The Sun.
London, England, 1859-01-11 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, TUESDAY. EVENING, JANUARY 1.1, 1859.

THE USURPATION OF TITLES IN

FRANCE.

The following is a translation of the report to the
Emperor Napoleon, on the re-establishment of
penalties against the, usurpation of titles and dis-

tinctions :

Sire,—ln re-establishing penal regulations against
those who usurp titles and assume without ,right
distinctions of honour, the law of May 28, 1858,has
restored to titles legitimately acquired their real
importance and thearelaims upon the respect of the
public.
In a country and under a rule, where the hum-
blest citizen, by-his personal merit, can attain the
highest positions, the law ought openly to protect
whatever represents the reward of merit and the
honour of families. True and intelligent equality,
consists, not in proscribing distinctiOns, but in per-
mitting them to be accessible fol. :all that rise by
courage, dignity of conduct, or brilliancy • of
service.

The new law ought to be carried into strict but
enlightened execution.
Your Majesty has desired to put an end to abuses,
to reach fraud and charlatanisin, to bring bark order
into the civil state, to- restore in short to public dis-
tinctions the character and repute that only pertain
to truth. But yon had no desire to interfere with
acquired rights or to disturb legitimate possessions
which only ask for the means of causing tlieniselves
to be acknowledged and regulated;
The questions connected with the transmission of
titles in families, the proving of disputed qualifica-
tions, the confirmation or recognition of ancient
titles. .the scrutiny, should it be . made, into new
titles, are numexous and. delicate; It is proper that
no guarantee, in the way of inquiry and evidence
should be wanting for their solution. I have the
honour of submitting, for
,your Majesty's approval,
the drift of a :decree diSeussed in the Council of
State, and providing for the re-creation of the
Council of the Seal for Titles.

Created by the second statute 'of March 1, 1808,
the Council of the Seal for Titles consisted, under
the presidency of the Arch-Cho.nceller of the Em-
pire, of three senators, two councillors of state, one
attorney-general, one secretary-general, and trea-
surer. (Decree of March 27, 1808, Art. 7.) An
ordinance of July 15;1815; replaced it by a commit-
tee presided over by the keeper of the seals, which
was itself suppressed on Oct. 31, 1830.
A part of the attributes of the council and of the
committee of the seal referred to the formation of
entails according to primogeniture,' and to the ma-
nagement of property set apart for their formation.
Under the control of the law of Mareh 12, 1835,
which suppressed such fee tails for the future, these
attributes can at the present time be applicable
alone to whatever concerns transitory questions and
the entails still extant.

But the changes that have been undergone by
the laws touching titles and names have created
situations respecting which the deliberations and
advice of a special council will be usefully called into
play. In this point of view it has appeared neces-
sary to amplify the attributes of the old council
of the seal, to bring them into accord with the
existing laws, and to give generally to the keeper
of the seals tk;e,ri6ht, of submitting to the scrutiny
of the new council all difficulties connected with
this subject. Such is the object of the articles 5,6,
and 7 in the draft.

What, for instance, in looking at a law that no
longer authorises the creation of entails, will be the
fate of those titles that were only to become here-
ditary on condition of the estate being entailed?

What will be in future, the rules to be observed
for the verification of titles and their transmission
to families?

In what order, what limits, on what conditions,
will the father's title secure a title to his sons ?
Will it be proper to sanction the rules laid down
by the decree of June 4, 1809 (art. 6), and by the
ordinance of Aug. 25, 1817 (art. 12)
With regard to periods preceding the year 1789,
in default of a regular act of scrutiny, acknowledg-
ment or authorisation, the production of which is
not always possible, will there be no means of con-
ferring on the council of the seal the power of
enlarging the circle of proofs and of admitting,
according 'to circumstances, as a justification of
one's right to the title- or 'name submitted to its
scrutiny, a possession proved by acts of public
officials, or by historical documents ?
An ordinance.of Jan. 31, 1819, not inserted in
the Bulletin des Lois, submits'in France to the pre-
vious authorisation of
.your Majesty the using of
titles confessed by foreign sovereigns. Ought not
these regulations to be restored, and again put
seriously into execution ?
Those are questions which stWd. over, but the
solution of which cannot be long6,stponed, when
we consider the new text of the article 259 in the
penal code. In devoting itself to its work systema-
tically, and to the complete, study of the facts, the
Council of the seal will collect the elementary
matter, and will assist in preparing the bases of
your Majesty's decisions.
Petitions sent in for change or addition of name
continue to be subject to the forms traced out by the
law of the 11th Germinal in the year 11. The autho-
risations of this nature are granted by your Majesty
under the form of the regulations for the public
administration (art. 5). The Council of the State
for Titles may nevertheless be consulted on the
changes or aMitions, that might have:ol'o tm 4f
a qualification conferring honour or emolum?.nt, and'
which would come under,ie categin iirfddes—pro-.
vided for by the article 259' of therfieniridde.' • -
By the terms of the 7th article in the law of the
11th Germinal of the year 11, every one having a
right to do so may, within the space of one year,
dating from the insertion in the Bulletin des Lois,
prosecute the repeal of the decree that has autho-
rised a change of name, or an addition to the same.
To maintain intact more efficaciously this right of
third parties, the 9th article in the draft of the
decree requires that the petition for change of
name, or for addition thereto, shall be previously.
inserted, in the form of an excerpt, in the Moniteur
and in other journals therein specified. No sanction
of the petition can ensue before three months after
the date, of the insertions.

