The Statesman.
London, England, 1815-10-21 00:00:00

SPEECH OF THE KEEPER OF THE SEALS.

Ganiteuctr,—The King has ordered us to ley be.
fore you a plan of law for the suppression of seditious
Cries and provocations to rebellion.
Our old and new laws contain sufficient regula.
tions for the suppression of these crimes in times of
tranquillity, and when no extraordinary circumstance
interropts the order and accustomed proceedings of
the Government. But if great climes 1-I,ve been com-
mitted, if the laws have been disregarded, if a peace-
able and disarmed mul!itude has been forced to yield
to violence and arms, if, for his own preservation,
the chitin!, who was subject to the laws, Juts been
forced to remain motionless before seditious bands,
without discipline or controul, assembled as the last
support of a desperate fiction ; if iniquity has for a
length of time enjoyed its fatal triumphs, calamities
are still prolonged even when these events are inter-
' rupted. Rebels then endeavour by means of audio.
city to recover their lost advantages. The seditious
mutually instigate each other, and make efforts to be
perceived in all places, and at every hour, as if cer-
tain of a new victory, should they succeed in in-
spiring terror. They receive into their society all
whom the armies have rejected with indignation, and
all those criminals vs ho, through obscurity, have
evaded the action of the law. Should the public
force arrest the progress of their designs, still they do
not renounce them ; they have recnurse to injuri-
ous speeches and calumnious writings; they have
their signs and rallying words, and the weaker their
numbers are, the more powerful they wish to appear
by means of noise and tumult. They are encouraged
by impunity ; several show themselves op. lily, and
though their indiscretion betrays their weakness, it
is nevertheless certain that their practices disturb so-
cial order ; and the public interest requires that their
turbulent designs and detestable enterprises should
be efficaciously repressed.
There are men whose moral conduct depends
' solely on the fear of punishment. It is against these
criminals, who form the greater portion of the
species, that our present laws are in tinny respects
unavailing.

The. Penal Code does not express itself in a man-
ner sufficiently precise on the subject of seditious
cries and speeches tending to intigate crimes against
the internal safety of the State. That Code could
not foresee the attacks which might be directed
agaist the Constitutional Charter, since the latter did
not exist when the code was framed. Calamitous
imputations, insults, end outrageous expressions,
publicly offered to the Monarch, or the Members of
his family, were not ranked amongst crimes. The
law only took cognizance of outrages and violence
-directed against the depositaries of the public autho-
rity, and insults and calumnies directed against pri-
vate individuals.

But to the necessity of a positive law on these mat-
ters:ls joined that of a speedy pursuit and punishment,
which to serve as an effectual example, must be in-
flicted promptly after the crime. Offences so fre-
quent that it is necessary to characterize them, may
be pursued correctionally ; now, pursuit in a cor-
rectional manner, is in its nature very speedy, and
the Judges are in general very near the spot in which
the crime has been committed. The plan of law which
we lay before you, Gentlemen, has for its object dif-
ferent sorts of seditious actions, not noticed in the
Penal Code ; cries, speeches, writings which excite
rebellions, calumnious imputations, insults, and out-
rageous expressions against the King and his family,
and the plats proposes to determine the punishments
due to these crimes.

IVe think it defines them wi!li precision. Cries,
speeches, calumnies, cannot be punished but in the
case of their publicity ; writings which re-produce, or
as it may be said, multiply these offences under
another form, acts which attack publicly and nicked-
ly the respectable engines of the royal authority ought
to be equally punished.
The same observation applies to different acts and
speeches, which derive their principal offensive cha.
racier from the present circumstances, and which tend
to shake the confidence which is due to the promises
of the King and to the Constitutional Charter.
Without doubt we should have considered the
King and his august Haus.? as too highly elevated to
be reached by calumny, insult, or injury, did not a
long and grievous experience teach us that these pro-
ceedings form the prelude of revolution and treason,
and that they tend by destroying respect, to under-
mine the throne, and to diminish the veneration and
lore due by so many claims to the Monarch for the
purpose of weakening his authority. Insults directed
against him are offered to the State. They compro-
rni.e the dignity and safety of the oration. A system
followed by calumnies and insults inseti,ibly prepares
minds for the development of the most abornitoole ,
designs, and at last, by means of epreadiag the opi-
Ilion that an event cannot be avoided, it becomes in-

eviin ble.

