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 Front Page arrow Titles (by Subject) arrow 120.: FRENCH NEWS [28] EXAMINER, 25 SEPT., 1831, PP. 616-17 - The Collected Works of John Stuart Mill, Volume XXIII - Newspaper Writings August 1831 - October 1834 Part II

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120.: FRENCH NEWS [28] EXAMINER, 25 SEPT., 1831, PP. 616-17 - 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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Liberty Fund, Inc. is a private, educational foundation established to encourage the study of the ideal of a society of free and responsible individuals.


120.

FRENCH NEWS [28]

EXAMINER, 25 SEPT., 1831, PP. 616-17

This article is headed “London, September 25.” For the entry in Mill’s bibliography, see No. 116. The article is listed as “Article on France” and enclosed in square brackets in the Somerville College set, where Mill makes one correction, here adopted: at 354.12 “academies, and of” is altered to “academies of”.

the intelligence of the fall of warsaw1 has produced much excitement in the public mind at Paris, and has been followed by serious disturbances. The shops of two gunsmiths have been pillaged, Casimir Périer and Sébastiani have been hanged in effigy, and their carriages pursued by the populace. A great part of the National Guard, sharing in the popular feeling, has refused to act against the rioters, who, however, have been put down by the troops of the line, in conjunction with another portion of the National Guard.2

It seems to be generally thought that the fate of Poland has added so much to the unpopularity of the Ministers, as must speedily compel them to resign. They have sustained a signal defeat in the Chamber of Deputies, by the adoption of a proposition for restoring the military rank of the officers appointed during the hundred days, by Napoleon, and by the provisional government which succeeded him.3 A debate, which was originated by MM. Mauguin and Laurence,4 and which has already lasted several days,5 on the state of the nation (as we should say in England), is likely, in the opinion of many, to give the final blow to the Périer Administration.

Meanwhile, this Administration has given another manifestation of its hostility to popular institutions, and to the spirit of the nation.

Those who are acquainted with the institutions of France, are aware that very extensive functions of local taxation and administration are confided to deliberative bodies, varying in number from nine or ten to about thirty members, and called departmental councils, councils of arrondissement, and municipal councils. The authority of a departmental council extends over the whole of one of the eighty-six departments of France—that of a council of arrondissement comprises one of the four or five sections into which each department is divided—and a municipal council manages the affairs of a single commune; that is, a township or village.

Under the government of Napoleon, faithfully copied by the restored Bourbons, every member of every one of these bodies was named by the Crown, or by its agent, the préfet or maire.6 France, therefore, presented, under these rulers, the unique spectacle (unique at least in Europe, and certainly unknown to the feudal and despotic monarchy which preceded the French revolution) of a country which did not contain a vestige of any local authority, even down to a village watchman, that did not emanate from the Crown.

A law which passed subsequently to the revolution of July 1830, restored to the people, or rather to a small portion of the people, the choice of the municipal councils. The responsibility, however, of these bodies was reduced almost to nothing, by one absurd provision: they are elected for six years.7

The councils of the departments and of the arrondissements, are still named by the Crown. Universal opinion, however, has long required that this should cease. That the “intervention of the citizens” should be allowed in the choice of the local authorities, was one of the pledges given by the Chamber, on the revision of the charter after the revolution, and sworn to by Louis Philippe on his accession to the throne.8 To redeem this pledge, a bill has now been introduced by the Ministry.9 But we are much mistaken if it fulfils the hopes of the nation; and we are sure that it ought not to satisfy their wishes.

Not only does this bill extend to the other local bodies, the clause which renders popular election almost nugatory in the municipal councils, that which enacts that they be elected for six years—not only this, but it assumes a basis for the representation of the people in the local councils, scarcely wider than that which has been adopted for the Chamber of Deputies. All who have votes for the Chamber, are to have votes for the local councils, together with all who are inscribed on the jury list; but these last consist only of the former, and of certain liberal professions, not numerous anywhere, except in the large towns. Should the number of persons thus qualified in each arrondissement not amount to one two-hundredth part of the population, that proportion is to be made up by the addition of the most highly taxed; and in no case is the number to be less than fifty in each arrondissement. This last provision shows how clearly it is foreseen that in some, and probably in many arrondissements, the electoral body will be little better than a select vestry, meeting to choose a sub-committee of its own body.

The electors of the Chamber of Deputies are very far from sufficiently numerous, being only about 200,000 in a population of 32,000,000. But even were the fact otherwise, the qualification for local councils ought to be far lower than that which is usually thought desirable for the council of the nation. First, because less is risked, the interests at stake being less important, and the legislature being always there to interpose in case of serious mismanagement. Next, because the people at large, by superintending the management of their own local affairs, would be prepared and educated for the ultimate exercise of a more extensive share in the superintendence of the general government. And, lastly, because the local councils, not having, like the legislature, the eyes of a whole nation fixed upon them, stand in still greater need of the check of actual accountability to those whose interests are confided to them, and over whom they exercise their power.

In addition to this law respecting the composition of the departmental and arrondissemental councils, another law is proposed to define their functions and authorities;10 and a third to define, in like manner, the functions and authorities of the municipal councils,11 this object not having been provided for by the law passed in the previous session. These two bills ought to be attentively studied by our own statesmen; who will certainly be called upon, as one of the earliest duties of a Reformed Parliament, to create similar local councils for Great Britain, and to determine what portion of the public business shall devolve upon such bodies.

The commission, or select committee, appointed by the Chamber to examine the proposition of the Government respecting the peerage, have at last presented their report.12 The only material alterations which they propose in the ministerial plan, is the limitation of the royal choice to certain classes of persons, consisting chiefly of deputies, judges, law officers, and placemen of various descriptions, after a certain number of years service; members of the four academies of the Institute; military and naval officers of the rank of a lieutenant-general or a vice-admiral; and persons who pay 5,000 francs a year (about 200l.) of direct taxes. On the whole, the catalogue seems a very weak and ineffective attempt towards an enumeration of the sorts of persons who may be presumed fit to form part of a conservative branch of the legislature.

