THE PRESS.

THE LATE EVENTS IN FRANCE.

QUARTERLY REVIEW—Beset as the exiled house was, from the hour of its restoration, with jealousies bitterly conflicting, and perpetually threatening an explosion, it will not be denied that France enjoyed un- der their rule fifteen years of greater prosperity than had ever before fallen to her lot. Such is the fact, " even their enemies themselves behif; judges : " never, since the foundation of the monarchy, were per- sonal liberty and property so safe ;—never had any government con- tended with greater difficulties ;—none had ever exhibited more painful temperance in the reward of friends, or more magnanimous forbearance towards enemies. Excluding certain political evils from our view' that fine country presented on the whole a picture of prosperity which fixed the admiration of Europe. It is not usually, under such circumstances, that governments take the initiative in political convulsions. No man, who knows anything either of the world as it exists, or of that " old almanac " history, will believe that the Bourbon princes, under such circumstances, and with such an experience behind them rushed, of their own accord, upon the fearful chances of a new revolution. They saw that the factions which had never ceased to labour for the ruin of the monarchy werelrapidly attaining the utmost height of rebellious audacity, and that theonly question was, who should strike the first blow. They saw that, to go on with the charter of Louis the Eighteenth, as it stood, was inevitably to shipwreck the vessel of the state, and they thought to give it a chance by cutting away the masts. The evolution was not success- ful, and the monarchy went down. We may pity the inexperience, or, if that word will please better, the imbecility of the hands which directed the attempt ; but we confess we can discover no reason whatever for doubting that it was prompted by views of genuine patriotism. To say the truth, however, things had come to such a pass, through the work- ings of the fatal charter, that we doubt if any degree of abilities, or any system of measures, could have ensured success. If our own country- Men have eyes to see, or ears to hear, they will profit by this new ex- ample of the dreadful uncertainty which hangs over a government not buttressed by establishments. In France the royal house was isolated; there was no aristocracy worthy of the name—there was no church heartily allied with the crown on one hand, and with the people on the other—there existed no influences intermediate between the mo- narch and the mob ; and wherever this is the case, ally serious differ- ence of opinion between these two powers, instead of reaching through deliberate discussion some conciliatory compromise, is sure to be reduced at once to blows, and the immediate issue is necessarily either a despotism established, or a dynasty overthrown. We certainly wished that, in the struggle which we had long foreseen, the immediate result might be the re-establishment of something like despotic power in the throne of France ; and we did so, because we considered a despotism, in the present condition of the world, as likely to turn out a lesser evil in that mighty country than the other alternative. The past has satisfied us that if Charles the Tenth desired the influence of a dictator, he was incapable of using that influence for any unpa- triotic purpose ;—that no fretfulness of idle vanity, no fervour of selfish ambition, had tormented "his chair-days ;"—and that whatever extra- ordinary power he might obtain, would be held conscientiously, as his only for an extraordinary and temporary purpose—that of endeavouring to lay the foundations of a national aristocracy. As to the other great absent element of national strength and security—a church establishment, we must confess we never indulged in the anticipation of witnessing any- thing worthy of such a name in France. Charles the Tenth, unlike Louis the Eighteenth, was a sincere Catholic; but the popish system had ob- viously ceased to have any substantial hold on the nation, and his very virtues forbade any expectation of his taking a part in replacing it with a better ! We have seen the result of Charles's attempt. It will not now be denied that his opponents have carried everything in their own way; they have a king of their own choosing (whom Mr. Brougham eu- logizes by saying, that " he knows him well, and a man more un- like a prince he never beheld "); they have a free press to their heart's content ; they have dismissed all the peers of King Charles's creation ; they are not interfered with by other countries, but, on the contrary, acknowledged with promptitude ;—in short, they have ob- ained all that they, • or their friends here, have ever demanded on their behalf. Now, if they go on well—if they do establish a government at once free and firm—if they can, in practice, enjoy a free press, without its running into licentiousness—and all this, without erecting among themselves a wealthy hereditary aristocracy and a powerful church esta- blishment,—we shall freely admit ourselves to have been grievously mis- taken ;—that we have been accustomed to do the French people gross .lnjustioe ;-7-nay, that our whole system of political faith has been wrong, anti:that the ageof miracles is some again. In the mean time.we must be permitted toetink, that 'though it was the dear duty. Of the British govern- ment to tieknowledge any prince invested with the sovereignty, or seems ing 's0Vereignty, of France, the body of the Paritish nation have done thetaselves honour, by regarding with stern suspicion the recent progress (events in that country. The meetings, and dinners, and subscriptions Ilet on foot by our old-established disturbers of public peace, have been countenanced by hardly one name which any human being will dare to call respectable. Some of our more influential newspapers were not un- naturally carried away by the first triumph of what the Parisian editors told them was the common cause of journalism ; but they are obviously retracing their steps already, and simply because their function has no- thing in common with that of the Parisian journalists,—because it is their business, and calling, and subsistence, not to dictate, but to reflect, the opinions of the British public. That public is sound at core still : in its ear the names of the drapeau tricolor " and " institutions republicaines " excite as yet no grateful sensations ; in their eyes, the spectacle of an august dynasty, part of it confessedly innocent, driven from the eldest of European thrones for the benefit, however temporary, of the descendant of the meanest and most heartless of traitors—this spectacle is still, at the best, a mournful one. Such changes may sometimes be necessary—they can never be otherwise than frightful ; but, in a country like France, a change of dynasty appears to us to he a more darkly perilous experiment than in any other ; there is no other great kingdom in the world which, in expelling the reigning house, would see itself left without any national institutions capable of lending such support to a new one as might, at least, give it a tolerable chance of consolidating general confidence around it. .Charles the Tenth, having been wholly in the right, managed so as to put himself in the wrong : he saw his danger, but miscalculated his strength ; and struck, instead of waiting for the blow—which no one now denies would soon have come if he had waited. It is the part of Europe, and above all of England, his intentions, and pitying his fate, to avoid his tactics,—to keep undeniably, as well as virtually, in the right ; and let the aggression, if aggression there must be, come from the triumphant enemies of that unfortunate prince. The elements of disorder are rife in many quarters ; but the great powers of the conti- nent know their strength better than they did on a former occasion ; and *England, as respects the condition of her armies, was never so well pre- pared as now.

