River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1880-10-28
SENATOR'S AND PEERS.
An English Compliment Paid Our
Form of Government
London News

The AMERICAN senate was founded
for treble pQrpOse-tG act as check
upon hasty action Of the representa-
tiyes, to control the authority Of the
executive authority of the president,
and to uphold the rights of individual
states belonging to the federation; in
other words, to protect local interests
against undue eporOaohments from the
imperial power. The house of repre-
sentatiyeS was to represent the Union;
the senate, the states composing the
union Senators hold their seats for
six years; representatives for only two.
One-thrd of the senate, however, is re-
renewed every two years. Mr., Glad
stone has described the American con-
stitution as a masterpiece of human
wisdom. Its trainers certainly aehiev-
ed one signal success; they devised Il
second chamber, at once popular and
efficient, for the purposes for which it
was designed. The senate has frequent
ly thwarted the action of the house of
representatives yet no cry has ever
been raised against its privileges, and
no American dreams of abOlishing 1T.
The same can hardly be said of any
senate in the old world
The United States senate may be
called the model upper house. France
with all the political genius of her sons,
has never been able to create m as
semblv possessed of the like prestige
and popularity. The second republic
contented itself with Il single national
assembly. Napoleon III. re-establish-
ed dual legislature, his senate being
constructed on the simplest of all pos
sible plans. 1t consisted of one hun
bred an fifty members, named for life
by the emperor, at his own discretion.
Cardinals, marshals, and admirals were
also cx-olficio senators. As the pope
confers the red hat, the curious spec
tacle was thus presented of members of
a national legislature appointed by n
foreign prince.
The senate of the second empire con
tanned some distinguished names,
those for instance, of Sante Beuve and
Prosper Merimee Yet the mass of
the French people never accorded it
the slightest amount of veneration.
The conscript fathers rocked but light
~ of their own dignity. Prosper
Merimee owns that he felt somewhat
nervous as he rose to deliver his maiden
speech. But" he adds, Il soon re-
membered that | was only addressing
one hundred and fifty fools, and !
plucked up heart" The part played
by this august body in September, 1870,
was scarcely calculated to raise Its
fame. After Sedan one senator pro-
prosed that himself and colleagues
should sit permanently. Another II
reverently objected that they must
dine; and his argument prevailed. The
senate preferred n permanent adjourn
ment, ard forthwith vanished into
space The constitution of 1870 gave
France It's present upper chamber
which a foreigner would consider fairly
well composed 1t is to some extent
the creation of the duke of Broglie's
though not. of course, nominally the
work of the royalist leader. The duke,
in a report presented to the national
assembly on the best method Of select
| ing n chamber of control, admitted that
the hereditary principal was out of the
question in modern France. Equally
out of the question was the idea of
senate the members of which should
be named by the chief of the executive.
| 1t seemed best. therefore, to devise a
contrC ling assembly elected by limited
! suffrage. and this was accordingly done;
/ and ut the some time to endeavOr to
combine the elements of stability and
Of harmony with the general drift of
public opinion by naming portion of
/ the members for life and the rest for a
! term of wears. The senate numbers three
/ hundred. of whom two hundred and
| twenty five hold their seats fer nine
years, and seventy-fve for life. The
1 two hundred and twenty-five are re-
pewable by seventy-five every three
wears. The seventy-fiye life members
were named in the first place by the re-
/ firing national assembly. At each
successive life vacancy, the united
senate co-opts a member Conserya-
tive and m0derates are tolerably well
satisfied with this assembly; the ex-
IRENE left i ayowdly anxious To abOl-
/ ish the institution altogether A pc
cular attribute of the French senate Is
that its consent is necessary before the
president of the republic can dissolve
the lower Gambler, the natural term Of
whose existence Is five years.
The upper houses Of Prussia, Aus
tria, and Hungary are all three con-
structed pretty much on the same line.
In each there arehereditary peers;peers
named for life, peers elected by the