The Sun.
London, England, 1840-12-11 00:00:00

FRAN CE.

CHAMBER OF DEPUTIES.—SITTING OF DEC. 9.
At a quarter past two M. Dufaure took the chair,
and read the answer of his Majesty to the address from
the chamber, which was presented to the King on Mon-
day evening.
The Minister of Public Works rose to solicit a fur-
ther grant of 3,000,000 f for the relief of the sufferers in
the south of France, in consequence of the late inun-
dations in that part of the country, and for the repair
of the bridges, roads, &c. destroyed by that calamity.
The Hon. Gentleman entered into a long detail of the
disasters which have been occasioned by that terrible
misfortune.
M. Fuldinon proposed that the discussion should not
take place before Thursday, 17th December, and that
day was definitively agreed to.
The Order of the Day was the Bill for a supplemen-
tary credit of 700,000 f, for the relief of foreign refu-
gees in France, when the following project of law, as
amended by the Committee, was presented to the
Chamber :
" Art. 1. A credit of 700,000 f. is granted to the
Administration of the Interior, as a supplementary
credit to the sum of 2,350,000 f. existing in the 27th
chapter of the Budget of the Administration of the In-
terior, for the year 1840, for the relief of the fo-
reigners obliged to seek refuge in France through poli-
tical events.
" Art. 2. The expenses authorised by the present law
will be provided for by the resources granted by the law
of finance of the 10th August, 1839, to meet the ne-
cessities of the year 1840."
M. Dugabe availed himself of the opportunity
afforded him by the Bill to attack the policy of France
with respect to Spain, and proceeded to say that while
France was losing all her influence in the Peninsula,
England contrived to obtain all the influence which
this country had lost, and that Passages was evacuated
by the - English solely for the purpose of doing in- '
jury to France; ar.d, precisely at the very mo-
ment when this was taking place, an army of
27,000 men entered our territory as refugees ; and
now that the Spanish Ministry has published an am-
nesty in behalf of those very refugees, our Ministry comes
f :morel for a suppLenentary grunt •of 700,000 francs
for their subsistence. It is true that this amnesty, to
the eternal shame of the Ministry, is c xtremely limited,
as it neither includes effacers, priests, nor public func-
tionaries of any importance. Here the lion. Menilter
strongly onimadverted on the restrictions contained in
the Sir eish amnesty, and stated that his motive for ad-
dreaiing the Chamber was to inquire from Government
how long this burden was to last, and what it intended
tail. rsi h respect to the amnest.y ; and, at the same
time, he thoul.ht it, but just to complain of the Spaniards
ast t his morncnt detained in the citadel of Lille.
ct,,t
(rent had rightly deter toed on making no interven-
tion whatever, either by word or- deed, in the internal
measures of Spain, that the refugees were by no means
a burden imposed on the nation, as the supplies granted
them were solely a gencreus relief from the French
people.
! Delarey here (lcannded whether the Govern-
ment would grant rdial to those refugees who, through
+0 it or of to the conditions of the amnesty.
should rrfirse to return to their native land.? and
.-.ffirrned that no distinction with respect to the pel.ti-
el principles of the refugees should be made. The Hon.
Member cornpleined of the decay of the French influence
in Spain, owl of the total overthrew of the policy adopted
by Louis XIV., when the family of that Monarch ascen-
ded the Spanish throne, and which policy was so well ex-
plained by the words—there are no more Pyrenees. M.
Delarey also alluded to a certain note published by cer-
tjn papers, as corning from M. Ferrer, Minister of Fo-
reign Affairs in Spain, a note which he entitled highly
injurious to this country.—(Here M. Guizot denied
the existence of the note alluded to.) Tile lion. Mem-
ber terminated by asserting that the English had al.
ways seen with manifest displettsure the influence of
France in Spain ; aid that, in 1823, they had strongly
afjected to the march -of a French army into that
country, on account of the influence this country might
squire from the restoration of Ferdinand VII. to his

throne.
M. Dochatel (Minister of the Interior) stated that it
.:as the duty of „France, when the refugees crossed the
irfmtiers, to come to the it relief, and that, if she had not
done so, she would have drawn on herself, and deserv-
edly, the charge of inhumanity ; but he nius,, neverthe-
haa, protest against its being encumbcnt on the country
to ennsider the generosity hitherto bestowed on the re-
fugees as a permanent charge. The Minister then
Acted that Balmuseda had been detained in France for
:lie purpose of preventing civil war in Spain, and that
France would 11lwa3 a do all she could to prevent Spin
from being a prey to so dire a calamity.
M. Chegaray ob,lerved that the influence of France
must be infallibly injured in Spain by the everlasting
manncr in which the influence of France in that country
was continuJily on the topic, as it co&d not but give of-
fence to the noble pride of the inhabitants of the Pc-

The Ist article was then put to the vote and adopted.
The 2d article was then put to the vote and aloptt.d.
The articles being adopted, the Chamber preeceded
to vote by ballet on the ensemble of the Bill, when
The oumber3 were for the Bill 227

Agains•
Majority in favour of the Bill
The Chamber then adjourned.

-269

(From Galignani's Messenger.)
Most of the Opposition Journals which bad noticed
in leading articles the financial expose of M. Humane,
again comment upon it in the same strain, and the Con-
stitutionnel, which had made no remark respecting
this expose, has how a long article on the sutject.
It, is sufficient to say of this article that it denies to
the supporters of the present Ministry the right of fixing
upon M. Thiers the blame of the deficit mentioned by
M. Humerl, and remarks that the deficit during the
Administration of M. Thiers was only 164,000,000 f.
The Constilutionnel forgets that the real and presumed
deficit for which M. Thiers is reproached has been
ascribed to his policy, and, therefore, that if that
policy was erroneous, and of a nature to produce dis-
astrous consequences, those consequences may be fairly
ascribed to the author of such policy, unless circum-
stances, on the arrival of his successors in office, had
been such as to have enabled thou to lay it wholly
aside, and to stop the deficit cowed by their prede-
cessors at the very moment when the portfolios of office
were transferred. The argument of the present Cabi-
net in favour of continuing the armaments of M.
Thiers is not that they would have armed if they had
been in office from the month of March, but that M.
Thiers baying failed in negotiations where they would
not have failed, and having rendered war probable
where before it was hardly possible, they were corn-.
palled to keep up an expenditure of which the Thiers'
Cabinet alone was the cause. The Constitutionnel, how-
ever, takes up another ground of defence for M. Thiers.
Whatever the real deficiency arising from his policy
I maybe, it claims for him the merit of true patriotism in
putting the country in a position to command respect,
r
and reminds the political adversaries of the ex-Minis-
ter
everythingthat,
far alongnecessary pfoerriod before his return to office,
i
coun-
try, and for maintaining its dtighe d
nityinfetriheeepreosfenteheeof otlierpowers, bad been so neglected that it was impossible to
obtain for it any degree of influence in Europe without
the extraordinary expenditure with which M. Thiers
has been reproached, but in incurring which, says the
tobP
otuadk.e—s
tCooaurrierreozicitauist,ioiinznealn, he liarticlead roe: so
thisn
subject,
cer-
tain extent the same line of argument as the Constitzs-
tionnel, but arrives more directly at the conclusion
e:lich the Constitutionnel seems to have had in view—
viz., that it is very unfair to continue the expenditure of
M. Thiers for a policy which was not his, and then to
say to the country, " See to what a lamentable result
the Thiers policy has led." The deficit estimated by