The Sun.
London, England, 1860-11-27 00:00:00

TUE CHANGES IN TIIE FRENCII
CONSTITUTIOW.

Governments like that of the French Emperor
deal largely in the unexpected. No one would have
anticipated thatin this hour of quietude and esLa-
bliAed fame the Ruler of France would think it
necessary to propose a change in the constitution
of his country ; and yet such is the case. Changes
in the Ministry accompany changes in the consti-
tution. Count Walewski becomes Minister of State
in place of' M. Feuld, resigned. This in itself would
be a matter of little moment to Frenchmen and of
none at all to us. Whether the President of the
Congress of Paris or his financial colleague fill a
certain office can have but little effe.ct on the
course of events in France ; and, though England
has no reason to be attached to a politician who
professes to despise Parliamentary institutions, yet
we can see his return to power with perfect equa-
nimity. More important are the decrees which so
much extend t he influence of the Legislative Asscin-
blies in the French Empire. The Emperor—::o
says the Imperial Decree--is desirous to afford to
the great bodies of the State a more direct partici-
pation in the general policy of the Government and
direct proof of his confidence. Accordingly, the
Senate and the Legislative Body are annually to
vote an address in reply to the Imperial speech at
the opening of the session. The address is to be
discussed in the presence of Government Commis-
sioners, who will give the Chambers the necessary
explanations on the home and fozeign policy of
the Empire. Changes are introduced in the
method of discussing bills or projects of law
and the debates of the Senate and Legislative
Body, reported by the secretaries, under the
authority of the President of either Chamber,
are to be sent every evening to all the journals.
The debates of each sitting are to be accurately pub-
lished in the official journal of the following day.
Ministers without office arc to defend the projects
of law before the Chambers in concert with the
members of the Council of State.

It would ill become us to keep silence on the
promulgation of so important a decree. We may
state, however, at once our conviction that Napo-
leon has no intention of conferring upon his shadow
of a Peerage and his shadow of a Representation
those privileges which belong to the free assemblies
of this country. The constitution of the French

Empire is such that a parallel can hardly be drawn
between us and our neighbours. The bodies which
are now promised an increase of freedom across the
Channel are widely different from our own. The
French Senate consists of celebrities, and is as power-
less and as devoted to authority as an assembly
. must be which the number of independent and
non official personages does not preponderate. The
Legislative Body is only an inferior Senate, filled
with local celebrities, recommended by their devo-
tion to the Imperial cause, and accordingly sup-
ported by all the power of the Prefect and his
subordinates. But these loyal and compliant poli-
ticians, as subservient to the views of the ruler Its
any Parliament of the Stuarts, are by no means
to be despised as legislators.... • The most frequent
objection to our own Parliament is founded on the
number and length of the speeches, which leave
no time for business. A French Aini2nably can-
not be charged with the same fault. In the
Senate the speeches are few and far between.
Eloquence is as courteous as a funeral oration
under the old Monarchy, and confines itself to
panegyrics on the wisdom of the Emperor and
congratulations on the success, the power, apd the
glory of France. Wheel-se could be expected from
an Assembly where Cardinals, Marshals, and
Admirals sit by virtue of their rank, and where
high dignity and a sufficient income are held
merely by the permission of the supreme
authority ? The Legislative Body is more inde-
pendent in constitution, but hardly more coura-
geous in practice. A voice is seldom raised against
the acts of the Government, against the extrava-
g.

;anco which is sweeping away even the rapid gains
of French industry, and the unintelligible vagaries
which from time to time unsettle the commerce and
disorder the calculations of Frenchmen. But in
the every-day business of legislation the French
Assemblies have no reason to be ashamed of a
comparison with our own. The two Chambers

never meet without having a number of bills read~-
for their examination, and never separate without
important additions having been made to the law
of France. It is a fact as old as the days of the
Roman Caesars that the strictness of a despotic
monarchy is no obstacle to the improvement of the
machinery of State ; that it has, in fact, advan-
tages to which liberty cannot attain. Projects of
law, prepared by the first men in France, are laid
every year on the table of the Legislative Body ;
are examit e.l there by men who, if not indepen-
dent in their political opinions, are at leastiqualified
for the scientific work of legislation ; and it is
worthy of notice that so large a number of good
measures receive a thorough examination and a final
sanction from a Legislature which the world in
general regards as only servile and supine.
The Emperor's concessions, therefore, are not
to be considered as trifling. He has a Legislature
which, though not a vigilant guardian of the pub-
lic freedom, is composed of men of ability, wealth,
and of a kind of Imperialist patriotism. His Cham-
bers represent the people which has given hint
supreme and almost despotic power in return for
material prosperity, military glory, and diplomatic
influence. Napoleon must know that such assem-
blies are ouly to be led when they have a man fit
to lead them. As long as he has the people at his
back ; as long as he is waging great wars and
occupying the celebrated capital of the earth—
Rome, Constantinople, Athens, Damascus ; as
long as he is dc'ionding Italian freedom on the one
side and making advantageous treaties with Eng-
land on the other, he is master both of his
Senate and his Legislative Body, and the most
wayward politician on their benches will hardly

