Star.
London, England, 1831-02-01 00:00:00

BARON DUDON.

DRAPER'S ANNUAL DINNER.—CITY JANUARY 29.
At the annual dinner of the Draper's this day, Mr.
Warden Wrench informed the assembly that they were
honoured with the presence of one of the Cabinet Ministers
of the ex-King of France, and after eulogizing his talent
and amiable manners, proposed the health of his Excellency
Baron Dunox, which was received with every testimony of
satisfaction.
The Baron returned his thanks in the French language,
which not being generally understood, Mr. Wlrzonn (who
accompanied him) addressed the assembly as follows :
In rising to interpret the sentiments of the eminent
satesman, whom you have just honoured with such cordial
expressions of generous hospitality, I cannot refrain from
begging you to accept my own thanks for your kindness
towards that distinguished individual—with whose con-
fidence, intimacy, and friendship, I have been honoured for
nearly twenty years, and in whose present and future wel
fare and happiness I feel, as it is my duty, the warmest
and most affectionate interest, and nothing, I am sure, he
begs me to state, has given him more heartfelt delight
(a Nile it was quite unexpected), than your friendly reception
of him this evening, a reception which does honour to this
society and to the British nation.
Gentlemen, I know and applaud those wise rules of this
corporation, which exclude all politics from these convivial
meetings ; but this is a peculiar example of fortune. I
trust that upon a question of purely foreign politics, and the
consequences of which must, however, sooner or later, and
I fear speedily, come home to the business and bosom of
every gentleman present, you will indulge ate with your pa-
tience for a few observations upon the recent revolution in
France, and the present state of the French Capital. Upon
that convulsion, which has occasioned the temporary retire-
tuent from his native country of the nobleman who sits be-
side me—of a man, who having already in tender years en-
dured the affliction of seeing his father and grandfather
perish upon the same scaffold, martyrs in the cause of loy-
alty to their King and the laws, is now, in his turn, himself
an exile with the legitimate inheritors of that ancient mo-
narchy—a man who, I will now venture to assert, and'
giving full credit to the general principles of loyalty, pa-
triotism, and talent in that gallant nation, has not, on quit-
ting France, left behind him a truer Frenchman, a wiser or
more expert statesman, a more sincere patriot, a better friend
of rational liberty, or a more enlightened and amiable mem-
ber of society, than himself, be he whom he may, and I speak
from an intimate knowledge of the French capital for more
than twenty years, up to within a very few weeks since,
when I last visited France.

Baron Dudon has a right to the title of a true
Frenchman, and a patriot : his property was confis-
cated by the republie, and he served in the ranks of
the republican armies, and rose by his courage, merit, and
genius, to the post of Intendant-General, or Viceroy, of the
northern kingdoms of Spain, during the campaigns
of the British armies in the Peninsula. Until Napoleon ab-
dicated, he was as faithful to him, as he has since proved
himself to the restored dynasty, to whose cabinet he was
called in the moment of danger, and after the promulgation
of the fatal ordinances.

He was therefore no party to their promulgation, but he
saw and felt the approaching necessity of a more vigorous
system of internal policy.
The temporary restriction on the press would, if executed,
have spared many evils : that wise (only because necessary)
precaution was rendered abortive, by the errors in its
execution. Prinse Polignac, by deciding for himself upon
the time and mode of its enforcement, incurred and has sub-
mitted to the consequences of its failure.
Gentlemen, the fittest pledges of the necessity of rein;
forcing the executive, are those ministers who experienced
the irresistible pressure of the rising force in the people,
which if not counteracted and quelled, would have overawed
and impelled the monarch into measures, injurious and fatal
to the honour of the King and the peace of Europe and the
prosperity of France herself.
In such a predicament the history of all civilized nations,
ancient and modern, (and of none more than the suspension
of the Habeas Corpus Act by Mr. Pitt) has shewn, and
established as an axiom :—That it is the first duty and the
chief virtue of a minister to preserve the state, at the risk of
his own responsibility, for a violation of established laws.
Gentlemen, it is in vain to disguise the fact. The French
people were impatient of their long repose ; and I am far
from treating as criminal (except in a political sense) that
noble aspiration after military glory, which warms the heart
of every Frenchman, but which has proved so pernicious to
their own permanent interests, and so fatal to the ex-
istence, of so many neighbouring States.
It may be said, the present tranquillity of France refutes
the assertion, of the necessity for the ordinances. This is
an error. The present sovereign and ministry were not the
Chiefs of that party, which hurled the exiled family from
the throne. On the contrary they seem to have been placed
in readiness by a special Providence, to arrest for a moment
the dangerous career of the republican movers ; and the
criterion of the real necessity for extraordinary powers to the
government of Charles the Tenth, will be the permanence
of that king and that ministry. They have recently es-
caped from the attacks of an opposition so formidable, that
but for the interference of one distinguished character, the
Orleans dynasty would have ere now ceased to reign. Ido
not contemplate the possibility of their protracted resistance
-to the national passion for military glory.
In the mean time, what evils have already resulted from
the ill comprehended cry of liberty, over distracted Europe.
Consider the state of Belgium, of. Poland of Switzerland,
of Hanover, of Ireland.
Gentlemen, civil liberty, like ardent spirits, becomes a
blessing or a curse, according to the capacity of the posses-
sor, and the measure of the dose.
Taken in moderation, it enlivens and invigorates beyond
that exact proportion ; it intoxicates, maddens, and de-
stroys.
Time alone can resolve the question whether the French un-
der Charles the Tenth enjoyed or abused the liberty, best
adapted to their permanent interests. They have thrown
off the bonds of allegiance to their lawful sovereign—a re-
volution has been accomplished,—and as every
'free is hest known by its fruits,—the late Mi-
nisters are condemned to await with patience the
result of the subversion of their well-intended efforts to. pre-
serve the peace of France and the world by the only means
which to them appeared feasible. Those efforts were abor-
tive, they being physically unable to carry them- into exe-
cution, against the national will. • A
Should those who now possess the reins of power prove
strong enough to preserve inviolate the faith of treaties, and
to preserve the rights of neighfiburing states from infrac-
tion, 'then will they admit that they have misjudged the
rising spirit of their gallant cotinmen, that they have pre-
maturely curbed what they dreaded for the sake of France,
their effervescing irdour for military conquest, and submit
in silence to the assure present age and posterity,
But should eves the t highly-gifted Sovereign of the
People's choici and b atriotic sqd experienced tdin4ters
prove in their tan dgailly powerless, as thslatelNing ,144
his Ministers.
.voscolee ell popular storm ; should Francso
second lime, and for twenty years to come, carry war sod
devastation into the bosom of so lately peaceful, prosperous,