On The Policy And Influen...
The Times, 1824-11-26T00:00:00

PARTS, Vor. 22. Forthe last ten years, wbenever our UAnisters have bad.to con tend against un-opposition which appear to them formidable, they lve had the art of bringingabout some eventcalcuiated eithertosEhut the mouth of their adversaries, or to fix the attention of the public upon objects foreign to their administration. They hare usunlly begun by accusing tse Opposition of entertaining fatal designs-against the Government; and when they have been persuaded that thecalurn,. nies propagated by themeans of their journals had acquired suffcient consistence, the agents of the police have come forward with the dis. covery of some vast censpiracy, IiiaD-g for its 4bject the overthrow of the Monarchy, forned by a smal numberof men, in an.obsure rank of life, and witicut influence. In witnessing the violence with which the preseritilinistry has beetlattacked by the two oppotionEs we were surprised tbetthe police had not recotrse to Its isVa ZaeaL This surprise has not-beer. of a long duration; but an the present occasion the attempt has been less dexterous tha utsual, and the MinistTy will be uwable'to derive gny advantaga from Its either itz suspending individual liberty, or destroying what remains to us of the freedom of the press. Ou the 10th of September last, on individual, declaring bimself commissioned by a respectable house at Havre, presented himself in theresidence of a tradesman in the rue 3t. Denis, culledaBurtis,and ordered, in the namne of this house, fifteen dezen of leather braces, covered Wits tri-coZured ribandt. The tradesman, surprised at such a demand, hesitated about undertaking the xnaking of them; btat the pretended commissioner allayed his susplcions by presenting him with a letter signed by the chief of the house, which, according to his account, hr.d given him the commission, and making him ob- serve that these tn-coloured braces were intended for a rich maer chant in the United States. This demand was made at tbe moment when M. de la Fayette arrived in America. Burtis, after having copied into his books the letter ofthe house of Havre, and having taken the address of the pretended commissioner, ordered hie workmea to prepare somie dozens of braces, but resolved not to cover them with tri-coioured ribasids, till upon a second de. mand made to him in writing, in the presence of witnesses. The commissioner preserted himself a short time afterwards, evi- d satisfaction at seeing the leather cat for his purpose, took a palgof braces without ornament, as a specimen, ordered the ornamerl to be placed upon the rewt, and promised to return for them in two or tlhree days. The tradesman was waiting for his return, when on the 22th of the same month, the birth.day of the Duke de Bordeaux, the very day on which the Mlinisters were obliged to abolisn the censorship on the journals, he saw come into his shop, not his commissioner, but in his place, a peace-officer, or commissary of police, several agents of the police, and gendarmes. These offices desired all the rooms of the house to be opened for their inspection, and pur- sued their inquiries even into the most obscure recesses; believing, doubtlerss, that if they did not find the tri-celoured braces, they would at least find, the ribands intended to cover them. But their search was fruitless: seeing their expectation disappointed, they mentioned tho object of their visit, and even produced the pair of braces which the pretended commission-merchant had taken away as a specimen, and which he had taken care himself to cover with the tri-coloured riband before he delivered it to the police. The cora- missary of police drew up a proces.verbal of the inutdlity of his search, and retired along with his agents. The tradesman Bur.is ns longer doubted that he had been a dupe of an agent of the police, but he bad no means of proving it ; for the individual who had introduced himself to him, and -who said that he was called Aval, and that he lived with one named Drouin, No. 17, rue St. Louis, had given him a false name and a false address, asid had come with a forged letter. After hav. ing made a useless search to discover him, and when it wras least expected that he could be discovered, Burtis saw him lately in the interior ofthe peristyle of the Theatre Francais. He made all haste to take a tieket ot admission in order to get at him, and to cause him to be arrested, but before be arrived, the individual, whosavw he was recognized, had disappeared. Bartis, vrho had seen him taik with a person employed aboutthe theatre, went to inquire about the name, the quality, and the dwellingof this individual. He learned that this man was callei Dub"", that he was attached to the police, and was under tile orders of a superior agent named Ross? go. Burtis immediately addressed himself to the Prefect of Police, and pointed out to him the individual who had ordered the tri-celoured braces, and had subsequently denoanced him. He demanded that this man should be prosecuted, either as an instigator to crime, as a person guilty of a calumnious denunciation, or as a forger, in con- sequence of having counterfeited the signature of a commercial hoase at Rouen. The Prefect ansvrered that they waould inflict upon this agent a severe punishment -disnmissal. He in fact decerved it for his vant of atidress; but he still retains his post on account of his devotion and zeaL Etri puniahment has, therefor, boon limit- ed to a change of destination, and lie has been placed in a situation where his person was not known. This affiir is now only ridiculous, because Burtis distrusted the snares which had beenalaid for him; but if he had allowed himaself to be entrapped-if the agents of police had found with him the fifteen dozens of tri.coloured braces which had been ordered, what a triumrph for them and the Alinisters ! We should have seen this brace-maker conducted with an imposing force through the streets of Paris, and thrown into a dungeon as the agent of a formidable secret society. The Prefecsasd the Director-General of the Polite, after having sent the brace-maker with his tri-coloured braces bc- fore a criminal court, would have wade the report to our blinisters and to those of the Eioly Alliance: on the same day, the Ministers who had opposed the abolition of the censorship, and who had failed in their opposition, would have come into the presence of Charles X., having in their hands the proofs of their fatal predictions. The name of Ml. de ]i Fayette and of the American Government would have shone in the legal proceedings with the tri-coloured brace, for the accused would not have failed to repeat the infornma- tion which he had received from the agent to the