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 Front Page arrow Titles (by Subject) arrow 187.: FRENCH NEWS [73] EXAMINER, 2 DEC., 1832, P. 777 - 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

187.: FRENCH NEWS [73] EXAMINER, 2 DEC., 1832, P. 777 - 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.


187.

FRENCH NEWS [73]

EXAMINER, 2 DEC., 1832, P. 777

For the entry in Mill’s bibliography, see No. 181. The item, headed “London, December 2, 1832,” is listed as “Article on France” and enclosed in square brackets in the Somerville College set of the Examiner.

m. dupin has the ball at his feet. He has been elected President of the Chamber of Deputies by an overwhelming majority.1 MM. Bérenger and Etienne, the leaders of the intermediate party which has rallied round him, stand highest on the list of the Vice-Presidents.2 The Opposition is completely defeated. Of the nine office-bearers of the Chamber, (the President, four Vice-Presidents, and four Secretaries,) only one Secretary, M. Félix Réal, has been chosen from the ranks of the mouvement, and he stands lowest on the list.3 The strength of the Opposition in the Chamber amounts to about 150 members, being ten more than the number who signed the compte rendu.

This result coincides with our previous anticipations.4 The Chamber, as at present constituted, is for the status quo; it approves all that has been done hitherto, but is for doing nothing more. It is thus distinguished equally from the mouvement party, who advocate the further extension of popular rights, and from the doctrinaires, who advised the recent violation of the Constitution, who supported the hereditary peerage, and would restore it to-morrow if they could, who regret the downfal of the exiled dynasty, and accept the Revolution of 1830 only as an unavoidable misfortune. The bourgeois oligarchy, who have enthroned themselves in the yet warm seats of the feudal aristocracy, have that very common taste which makes men desire to level down to themselves, but not an inch lower.

In the Commission for preparing the address, not one single Deputy of the Opposition found a place, but MM. Etienne and Bérenger did.5 We expect to meet these gentlemen everywhere for some time to come. The former of them, who is the principal proprietor of the Constitutionnel, is already spoken of as the probable successor to M. Guizot, if the illness under which the latter is now suffering should cause a vacancy in his office.

We are somewhat impatient to know the part which the leaders of the intermediate party will take in the debate on the address. As for M. Dupin himself, his office of President will save him from the disagreeable necessity of committing himself to any opinion.

The King’s speech promised to bring forward the bills so long expected, for the education of the people, the responsibility of Ministers, municipal institutions, &c.; and also threatened the country with laws for strengthening the hands of justice, or some such phrase;—laws, we suppose, for gagging the press.6 Our chief anxiety is to see whether the Intermediates offer any vigorous opposition to these iniquitous projects.

If M. Dupin becomes Prime Minister by a total change of Ministry, he will, we suppose, bring in with him MM. Bérenger as Minister of Justice; Bignon, Foreign Affairs; Etienne, Public Instruction; probably M. Teste7 in some capacity or other; and so on. But if he comes in by an understanding with the present Cabinet, it is impossible to foresee how he will be forced to compose his own.

The pistol-plot would appear to be a trick of the young woman (Mademoiselle Boury) who pretended to have frustrated it.8 There is strong reason to believe that the pistol was loaded only with powder, and was fired by herself, on speculation, to obtain money from the Royal Family, and a place for a young man to whom she is attached.

[1 ]For the background, see No. 185. Dupin received 234 votes out of a possible 376; his only rival, Laffitte, received 136 (Moniteur, 22 Nov., 1832, p. 1989).

[2 ]Alphonse Marie Marcellus Thomas Bérenger (1785-1866), a magistrate, chairman of the commission that investigated the administration of Charles X, was an influential member of the constitutional opposition; and Charles Guillaume Etienne (1777-1845), playwright and politician, like Bérenger an Academician, had been Censor-General of Newspapers under Napoleon.

[3 ]Félix Réal (1792-1864), was Deputy for Isère, and avocat-général at Grenoble.

[4 ]See No. 172.

[5 ]The Commission was appointed on 23 Nov. (Moniteur, 1832, p. 1998).

[6 ]The promises of the Speech from the Throne (19 Nov.; see No. 185) resulted in Projet de loi relatif à l’instruction primaire (31 Dec., 1832), ibid., 3 Jan., 1833, pp. 15-16 (enacted as Bull. 105, No. 236 [28 June, 1833], the “loi Guizot”); Proposition de loi sur la responsabilité des ministres et des agents du pouvoir (12 Dec.), ibid., 1832, pp. 2139-40 (not enacted); Projet de loi sur l’organisation municipale (8 Dec.), ibid., pp. 2113-14; Projet de loi sur les attributions communales (8 Dec.), ibid., pp. 2114-16 (the latter leading eventually to Bull. 521, No. 6946 [18 July, 1837]); Projet de loi sur le conseil-général et les conseils d’arrondissement du département de la Seine, et sur la municipalité de la ville de Paris (8 Dec.), ibid., pp. 2116-17; and Projet de loi relatif à l’état de siège (10 Dec.), which was not enacted (see No. 204).

[7 ]Jean Baptiste Teste (1780-1852) was proscribed as a deputy during the Hundred Days, but returned in 1830; he became a minister only in 1834.

[8 ]For earlier comment, see No. 185. “Nouveaux détails sur l’attentat du 20 novembre,” Constitutionnel, 21 Nov., p. 2, identifies Adèle Boury (aged nineteen) as the daughter of the postmaster of Bergues (Nord); her “young man” was named Masse.