This regulation merely confirms, by giving, to it
a more obligatory and solemn form, an administra-
tive rule created by two decisions of Minister of
Justice on the 26th of Oct., 1815, and the 10th of
April, 1818. (See Moniteur of Oct. 26, 1815, and
Aprillo, 1818.)
But if it be necessary and just to apply without
exception this rule to all parties demanding permis-
sion to take in future a name they never bore, and
by which they are not known, this necessity may
appear less absolute when the decree of authorisa-
tion now solicited, and which itself will not be
definitive until after the lapse of one year, ought
not to interfere save for the purpose of legalising a
name honourably borne for a long period, accepted
by the public, inscribed in official acts or made illus-
trious by important services. The insertion of the
petition for the sole purpose of informing' third
parties, has then no longer the same interest, and
might in certain cases be attended with more incon-
venienee than advantage. These considerations,
joined to the peculiar treatment always
enjoined by transitory situations, . have dic-
tated the construction of article 10, by virtue' of
which the keeper of the seal, by and with the ad-
vice of the council of seals, may dispense with the
insertions prescribed by the 10th article, where the
petitions are based on old possession, or when it is
notorious and consecrated by important services.
Nevertheless, the Council of State has thought
that, however circumscribed this faculty might be,
it ought to be, like the requirements it is intended
to satisfy, of an essentially transitory nature. The
council has limited its duration to a period of two
' years, dating from the promulgation of the decree.
Three senators and two councillors of state will
enter, as in 1808, into the composition of the Coun-
cil. Your Majesty has moreover permitsed that
two members of the Court of Appeal should be called
to form part of it. Your exalted magistracy, Sire,
will worthily respond to this new appeal made to
its devotedness and intelligence. It has likewise
appeared right to introduce into the Council of the
Seal three masters of requests, who according.to
the law of their institution will have a deliberative
voice in the affairs, of which they will have to make
the report, and a consultative voice in the others.
Lastly, auditors to the Council of State may be
attached to the Council of the Seal.
The law of January 29, 1831, definitively 'regu-
lating the budget of 1828, suppressed the receiving
office of the seal. The droits that used to be paid
into that office are now levied direct by the public
treasury. So long as this legislative regulation
shall not have been modified, it will not be possible
to create a treasurer of the seal.
The petitions brought before the Council of the
Seal will have to pass through the office of the
referendaries to the Seal.
Should your Majesty deign to approve the draft
of the decree, the text of which is below, I shill
• have the honour to take your orders for the appoint-

ment of the members to the Council of the Seal for
Titles.

I am, with.profound resped, Sire, your Majesty's
most devoted servant and most loyal subject,
The Keeper of the Seals, • Minister Secretary of
State to the Department of Justice,
E. DE ROYER.

The foregoing report is accompanied by the decree
which establishes the Council of Seal of Titles, a
sort of Heraldic College, and nominates the members
of that council. -

THE ICING OF SARDINIA'S SPEECH.