dare to utter a word against the Imperial system.
But in an hour of trial the case may be very dif-
ferent. It is the nature of free assemblies to be
both the comfort and the terror of Governments.
When a Government which has endeavoured to do

its duty is in distress for lack of resources or of
counsel, it finds its best support in a Parliament.
which takes away or shares its responsibility,
which resolves the questions it has to propose, and
strengt hens with all the weight ofa national decision
the opinions to which it inclines. But to the despot,
to the slave of the confessional, or the Camarilla,
a legislature is a constant terror. Where the
constitutional ruler sees support and consolation,
he only sees images of terror, the indignant
orator, the applauding majority, the cheers which
greet the vote of censure, the lowering faces of the
deputation which come to communicate it. When
a monarch acts as Napoleon 111. is now acting, and
gives the Legislature of his Empire fresh powers,
he must be L understood to accept in some degree
the position of a Constitutional Monarch. In
giving the French Legislature more freedom he
probably acts, not from any inherent love of liberty
or from any cherished scheme of extending its bless-
ings, but from a conviction, gathered from his study
and experience, that among an educated and quick-
witted people the permanent suppression of liis. a,
etr:s
rights is impossible. It is advantageous
on his side powers which can never be totally de-
stroyed, and which tend continually to
The Emperor knows that his own, orl ahroielsgibatiwienlislicoatee:entl enlist
on
his child's weakness will ever be
wtheell Legislature's
opportunity, and he thinks it as before-
handry with fate. With so man
se
tu
13:i
en
constitutional
have
draw
o influence,
1 al t
fletuoo
enbitendencytleiconeou.l y
countries around, France ne,uv
also. There is a vitality Parliamentary
to aggrandise them-
within their reach
them-
selves, eo
lr
vme forms
,;anthdeyto
Legislaturenew
i s ofa And so the French
me a political power, and
the Emperor is about to'
submit his acts and his
choice of men to the representatives of the peoplb.
The step may seem
willsmail
, but it is real, for a free-
spoken Chamber
and men require responsible Ministers,
capable of effectually defending the Impe-
rial policy must be sought outside the • noble
coterie which has ignoble
coterie so long ruled France.—Times.

GAMEKEEPER SIIOT.—At a little before 2 o'clock
on Friday morning a messenger came from Ganton to the
police-oilice at Scarborough with the information that one
of the keepers on the estate of Sir T. D. Legard, at Ganton,
near Scarborough, had been shot, and desiring that the
police might be on the look-out for suspicious characters
passing through the neighbourhood. The keeper is in a
dangerous condition, his face, arms, and body being severelof the
wounded. He was unable to state any particulars y
attack.
THE CASE OP POISONING IN
The WEST SUFFOLK.
—BURY ST. EDAUNDS, SATURDAY..—r,
long-pendin
inquiry into the mysterious circumstances attending the
death of the poor boy Robert lklurtat Fornhani St.
Genevieve, near this town, on Friday, Sept., a 7, was resumed
and concluded last evening, b Mr. G. A. Partridge, the
y
local coroner. The deceased lodged with a labourer named
Curtis and his wife, at Fornham. The deceased boy kept
his little stock of flour in a e homea on from
the eveningo of the
f the Cur-
tis's, and on his returning
ith of September, a pudding was made for him by Mrs.
Curtis. After eating part of this pudding, he ex-
hibited symptoms of having been poisoned, and died.
after a few hours severe suffering. On the following day
the Curtises were also attacked with similar symptoms,
bro
whichn so ,
dy
a r.".
and!aotef.;
an examination of their flour, as well as that which be-
longed to the deceased bov, showed that it contained
senic in considerable quantities.
feinsAegvr wassemernaaildcefoownh
also found
tohns
a deceased,post ur o ratna e m
iin
examinationtheorops o b
some of the pudding the boy left. The: evidence threw not
light on the manner in which the arsenic am
tit
with the flour, although it was used on the faeremleOrmagimrie!
cultural purposes. The jury returned the following yes -
administerediedfrona
dietp:o—ialanagt, the
but deceased
whether
own
arseni-
calh
hand
aor the'rhand a another there is not sufficient evidence to
a show,"