Econlib

The Library

Other Sites

 Front Page arrow Titles (by Subject) arrow 147.: FRENCH NEWS [49] EXAMINER, 26 FEB., 1832, P. 136 - The Collected Works of John Stuart Mill, Volume XXIII - Newspaper Writings August 1831 - October 1834 Part II

Return to Title Page for The Collected Works of John Stuart Mill, Volume XXIII - Newspaper Writings August 1831 - October 1834 Part II

Search this Title:

Also in the Library:

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

147.: FRENCH NEWS [49] EXAMINER, 26 FEB., 1832, P. 136 - 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.

About Liberty Fund:

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


147.

FRENCH NEWS [49]

EXAMINER, 26 FEB., 1832, P. 136

For the entry in Mill’s bibliography, see No. 116. The item, headed “London, February 26, 1832,” is listed as “Article on France” and enclosed in square brackets in the Somerville College set of the Examiner.

the chamber of deputies has disappointed the wishes of M. Casimir Périer, by making considerable reductions in the salaries of many of the high officers of state.1 This is so far well; but there is a much wider field of retrenchment open to them. Offices, great and small, are far too numerous: a reduction of their number would produce a far greater saving than a diminution of the emoluments.

The Chamber of Peers, which is daily setting itself more and more decidedly in opposition to the Deputies and to the nation, has determined that the anniversary of the execution of Louis XVI shall continue to be kept as a dies non by the courts of justice and the public offices.2 It is strange infatuation to incur the obloquy and danger of running counter to the national feeling for a matter of such trifling importance. The French people do not approve of the sentence upon Louis XVI, but they do not think it more iniquitous than a thousand other acts, both of the Revolution and of the ancien régime; they see no reason, therefore, for solemnizing it by any peculiar observances. They bear a particular aversion, moreover, to this celebration, because it was imposed upon them by the émigrés in 1816, as a studied insult to the defeated party. It is felt, and was intended to be felt, as an act of national penance and humiliation, much more for having attempted a republican government, than for having put a good kind of man to death without just cause.

The four young men, members of the Société des Amis du Peuple, who were arrested on pretence of being concerned in the late Carlist conspiracy, have been set at liberty.3 There was no ground for proceeding against them, and this was probably known from the first; but it is a favourite scheme of M. Périer, to propagate the belief, that the two extremes of opinion have united against his juste milieu.

The case of the Duc de Bourbon’s will has been decided in favour of the legatees.4 We are not minutely acquainted with the procedure of the French courts; but it seems strange, that judgment should have passed after hearing only the speeches of counsel, without examining a single witness.

[1 ]The operating budgets and the salaries of the Minister had been cut for the three Ministries of Education, Interior, and Commerce.

[2 ]On 21 Feb., the Peers confirmed Bull. 63, No. 401 (19 Jan., 1816), that the anniversary should not be a legal court day (Moniteur, 1832, p. 526). For the origin of the dispute, see No. 132, n8.

[3 ]Five men, not four; see No. 137, n3.

[4 ]For details, see No. 132, n2.