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 Front Page arrow Titles (by Subject) arrow 131.: FRENCH NEWS [38] EXAMINER, 11 DEC., 1831, P. 793 - 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

131.: FRENCH NEWS [38] EXAMINER, 11 DEC., 1831, P. 793 - 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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131.

FRENCH NEWS [38]

EXAMINER, 11 DEC., 1831, P. 793

For the entry in Mill’s bibliography, see No. 116. The item, headed “London, December 11,” is listed as “Article on France” and enclosed in square brackets in the Somerville College set.

the duke of orleans and Marshal Soult have entered Lyons without resistance; and regular government is to appearance restored.1 On what conditions the insurgents have submitted, is not known; and what will be the dénouement of this singular drama, no one can predict.

The Moniteur, and the papers in the Ministerial interest, talk so big, that one would imagine the revolt of the second city in the kingdom was a glorious tribute to the wisdom of the Government, and the surest guarantee of its stability.2

A most disgraceful disclosure has been made before the tribunals of the low tricks by which the Périer Ministry attempts to maintain itself in office. It is completely proved, that numbers of the poorer workmen were regularly hired by the police, at three francs a-head, to assist in putting down the young men who attempted to plant a tree of liberty on the anniversary of the destruction of the Bastille. The brutal violence which was displayed by these bought auxiliaries had excited much disgust; and the fact of their having been regularly enrolled and paid, was asserted in two newspapers, the National and the Tribune. These papers were accordingly prosecuted, at the suit of M. Casimir Périer and M. Vivien, who was at the head of the police when these occurrences happened.3 But so clearly was the truth of the accusation made out, that M. Vivien abandoned his share of the prosecution, and the accused have been acquitted.

There was much vapouring in the Moniteur, about that time, on the hostility of the working classes to the “agitators” and “eternal enemies of order,” evidenced by the voluntary assistance given by them in suppressing what the Ministry was pleased to call anarchy.4 The world will now know what value to set on the assertions of the official journal.

The Chamber is slowly winding its way through a long projet de loi for mitigating the penal code. This bill when adopted will be some improvement on the existing law, but not a very material one. It deserves attention chiefly from the provision which it contains for incorporating the new enactments in the text of the code.5 We fear it will be long before our legislators will have the wisdom to learn from the French the art of drawing up their laws.

It is well understood that the people of Paris will no longer permit the punishment of death to be inflicted in that place. Preparations were commenced a few weeks since in the Place de Grève for a public execution, but the intention was abandoned in consequence of the strong manifestations of public disgust which it excited. The Parisians will not endure that the lives of any other criminals should be taken, when, to save those of Polignac and his accomplices, the Chamber of Deputies and the King united in expressing a wish for the abolition of capital punishment.6

[1 ]By 5 Dec. the insurrection was over, and the National Guard and a garrison of 20,000 soldiers had been established in the city. For Mill’s earlier account, see No. 130.

[2 ]The reports on the insurrection can be followed from the announcement on 24 Nov. of its outbreak (Moniteur, 1831, p. 2217) to that of the re-establishment of order on 7 Dec. (ibid., p. 2327).

[3 ]When a group of students and members of radical clubs announced their intention of holding a meeting at the Place de la Bastille on 14 July, 1831, the Prefect issued a proclamation on the 13th calling them enemies of the people and troublemakers, and promising that justice would be done to them. The next day the meeting was disrupted by hirelings. Articles implying that Périer and Alexandre François Vivien (1799-1854), Prefect of the Paris police, were privy to the incident had appeared in Le National on 15, 16, 17, and 18 July, and in La Tribune on 16 and 17 July, for which the managing editors of Le National, J.B. Alexandre Paulin (1793-1859), and of La Tribune, Ferdinand Bascans, were prosecuted under the provisions of Art. 8 of Bull. 241, No. 8754 (18 July, 1828).

[4 ]Moniteur, 15 July, 1831, p. 1215, uses the word “agitateurs,” but no original for “eternal enemies of order” has been found.

[5 ]Enacted as Bull. 78, No. 178 (28 Apr., 1832); see No. 119. Mill is presumably referring to Art. 1, the simplicity of which must have appeared wonderful to someone who lived without codified laws and had edited Bentham; it reads: “Les art. 206, 339, 340, 341, 345, 347, 368, 372, 399 et 619 du Code d’instruction criminelle sont abrogés; ils seront remplacés par les articles suivans.”

[6 ]For Mill’s first mention of the attempts to save the ex-Ministers, see No. 52.