The Sun.
London, England, 1861-03-02 00:00:00

THE FRENCH LEGISL ITIVE POD.r,

The following is the draught of the Address pre-
sented by the Legislative Body t—
" Sire,—The Legislative Body cannot exercise
fct• the first time the new and important proroga-
tives for which it is indebted to the initiative of
your Majesty without applauding the far-seeing
idea which inspired them, and without showing
itself proud and grateful of the confidence which
they testify.
" These liberties develope the principles of the
Constitution, by rendering its mechanism and its
action applicable, in a prudently progressive man-
ner, to the present state of society.
"This Constitution, founded in view of the diffi-
culties which it had to surmount, and of the paci-
fication it was destined to produce, has prepared
and rendered possible the developments which it
is now receiving. We accept, with the resolution
to employ it for the general welfare, the larger
part which is given to our labours and to our
responsibility. Public opinion, witnessing our
loyal efforts to make 'known the truth to the
country as well as to yourself, will sanction more
readily our decisions, and render more efficacious
our devotedness to your person and your dynasty,
for nothing can contribute to our popularity which
does not add to your force.
"Your Majesty, in calling on us to expose to you
with sincerity our opinions and our sentiments,
facilitates the expression of them by giving an-
nually a general account of the affairs of the
country.
" The situation of France presents to us order
everywhere maintained, the laws obeyed, religion
honoured, arts and letters encouraged, instruction
generally disseminated, and the populations devot-
ed and confiding; and it is just to add that these
benefits, the works of your wisdom and the fruits
of your reign, have caused calm in public opinion
and security in interests to succeed without tran-
sition the anxieties and tumults of our civil discords.
"Sire, the Legislative body praises and shares
your noble solicitude for the interests of agricul-
lure, of manufactures, and of commerce, which
are at once the field in which national activity is
displayed, and the source from which public pros-
perity is derived.

"We zealously took part in the measures the
object of which was to improve the condition of
agriculture, whtch is the highest interest of France,
by facilitating the sale of its productions, and
lowering the price of the articles which it con-
sumes.

"The prosperity of the agricultural populations
is the most intelligent wish of the manufacturing
classes ; for a close solidarity unites all human
labours, and mingles them together in a common
destiny.
" We entertain the hope that French manufac-
tures will issue triumphantly from the trial they
are about to undergo, but they can only do so on
condition of being able to obtain raw materials
cheap, and conveyance at a low price. Accordingly
our efforts shall second yours, sire, to hasten, the
completion and improvement of the means of com-
munication. However, an indispensable element
in agricultural, manufacturing, and commercial
production is, confidence in the future; but that
confidence cannot exist without a certain fixedness
in Customs' legislation, which may reassure inte-
rests and encourage enterprise.
" Sire, we learn with satisfaction that the Bud-
get will be presented to us in equilibrium, without
there having been any necessity to have recourse
to credit or to new taxes.

"The resources of France are inexhaustible, like
her activity and energy ; but your policy, prudently
managing our finances, will assure reserves for the
eventualities of the future, and we hope that cir-
cumstances will not arise of so imperative a charac-
ter as to cause extraordinary and supplementary
credits to sensibly modify the provisions of the
Budget.
"For the maintenance and consolidation of all
these things, sire, one superior condition is neces-
sary,and that is—Peace !

‘• Your Majesty faithfully expressed the unani-
mous and profound sentiment of France when you
proclaimed that she sincerely desires peace. Under
your reign, sire, France csnnot be either provoca-
tive or apprehensive.
" That attitude, however, neither interdicts nor
embarrasses the free action of the country in the
affairs in which its power and dignity may be en•
gaged.
"We hope that the new regime established in
Algeria will respond equally to the need of security
and to the exigencies of colonisation.

" In Savoy and in the county of Nice you have
attached to the Empire, pacifically and in virtue of
a treaty ratified by the popular will, provinces for
long time friendly, and now irrevocably French.
" You yielded in that affair to the necessities of
territorial defence, the natural consequence of the
notable aggrandisement of a neighbouring State;
and your policy, as firm as it is prudent, gave satis-
faction to France without encroaching on European
law.

" In Syria we have assumed the initiative of a
humane enterprise, and we are accomplishing it in
virtue of a European sanction ; we hope that the
permission so given will be continued to us, that
we may be able to pursue our object, and that the
holy and disinterested mission which we have ac-
cepted will be fulfilled.
" In China our soldiers, united to those of Great
Britain, have cast new lustre on our arms; like the
phalahxes of antiquity, they have, by the force of
their organisation, struck to the heart the most ex-
tensive and most populous of empires.
" May France and England, equally loyal in their
intentions and equally sincere in their alliance,
always march thus side by side for the defence of
just causes and for the triumph of civilisation !
" Sire, the national and traditional interest which
we take in the destinies of Italy has been increased
by the energetic and glorious efforts which you
have made at the head of our armies in favour of
her deliverance.

" The Legislative Body, sharing the respect you
have shown for the wishes of the Italian people,
approves the wise reserve which has maintained
France on the ground of treaties, of the law of na-
tions, and of justice, and which, without diminish-
ing your oympathips fnr rising nations, has not per-
mitted you to associate your policy with acts which
you disapproved.
" Sire, the diplomatic documents and the last
despatch of troops to Rome, at a critical conjuncture,
have proved to the whole world that your constant
efforts have secured to the Papacy its safety and
independence, and have protected its temporal
sovereignty as far as possible, considering the force
of things and the resistance opposed to wise coun-
sels.

