The Sun.
London, England, 1832-10-02 00:00:00

THE WESTMINSTER REVIEW.

We remember the time when the Westmin-
ster Review used, even by men not without
thought, to be considered too heavy to be gone
through. The Westminster Review, No. 34,
is much the same as the Westminster Review of
some six or ten years back, but a change has
been wrought in men's minds which renders sub-
jects that were always important, interesting to
all who have really the welfare of their country
at heart. Men will now read the article of
M'Culloch's edition of Adam Smith, who not
very long since would have skipped it for that
on Earle's Residence in New Zealand, and co-
gitate upon it, not as an abstract proposition, but
as what it really is—a sketch of principles on
which it will be shortly proposed to base our
trade. Thank God that it is so, for all that is
wanted to bring all not blinded by the most
miserable, contracted notions of self interest,
to an advocacy of the truth, is to know
it. The review of M'Culloch's edition
of Adam Smith is really a review, and
is not made a simple peg whereon the reviewer
may hang a dissertation of his own. It will,
therefore, be eminently useful to the readers of
M'Cullloch, as a clear exposition of the errors
into which he has undoubtedly fallen, much to
the damage of the good cause. The article on
the " American Penal Law," and that on the
" Tactics of a Reformed House of Commons,''
will, at the present time, prove highly interest-
ing. The latter, in particular, is worthy the at-
tention of all who have influence in the election
of Members of Parliament. It points attention
to a subject we have more than once touched
upon, viz. the faulty arrangement of the busine-s
of the House, and how impossible it is that,
under the present system, the greatest exertions
of the best reformers can meet with an adequate
reward. The reviewer appears to sanction the
proposition for dividing the House into ten
committees, each to take a particular depart-
ment of public business ; all to sit at the
same time. No doubt this would occasion a
greater display of activity, but we doubt whether
the work would be got through satisfactorily to
the public. The author of the suggestion and
the reviewer are mistaken if they imagine that
the public could become acquainted with a
quarter of what would be said or done in these
committees, or that the Papers could ever have
any representatives in them to watch their pro-
ceedings. A modification of this suggestion
might be usefully adopted, but it must be accom-
panied by the only step by which the proceedings
of Parliament can be secured, publicity, as well
as proper consideration, we mean the prolonga-
tion of its term of sitting. Parliament sits from
three to five months : it did that thirty, forty,
and fifty years back, and it ha only.been enabled
to get through its vastly accumulated business by
sitting to a later hour at night, and passing most
important measures at I or 2 o'clock in the
morning. 'Why not at once resolve to sit for six
months in the year? Our Courts ofindicature, as
their business has increased upon them, have sat
longer and longer, till, perhaps, they have only
to
as much of vacation as they ought have, but
so has not acted our Legislature. The review
of Sarran's Lafayette gives rise to some excel-
lent observations on the causes of the dis-
satisfaction of the French with Louie Philippe.
We so entirely agree in theta that we shall,close
our notice of this Number by maiciug an extract
from them.
" Under Charles X. it is tree there was not a fragment
of coo idence in the Government ; but at the same time
there was no dread of it, because everybody was persuaded
-of its impotence to do mischief. Everybody bad the co7l-

victim, that if it bad recourse to any desperate etperi-
ments, It would be easily upset. A revolution was looked
forward to without alarm, because in overturning the ex-
isting dynasty there seemed to be no necessity for changing
the nature of the public institutions. All the mischief
complained of, appeared to arise nut of the single fact of
a family being found upon the throne that had been seated
there by the act of foreign enemies. It was natural, there-
fore, to suppose, that if for the dynasty imposed by fo-
reign conquest there could be substituted a family which
had not distinguished itself by animosity against the prin-
ciples of the revolution, and thus the Constitutio❑ could
be rid of the defect that stared everybody in the face, there
would he little more to wish. And though nobody thought
of trusting for any part of the consequences to the good
intentions either of the Prince that was to be or of hi.
agents, people fancied they saw a certain sort of security
from another quarter ;—they thought they were strong
enough to hinder him from making a fool of himself.