PUNISHMENT OF THE LATE FRENCH MINISTERS. STANDARD—It is much to be regretted that the question of- the punishment of the late Ministers of France has been mixed up with the proposition for the abolition of capital executions. It is essential to th proper exercise of the powers of a legislature, that it be free from every influence of odium or favour. "Law," if it be law, ought to be a 'mind

without passion;'" and therefore a law ought never to be made from the impulse of any excited feeling. Nobody will say that an act of legis- lation at the present period, by which the late Ministers of France are

to be Iffected one way or the other, can present such an immunity. For

ourselves we cannot see, after the most careful consideration that we have been able to give the subject, any necessary connexion between the

questions of the punishment of the Polignac Cabinet, and the abolition of capital punishments ; and for this plain reason, we cannot find any French law, as it now stands, imposing a capital punishment upon the offence of which these men have been guilty. We suppose no English lawyer will be prepared to say, that if the Duke of Wellington and Sir Esabert Peel had signed ordinances similar to those of July the 25th, and either succeededor failed in an attempt to enforce them by an armed interference, they would have been guilty of high treason, or even of felony, according to our law ; and the law of France affords as little ground for punishing the French Ministers capitally as the English law would furnish in the case supposed. In both kingdoms Ministers are indeed held to be responsible, but it is only a responsibility to existing specific laws which is imposed upon them—a responsibility which, as we know, is not imposed on the King. Whenever our Ministers have been punished capitally for misgovernment (indeed the inauspicious case of Strafford is the only one on our books, without going back to the wildest times), they have been punished liy attainder, that is, by a law made for the purpose ; and therefore retrospective, unjust and cruel— we may add, wanton, unprofitable, and vindictive also, as wanting the pretext of usefulexample ; for, as no Minister will ever make such wicked attempts without entertaining, however erroneously, a conviction that their success is certain, no Minister will be deterred from them by fear of punishment, which success must always obviate. The Ministers of France, therefore, if put to death, will, in our judgment, and, as we think, in the judgment of posterity, be men murdered without law—not the victims of any law, whether politic or impolitic. And though doubtless the enactment of a general law forbidding all capital punishments would make their condition the safer, we do not see why the rejecting of such a law should be regarded as necessarily devoting them to destruction.

