it shall never be restored. These benevolent dis-
pose:ions aitinot act upon the past ; they cannot get over
the interval between June, 1814, and January, 1790. Numerous
transactions have taken place under the dominion of laws now
abolished ; these tr. haactione here been preserved unaltered. The
Charter, which has given to them the support of sovereign and legi-
timate authority, has declared them inviolable—a respect entirely
profound, without reserve or dispute, for acquired rights, is become
an imperative law. Bat, even though respect for the rights of pro-
perty, and theobligations of repairing wrongs, were rot written in
the laws of a!l people and all times, there Is something in our
consciences droopy than laws themselves, which reminds us, that
when sales have been made in the tame of the State, and the State
lid ?me net] the volue, and enjoyed it for 30 years, it owes reparation
'to these alto hare been violently dispossessed. Some voices are raised
in opposition to rite great redress which these great interests require.
they ask win the biases, of which emigration is the cause, should be
1.11)1C atour hue which recompence should be necessary—why ma-
tertuhei, of this di scription should be looked upon an the only 'ma
which justice and lennanity require to have heeled ? The redue-
Con of the national debt has deprived the creditors of the State of
two thirds of their securities. The maximum —the enigma—the
deist:erect* the war, have injured many families. Why have not
all those who have been thus plundered a right to that redress,
which it does set appear to be the nigh to grant, except to certain
Intafornmes and to entain calamities ? It is an impossibility to
repair ali :omen It would be an act of injustice to repair bat
some. You lisve already', Gentlemen, replied to these objections.
Without elenbt the Revolution has produced evils of all descrip-
tion,. We !Ind everywhere the crates of its fury. We must un-
doubtedly-give im the idea of remedying all evils. The wealth of
Frerte restored to order and legitimacy would not be sufficieot to
repair tbeiosses which France, impoverished by anarchy, has suf-
fered ; but if, amongst tin: evils caused by the Rexolution, three
are some that justice points out as the most weighty, the most
odious, and the most fatal ; if there are those, the origin of which
was an attack upon the most tarred rights, and the trace of which
stillmxisting, is a perpetual cause of division and of discord, we me,
*sight the impossibility of healing prevent us from applying to
saute that remedy which is in our power? The etnigrants have
lost all; all the misfortunes which afflicted France have fallen upon
them; they have suffered still more heavy calamities, and which
were reserved for them alone. The creditors of the State, victims
of the most rapreheMbie treachery, have lost two-thirds of their
securities, but they have still preserved one; but the fatal measure
',huh has thus plundered them has left them their other pro-
phrty. As to the ota.rinanni' the mei/nate have caused the
value which was in the hands of the merchants and capitalists
to disappear, to their injury and detriment, but no attempt
was made upon their fixed property. Those who have suffer-
ed the calamities of war,. have, whhout doubt, seen the de-
vastation of their fields and their houses; but, Gemtlemen, the
soil—the soli at least has been left them. The laws respecting end.
grants have stripped them of their securities, their moveables, their
revenues ; they have left them nothing ; nay. more _these eruel
laws have deprived them of the felonies of their father and mo het ;
at least this has been dune by the laws rellanng to what is called the
Diviaion of Presuccession. The emigrants have not been tried. The
Mitre confiscation that the criminal laws pronounce against the