Star.
London, England, 1829-09-16 00:00:00

From the Journal du Commerce.

It will be recollected that on the evenings of the 19th and 25:13
of November, the subaltern agents of police, after baying harries.
ded the streets Saint Denis and Saint Martin, so dad the passers-

PRICE SEVENPENC?.

by were collected into a body, broke the windows, uttered incen-
diary vociferations, threw stones at the troops, and, when the sedi-
tion was sufficiently organised, and the authorities had given the
usual warnings, they separated from the crowd, and having placed
themselves out of the *ay of the balls. the gendarmerie fired upon
the multitude. Now, what does the Gazette sin ? It copies from the
Journal dm [;.amerce the at tide relative to the Brittany subscription;
this document is, in its terms and spirit, respectful to the legiti-
mate authorities ; it expresses fidelity to the King, submission c,.
the charter and the laws, confidence in the justice of the tribunzls,
audit formally excludes the idea of resistance by force, which
would be a frightful calamity. But the ministerial writer, substitut-
ive his own ideas for those contained in the article in question,
transforms the original document into injuries against the person
of the King and his authority, attempts against the Royal pre-
rogative, and inducement to re-establish the privileges of the
ancient regime, and the overthrow of the charter and the
laws of the kingdom, &c. it picks up stones and throws them at
the King and the Magistrates, and then denounces us as the author,
of the attempt. The Journal du Creurserce is seized by order of the
Authorities, and the Gamine also gets itself seized in order to play
its part in the trial,—in order to inculpate us, and to sustain the
accusation which it has taken the pains to get up. The following
are the means which the dilator points out to the Government :
" The document which has been drawn up, and to which it is
sought to obtain signatures, is unconstitutional, blegalin the highest
degree, and contains a grave accusation against the King's persop
and authority.
•s I. It presumes in the monarch the violation of his oaths by that
of the Charter, and the liberty which it guarantees.
s• 2- It again calls into activity the principle of resistance which
it is wished to organise in case of the official proposal of • an uncon-
stitutional change in the electoral system, or the illegal establish.
ment of the impost,' which is an attempt against the Royal will,
and makes private individuals the judges of this prerogative of the
Throne.

"3. An association of subscribers with a political intention,
having chiefs, and bound by written or other engagements, consti-
tuted a real political corporation—an alliance or federation which
cannot be formed without danger to the public tranquillity. and
which the magistrates and the authoritits have the right to know
of, in order to dissolve and to proceed against the authors accord-
ing to the importance of the circumstances.
" 4. The preamble, by recalling the contract of union between
Brittany and France, and by appearing to support the re•ictance
provoked by that document, from the necessity of making certrin
clauses of the contract respected, resuscitates privileges which had
been extinguished and destroyed by the Constitution of the king-
dom, and by the laws which have fixed the new territorial division,
and placed all the departments under the same authority and the
same law. In this respect the document in question is unconstitu-
tional, and contains a grave attempt against the Charter and the
laws of the kingdom.
" 5. The principles which induced the condemnation of the
national subscription in 1820 are applicable to the subscription
which is attempted to be obtained in Brittany, since its object is to
paralyse the action of the laws and the government."
It would be useless to expose all the impostures which this
commentary contains, as each of the interpretations of the denun-
ciator is contradicted by the express terms of the document com-
mented upoe.The subscription is only opened in the possible.case that
a handful of political waste-books(bmadisfonspefitiques)should attempt
to violate the institutions of the kingdom, and to establish imposts
"either without the free, regular, and constitutional consent otter
Chambers constituted in conformity with tbe Charter and the exist-
ing laws, or with the consent of Chambers formed by an electoral
system which shall not have been voted With the same ColleitU.
tional forms." The hypothesis, then, is a material violation of ilit '
(liner and the laws. There is, then, no question of resistance to
the authority of the Government, nor of opposing the exercise of
the Royal prerogative, still less of an injurious attack upon the
person of the King, towards whom the Members of the Brittany
Association declare themselves bound by oath and by duty. They
only engage to resist acts which should not proceed front autho-
rity, regularly expressed, of the King and the legal powers, and to
which obedience could not be due.

