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 Front Page arrow Titles (by Subject) arrow 150.: FRENCH NEWS [52] EXAMINER, 18 MAR., 1832, P. 184 - 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

150.: FRENCH NEWS [52] EXAMINER, 18 MAR., 1832, P. 184 - 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.


150.

FRENCH NEWS [52]

EXAMINER, 18 MAR., 1832, P. 184

For the entry in Mill’s bibliography, see No. 116. The item, headed “London, March 18, 1832,” is listed as “Article on France” and enclosed in square brackets in the Somerville College set of the Examiner.

the new corn bill proposed by the French Ministry, has, at length, been returned by the Commission appointed by the Chamber to report upon it. Their report, the production of the statistical M. Charles Dupin, is a compromise between right and wrong.1 We do not mean that its principles are true, but so tempered in their application as to soften the transition, and avoid defeating existing expectations: this we should not disapprove. What we object to is, that the principles themselves are neither true nor false, but half-and-half; a piece of theoretical patchwork, a kind of juste-milieu mosaic, a square of black and a square of white alternately. It is as if the Newtonian system had to be voted by show of hands; and the parties being unable to convince one another, agreed to a resolution that there was much truth in Newton’s principles, but that Ptolemy also had a good deal to say.

The recommendations of the Commission are, however, a considerable improvement upon what exists; and the Bill is to be discussed this session. The debate is to come between the voting of the Estimates and that of the Ways and Means.

The Ministry are desirous of voting in the present session, or in another to commence almost immediately after, the Budget of the ensuing year, as well as that of the present;2 in order to return to the salutary practice of not expending any of the nation’s money upon mere votes of credit, when the Estimates have not been regularly laid before the Chamber and discussed. We know not how the Deputies will relish this prolongation of their labours. The Chambers have sat almost without intermission since the Revolution of July; one respite of a month in the latter part of 1830, and another of less than six weeks, mostly occupied in the general election, and in the preparations for it, have formed the only interval of leisure. Yet it is astonishing how little business they have found time to transact. None of the most important Bills presented in this session, that on the Peerage excepted,3 have yet come on for discussion. It is true, the Chamber of Deputies does not sit at an average so much as four hours out of the twenty-four.

[1 ]For the Corn Bill, see No. 125, n2. The report was printed in a special supplement to the Moniteur, 6 Mar., 1832, pp. i-x.

[2 ]For the budget of 1832, see No. 135, n16. That of 1833 is in Bull. 93, No. 213 (23 Apr., 1833), expenditures, and Bull. 94, No. 214 (24 Apr.), receipts.

[3 ]For earlier comment, see No. 115, n1.