The National Register.
London, England, 1818-01-25 00:00:00

FUREIGA INTELLIGENCE.

FR, NCP,.
The Nlarinis de Pastoret has presented to the Chamber of
11i ers an interesting report on the peljeet de lui, respecting
liar liberty of the pi ess. The cuaninittee of the Peers have
tally speed with the recorded vote of the lower Chamber
against that section of the law which construed a mere de-
posit of a work at the police, as an actual publication by the
author. The Deputies, it will be recollected, passed an
amendment, by which nothing short Of a distribution of the
book is to be hebl tantamount to such a publication of it as
shall expose the party to the vengeance of the law. For
this barrier against the inconsisteticks and the abuse of power
the country stands indebted to the perspacnous reasoning and
manly eloquence of the Royalist chieftain M. Villele ; and
the Committee of the Peers have drawn From his speech the
arguments ou which they have founded ftseir approbation of
this salutary amendment. To be sure, unless the Ministers
have been actuated by some secret reasono which they may
find itinconvenient to avow, their mode of 'legislating is on
this point unaccountable. As a preventive against the mis-
chief of circulating a given book, they ordain that a certain
slumber of copies shall be lodged at the police for the par.
pose of previous examination. We say the mischief' of dica•
Sating the bunk; fur If it be not circulated, what injury can
result from it ? Vet, in the very next line they declare, that
the precaution shall itself' be construed into the crime—that
ma author shall he punished for that act, which they have
deliberately called upon him to .perforin, and biy which he •
voahle4 the police to stop the dissemination of the printed
mischief. This, M. de Villele described as a gross injustice.
We are sati,•fied to speak of it as a ludicrous contradiction;
iking obedience a misdemeanour, and the law a snare; •
as making each author legally responsible for nut discharg-
ing against his own literary performance the functions of a
Minister of Police, and anticipating liv inspiration the judg-
ments of a public officer. Ihe concurrence of the Peers'
Committee with the Chamber Of Deputies un -this constitu-
tional question derives a peculiar interest from the circum-
stance, that it is the precise amendment against which Minis-
ter, have advised his Majesty to exercise his Royal perogative,
and which it is said, that he has already allIV2!Illeed 1113 reso-
intion of rejecting. The report concludes wills proposing to
.adopt the pritject de loi, wilts the above amendment made by
the Chamber of Deputies to the 211 part of time Bth article.—
The Chamber of Deputies pi ore cds with a reciprocation of
discourses till the recruiting which,, in the sitting of the
17th, was supported by Messrs. Ilignim and CamilleJmnalan,
especially that Nivea* of it which retains tlx Clown in the
.grant of promotion, and which secures a share of it to seni-
ority of set vice. Both of these Members also cored foe the
Amendment, which makes the existence of a standing army
dependent, from year to year, on the. legislature. M. Car-
dounel opposed a conscription, as a child of the revulntionary
tyranny, mid incompatible with a legitimate throne.
In the Chamber of Deputies, on the 17th, the Reporter on
Petitions stated, that several Monks arid Nuns of ilicl3e-
pertinent of the Losere; reduced to extreme indigence by
the reduction of two_thirdsof their pensions, solicited assis-
tance. The Committee proposed to the Chamber to send
their Petition to the Minister of the Interior. M. Beim de •
del4cribed the fate of the Iteligemsee in his department
as most deplorable. Their number was now rettueed to
400, most of whom are old and infirm; and few of them
had inure lie said, than 200 f. pension, a sum which hardly
sufficed 10 support asad existence. M. Dun sober de Han-
ramie nits for sendingahe -Petition of those unfortunate pus-
-401111 to the Committee ou the Iludgets but that was opposed
by many Members, and the .Petition was ordered to lie re-
fined to the Ministerailthelntevior fur hint to grant the relief.