(From the Times.)
This is a moment of suspense, when the words of
SOvereigns are substantive :events. The opening of

the Saidinian Chambers has been expected-With an
anxiety in *no respect warranted 'by the power or
intrinsic importance of that kingdom. But we all.
hoped to read in the speech of the King of Sardinia
some gloss upon the words of the 'Emperor 'of the
French, and some indication, of the policy to be
pursued by France towards. Austria. If SaFelinia
shows a determination to break the .public peace it
can only be in the conviction, More or less w4ll
founded, that 'France is prepared to protect her in
her enterprise. Sardinia defying Austria Would be
as a pigmy provoking a giant. So insensate a
policy is not to be attributed to tely sane Govern-
ment. However, incautious, or even intemperate,
the King may sometimes have appeared, there is
strong evidence that he has upon this occasion only
spoken so much as was permitted him to speak. It
is even currently reported that the draught of the
document was carefully settled at Paris, and that
the paper went -hack to Turin much modified in
tone. We may take 'it that the speech just de-
livered by the King of Sardinia is a speech which
has .the approval of the Emperor of the French.
.Regarding it in this light it is not so peaceful
in its tone as the friends of tranquillity might
desire.' It would bp a temperate and moderate
speech for the King who not long ago told his
officers that they might prepare for active service
in the spring, but it is not reassuring if we are to
read it in connection with those words spoken on
New Year's-day, and with the ambiguous explana-
tion
,put forth in the Moniteur. " The political
horizon is not clear," says the Sardinian Sove-
reign. In what quarter, then, broods the storm ?
What European Power threatens the independence
of the King's subjects ? Do the inhabitants of
Lombardy seek to annex Piedmont in the interest
of their Austrian masters ? Or does the Ariny of
Occupation at Milan cast eyes of covetousness upon
Turin or Genoa ? Whence comes the storm which
Sardinia fears; or who holds that future which
Sardinia " awaits with rinness ?" The Power
that is determined upon a quarrel need not look
far out and sweep, the horizon for indications of an
enemy. If it were the wish of Sardinia only to
hold her own, her small . horizon is clear enough.
But we are told that she looks not for a secure, but
for a fortunate future. " Her policy is based oh
justice and love of its country's liberty." This
should be a strictly defensive policy, unless the
King of Sardinia interprets the word " country"
in a sense different from that placed upon it by
the treaties he professes to respect. If by the word
" country" he means Italy, then, indeed, we under-
stand what that policy must be which is based on
a love of Italian liberty. Such a policy which
would rule all Italy from Turin. It is a 'policy
which wouldinake Milan, and Florence, and Naples,.
and even Rome herself, departmental cities, send-
ing Deputies to a metropolis which is scarcery more
Italian than Nice or Toulon. This might tend
to the expansion of the liberty of Italy ; it might
mitigate the stringency. of the Bourbon tyranny
in Naples ; it might infuse some energy into
the anile burlesque of Government' that obtains
in the States of the Church; it might, per-
haps, improve, although this is rather doubt-
ful, the present condition of Tuscany ; but is it
possible to compass ?—is it a project so
capable of realisation as to be ,worth a general
European war ? Is it possible that it could be rea-
lised by the agency of France and Russia; and, if
it were realised, could it last ? Would Austria
endure it ?, Would 'tome for a moment listen to it ?
It would I,itther reduce Italy to the state in which
that Peninsula was when ./Eneas landed on its
shores. It would only produce a chaos out of which
the battling elements should eventually make new
combinations. We might consent to go back to the
days of our boyhood, when, with our heads full of
Livy and our hearts full of Horace, we remembered
the glories of the Republic, and drank in the volup-
tuous literature of the early empire. But the key
note of all that sentiment was Rome, not Turin.
Eighteen hundred years is a long period, even in
the history of Italy. Wave after wave of different
families of the great human kind have advanced,
with more or less force, upon that interesting soil,
and have, to a greater or less depth, covered the
whole surface of what was once a nation—even as
the debris of ages have buried the old Forum and
have choked up Ostium. In Italy's best days her
nationality was never "pure. Since then great
Powers have risen and have fallen, and there are
traditions, far more recent and more powerful than
those of the Empire; which divide Venice from
Genoa and Naples from .Turin almost as distinctly
as Milan from Vienna. It is not enough to over-
come the great improbability that France and
Russia are honestly desirous to create a great con-
stitu,ticinal Power.; 3ve mast-go turther—rwg must
believe that thelragments of races which never yet
were united should now unite under a distant and
scarcely recognised Italian Power ; and that Rome
should be content with a nationality under the rule
of TransalPine Gaul. Every Englishman has sym •
pathies with Italy. As the King of Sardinia says in
the speech upon which we are now commenting—
" Piedmont is great in the Councils of Europe on
account of the principles it represents and the sym-
pathies it inspires ; " but our sympathies must be a
little under the control of our reason. England
will never by act or counsel interfere to impede
any effort that may be made towards the over-
' throw of the evil Government that now afflicts

Italy; but we may and must regret to see the ge-
neral peace of Europe broken for projects which
appear to savour only of ambition and to tend only
to strengthen despotism. We cannot see the end;
but we can see enough to feel convinced that what
the Emperors of France and Russia wish cannot
be what we should wish.

