Econlib

The Library

Other Sites

 Front Page arrow Titles (by Subject) arrow 205.: FRENCH NEWS [79] EXAMINER, 19 MAY, 1833, P. 313 - 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

205.: FRENCH NEWS [79] EXAMINER, 19 MAY, 1833, P. 313 - 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.


205.

FRENCH NEWS [79]

EXAMINER, 19 MAY, 1833, P. 313

For the context and entry in Mill’s bibliography, see No. 204. The item, headed “London, May 19, 1833,” is listed as “Article on France” and enclosed in square brackets in the Somerville College set of the Examiner.

the education bill has passed the Chamber of Deputies, and will probably pass into a law this Session.1 It will establish one or more elementary schools in every commune; (township or village;) a school of a somewhat higher order in every town containing 6000 inhabitants; and a number of normal schools for the education of schoolmasters to teach in those local institutions. The plan is an imitation of some parts of the admirable arrangements of the Prussian Government for the education of its subjects.2 Once introduced, it can scarcely be so ill-managed as not to be a most substantial benefit to France.

The Chamber is now winding its way through a long and intricate Bill for more precisely determining the powers and duties of the municipal or communal assemblies,3 which, by virtue of a law passed two years ago,4 are chosen by something approaching to popular election. If the Chamber of Deputies and the Departmental assemblies were chosen by as large a body of electors as the councils for managing the local affairs of the commune, France would have little to complain of in regard to the substantial reality of her representative government.

After these two laws come the money bills; and with them the Session of 1833 will close. The Budget now about to be discussed differs from that recently voted in this, that it professes to propose no new loans.5 It takes 20,000,000 of francs (800,000l.) from the sinking fund, by cancelling redeemed stock to that amount. It takes two or three millions more (millions of francs) from the same source, for the purpose of public works, by bringing a further portion of redeemed stock again into the market; which, though not called a new loan, is really such, but to no very large amount. It is proposed to raise 20,000,000 (800,000l.) more, by increased taxation on the already overburdened article of wine.6 By these means, and by a small reduction of the enormous army, the deficit is to be, as they phrase it, comblé; filled up and made level.

The Duchess of Berri has simultaneously produced a daughter, and a lawful husband in the person of a Neapolitan Count, named Hector de Lucchesi-Palli.7 The poor Carlists find it best to deny the whole story. It is all, they pretend, an imposture got up by the Government.

[1 ]For details, see No. 204, n13.

[2 ]See No. 126, n10. The full text of Victor Cousin’s Rapport sur l’état de l’instruction publique dans quelques pays de l’Allemagne, et particulièrement en Prusse had appeared early in March 1833.

[3 ]For its introduction, see No. 187.

[4 ]For earlier comment, see No. 76.

[5 ]Projet de loi relatif à la fixation du budget des dépenses de l’exercice 1834, introduced on 29 Apr. (Moniteur, 1833, p. 1204). For the earlier budget, see Nos. 150, n2, and 204, n11.

[6 ]For the proposal, see Moniteur, 1833, p. 1204.

[7 ]The Duchess had finally been arrested. While she was in prison, the revelation that she was pregnant had caused a scandal, fanned by the Government. A daughter, Anne Marie Rosalie Lucchesi-Palli, was born on 10 May (she lived only until 8 Nov.). In June, the Duchess was released to return to Italy and to Hector (Ettore) de Lucchesi-Palli (1806-64), a Sicilian nobleman, who had served in the Neapolitan diplomatic service, to whom she had claimed to have been secretly married.