London, Monday, December ...
The Times, 1824-12-27T00:00:00

The speech of t the:King of- FRANCt, On the Opening of the Sessions of theAtegis1ative Bodies, is more diXse is usual with suchi jroduciibn? ; au( notwithsundiag th' frigid stateiness and formaslities Woieh the Royal ?speal;er is by usage oblged to observe, Is not without interest. His Majesty alludes properly enough to the decease of his brether ; and certainltphe grief, if real, which is displayed by a nation on the death of one sovereign, is the best .pled&b of security to a successor of.the same family. " The aftecting sorrow which the.whole nation, felt in the last " moments of the King, my brother, was to me the most "soothing consolation; and I say it with truth, that it is "to that alone I am indcbted for ha`ving been able fully to "enjoy the confidence with wbich imy accession to the "throne has been hailed." The assurance of the amicable disposition of Foreign Powers may serve for a clause in the forth-coming speech of the King of ENGLAND: we shall hear it re-echoed on the opening of the British Session of Parliament. But we particularly entreat attention to the g.ounds on which the King of. FRANCE is enabled to de- signate the late campaign in Spain " a.glorious one.' Those grounds are, that.the person wlho passes thejudgment, the Royal critic, is Qf the same country and of the same blood with the warror upon whose military taleflts the judg- ment is passed-two circumstances, we should think, high- ly calculgted to hang a bias on. the mind, and render it par- tiaL ' Witli this object," it ras, says his . Majesty "c that I ' consented to prolong stillfarther the stay in Spain of apart "of tle troops which my son had left there, after'. a cam- "paign wvhich, both as a Frenchman and a father, I may call "glorious." A Frenchman and a father, indeed, may think tie campaign a glorious one, but probably no other inan in Europe, with the exception of him in whom those two ex- cellent qualifications for forming aj?uft judgment combine, would be of the same opinioin. We knew before, that the stay of a portion of the French in the Peninsula was to be prolonged; and the real diffieulty of the original enter- prise of overrunninig the country may be estimated by the facility with which a handful of men can retain possession of the prey; Spain is a happy proof of what Popery and the Inquisition, operating for agea with undisturbed sway, ean do for a country. The security of the foreign reiations of France, it is justly said, and sensibly felt, "will favour the development " of internal prosperity." But let his Majesty beware how he attempts to found upon this happy state of things, w-hat he is pleased to call the ameliorations " required by "the sacred interests of religion:' VOLTAIRE and the' In- fidels have once already been teo strong for masses, decrees of councils and the Jesuits, and, together with that trash, swept away for a while aU true religion from France. And ahould masses, infallibilities, Popes, purgatories, saints, legenids, and relics, lbe re-edified into a system again, VOL.. TAIRn and the Infidels will again mingle with it, and the structure will inevitably crumble again. The "gates of "Hell" can " prvail" against ouch a religion as that, for they have prevailed against it; and they will continue to prevail against it, unless the human mind is legislated down into a state of ignorance equal to that of the dark ages, wheni Popery was the only form of Christianity, and the knowledge of the sure record of our faith, the word of GoD, prohibited. It appears that an indemnity is still to be provided for the emigrants and those who suffbred by the revolution, but probably in some other way than that attempted by M. VILLULE last session, by the reduction of the interest on the national debt. "'The present situation of the French - finances," it is said, " will pernit this great act of justice "and policy, withouit augmenting the imposts, without "iqjuring publif credit, without retrenching any part of a thc funds destined to the different branclhes of the publie "credit." It is the duty of every Government to reaider property sacred, and to exhibit the insecurity of all posses- sion foudded on the violatiou.of the sacred right of property, for otherwise. the State loses the keenest incitement to heroic euterpYrie' and severe labour in its subjects-the hope of raising and founding a family: rapine miglht take the place of industry, and universal barbarism would ensue. The session is to bD terrninated by the august Ceremony of his .Majesiy's coroqation. The project is not unwise. May the impression of the solemanity be durable. France caninot be tranquil awl, prosperous without imparting kindred advatitages to surrounding States, and more espe- cially to 3England. LOAbOAt,` AfMOZDAY. DECBMBER 27, 1f24.