" Let-us," says the King of Sardinia, " resolu-
tely await the decrees of Providence." Therei s
small philosophy in this. Resolutely or irreso-
lutely, we must equally be governed by those
decrees. Some small parson, when he advertises
that he is about to preach, is .so condescending as
to interpolate by the words " Deo rolente" a licence
to Providence; to interfere with the arrangement.
We have always thought that this reservation
would be, very ridiculous if it were not rather
impious. The queStion, hOwev'er, is, not what
Providence may decree, for that we cannot fathom,
but what steps the King Of Sardinia is about to
take within the limits of his own human free will.
We must, acting upon the assumption that he is a
sane man, believe that he will do nothing except
so far as he is supported by France ; and we must
further•believe that France will
Snot go beyond a
menace, unless she is supported by Russia. But
Russia is not impatient for war ; she has at pre-
sent internal troubles to distract her councils, and,
whatever strength of hatred there may be in her
recent grudge against Austria, it is scarcely suffi-
cient to induce her to break up the absolute sove-
reignties of Europe into hostile Powers, and to
destroy their 'force by internecine conflict.
But, whatever may be the policy of France or the
teniencies of Russia, or the ambition of Piedmont,
our course of action is plain. We have only to look
on and watch the result. In a period of profound
peace, and at a time when armed force is irresis-
tible, and is arrayed under the command of abso-
lute Sovereigns, any insurrection for merely
popular objects is obviously absurd. He must be a
very shallow dupe who can suppose that the great
military Powers are about to fight for the restora-
tion of long-lost liberties and long-lost nationalities.

There can be .no reason that we should spend one

coin or waste one life to support the Poiedorn, or
to protect the throrie of the King of Naples, or to
continue the hard and unnatural rule of the Aus-
trians in Lombardy. It is barely possible that any
change in Italy can be for the worse. It is scarcely
likely that any change produced by France and.
Russia can be for the better. This is not the help,
nor are these the defenders, we have looked for.
We live in days in which we are asked to believe
in strange things, but it is too great a demand
upon human Credulity to ask our faith in a Tory
Ministry shaping a democratic Reform Bill, and an
alliance of despotic Sovereigns in building up a
constitutional monarchy.

(From the Daily News.
The speech of Victor Emanuel to the Sardinian
Chambers has been looked for with a degree of in-
terest amounting almost to anxi?ty in every capital
of Europe. At a juncture so critical, friends and