house of Havre. The affair, therefore, rnust have turned out admirably for our Ministers, if it had not failed in the first instance. The conspiracy of tho tri-coloured braces might have been placed on a level with the plot of the patriots in 1816-with that of the sleeving lion-with that of the black pin, and withlso many others which led theaccusiedtothe scaffold, without having any more foundation than this-conspi- racies which procured for sonic of our ministrer unlimited power, a brilliant fortune, and titles of nobilitv. Al.de Villele, vwhom some peoplecall the Caricature of Mlaz2rine, has left, as you know, theold hotel destined to the MinisterofFinance. This hotel,which has been soidfortbree nmllions and a halfof francs, was too modest for his Gascon Excellence. He thought that the luxury of theMtinister ought to increase in the same proportion as the budget; and as the taxes which we pay have been doun.rd within the last ten yeas, it was very natural that our Miaislers Should be lodged at double the expense, and should have theirkoteh filled with furniture (which we likewise pay) at double the value. LA. de Villele has, however, surpassed this proportion; for it is impessible, without having seen it, to have an ides of the magnificence of his palace; besi4e which, that of the Tuileries would appear a residence scarcely fit for his clerks. lHe felt himself under the necessity of causlng an apology fbr his expenses to beinserted in the o Vfnitetr. St was there said in his favour, -that-hoprick-of all things had much fallen in France, during thelast few years; chat he had bought every tbing at the lowest rate possible; and that, after all, the chairs which filled his numerous apartments have only cost 1,00 francs (401.) a-piece. Soate persaus have concluded that from the immense expenscs which the Mlinister has incurred, he feeld himself more tllap, ever secure ef his power: butotbers have "Tv an inference directly the reverse. It is usual, say the latter sr..vs. duals, that a Minister who retires carries along with hinm his furni- ture, although purchased at the public expenr.e. If, then, the Mi- nister forerees that he will be disttissed at the commencemnent of the sesaon, he makes a good sPeculation, na the purchasingbefore. hand an imraense quantity of furnitiare, which c0s5 him nothing, and which he will be able to carry off with him. Whilst JU. de Villele thus puts his aflisirs In order, his colleague, ll. de Corbiere,-pursuea his plans against public instraction. Since his accession to the Miinistry, be has only signalized his power by the dismiul of Professors, by the suppression of several establish- mentscoasermtcdtO instruction, by persecutions directed against men of science, and,above all, by the obstades which hs has thrown in the way of the education of the lower orders of society. Being un- able entirely to suppress the liberty of the preps, he endeavours as much as possible to suppress the faculty of reading. He has already destroyed almost all the schools of mutual instruction, and he baa just. directed against establishments of this kind a blow, which proves better than any fonner act the spirit and intentions wlth whiclr lie has done whatever he has hitherto accomplished. The persons who in France employ themselves in dimninishing the number of.crimes, had observed that 19.20ths of the criminals did notknowreading. They.irconsequence thoughttha tthebest' means of reforming prisyners was to instruct tbem before they restored them to sociesyAso teach them to read and write, and to give them ideas onuioralsand religion. Schiools of mutualinstruc- tion were thereforeestablisbed in nearly all the houses of correction, and already thebappiest resul:a werebegirnning to be felt. Car. you belieye that Al. de Corblere has isuppressed these schools, and that he is resolved that theprisoners shall leave their prisons as ignomat and. corrupt as when they entered ? This fact would: appear incredible; and I must say, that I would not believelt, if I had not tile proof of it before my eyes. The follIwing is axuact fa-re .- port made by M. Appert, a memiPer of the Society for the improve. ment of the Btate of prions &c;:- "' The schools nf muutual instruction estiblished in houses of de. tenDtiOn after a laboured inquiry by the Commission of Primary In- etructmon (a Commnission of the Ministry) have becn supprcssed witbh out xeason assigned. That of Illontaign (a militarh prlson), df which the Duke of Doudeauvrie, In his report to the Royal Society, sdmitted the importance and happy resul has shlared themniefate in consequence of a process on which X sball abstain from speaking. Ai Benulieu, at Cailbon, and St. Dents, the houses of detention which were reaping an xccelZent harvest from -these schools, hiaac ben foreed to renounce their bene'cri eo.operation, in pirUtwe of ordersfrom i,llf dCorlicle. In Gther prisons, preparations were! made for following thi salutary exanmple. Thle same orders hare destroyed all those hopes, and annihilated the efforts of charitable men who were endeavouring to precure elementary Instruction for this wretchedclassofindividuals. Thus theMinister of theInterior in a sin.e rnioment hasoverthrown theproject of a society composed of most respectable persons,whoe Presideist was tlepresumptiveheir to the throne, and of whicli the Ki}g had declared himself the pro- tector." the 1nmigrants have divided insto two factions :eRpecting the in- demItYv which the Alinisters have promised them. The Noblesof thc Court, a great nuimber of whom saw in em!gratios merely A means of committing bankruptcv with impunity, pretend that all the debts ef the emigrants should be considered ovet the masa of thc indemnity; and that no distincidon should be made between those who had as much debt as property, and those who had no debts at ocl. The Nobles of the provinces pretend, on the contrary, that every one should remaincharged with the paynment of his debt. What party WiU gain the victory? Probably that party of which the Ainistry will have the most need. You must observe by our journals that the number of crimes in- creases in France, but you ought naot to be surprised at the faet. It is only one of the consequences of the influence exercised by our Government. For the last ten years, the principal agents of the Admitiistration teach the theory and the practice of perjury, of cor- ruption, of contempt for the laws, and violences of all kinds. We should have fallen as low as Spain, if our civilization bad been less advancad and if the efforts of the enlightened part of the nation had not in,jtt paralysed the influence of the faction to whieh the Kings of E4bhave delivered un. .T- - ON 7AfE-POLPrr-. D I?.TPLUpNCB OF THE -MINISTRY IN FRANCE.