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 Front Page arrow Titles (by Subject) arrow 76.: FRENCH NEWS [11] EXAMINER, 16 JAN., 1831, PP. 40-1 - The Collected Works of John Stuart Mill, Volume XXII - Newspaper Writings December 1822 - July 1831 Part I

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Subject Area: Political Theory
Collection: The Collected Works of John Stuart Mill

76.: FRENCH NEWS [11] EXAMINER, 16 JAN., 1831, PP. 40-1 - John Stuart Mill, The Collected Works of John Stuart Mill, Volume XXII - Newspaper Writings December 1822 - July 1831 Part I [1822]

Edition used:

The Collected Works of John Stuart Mill, Volume XXII - Newspaper Writings December 1822 - July 1831 Part I, ed. Ann P. Robson and John M. Robson, Introduction by Ann P. Robson and John M. Robson (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1986).

Part of: Collected Works of John Stuart Mill, in 33 vols.

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Liberty Fund, Inc. is a private, educational foundation established to encourage the study of the ideal of a society of free and responsible individuals.


76.

FRENCH NEWS [11]

EXAMINER, 16 JAN., 1831, PP. 40-1

For the entry in Mill’s bibliography, see No. 55. The article is headed “London, January 16.” In the Somerville College set, it is listed as “Article on France”; Mill’s square brackets exclude four opening paragraphs on the situation in Poland, and three concluding ones on Dutch and Belgian affairs; and at 238.7, Mill deleted “above” from the printed phrase “Chamber above alone”.

the french election law has been referred, as usual, to a select committee, the composition of which, if it represents in any degree the intentions of the Chamber, demonstrates that the slender improvements which the bill offers will be pared down to microscopic tenuity. Opinions, still narrower than those of the Guizot party, are represented by no less than four of the nine, and not more than three are supposed to be favourable to the law as it stands.

The municipal law,1 which originated in the Chamber itself, has been recently returned by the select committee to which it was referred, and stands for discussion at an early period. The local bodies, by the provisions of this bill, are elective by a suffrage tolerably extensive, but all the good which would otherwise result from the law is neutralised by an unfortunate provision—that they are elected for six years, one half being changed triennially.2 They will thus be far less amenable to public opinion than at present, for being now named and revocable by the government, they may be turned out when public opinion declares so strongly against them, as to make their continuance in office a source of unpopularity to the King and Ministry.

The bill for reducing the number of judges in each court of assize from five to three, has passed, after much opposition.3 Neither side displayed more knowledge of the subject than might have been looked for in our own country under similar circumstances. M. Renouard, the King’s Commissioner for introducing the bill, who is not even a member of the Chamber alone showed any sense of the immense importance of the principle of undivided responsibility.4

The Ministers are retrenching the public expenditure with good sense and boldness. They have lowered the enormous salaries of the prefects, and have abolished a variety of places, with high-sounding titles and inordinate emoluments, substituting offices with more modest names and more moderate remuneration.

[1 ]For the background of the law, see No. 57, n10. The bill, having been referred to a Commission on 17 Sept., was reported back in amended form on 29 Dec.

[2 ]By Titre I, Chap. ii, Sect. 1, Art. 17.

[3 ]For its introduction, see No. 66.

[4 ]Augustin Charles Renouard (1794-1878) became, after the July Revolution, Councillor of State and Secretary General at the Ministry of Justice. For his speech, see Moniteur, 9 Jan., 1831, p. 49, wherein he stressed the importance of a judge’s feeling directly and solely responsible for a decision.