foes, were.equally solicitous to learn what language
the wary but enterprising Ministers of Piedmont
would put intothe mouth of their sovereign. After
the long protracted suspense in which the affairs of
' Italy had lain, people in general would-have been
content to wait with solicitude, but with ealmness,
for the announcements that might be made on the
day appointed for the opening of the Legislative
session at Turin. Some days previously they had
been'startled, however by the authoritative utter-
ance of expressions which, if thermeant anything,
seemed to be a forestalling -by a greater Power of
the policy about to be adopted and avowed by the
lesser state. The abrupt and .laconic declaration
of the French Emperor was interpreted generally
as a prelude of war. The Funds fell ; diplomacy
became hysterical ; negotiators looked indignant
it the interruption of their unfinished task;
-and an ambiguous note appeared in the Moniteur
fieggned to adjourn panic sine die, and requesting
all discreet and loyal believers in Imperialism to set
doWn" the escapade of the Ist January in what the
butch would call "their -Forget Book." But the
disinterested patriotism of the . Bourse, is not so
easily reassured ; and the memories of men are even
more prone to disobedience than their convictions
'or their consciences. Public curiosity could not be
coaxed to sleep by the softest notes of the Guides.
The Sardinian Parliament was summoned to-meet
upon the 10th inst.; andin its presence it would be
impossible to play fast and loose with the great
issues of peace and war, and Italian independence
of Austrian domination universally believed to be
depending..
n (r.
To do M. Cavour justieehe has not attempted to ,
elude the great responsibility of his position, as
chief adviser of a confiding and courageous King.
For some years he has deemed it his duty to dis-
suade his countrymen and their Sovereign from
anticipating what they and he believed to be their
degtiny. He has been content. to incurs distrust At
home at the hands of the impetuous and unreason-
able, because he would not rashly risk all of good
already achieved and of glory hereafter to be won,
in a desperate struggle with one of the greatest
military, powers in existence. He was equally un-
moved by the ceaseless complaints of foreign diplo-
macy at the studied reserve he perseveringly main-
tained. Neither Count Buol, M. Manteuffel, nor'
Lord Malmesbury could lure him or his colleagues
into the rash avowal of warlike purposes on the
one hand, or into momentary palterinc, with the
hopes of Italy on the other. Re felt that the best
if not the last chance for freedom in the Peninsula
during the present generation had been given him
in charge ; and that compared with the duty of
wisely exercising that sacred trust all other duties
were and ought, to be' subordinate. He could not
be unconscious that the character of the youthful
Monarch whom ho served rendered him at once
peculiarly fitted in many respects to play the part
of a Royal liberator, and at the same time rendered
him peculiarly liable to be led away to his ruin
by injudicious or insincere counsellors. Victor
Emanuel is neither an ambitious politician nor a
military genius. Is,it too much to say it is fortu-
nate tor, himself and his country that he is neither?
The role which ten years ago he was suddenly called
on to undertake is that of a constitutional Sovereign
with a small' hereditary realm' in possession and
with greatly extended territories in expectancy.
Had he been either a diplomatist or a strategist, he
would probably have tried long since to realise by
anticipation what could only come to him safely and
lastingly by way of reversion ; and he would have
infallibly lost in the attempt even that which he
seems to have. Lombardy and Venetia were not to
be won by him at any time during the last ten years
by any use of either arts or arms. Until in the ful-
ness of time he should have proved himself
thoroughly trustworthy as a constitutional King, it
was not to be expected that millions of people who
had never owed allegiance to the House of Savoy
would cordially turn to him as a deliverer. It is in-
finitely to the honour of the Lombardo-Venetians,
that amid all their sufferings under Austrian rule
they should have been slow to do so. By his very
forbearance, blended with unswerving firmness, the
priceless conviction has at length 'grown up in
Italian hearts that Victor Emanuel is thoroughly
loyal—a man whom no temptation will induce to
renounce the claim of his,country to indigenous rule,
but who cherishes no dreams of personal aggrandise-
ment incompatible with the will or the interest of
that country. In a word, he has by a faultless po-
litical reign of ten years' duration, satisfied his
neighbours that he is a safe man and a fit man to be
trusted With extended power, and that he will
never try to seize it, but wait until they summon
him to confer it on him.

One thing only was wanting, and that is now
wanting no longer. It was necessary that the gal
lant King of Sardinia shouldtellthe people of Italy
who dwell beyond his frontiers that he was prepared
to look all eventualities in the face, and to accept the
noble but perilous liabilities they might impose with-
out hesitation and without fear. " The future," said
the King, in his speech of yesterday, "cannot fail to
to be fortunate, becaus; the policy of Piedmont is
based on justice and love of its country's liberty.
Piedmont is small, but great in the councils of
Europe, on account of the principles it represents
and the sympathies it inspirer. It respects treaties,
but is not insensible to Italy's cry of anguish."
What is this but a simple though dignified answer
to the inarticulate prayer for deliverance which all
men have heard of late from the lips of an exaspe-
rated and oppressed people ? It is as though M.
Cavour had advised his Sovereign to say to the
.ccivis,strul COinets jof Europe, to hi..own Parlia-
ment and drity, and. abei'e all"to tilt multitudes
who writhe beneath a hated foreign yoke :—" If
you want me, I am ready ; if .I arm, it shall not be
said I do so .for any unrighteous or unworthy pur-
pose ; other rights or powers I seek and will have
none, but those which I now exercise as a coustitu•
tional King ; by the letter of treaties, so long as the
status quo exists, I will scrupulously abide, because
I am a King; but to the cry of a nation's grief and
agony I do not pretend to be insensible, for Italy
is my country, and I have the feelings, the in-
stincts, and the. obligations of a man." Well might
Victor Emanuel close his soul-stirring address with
the significant words, " Let us resolutely await the
decrees of Providence."