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

64.: FRENCH NEWS [5] EXAMINER, 5 DEC., 1830, P. 771 - John Stuart Mill, The Collected Works of John Stuart Mill, Volume XXII - Newspaper Writings December 1822 - July 1831 Part I [1822]

Edition used:

The Collected Works of John Stuart Mill, Volume XXII - Newspaper Writings December 1822 - July 1831 Part I, 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.


64.

FRENCH NEWS [5]

EXAMINER, 5 DEC., 1830, P. 771

This article is headed “London, Dec. 4.” For the entry in Mill’s bibliography, see No. 55.

m. laffitte has announced to the Chamber of Deputies that he expects to be enabled to present to the Chamber, in the course of the week which will have expired when our paper is published, the financial laws of most immediate urgency, together with a municipal law, and an election law.1

Nothing is yet known of the character of the intended municipal law; but the election law, we lament to say, is expected to fall far short of even the very moderate parliamentary reform which we announced a short time ago as being under the contemplation of the French ministry. The electoral qualification, it is now said, will be reduced, not from 300 to 200 francs of direct taxation, but from 300 to 250; and additional electors will be admitted at a lower rate of contribution, in sufficient number to make up, not one elector for every hundred, but one for every two hundred inhabitants. To these will be added, free from any pecuniary conditions, the liberal professions composing the second part of the jury list. The total number of electors will, by this arrangement, be raised, it is supposed, to about 200,000, so that the ratio of the amount of the taxes to the number of the electors will not be three hundred pounds sterling per man, as at present, but about 150l. The qualification for eligibility will be lowered from 1000 to 500 francs.

If this be the real scheme of the Ministry, it is a pitiful attempt to compromise with the majority of the Chamber. Why does not M. Laffitte propose a law of election really adequate to produce a good government, instead of the monied oligarchy contemplated by the hommes du lendemain,—and leave to the Chamber the entire discredit of making the law a bad one by its amendments? But we expected nothing better when we found that M. de Montalivet was preferred to M. Odilon-Barrot for the most important department of the ministry.2 There could be no sufficient reason for rejecting M. Odilon-Barrot, excepting that he was thought to be too good for the purposes which it was intended that the ministry should subserve.

We are informed, and the fact is too probable not to be easily credited, that the disgust occasioned by the acts and evident purposes of the men who have got the powers of government into their hands, has resuscitated the republican party. The elevation of Louis Philippe to the throne without first calling together a Congress like that of Belgium,3 and remodelling the Constitution, has long been regretted; but those who regret that a King and a Court were re-established at all, form, we are assured, a numerous and growing body.

For the present, the national mind seems to be nearly engrossed by exaggerated rumours of warlike intentions on the part of the great continental powers. The French are aware of the power they possess in the sympathies of the people throughout the continent, and the first gun fired should be the signal for the proclamation of federation with the oppressed of the hostile nations.

We shall direct the peculiar attention of our readers to the proposed municipal law, when it makes its appearance.

[1 ]On 26 Nov. Laffitte proposed to the Deputies (Moniteur, 1830, p. 1572) measures to provide a temporary budget that were realized in Bull. 15, No. 79 (12 Dec., 1830), and Bull. 18, No. 83 (5 Jan., 1831). For details on the municipal law, see No. 57, n10. For the previous speculations about electoral reforms, see No. 58; for an outline of the provisions eventually enacted, see No. 72.

[2 ]For details, see No. 55.

[3 ]For details, see No. 59, n5.