GLOBE—It appears to us to be a mistake to consider the proposition for the abolition of the punishment of death in France as an expedient merely for saving the lives of the Ministers. There are two classes of supporters of the proposition, who are working with equal zeal for dif- ferent purposes. One class obviously wishes to abolish the penalty itself, in order to prevent it from being applied to the Ministers ; the other is willing to save the lives of the Ministers, in order to establish the gene- ral principle of the abolition of capital punishments. The last of these classes is composed of humane men, among whom are MM. Lafayette, Destutt Tracy (and perhaps the King), who wish to carry into effect the recommendations of Beccaria and the philosophers who have fol- lowed him. Among the first are some, no doubt, who are well-affected not only to the traitors whom they would save, but to their treason ; there are others, also, who have a horror at the recollection of the judi- cial murders of the first revolution, and who fear, even by the just shedding of blood, to appear to make a step towards the renewal of these atrocities. The whole of the glorious revolution of France has exhibited so remarkable a union of great military and civil courage, zeal, and promptitude, with humanity and forbearance, that the desire to preserve - this character unspotted may be pardoned, even though it lead to un- justifiable tenderness towards great criminals. These men, too, it must be acknowledged, have, in spite of themselves been of the greatest use to France: it is through their treason that themselves, country is rid of its

nuisances, as a man has been accidentally relieved from a dangerous malady by the stab of an assassin's dagger. If we only look to results, and not to intentions, we may reverse the words of Angelo—" What

malefactors are they ? Are they not benefactors ?" But legislators and judges must not look at these accidental results. It must be con-

fessed, that if great political criminals are to be punished at all, it is diffi- cult to find any penalty, adequate to the magnitude and mischievous character of their offences, which shall not be as repugnant to the feel- ings of humanity as death itself. It would be repugnant to the feelings of the French to sentence Prince Polignae to five hundred lashes, like the sentinel who was found sleeping on his post. Confiscation of pro- perty has been banished from the French code as an injustice to the innocent families of the guilty. Personal torture of every kind is disused. Would it be practicable, without exciting pity for the criminals, to set them to work for life in the galleys ; or even to sentence them to perpetual solitary confinement ? Under simple confinement it is difficult to cause a rich prisoner to be treated with rigour ; and even if he were so treated, the suffering to the individual would be much greater than the benefit in the way of example. Mere banishment in the present state of Europe, can scarcely be said to be any punishment to a man who is allowed to retain his property ; or, at any rate, in the case of criminals like the French Ministers, it is not any punishment in addition to that which is involved in the failure of their attempt.

They could not continue to live in France, even if the law permitted

them to do so. The Patriote, one of the French journals, which perse. veres in the demand for justice against the late Ministers, points out to

the persons injured in the massacres of Paris the means which the law affords them of obtaining redress, and of preventing the success of any Plan for 'securing impunity to the criminals. Though all prosecutions for crimes are carried on by the public prosecutors, the French law

admits the intervention in the process of a panic civile, consisting of the individuals who have suffered injury in their persons, their families, or

their fortunes, by the criminal acts. The sentence on the crimin:11, if he is found guilty, embraces both punishment and reparation—punish.. ment for the sake of the public, and reparation by way of damages to

the pantie civile—the individuals specially injured. The fortunes Of the

late Ministers will, of course, not go far to supply the damages occa- sioned by their misdeeds ; but, as far as their property will extend, it must be applied to that purpose ; and the judicial exhibitions which will be made of the sufferings occasioned to many families by the murders and wounding of the people may reconcile the most humane members of the Government to the execution of the law as it now stands. What- ever the result may be, the anxiety now displayed by a large portion of the French patriots to spare the lives of those who had poured out the blood of innocent men like water, is creditable to the temper of the nation ; and gives an earnest, whatever may be its practical wisdom, of a spirit from which we may hope in time for the greatest improvements of which society is susceptible.

ALGIERS.

GLOBE—It is useful as a political lesson, when a subject of alarm has

been stripped of its imaginary importance, to recall to mind the terrors which it created. Among those persons who are anxious to find in every movement on the part of other States a cause for plunging England in

war, the expedition to Algiers was spoken of as likely to give France a most dangerous and overwhelming power. The expedition took place, Algiers has been long taken, the piratical government destroyed,—but as to the influence of the event on the Powers of Europe, the conquest of Algiers seems to be now troublesome to no other persons than the conquerors. As we do not think that under any conceivable circum- stances the civilization of the North of Africa by the French would be dangerous to Europe, we are sorry to see that the obstacles in the way of the continued occupation of Algiers by the French appear to be so seri- ous. Though the city was taken with even less difficulty than was an- ticipated, and the old military rulers hooted out, no progress whatever appears to he made in enforcing the submission, or even respect, of the inhabitants of the interior ; the army is melting away by disease ; and it is very doubtful whether the Government of France can justify itself, by any prospect of advantages, in incurring the expense necessary to re- tain and consolidate the conquest. The only hope appears to be in the organization of native troops under French officers ; and if this experi- ment succeeds, it may furnish an expedient for preserving the country without the intolerable expense of large reinforcements from France. The French have the credit of having introduced a similar force in India, where we have so largely profited by their example ; but we fear that in Africa there will be found much less tractable materials to work with.

