The Sun.
London, England, 1831-08-30 00:00:00

FOREIGN INTELLIGENCE.

FRENCH PAPERS.
CHAMBER OF DEPUTIES.
PRESENTATION OF TILE PROJECT OF A LAW ON THE

PEERAGE.-EXPOSITION OF MOTIVES.

The President of the Council ascended the tribune, and
addressed the Chamber. He began by reminding the
Chamber that he was discharging an appointed duty by
submitting to the two bodies of the Legislature the 23d
article of the Charter; alluded to the long time during
which public attention bad been directed to the subject ;
exhorted members to divest their minds of the prejudices,
and to discharge themselves of all pledges or opinions
adopted before their entering the Chamber, contrary to a
paramount reason of state whether such pledges and opi-
nions might be personal, or the effect of preferring some
particular system. The advisers of the Crown, he said,
would offer their share of devotion to the public good ; or
rather, they would follow the example set by the great
body of the Chambers. After some further observations,
of the same kind he said,—

6' Gentlemen, these observations were indispensable for
us above all, because we have it, at heart, to demonstrate
that we are ever willing to give a faithful explanation of
our measures, when any would venture to allege against
them that they are aught but concessions to the interests
of the country.
" The 22d article of the Charter is conceived in those
terms : _

" The nomination of the Peers of France belongs to
the King.
" He has the power to vary the dignities—to confer
them for life, or to render them hereditary.

" The 6Sth article ordains that the 22d article be sub-
mitted to a new examination in the session of 1831.

" This examination suggests three topics of investigation.
" Shall the Peers be named by the King, or by the
electoral body?

" Shall their number he limited or unlimited ?

" Shall the Peerage be hereditary, or fL,r life only?
" Before entering upon this investigation, gentlemen,
let us be careful to observe its proper limits. They are
traced:l,y the nutsmits to your consi-
deration the 22d as tide, at . nothing more; for as to all
besides, the Constitution h. 5 determined. The Chamber
of Peers exists by the Constitution its relations, its at-
tributes, are defined by twelve other articles of the Char-
ter—of that Charter which the Chamber of Peers itself
has voted as one of the three estates of the sovereignty,
and from which the same Chamber has either by initia-
tive or concurrence, in many instances since the revolu-
tion of July, 1830, caused to proceed political institutions
and organic laws.
" The session of 1831 ought, therefore (no one will
dispute), to confine its examination to these three points
—the mode in which Peers are to be nominated, their
number, and the hereditary succession of the Peerage."
The President then sketched, at some length, his view
of the constitution and policy of the Government of France.
That the monarchy was hereditary was, he said, undis-
puted, as the law and common consent had made it indis-
putable. This monarchy, however, was tempered by a
participation in the sovereign power of the two Chambers.
The respective functions, " the conditions of the exist-
ence" of the three estates, liec:tine the next questions.
" Constitutional monarchy," he proceeded, " carries
' within it a principle of durability and a principle of change,
and each of the two legislative estates receives one of these
principles in trust from the Constitution.
" To ensure durability is the characteristic duty of the
first—change belongs to the second ; hence the esz,ential
distinction in their origin and composition.
The orpnic condition of each of these Chambers will
he conformable to their mission : far frem reasoning with
regard to them upon principles of analogy, we ought to rea-
son upon a
principle of oppositioo.
Thus if popular electron be the natural parent of the
one, a royal creation is the proper rule of institution for
the other."

The President then combatted at soneiher of ep
lengththie.lthoetoie:s
theory
of an elective peerage, which would irne4.t.ed
fact,
be he said,
to
,be
—neither
;me
eii
norre4r,ibe
lersf p
atl4an ei:a second ciiiull
part e
be as little likely to act beneficially,
He next obviated the objection that might be raised
upon the supposition of an abuse of his power by the
crown. Public opinion, he said, would 6e always a suffi-
cient guarantee against such abuse ; and with reference to
the extravagant exercise of this power il. the yea
and downwards, diFTooils respit of svich p practic was,
he said,' the besi seurity against their repetition. " The
revolution had not merely effected all that Was
just—it had rendered impossible whatever was unjust."
After a few words more, warning the Chamber that there
were difficulties on both sides, but that those on t 1,1,!. Niue
of an elective Chamber seennA g7,?ati-4, io preponderate, he
this head of inquiry by saying, " Y propose, gen-
rtieinu,'that the nomination of the Peers of France shall
6elong to the King."