lased t

to punishments in the law prop‘ to you, are t
irapsisonnient, aorsellance under the authority of the
High Police of the State, titivation of the eights of
voting, election, and eligibility, and qualification for I
public and administrative functions, or bearkg arms.,
The punishments are correctional, because it is be.
Leved that their immediate app:icatinn, without keit%

PRICE Id.

injurious to justice, will be still more eltectosl than
their ertenr.

We have endeavoured to proportion these punish-
ments to the nature .4 their crimes. 'rims, w e heirs
supposed, that he who shall endeavour to es-ite tu-
mult in the State, cannot justly pretend to exercise
his political rights, that he who disturbs the public'
order should he excluded, at lent for a lime, ftomt
exercising public functions; that he who threatens,
by indirect provocations, public and private
cannot, without endangering the tranquillity of the
citizens, ohtsiti the privilege of bearing arms.
' We intend, Gentlemen, to read to you th;s Lave
Project. ft has been meditated by the King. The
know ledge and experience of the Chambers will give
to it the necessary authority.

Till LAW PRIIF.: T.
Louis, by the Grace of Cud, King of Fromm
and Navarre, &c.
We have ordered that the Law-Preject, the teem'
of which follows, shall hr presentetl in our name tq
the Chamber of Deputies of the apartments by our
Keeper pf the Seals, Peer of France, and Count
Portalis, Councillor in our Council of tates to
whom we consign the etarge of explaining its motives
end sustaining the discussion thereon.
Art. 1. Are declared ...Mikis., all cries. all speeches Intermit
is public places, or such as are allotted to the habitatsl meeting
of e.lifros
All printed papers or euch lint having been printed, whlch
sh t!1 hive bees ;toad up. di.tributed, delive•ed to the
Piess. and which sh ill esyr the waste aim attack against
the life, the person, or the nutitorov of the King. sir the fiesta
or persons of the Members of toe itityal it' tinily.;
Whir h may be injuriuu. or calumnious towards the Kiog of
the Members of his Family;
Which shalt eccite to the t .king op arms the Royal
anthority, to disot.edienee of the Contitiiutiumil Chsrter and
the law-, diereg-iid of the authority of the fillniorotes or
Agents of the Grown:hem lewdly constituted, or to itss
turbonce of public tranquillity by acts of violence towards
persons ro.d property;
hit which shall he invoked the name of n Umetter, or of ast
Militia oat of his founds, Isv which shall be provak•d. directly
ur bolite. sly, elittot the nverthrovt of the Covesuiseut, or a
eh, ego ~f the orier of soice..ton to t:ie the me.
Act. Y. The epeecime or writings sitentionr.l in the at * ei.4toe
of the ;arced* a, tide, wis titter indirect pros we-
to the ()Ventre iieset titer* in tie article. or wickedly
announcing that crime, or offences in that ottureehotild or ought
h. be commits d, or manifesting an iutention to commit them,
are equally declared seditious.
Art. 3. Are cu•ity ..f seditious acts. all persons who !boll
circulate or e.itsnirig.mee, either alarms rum-et Moe the
of the pro,terts tilled national, or reports of a pretended
le.estatilisliment of tithes, or feudal rights, or accounts totaling
to Aare) the eit,zens rest.e. lit.; the umiak-fiance of the
sante aniboritiey, or to sb kr their fi lelity.
Art. 4. Are declored seditious hi"-, the removal or degradn-
lion of the white Ra 4, of the ;trios • f Fiance, and other sigma
of the Royal authority t of placards of laws or medic reguM-
lions ; the erection of any B.g, or the wearing of wise coca ode
or any other sip fur rallying forbidden, or even not uulhoriset;
by the King.
Art. 5. All persons guilty of the aforesaid speeches. ivies or
nets—all +taboos. primers. and distributors of the *Maloof
writings defined by the present low. shall be punished by art
imprisonment of at leant farce muitilis, and not esceeili `Ave
s cars,
The persons thus convicted, shall further remain after the ec-
Hiration of their punishment, uncle the soperinten ence of the
igh Police, for a space of lime, which snail he determined by
the sentence, and witicit shall not exceed five years. the whole
conformably to the 3d Chapter of the Ist Bonk of the Penal
Code, without prejud;ce to the criminal prosecution. and ap-
plication of the more serious puilis7nuents prescribed by. the
Penal Code, in case of the seditious cries, B,.eecbes, writtozs,
and Sifts having certain erects.
Tue repetition of the offence shall be punished conformably
to the 58th Article of the Penal Code.