A law proposed some time ago by the ministry, for amending the existing laws on the recruiting of the army, has just been returned from the commission to which it was referred.13 The admirable practice of referring all bills and all propositions whatever to a select committee, whose duty it is thoroughly to examine the whole subject both in its principles and details, deserves to be introduced into every legislative assembly. The reports of these committees are frequently models of statesmanship, and practical political science. The excellent report just submitted on the loi du recrutement might be cited as an example. That steady and comprehensive perception of general principles, combined with a just appreciation of individual circumstances, which is characteristic of the better class of French public men, is nowhere more conspicuous than in these documents.

A most absurd petition has been presented to the Chamber of Deputies, for an application to the British Government to obtain the remains of Napoleon, in order that they may be buried under the column in the Place Vendôme.14 This gave rise to a debate, remarkable for the effusions of Bonapartism which several of the speakers thought it a favourable opportunity for giving vent to:—effusions which, however extravagant, may be excused in a Las Cases and a Bertrand, but which inspire unmingled disgust when emanating from Lamarque, Briqueville, Larabit, and others of the military faction.15 To hear these men, it might be supposed that Buonaparte had been not only the most virtuous and enlightened ruler, but the greatest man of modern times; the warmest well-wisher of free institutions; the most ardent promoter of civilisation; and that France would remember him, not as one of the most selfish, ungenerous, and narrow-minded adventurers who ever usurped supreme power, but as the greatest benefactor of his country during his life, and the man who sheds most glory upon her now when he is dead. In vain did M. Comte, the high-minded author of the Censeur Européen, lift up his voice against this senseless and degrading idolatry.16 The Chamber almost unanimously gave their countenance to the prayer of the petition, by referring it to the Council of Ministers.

M. Comte likewise laid on the table of the Chamber a proposition to abolish the vote by ballot in their own deliberations—in which its effect is obviously one of pure mischief; to shield the representatives from responsibility to their constituents.17 This proposition, however, obtaining the assent of no more than two out of the nine bureaux into which the Chamber is divided, was rejected without a public discussion. M. Comte should next propose the abolition of that most improper regulation of the Chamber, which prescribes that all propositions shall be discussed in the bureaux and in secret, before they can be debated in public; and that unless a motion passes three of the nine bureaux, it shall not be discussed, or so much as publicly declared, in the assembled legislature.18

[1 ]Inspired by the events in France, the Polish insurrection against the Russians had begun on 29 Nov., 1830; it ended with the fall of Warsaw in September.

[2 ]For accounts of the disturbances, see Le National, 18 Sept., p. 1, and Le Globe, 18 Sept., p. 2.

[3 ]Presented on 24 Aug. by Boissy-d’Anglas (Moniteur, 1831, p. 1456), the proposition passed the Deputies on 17 Sept., and was sent to the Peers on the 21st.

[4 ]Justin Laurence (1794-1863), a Deputy of conservative views elected in 1831.

[5 ]For the debates of 19-23 Sept., see Moniteur, 1831, pp. 1624-8, 1630-7, 1640-50, 1655-62, 1663-70.

[6 ]For details, see No. 57, n5.

[7 ]For the law, see No. 57, n10.

[8 ]Mill here seems to be conflating the wording of two clauses in Art. 69 of the Charter of 1830. Clause 5 refers to the “intervention des gardes nationaux dans le choix de leurs officiers,” while clause 7 says that the departmental and municipal institutions should be based “sur un système électif.”

[9 ]Projet de loi sur l’organisation des conseils-généraux de département et des conseils d’arrondissement (15 Sept.), Moniteur, 1831, pp. 1586-7.

[10 ]Projet de loi sur les attributions départementales (16 Sept.), ibid., 1831, pp. 1599-1600.

[11 ]Projet de loi sur les attributions municipales (14 Sept.), ibid., pp. 1577-9. No lawwas enacted until Bull. 521, No. 6946 (18 July, 1837).

[12 ]Moniteur, 1831, pp. 1619-24. For details, see No. 115.

[13 ]The report of 12 Sept. is in Moniteur, 1831, pp. 1561-3; the law as passed (Bull. 68, No. 149 [21 Mar., 1832]) provided for a regular army of 50,000 voluntary soldiers, voluntary in the sense that if called up, an unwilling recruit had the right to a replacement.

[14 ]Moniteur, 1831, pp. 1568-70.

[15 ]Emmanuel Augustin Dieudonné Marin Joseph, comte de Las Cases (1766-1842), served under Napoleon and shared his exile. Henri Gratien, comte Bertrand (1773-1844), Napoleon’s Grand Marshal of the Palace, had also accompanied him to St. Helena. Armand François Bon Claude Briqueville de Bretteville (1785-1844) was a cavalry officer during the Empire and a liberal deputy from 1827. Marie Denis Larabit (1792-1876) had fought under Napoleon and stayed in the army after the Restoration; he supported the July Revolution and became a deputy in 1831.

[16 ]The Censeur was founded by Charles Comte in 1814. Several times censorship prevented the paper’s appearance; in February 1817 it reappeared as the Censeur Européen; after the passing of the censorship law of 31 Mar., 1820, it merged with the Courrier Français. For Comte’s speech (13 Sept.), see Moniteur, 1831, p. 1569.

[17 ]An unheaded leader in the Courrier Français, 11 Sept., p. 1, reports that Comte was planning to make this proposal, and gives its details. It did not come to fruition.

[18 ]For this regulation, see No. 68, n7.