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 Front Page arrow Titles (by Subject) arrow 81.: FRENCH NEWS [13] EXAMINER, 30 JAN., 1831, P. 72 - The Collected Works of John Stuart Mill, Volume XXII - Newspaper Writings December 1822 - July 1831 Part I

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Collection: The Collected Works of John Stuart Mill

81.: FRENCH NEWS [13] EXAMINER, 30 JAN., 1831, P. 72 - 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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81.

FRENCH NEWS [13]

EXAMINER, 30 JAN., 1831, P. 72

This article is headed “London, January 30.” For the entry in Mill’s bibliography, see No. 55. The article is listed in the Somerville College copy as “Article on France”; Mill’s brackets indicate that only the first six paragraphs of this article are by him (it continues for six more paragraphs on Russia, Poland, and Hanover).

the king of the french, if a letter in the Courrier des Pays-bas is authentic, has had the inconceivable silliness of announcing to the Belgian Congress, that if they elect for their king the son of Eugène Beauharnais, he will not be recognized by the French Government.1 The sole apparent motive of this act of imbecility, is fear lest some of the few remaining Bonapartists should think of setting up that individual as King of France, in consequence of his father’s connexion with the object of their admiration and regret. This perfectly squares with the accounts we have heard of the panic terror into which Louis Philippe was thrown, by a letter which appeared in France from Joseph Bonaparte, asserting, with an obstinacy worthy of a more legitimate line, the claims of his nephew, the Duke of Reichstadt, to the throne.2 Such is Louis Philippe’s terror of the Bonapartists, that he dares refuse them nothing which they ask for; he has numbers of them about his house and person like tame mastiffs, not knowing, in his foolish fear, that the Bonapartist partakes far more of the nature of the spaniel, and is ever ready to lick the hand which feeds him.

We mentioned last week that addresses were pouring in from the departments, complaining of the conduct of government, and calling for more popular institutions. One of the best of these was from the admirable department of the Meurthe;3 to this several public functionaries, among others the Préfet, and the Procureur du Roi, were parties.4 For this the Préfet has been dismissed, and the Procureur du Roi reprimanded.

The Ministry have been defeated on their bill for altering the mode of levying a portion of the direct taxes. The subject was well and fully discussed on both sides, and it appears to us, on consideration, that the opponents of the measure were in the right.5

A Political Economy Society has been formed at Paris, consisting of thirty-six deputies of all parties, to meet once every week for the purpose of discussing among themselves such questions likely to come before them in their legislative capacity, as require a peculiar acquaintance with political economy.

The Ministry have at length introduced the promised bill for the elementary instruction of the people. It establishes a school in every commune, nearly upon the footing of the excellent parish schools in Scotland; and we doubt not that it will equal in its results that memorable example of great effects produced by small means.6

Another bill has been introduced by the Ministers, to remove the censorship of the theatres, and provide for the trial and punishment of such offences as may be committed by means of theatrical performances. Like our libel law, this bill is somewhat vague and indefinite, but it is to be hoped that French juries will temper it by a large and liberal interpretation.7

[1 ]For the background, see No. 59, n5. The letter to the Belgian government was from Count Sébastiani, then Minister of Foreign Affairs (Courrier [formerly Courrier des Pays Bas], 25 Jan., 1831, p. 1). Eugène Rose de Beauharnais (1781-1824), known as prince Eugène, was the only son of Napoleon’s wife Josephine by her first marriage. His eldest son, Auguste Charles Eugène Napoléon, duc de Leuchtenberg (1810-35), was a candidate for the Belgian throne.

[2 ]Joseph Napoléon Bonaparte (1768-1844), eldest surviving brother of Napoleon, lived in exile after 1815. His letter from New York (18 Sept., 1830), addressed to the Chamber of Deputies, but never received by it, is in Anon., Biographical Sketch of Joseph Napoleon Bonaparte (London: Ridgway, 1833), pp. 111-16.

[3 ]The protest to the King (2 Jan., 1831), appeared in Le National, 17 Jan., p. 4.

[4 ]The Préfet was Stanislaus Michel François Vallet de Merville (1767-1833), who had been appointed in August 1830; the procureur du roi was Jean Baptiste Jorant.

[5 ]The debate centred on the bill’s tendency to centralization and to invasion of privacy. On 21 Jan., 1831, the bill was sent back to the commission for further preparation. The Ministry was defeated only on Art. 1 (see No. 62).

[6 ]Projet de loi sur l’instruction primaire (20 Jan.), Moniteur, 1831, p. 136.

[7 ]Projet de loi relatif à la répression de délits commis par la voie des représentations théâtrales (19 Jan.), ibid., 1831, pp. 131-2; the bill was dropped at the end of the session. (British libel law was based on common, not statute, law.)