In France, the " dotatiOn " question—the question of a
provision for the younger branches of the House Of Orleans by the Legisla- ture—has again been raised. A Ministerial, or as the enemies of Louis PHILIPPE have it, a Royal manifesto, has appeared in the Moneteur, heralding the renewal of the discussion: That any Mi- nistry should be averse to grapple with a question which has been found so efficient an engine for raising a popular clamour, is na- tural enough. That the King of the French is anxious to have it settled, may be believed without imputing to him any unworthy degree of avarice. The statement which is made in the King's behalf of the inadequacy of his private property to make a proper provision for the younger branches of his family, has an appear- ance of truth. The Orleans appanage was restored to him, but in a dilapidated condition. His elevation to the throne has entailed expenses which obliged him to contract burdens on his private property. Even the princely appanage of Orleans can- not long support the claims upon it, unless the proprietor devote much of his attention to its management, which a King cannot and ought not to do. A law of the 2d March 1832 declares, " that in case of the inadequacy of the private domain, provision (dotation) for the younger sons of the King, and for the Princesses his daugh- ters, shall be ulteriorly regulated by special laws." This is a most unfortunate footing on which to place the claim of the younger branches to a national provision : for it imposes the necessity in every case of opening the invidious question of the adequacy or inadequacy of the private domain. A wiser way, could the King have chosen it with safety, would have been, to follow the example of the Crown in this country, which gave up the Sovereign's private domain to the management of Parliament, receiving in return a civil list fixed at the commencement of each reign. The civil list having been allotted for the King's use, and the King having no sufficient private property for the endowment of his children, their receiving a dotation from Parliament follows as a matter of course. It may be that the cession of the Crown domain to the Legislature on receiving a fixed civil list and dotations for his children, has not been proposed by the King of the French from a wish to secure both ; but candour prompts the alternative conclu- sion, that it may not have been proposed for fear of losing both. It was not till the reign of GEORGE the Third that such an arrange- ment was made in England. But it imports the stability of the Orleans dynasty, and of monarchical institutions in France, that such a settlement should be made without delay. The handle which every renewal of the dotation question gives for spreading calumnies against the personal motives of the King, endangers both him and his office. And so long as he retains the private domain, so long will it be easy to persaude the multitude that personal avarice, or the wish to make a private purse for anti-national ob- jects, prompts every application for a Parliamentary provision for any younger branch of the Royal Family.