IRELAND—REPEAL OF THE UNION.

GLOBE—From the account of our own correspondent, as well as the Irish papers, the success of Mr. O'Connell in getting sip petitions in fa- vour of a repeal of the Union is greater than some of our contempora- ries believe. The Irish papers are, as usual, lofty on the subject, and refer to the small beginnings of the Catholic Association—which was at first despised and afterwards dreaded—and conclude that the agitation in favour of the great national question will shortly become equally for- midable. We do not wish to irritate our Irish patriots, whom nothing seems to annoy so much as the idea that they cannot shake the empire by any project which they take in hand, but we may remark that there is no analogy between the two cases. In the case of the Catholic Asso- ciation there was merely an expression given to an existing feeling—to the sense of a growing grievance ; it was an expedient for carrying to a successful end a cause which had been already sanctioned at different times by majorities of both Houses of Parliament, and to which the great remaining obstacle was individual obstinacy. Besides, the cause of religious liberty had long been, and was, in progress ;—the certain tendency of events was the emancipation of the Catholics ;—their eman- cipation never was, with rational men, any thing but a question of time. On the other hand, it is just as certain that whenever two neighbouring countries have been united under the same laws, it becomes every day more mischievous, and ultimately morally impossible, to separate them. Unless they succeed in the first impulse, the Anti-Unionists will be like the men in one of the Polar expeditions, who, after walking four days towards the North, found themselves at the end of the time farther to the South than when they began, by the• moving of the ice on which they were paddling forward. We would therefore advise them to make quick work if they wish to succeed, and not to trust to time and reason, which will prove their great enemies. It seems to us, that, making every allowance for the benefits to be hoped for from the dissolution of the Union, the mischiefs to be apprehended to both countries, and to Ireland especially, greatly outweigh them. If the two countries had separate Legislatures, who could calculate on the continuance of the free- dom of trade and intercourse which exists between the countries ?—who would not fear, and be justified in fearing, the immediate commencement of protecting and prohibitory duties ? What Irish reason might be in its uudiluted state, we do not know ; but we should reckon on imme- diate and successful attempts, if we hae. a pure English Parliament, to tax Irish cattle, and, probably, to prohibit Irish corn. 'We should have forced manufactures in Ireland and forced agriculture in England. All this would produce weakness in the result, and misery in the process ; it would be the wilful relinquishment of the advantages resulting from an extensive empire, which affords a wide scope for every man's exertions ; it would he a destruction of vested interests, and a violent interference with the industry of half the empire—not with the prospect of ultimate improvement, but with the certainty of ultimate degradation. Whatever inconvenience was produced by the transfer of the seat of the Legisla. tore from Dublin has been suffered long since. The great, very great, majority of the people of Ireland have no recollection of the change. The character of the city is altered—it is suited to its new occupations, and there is no greater reason, in a national point of view, for making another change on account of some hopes which the tenants of houses in Dublin entertain of a benefit from the change, than for removing the docks of Liverpool for the sake of the owners of land on the other side of the water. In the territorial division of labour, as it has been called, one district cannot unite all occupations. Every city cannot be the resi- dence of a numerous aristocracy—every district cannot have the manu- factures of Lancashire; but as Ireland has many advantages, and is at- taining a high and enviable station in the economy of a great empire, it will become, and rapidly, the great agricultural district—the granary of these islands. What can it hope for from a change, or rather, what can politicians hope for in misdirecting for a time the activity of their coun- trymen to a project which never will succeed ?

PRAISE OF THE ENGLISH ARISTOCRACY.