In such a case the members of the association would resist the
usurpers, whoever they might be, of the powers of the King and
the Chambers, not by force, but by legal means, such as the refusal
to satisfy exactions, and by proceeding against exactors in the tri-
bunals and in the Cour Royale of Rennes. Let the waste- bosh
politicians, then, cease to identify themselves with royalty, and to
pretend, at each of the censures of which they are the object, that
the King is attacked in their persona an insolent artifice, by which,
shielding themselves with the inviolability of the King, they seek
to despoil the King himself of it, and to make the responsibility of
their acts fall upon his head.
But do we not see through their real intentions, under a pretext
of which they themselves discover the absurdity ? Even at the
mere words of chatter, illegal impost, and exaction, see how they
irritate themselves, and pretend that the King's prerogatives are
attacked ! What interest have they to fortify themselves befutc-
hand against resistance to the collection of illegal contributions
which may be imposed, if it is not because they intend to give an
opportunity and an object for that resistance? Do they fear that
an association formed for au hypothetical object would become a
subject of trouble, if it were not probable that the hypothesis
would be realized? If such an Association had been formed
during the last administration, NJ. Roy and his colleagues
would not have suffered much uneasiness about it—they would
have held the authors in contempt as visionaries, for they would
not have thought of imposing taxes without the concurrence of the
Chambers, or with the aid of a pretended Chamber of Deputies
formed by an electoral system established without law. The con-
fusion into which the Ministry is thrown at the mete appearance of
the pLin of the Association, and the pursuits directed against the
journal which published it, evidently prove that the citizens who
suggested it were wise and foreseeing, and that the danger is nut
imaginary. The news of the seizure of the journal will no doubt
have the effect of multiplying the number of its subscribers, and
more associations will be formed in other parts of France upon the
same model.

The citizens will not suffer themselves to be intimidated by the
menaces of the Ministry. The legal resistance to arbitrary power
and to usurpation, so far from being an offence, is an act of patri-
otism and fidelity to tee legitimate authority. The tribunals will
not punish as an offence the act by which the citizens unite with a
design, the end and means of which are equally irreproachable.
The right of associatin; is as natural a right, and as incontes:abl,r
in principle, as the right of acting and of thinking. The law only
suppresses the culpable use which may be made of it. Criminal
associations are those like that society of self-called Royalists
denounced in 1819 by M. Madier de Montgsir, under the
name of occult government, which laboured to overturn the
legal government by violence and assassination. It was, or rather
it still is, that criminal association which unceasingly conspires
against the Charier, and which now thinks itself powerful enough
to accomplish its project. They are those organized military com-
panies formed in some of the western departments, which have
chiefs, arms, and flags unknown to the army : they are, in short,
those 50,000 men in whose name a letter was addressed t'. the
King to offer their aid in destroying the legislative power. These
are the associations which the authorities should endeavour to dis
solve, and whose authors they should pursue according to the im-
portance of the drcemstances."
Front the Journal the Debits.

Every day the existence of the Ministry is a crime against the
monarchy. Powerless and divided, it remains motionless ; but its
unpopularity acts for it. It is like a public provocation addressed
to France. Everywhere it excites popular protests, and prepares
legal resistances. The Procureur du Rol yesterday caused to be
seized at the Post-office the Journal du Cornnterre, which tad just
published the project of association and subscription in Brittany.
Hut is the moral effect ul it destroyed by this procredit,g ? Will Mi•
nistera prosecute those who signed the document? What, in shoot,
have they dune? It is a company in muto insurance, fur the pay-
ment of expenses which might be incurred by its subscribers who
should refuse to pay taxes illegally imposed,without concurrence
al the Chanit,ers, r with the concurrence of Chambers illegally
formed. The employment of such a precaution is, indeed, of nielan-
choly augury, but it has been formally provided for by the laws. In
every Iludgrt since the year IE7, we toad, •• all contributions. di-
rect or 'li:direct, other than those authorised by the present law,
under whatever title or denomination, are formally interdicted, on
pain, agaiiist the Authorities who order them, the officers who pre-
pate th., demands, and rho-e who collect the tax, of beiiig pros. -
cured as peculators, without prejud:ce of action at any time within
titter years. against all receivers or collectors, and without its being
necessary to bring this action before the tribunals to be provided
with preaannary authority."