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 Front Page arrow Titles (by Subject) arrow 199.: FRENCH NEWS [77] EXAMINER, 31 MAR., 1833, P. 201 - 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

199.: FRENCH NEWS [77] EXAMINER, 31 MAR., 1833, P. 201 - 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.


199.

FRENCH NEWS [77]

EXAMINER, 31 MAR., 1833, P. 201

After a three-month gap, explained in his opening sentence, Mill here returns to French politics, though not on a weekly basis; his next summary, No. 204, was published five weeks later, on 5 May, as suggested in his concluding sentence. The article, headed “London, March 31, 1833,” is described in his bibliography as “The summary of French affairs in the Examiner of 31st March 1833” (MacMinn, p. 25). In the Somerville College set of the Examiner, it is listed as “Article on France” and enclosed in square brackets.

we have discontinued of late our usual notices of French affairs, because all which has been doing in that country is so paltry, so devoid alike of any importance in the immediate result, and of any indication respecting the future, that we felt no inducement to record in our columns, in addition to the trivialities of our own country, the still smaller trivialities of another country, which, as foreigners, we have so little power of shaming into better things. The national subscription for M. Laffitte compels us to break our silence.1 Here, at least, is a manifestation worthy of the better days of France. As the French have been more fortunate than ourselves in the number of their examples of eminent public and private virtue in high stations, so the generosity of their national character has been more conspicuously called forth in behalf of such in the time of need. M. Laffitte is now enjoying the highest reward, next to his own self-approbation, of a life of unsullied and consistent nobleness in all public relations, and of a beneficence as unbounded as it was judicious and considerate, in the employment of a large fortune. The announcement for sale of his splendid mansion in the street which bears his name, (owing to the loss of almost all his property by the commercial crisis consequent upon the Revolution of 1830,) has been the occasion for this testimony of affectionate gratitude, in which the many whom he has personally obliged, often to the extent of saving them from ruin, participate with all classes of his countrymen,—from the banker, M. Aguado,2 with his munificent contribution of four thousand pounds, to the workman of the faubourgs with his one or two francs. The subscription bids fair, even in these times of apathy and discouragement, to rival that for the orphan children of General Foy.3

The French Government has declared its intention of convoking the Chambers for a second session this year, in order to vote the budget of 1834, that the salutary practice may be resumed of voting each year’s estimates in the year preceding.4 The present session is therefore likely soon to close; perhaps without having effected a single important legislative improvement: certainly without having passed a fifth part of the bills, on subjects of the first magnitude, which have been laid before the two houses. The ministry (if ministry it can be called, which is only the king and a set of clerks,) appears to have a firm hold of office: the chamber has no wish to turn them out, though it has given them several most unpalatable checks; by making serious alterations in some of their bills, refusing various money grants, and several times disallowing expenses which had been already incurred: these will doubtless be covered by part of the immense amount of secret service money which the Chamber complaisantly grants. When the prorogation takes place, we shall give a brief summary of the results of the session:5 they really are not worth an earlier or a more detailed notice.

[1 ]When Laffitte, early in 1833, put his property up for sale, a fund was established to forestall the sale of his Paris hôtel; in eight months more than 400,000 francs was raised.

[2 ]Alexandre Marie Aguado, marquis de Las Marismas (1784-1842), served as aide-de-camp to Soult in Spain, became a financier, getting his title from Ferdinand VII whose agent he was; he owned the Courrier Français at the opening of Louis Philippe’s reign.

[3 ]For details, see No. 169, n5.

[4 ]A second session began on 26 Apr., the day after the first session ended, with the successful aim of passing the budget for 1834 (Bull. 106, No. 239 [expenditures] and No. 240 [receipts], both 28 June, 1833).

[5 ]See No. 204.