Star.
London, England, 1829-09-19 00:00:00

From the Journal des Debuts.

May the astonishment and gilef of France prevent the com-
pletion of the project which we are about to reveal ! May this
work of darkness, this fatal embryo of Ministerial genius, be
dragged to its light—may it be seen, and die! It will easily be
conceived why, in the apparent inactivity of the Ministry, the
official writers have said so much within the late fortnight of the
constituent Royal power, and of its supreme right alone to mu•
dify the Charter, which emanated from it alone. It will be
easily comprehended why, so lately as this morning, the least
absurd of the organs of Ministers laughed at the article 4* of
the Charter—declared that the Chamber had not the power to re-
fuse taxes—that their consent is a forced areaway ; and that if
they exercise the right which they had hitherto been erroneously
supposed to possess, the Crown would know what it would have
to do. These doctrines are only pilot-balloons—the forerunning
signs of a project of which some men press the incredible execu-
tion. These men have begun to perceive, or rather have finished
by avowing, that they will not have a majority in the Chambers;.
and this is the remedy imagined by the most violent among them,
and already communicated and discussed. It is proposed to decree
by Ordonnance—first, that the number of Deputies shall be in-
creased by 200 ; secondly, that these 200 members shall be directly
elected by the Councils-General of departments in a determined
proportion ; thirdly, that this addition shall be immediately applied
to the Chamber of Deputies, which in this way would not undergo
any immediate renewal.
But this is illegal and insensate, every one will cry out who reads
it. It was, however, thought a favourable moment to advise a mea-
sure which had been meditated for a long time. It has beenthought
possible to take advantage of the uneasiness of which they alone
were guilty, and of the popular manifestations which the they
lent invasion of power had provoked, and ncessky was alleged as
an imperious reason. In addition to sophistry, also, there was no
want of lying analogies, in order to bolster up this necessity. They
relied, too, upon the alluocratic system, backed by .thigloasasy
which M. de I'olignac would very willingly take for the Charter.—
It was said, citing M. Cocks (for, in certain political situations, a
publicist and a fool are synonymous), " We are destroyed by
uniform and democratical elections. Look at England ; the sources
of her Parliamentary representation are very varied : there are
Deputies from Counties, Deputies from Cities, Deputies from the
Universities, and Deputies from rotten Boroughs, who are often
named by two or three, by 15 or 20 freeholders, dependent upon
some great lord or an officer of the Crown." Something of the
same kind to wanted in France, and Royalty must supply what Is
wanting in the aristocracy.
The Councils-General are now named by the King ; the mass is
composed of rich proprietors; and above all, they are composed of
our fraternity (des seatres)—give them the right of directly choosing
200 Deputies. This is the way to have a Chamber as numerous as
that of England, and to save the Ministry and the Throne.
But it will be said, on every side, this would be the overthrow
of all law, a fundamental State blow, a civil war. The Councils-
General of departments, which at present are not legally composed,
as was avowed bp a Minister last Session—these Councils-General
have fixed duties, constitutionally limited, and which cannot be
exceeded without a great stretch of power.
The Chambers, united to the King, could not, without abrogathig
a multitude of laws, and without violating the Charter, confer upon
these Councils a third of the electoral power; and how could the
Crown alone, in these Chambers, submerge itself in a chaos of
illegalities, and our institutions, and our fifteen years' obedience to
the Charter, and the present and the future? It matters not—the
inventor of the plan will say it is a good one, and, what is more,
that it is possible ; and at this price they would have a Chamber,
when the Chamber could legalise itself, and unction its origin by
its acts. In short, that this is their only resource.