"Under the elder branch of the Bourbons, nobody ex-
pected
the reigning family to display any particular energy
against the Governments which had reseated it upon the
throne. People knew that the feelings of patriotism and
❑ational rights had no extraordinary influence over them,
and that the honour of the country was not the strongest
mover of their actions. But it was fel:, on the other
side, that there was a certain degree of strength in the
ideas of legitimacy and pride of ancestry. If the reigning
family was not to the French people a pledge of power, it
to a certain extent was one of peace, and gave a feeling
of security against the operations of foreign Governments.
Nobody felt any apprehension of a coalition among Kings,
to overturn the throne and partition France. Conse-
quently, in a commercial view, the efforts of industry were
not suspended by the constant expectation of a general war.
" The periodical press, it is true, had often been inter-
fered with ; but public opinion had always ended by get-
ting the better of the government. Under the adminis-
tration of Polignac, the imposition of a censorship was
felt to be impracticable by the road of legislative measures;
and nobody thought the government foolish enough to have
recourse to any others. It is true that the chat ges against
the press were not sent for decision before a jury; but the
courts of law had taken such an independent turn as made
the absence of a jury little felt. The security for justice
was therefore practically not deficient.
"The July Ordonn inces, it must be allowed, were meant
to destroy this crate of things, and would have produced
weighty mischief; but as the mischief has not been under-
gone, it can only be judged of by conjecture. And it is
not intended to enter into a comparison between the evils
which France escaped by the revolution of July and those
she has incurred by its results ; but only to explain why
under the reign of Louis Philippe the mass of the popu-
lation is in a state of more uneasiness, and suffers more
from apprehension, than in the latter years of Charles X.
And above all the object is to examine whether the actual
discontents are substantial and fixed, or hold only of the
changeable humour of the people, and as such may be ex-
pected pass away.
" The result of the July revolution was not to obtain
the liberty of the press, hut to defend it ; and consequently,
on this head, it added nothing to what France possessed
before. The principal use of a free press consists in in-
forming the executive power of the state of general feeling,
and forcing it to march in the track of the public interest.
When, therefore, a nation has the misfortune to be under
a government which makes no account of public opinion,
the press can do nothing but irritate the public mind. It
is continually laying before it the extent of the mischief,
and the hostile intentions of the government ; but it can-
not abstractedly afford the cure fur any of the evil.
" Now the fact is that Louis Philippe and his govern-
ment make no more account of the remonstrances and com-
plaints of the public as exhibited through the channel of
the press, than Charles X. and his Polignac administration
did. The new king seems only to have acknowledged
the tight of private individuals to utter their opinions on
the measures of his government, on condition that on his
side he shall govern as lie pleases. His claim is, that he
has as good a right to be free in his actions, as the writers
have to be free in their comments; and it never enters
into his head, that the object of the liberty of the press
mty be to limit and correct the liberty of power. The
consequence is, that he has instituted a greater number of
proceedings against the press in the course of eighteen
months, than his good cousins Louis XVIII. and Charles
X. in the space of sixteen years. There is no reason,
therefore, to be surprised, if the success of the French in
preserving the privilege of publishing their opinions on
political affairs, has not satisfied them at all points and ,
upon all subjects.
" The other securities that were obtained or preserved
by the revolution of July, were in the same manner net of
a nature to afford to France any great increase of present
happiness. It is undoubtedly a good thing for a nation
to possess the trial by jury, and be protected against un-
just sentences for political offences. But when the holders
of power multiply groundless accusations to a certain point,
the assurance of having them brought before a jury is not
a reason for being content with their proceedings. The
mischief done or attempted, is all laid to the charge of the
government ; but nobody puts the impartiality of the
juries to the credit of its account, and particularly whi n
the government has done all that was in its power to turn
them from the right.
" The raising of the National Guard, which was called
for as the means of diminishing the number of the regular
army, and lightening taxation, has ended in increasing the
public expense, and producing no relief in any quarter.
That the people were armed, organized, and commanded
by officers of their own choosing, was in Louis Philippe's
eyes only a source of fear the more ; and instead of look-
ing to them as a suppoi t for measures to be taken, he
looked to the regular army for the means of setting them
at defiance. He distributed his regul a- regiments through.
out the country, with exact reference to the battalions of
National Guards they were to hold in check. Paris, for
example, during its existence never saw so many troops
drawn round it, as since it has had eighty thousand Na-
tional Guards, commanded by their own officers, within
its walls. The only consequence, therefore, of individuals
putting themselves to expense and sacrifice to maintain a
free system, has been to increase the expenses peculiar to
a despotic Government.
" The communes have obtained the power of appoint-
ing the members of the Municipal or Borough Councils,
and in almost every instance they have made good use of
the privilege. But the Government has retained the ap-
pointment of the mayors, who are the executive officers;
and?almost every where its choice has fallen on the indivi-
duals least popular with the public. The consequence is,
' that in many of the communes, and particularly in the
great towns, the influence of the authorities that ale
chosen by the people is paralyzed by the officers of the
Crown, and that to avoid collision, the best members of
the Municipal Councils come to the resolution to resign."