" In so acting your Majesty has faithfully ful-
filled the duties of Eldest Son of the Church, and
responded to the religious sentiment as well as the
political traditions of France.
" That grave question the Legislative Body leaves
entirely to your wisdom, well persuaded that in the
eventualities of the future your Majesty will be
actuated by the samo principles and the same sen-
timents, without being discouraged by the injustice
which we deplore. .

"Sire, for -nearly 10 years past, during which
France has confided to Sou her destinies, obstacles
and struggles have neither disconcerted your pru-
dence nor wearied your courage; Providence has
covered you with its regls, and the country with its
acclamations.

- - " " Persist, Sire, in that policy, alike prudent and
resolute, liberal and firn, which under a strong
Power shelters durable liberties, and has no other
ambition than the glory and honour of the French
name.

" Your son, under the influence of the labours and
virtues which surround him, will grow in strength
by your example. He will also have learned, one
da)r, to govern in a manner worthy of a great
nation, mistress of its own destinies, ton just to be
feared, too honest to he suspected, and too strong to
be intimidated or led array."

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The law, we are told by an ancient authority, is
the perfection of reason. He takes care, however,
fp explain, that the reason of which it is the perfec-
tion is not the common sort of reason, but that
"artificial" sort which is "gotten by long study
and experience." This gives us to understand why
it is that common people, in some instances, fail to
perceive the wisdom and justness of legislative acts.
They have not the artificial reason which is needful
for a proper comprehension of the artificial business
of legislation.
With this quaint sentiment before us, we have
no difficulty in reverentially confessing that Mr.
Gladstone's reason is of a sort the very reverse of
common, and for that cause not appreciable by
common minds. He has obstinately insisted that
the Income•tax should be levied equally on all
classes of incomes, irrespective of the consideration
whether they proceed from permanent or precarious
sources. We protest, with Mr. Hubbard, that this
equality is most shameful inequality, and that the
tax can be levied, and ought to be levied, in such
form as to recognise, in some measure at least, the
difference between the income which a man has
without earning it, and the income which a man
has almost to wear his life out to obtain.
We are glad, therefore, that Mr. Hubbard's
motion was carried against the Government,
and shall be still more glad to learn that the
committee appointed has reported in favour of his
views, and that the House of Commons is prepared
to give its sanction to a principle so conformable
with justice and common sense.
We think it a misfortune for a man to have a
too subtle and refined intellect. It is like living up
in the expanse above the earth. This: sort of life
incapacitates for ordinary mundane duties. A man
who soars habitually to the stars, cannot be ex-
pected to pick up crumbs from the low earth. We
are continually seeing instances of this superfine
kind of life. We have wonderful mathematicians
amongst us to whom Euclid is A B C, and who
can resolve problems which border on infinity, or
at least on insolubility, with perfect ease, and with
a kind of recreative sensation as the fruit of their
effort. But we have heard deep men of this class
who could not do an ordinary sum in arithmetic,
and who would be beaten in mental figuring by
the shallowest of marketwomen I We have beard
of men learned in classics, familiar with the gods of
Pagandom, and all its poets and historians, who
have found a difficulty in writing good English,
and positively could not spell correctly the ordinary
words of their mother-tongue. We have heard of
medical men who, as surgeons or physicians, could
deal skilfully and successfully with the extremes)
ills to which flesh is heir, but were sur
passed by Old Mother -- and Quack.
doctor -- in the cure of burns, scalds,
wounds, and the thousand-and-one little ai

ments which befal some one or other daily. Mr.
Gladstone's inability to deal with common cases
arises, we presume, from a corresponding peculi-
arity incidental to his superfine genius.
What can be more clear to a common comprehen-
sion, than that a professional man or a trader who
earns, with his wits or his fingers, say £5OO a year,
is not so able to pay taxes,and is not under the same
obligation to pay them, as the fundholder with his
sixteen thousand and odd in the Three per
Cents ? The earned income depends on many
contingencies; the income :from the funds on
none. The professional income ceases when
a man is worn out, and if he has not saved
beforehand, he becomes a beggar or a dependent.
On the other hand, the permanent income survives
in perpetuity. the present receiver, and becomes the
means of maintenance or settlement for those who
follow him. It is preposterous to assert that a man
with £5OO a year, who may die penniless, unless
of that £5OO a year he lays by for the winter of his
life, is equally rich, equally available as a subject
for taxation with him who, though living up to the
last farthing of his £5OO a year, will die worth a
great many thousands of pounds—that is, all the
principal money from which his income accrued.
Mr. Gladstone affirms that he cannot see the
force of this argument, and he is disposed to be
tricky because Mr. Hubbard has endeavoured to
simplify the question, and to redress the wrong
which it involves. The Chancellor of the Exche-
quer intimates that the argument is "a sentiment."
If it were of that airy nature, we should have thought
that he would be more likely to receive it, as be-
longing to the atmospheric region wherein he is
so fond of ballooning. It is unfortunately a corn-
mpnplace matter-of-fact position—a simple rule-
of-three sum. Every boy in the day-schools of the
country can understand it. But our sublime Chan-
cellor of the Exchequer is a master only of abstruse
equations. He stands bewildered in the presence of
vulgar fractions, and profoundly declares an equa-
tion like as " two and two make four" to be a mere
sentiment.—Norfolk News.