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 Front Page arrow Titles (by Subject) arrow 113.: FRENCH NEWS [24] EXAMINER, 21 AUG., 1831, P. 538 - The Collected Works of John Stuart Mill, Volume XXIII - Newspaper Writings August 1831 - October 1834 Part II

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

113.: FRENCH NEWS [24] EXAMINER, 21 AUG., 1831, P. 538 - John Stuart Mill, The Collected Works of John Stuart Mill, Volume XXIII - Newspaper Writings August 1831 - October 1834 Part II [1831]

Edition used:

The Collected Works of John Stuart Mill, Volume XXIII - Newspaper Writings August 1831 - October 1834 Part II, 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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113.

FRENCH NEWS [24]

EXAMINER, 21 AUG., 1831, P. 538

Mill here resumes his regular comments on French political affairs, his last article having been on 24 Apr. (No. 102). Described in Mill’s bibliography as “A short summary of French affairs in the Examiner of 21st August 1831” (MacMinn, p. 17), the unheaded item is listed as “Article on France” and enclosed in square brackets in the Somerville College set.

the french chamber of deputies has continued, during the whole of the last week the important debate on the address.1 Several orators of considerable ability have appeared among the new members; and several of those who had already distinguished themselves have signalized the present discussion by some of their most successful efforts.

The debate, too, comprehends every topic, both of internal and foreign policy; and contributes greatly to make known, and in no small degree probably even to form, the political views which will predominate in the conduct of the new Chamber.

We shall wait for the termination of this discussion, before we offer to our readers the facts which it discloses, and the observations which it suggests. Few debates, within our recollection, have been calculated to suggest so many; few have afforded so complete a picture of the situation of parties, and the state of the public mind, or such abundant materials for conjectures diving deep into futurity.

The discussion has been stormy; the natural consequence, among an excitable people, of the arrival of two hundred new deputies unused to the forms of debate, and the violent passions excited by a division of parties so nearly equal as to afford a hope of victory to each on every division.

It is not often that we have had it in our power to applaud the articles of the Times on foreign affairs, and we have the greater pleasure in referring to that of Friday last, in which the sitting of the Monday preceding, the most tempestuous of all, is commented upon with great good sense, and in the best spirit.2

[1 ]The July elections had returned 265 members new to the Chamber (rather more than the 200 Mill estimates). Consequently, when it reconvened on 23 July, its political complexion was uncertain. Périer had won the fight over the election of the President of the Chamber by only one vote; therefore, the debate on the Address to the King from 9 to 16 Aug. (Moniteur, 1831, pp. 1328-1405), which concentrated on Périer’s position that France should not go to war for a principle or a doctrine, was crucial. The left lost the vote by 282 to 73.

[2 ]Leading article on French affairs, The Times, 19 Aug., 1831, p. 3.