Thecommencedhis second head of In 10"-y frankly
attein, thr,t bi. 4 for the prodigal use of the power of
Creating Peers, made during the latter years since the re-
storation, there would be no question of limiting that
power, which ought to warn the Chamber, that under the
question of principles there lurked also a question of i4l-
- which ought by no --I;ans c9founded
.
a iegislo4°F'
c, Unbalanced power,!' he said, " was despotism ; and
such unbalanced power a Chamber of Peers, inaccessible to
change or influence by an increase of its Me.7alciera, must
always constitute."
l'ower of moderating the chain-
b4r of ree" by new creations he held to be equivalent to
the power of dissolving the other Chamber ; and to the.
Chamber of Deputies the King's power of c-:ea'iing new
Peers must give a vast accessi,,n cf influence, After ex-
patiating for eoni? time upon these topics of argument in
ioour of kis proposition, the President closed his second
head by the formal motion,--" I propose that the rr';-c,lie;
of the Peers of France be unlimited,"
There remains,.
cwinued, " the question of the
hereditary succession of the Peerage. This is the question
to
•uh.i,ll apparently the legislature has more especially di-
rected the attention of the session of is3'o his iy the
question which
''as Co. Ic.‘nii o...cupled all minds.
It ict at tbia polar that we would avail ourselves of the
considerations adverted to at the commencement of tuffs
exposition ; here it is that a constitutional, theory is
it°9 present' opinion.
ship-
wrecked upon eircomstani:ea—here legislation is engaged
and the future welfare of the country, perhaps
Beyond doubt, if the question of the hereditary suc-
cession of the Peerage were t..) be decided to7day by the
logical consequences of the tbe,ry of limited Monarchy, by
the authority of experience,s:ries of ipcontroyertible rea-

_ .
" One reality then is manifest to us all at present, that
is the universal repugnance to the hereditary succession of
the Peerage. Just or unjust, rational or irrational, it
exists, it presses upon us, it will be satisfied. An opinion
as been pronounced—an opinion by far too widely spread
to be either overlooked or despised, when in other respects
it proposes no violation of justice. It is such an opinion
as when it relates to the affairs of Government always,
perhaps imperatively, commands some species of deference.
" It is more especially due at a period when institutions,
as yet scarcely brought forth, want the public favour, for
which no reverend antiquity supplies the substitute. It is
at such a period that we ought to reflect that institutions,
however excellent, cannot be imposed upon a people by
mere force, and against its will. It were a most dangerous
and unprofitable experiment which would extinguish, at
the risk of the greatest calamities, that sympathy which
henceforth ought to exist between the nation and its go-
vernment."
Here the President paused for a moment.

The Members all requested him to rest.
After a few minutes' rest, the Minister resumed. He
said that the moment at which they were offering up the
hereditary succession to the urgency of public opinion was
not the moment for eulogising its advantages; the psrti-
sans of a life Peerage, he added, had been at sufficient pains
to show that it was no superstitious regard to the preroga-
tive which caused Ministers to make the offering with
some regret.

The President, in putting the third number of his pro-
position in form, made a short preface.
" Yes, Gentlemen, since a constitutional independence,
which ought to be regarded in theory as the protectress of
public liberty, is confounded in the imagination of the
people with the ancient aristocratic power, the oppressor
of our civil liherties--since our duty, our absolute neces.
sity, is to consult the popular impression, we propose to
you, as Ministers charged to collect the public opinions,
and to satisfy them in all that is not contrary to justice—
we propose to you, as the depositaries of the interest of
public order, but at the same time throwing upon you, as
Legislators, a part, a great part of the responsibility of
that determination—we propose to you to declare—that
the Peerage has ceased to be hereditary."
The President added,—" Meantime, Gentlemen, the exa-
mination of the question still belong to you exclusively;
and if you can persuade yourselves that you can recognise
in the symptoms of public opinion, or it may he in your
own previous judgment, motives sufficiently cogent to take
a decisive part, we shall accept the lights that may be
presented to us by the discussion ; we shall, without diffi-
culty, rally to the initiative, to which the sentiment of
your Constitutional responsibility may give I),itth itt this
'Chamber,

" A debate conducted in a spirit of good faith forbids
our ever despairing of unforeseen results, for conscience
receives in such sincere discussions revelations which ho-
nest men will anxiously collect and preserve."
The speaker continued still at very great Length, 'IA the
same spirit of concession and apology, and concluded—
" The King has prdered us to submit to your delibe-
ration the following project of law, to take rank, after it
shall be adopted among the Articles of the Constitutional
Charter, as Article 23."