STANDARD—No formed design ever made an aristocracy like the aristocracy of England. It is the growth of eight hundred years of na- tional independence and general internal peace, such as no nation of Europe has enjoyed—of an independent and true national religion, such as few of the Continental nations of Europe possess—and of our insular position, an advantage which is certainly peculiar. It is from circum- stances essentially connected with these peculiarities, and entirely in- dependent of mere political rank, that the English aristocracy derives its value. Whatever may be the character of particular noblemen, the hody of the English, nobility must be popular with an immense proportion of the population, because with such a portion they are linked by ties of mutual advantage. They must generally be, as a body, at- tached to the interest of religion, from their connexion with the national church which presents religion in its purest form ; they must be, as a body, affable and easily accessible, from their community of education with the great and small gentry ; and above all, they must, as a body, lo patriotic, for the "patrice amor ratione potentior omni" is confirmed in them by every consideration of interest which can operate upon man. Their country's history (we speak now of the body) is the record of their family fame ; their country's institutions are the sole element in which their peculiar privileges can he exercised ; their country's soil is the sole treasury of their wealth. Were the nobility of England even per- versely educated, to an opposite purpose, their interests would compel them, above any other class of men, to guard the permanent welfare of their country. But they are not perversely educated,—their education is conducted in an affectionate and friendly connexion with the gentry of all classes,—not by an alien priesthood, hostile to the independence of the nation, but by men as deeply committed as men can be, in the interests of their common country. These incidental circumstances it is which give value to the English aristocracy, adequate to balance the odium, if not the danger, of exclusive political privileges. These can- not be given to any guard room, Stock Exchange, or manufactory aris- tocracy; above all, they cannot be given to a lack-land aristocracy, edu- cated by popish priests.

SIR ROBERT PEEL'S POLICE.

TmEs—There is no doubt that, whether from the pains taken to get tip a specific opposition to this establishment, or from the existence of a real feeling of dislike to it in the minds of the public, the merits of the police system are now so much canvassed, and with so much heat and pertinacity, as to make it almost inevitable that some attention should be given by Government to the question, whether the present constitu- tion, or administration of the police force, might not admit of improve- ments so considerable as greatly to diminish the burden of supporting it, without impairing its efficiency as a conservative power. We have always defended the principle of the New Police : of the objections now made to it, some do not affect its principle; and of those which do, the greater pertion are not tenable in reason. The parishes complain bit- terly of the increased expense entailed on them by this establishment. If the business of preserving the public peace, and of securing person and property, was badly executed by the ancient watchmen, and if much of the inefficacy (at least towards any good purpose) of those confederates with thieves and vagabonds, was easily traceable to the wretchedness of their pay, it follows, that all who regard the peace of society, and the protection of life and goods, as things worth paying for, at the market. price of severe labour, can ground no fair objection to the police, merely on the rate of their wages being higher than that of watchmen's. It is otherwise, if the extra taxes levied on parishes be more than sufficient to defray the additional expense. The communication of a correspond- ent—who proceeds, we suspect, on good authority—informs us that the extra charge for the last twelvemonth ought to have been levied out of the poor-rate, and ought not to have exceeded eightpence in the pound. If, therefore, there he parishes in or about London where the charge occa- sioned by the police, as compared to the watch, amounted to the difference between 2,300/. and 1,400/.or between 1,7001. and 900/. we can only regret that such foul playshouId have been committed, and protest against the abuses of parochW administration being laid to account of the necessary charges for police: It is alleged that there are two few policemen distibuted over certain districts, and too many in others ; that also is a defect of ad- ministration, and in no manner adducible as an objection to the system itself. It issaid that a greater number of robberies and disorders are com- mitted now, than under thetsuperintendence of the ancient watchmen. This assertion is best met by a positive contradiction. There is a striking contrast between the security of house and person at present, and while the parish governments jobbed their watchmen : very few robberies, comparatively, are brought forward, and as we may be certain that none are concealed, it is reasonable to conclude that many are prevented. But the grand argument—the "constitutional" argument—as it is de- scribed to be by some constitutional wiseacres, goes to the unfitness of leaving the police under the direct control of Has MAJEsTy's Govern- ment. Now, we really wish to ask, what is the meaning of this objection? or has it any ? Do the advocates for a return to the old system believe that the Secretary of State has any interest in making an attempt on the national liberties by means of the police constables ? If on that score• the parish potentates are to be set up as preferable to the authorities of the state, let the case be carried, as it ought to be, a little further, and give up the command of the King's troops to the parishes ; since they, undoubtedly, are instruments far more dangerous to freedom in the hands of Government, than a body of peace-officers, with short staves for their only arms. In our apprehension, tbe simplicity and efficiency of the service depends mainly on its being subordinate to a central magis- tracy, of which the Home-office is the head. Concurrent jurisdictions are too often conflicting ones. There were numberless instances formerly, where watchmen have refused to follow thieves beyond their own beat, or out of their own parish—" because, indeed, it was not their business." So complaints against watchmen were often set aside by their worthy patrons in the respective parishes; whereas no charge against a police- constable ever fails to meet with redress. We shall be glad to see the question of the police brought forward, and abuses remedied if any are proved to exist ; but it would give us sincere concern to find the system itself abandoned.