..... _ _ _
Al t. 6. The Tribunals of Correctional Police sh ill take cog-
niaance of the °tomes mentioned in the I.l‘v:

Art. 7 The th:itoiitions of the (41e of Crimiartl Proems, and
of the Penal Code. sh.tll continue to he execiurd in all cases ia
whi..b it is not supcniriile.l by ibeenactincutt.
oizued) LOUIS.
(Conatersignerl) BARRE MA RBOES.
Glyn at Paris, at the Thuilleries, Oct. 16.

The Chamber ordered that the [Ass, Project ghoul.,
be printed, in order that it might be distributed and
discussed in the Bureaus on the first sitting.

The President read to the Chamber a letter front
the President of the Chamber of Peers, informing
him of the nomination of the Messieurs Pastoret,
Chateauhriand, and Choisseul, as Secretaries
of that Chamber.

At the request o' the President, M. Maine de Diran
ascended the Tribune, and asked permission to be
heard at the next sitting, on a motion relative to the
regulation of the Chamber.
On the motion of M. GaNICOURT, M. Blonilal
d'Auhers %vas declared a Xlmnber of the Chamber.

The Sitting then rose and adjourned until to.m4-.
row, at noon, for the discussion of the Law Project
in the Bureaux.

The debates in the Chamber of Peers have hitherto
been much more important than those in the nester
Chamber. The Address of the Peers presented to
the King the night before lest, was not advt.,' with.
out much discussion and great ditf-retice of opinion.
There were many alterations in the AIIP originsily
proposed by Lally Tollendal. itwatice, instesd
of soliciting from the King, poke, the retribution
of rewards for fidelity, purrishm e,:tt of the guilty,
and, finally, purifications, he is a•k.,(l for a jag re.
tribution of rewards and ponishonnt t, and for the
purity of administrations. Li addison to these al-
terations, the following words were inserted, to Cause
the administration t f justice to flourish according to
the existing laws. •
In the discussion,' M. de TRONDEVILLE propnsnt
to omit the words existing laws, hyena's., according
to his npiniots, exit-Rot:liner! measures ought to be
adopted.
Count &MBE. M A RDOIS opposed the clause which
asked from the King jostice and the retribution of
punishments. Ile appealed to the ancient and me.
:h-rn laws which agree in regarding a .1.'11.2 , ,1•1 chat.
!env-4114e if he have m..de any recommendation of
solicitatluti in a:, atlair on which he is call d 111 do-
cid". Public opinion would apply this prnicipte to
the Chaml•er of Peers in the situation in whicit it
stood, whether regarded as to its constitutional
peiency, or to its Lnowledge of thee lists already pubs
fisher!. lie moved the omission the clause.

A Peer temariied, that only general obJeivltticus