LAW AND ORDER IN FRANCE.
THE appointment of M. Delangle as Minister of the Interior, in the room of General Espinasse, has created scarcely less satis- faction in London than in Paris. It is regarded as the first step, at least, in the return from an open military regime to one of jus- tice and law ; and the change not only finds the moral approval which would necessarily be anticipated from the English people, but it also evokes a feeling of satisfaction at the greater security for order which resides in a judicial rather than a military ad- ministration of domestic affairs. In many respects the subject is one that must actively interest this country : both because France is so near a neighbour of ours, and because we have trusted her until she has obtained some hold upon the balance of power in Europe, we must desire to see her deliberate in her actions, sober in her judgment, and carrying along with her as much as possible the weight of public opinion. This apparent step in return to a normal state of government is the more interesting, since very recent events had provoked us to ask, more than once, how far matters were to go in the opposite direction ? How the departure from order, and from the custom- ary appeal to settled tribunals, could be carried so far and con- tinued so long ? The remark was not caused only by the action of the Government, though of course the Government in France is the first and chief object of attention, and the moving power even in society. It presents in these respects the exact opposite of our own Court and Government. In no country of the world, per- haps, has freedom ever gone so far, or extended to such multi- tudes, as in this, and last week we saw the consequence in the universal gathering of the English people around the Court. The rule of our Sovereign is completed and morally crowned by the spontaneous cooperation of the whole body of the people, which thus assists in forming a power as much transcending all the an- tecedents of Royal power as the freedom of the country does all precedents of free nations. In France, the Court, by its agents, undertakes to manage the affairs even of society in all its depart- ments, its literature, its gayeties, its commercial transactions, and even its conversation. Necessarily, therefore, the Government is at once more completely the representative of the community than in this country and less so ; it is the agent in an enor- mously larger degree, but not so freely and universally the spontaneously chosen representative of the community. Now one of the latest acts of this Imperial clique has been to seek at the hands of the Senate a proposal for creating a special court, before which important persons of state, dignitaries, and apparently those who are walking in the higher ranks of society, should be brought, when they are charged with great crimes or misdemean- ours. The question whether functionaries and high dignitaries of the state should be placed before the ordinary tribunal was re- ferred by the Senate to a committee, and a minority of that com- mittee, at least, answered in the affirmative. It seems to have been thought necessary to compensate that declaration of opinion by some other manifestation, and accordingly M. President Barthe was appointed to draw up a report which has been published in the .21foniteur. The report states the arguments on both sides, decidedly giving the balance of weight to those in favour of a special court. There is a precedent for the purpose; by a Sena- tua-consultum, dated 1804, princes or dignitaries are made ame- nable only to a high-dii, and this provision lasted till 1810. "Uniformity in the organization of the tribunals" is acknow- ledged to be a great advantage, but "justice itself may be sacri- ficed" to that formality. "If a dignitary, who is accused, is popular, the acquittal of the jury may be a blow to public no rality and to the authority of the executive; should the minister be unpopular the jury may sacrifice him to a hostile spirit of de- mocracy." Ordinary criminals, says M. Barthe, "come almost invariably from the dregs of society," which "the strong arm of the law must put down"; ; but, it is an injury to a person of dis- tinction who is only accused, and is perhaps innocent, if he is subjected to the same 94ormalities with a vagabond or a re- captured convict. Special tribunals are already recognized as in the case of Courts Martial. If a minority of the Senate Committee, therefore, has spoken in favour of what may be called the English system, M. Barthe's plausible paper has gone far to redress the balance, and looks wy like the sign of an Imperial predetermination to establish a Sipecial Court for persons of rank and influence. It may be thought, indeed, that our con- stitutional law, by which a Peer of Parliament is tried only by his Peers, justifies this French innovation by an example ; but thei example s of no application to the question. The reason for the special law is that the Peers hold in this country an authority, equally independent of the Crown and of the other House of Par- liament, or of the constituencies ; it is an authority which can effectuate no final action, but is essential to the action of Parlia- ment. By a parity of reasoning the Sovereign can only be called to account through the Parliament ; and a Member even of the Commons is shielded from the ordinary operations of the civil law, where it might impede him individually in the prosecution of his duties. But the coordinate jurisdiction of the other au- thorities, the unavoidable and total publicity, the power residing in the representative chamber, are guarantees against any abuse of this provision which is in itself a guarantee of actual inde- pendence. Give provision, the Peers of France, or to the constituencies, and Representatives, of that country, the same substantive in- dependent, and solid power, and there would be no difficult!), in arranging any speciality of tribunal for accused thus specially circumstanced. In this country rank carries with it no exemptions in the face of ordinary justice ; but in a neighbouring country, where the institutions are new, where the orders of society spring from yesterday, the ancient orders being set aside, where even the property of those who hold it has nothing but the guarantees of a Government system created yesterday, it is proposed to create special tribunals for the convenience and advantage of the present "rank and fashion" of Paris !
The Government, we say, has no monopoly in this love of specialities. The new plan of the association of capitals, which is said to have originated with a very great financier whose brother is always near the Emperor, has been carried out in one of its constellations by M. Prost, who proposed "La Thleration de Caisses d'Escomptes," a sort of mutual assurance of the prO aial discount banks. He succeeded in establishing one " C d'Escomptes," and was engaged in a variety of other schemes connected with the Portuguese Credit Mobilier, &c. The concern, with a capital of fourteen million francs, is bankrupt. M. Prost flew right and left, even went to Spain to raise the wind ; but came back without a puff from his chateaux en Espagne. At the last meeting of shareholders appeared the hero himself, penitent, and penniless, with brilliant ideas for the benefit of the share- holders,—namely, that they should give him an office as one of the paid liquidators of the bankrupt concern, and take immediate steps to recover their position, as one of themselves had already proposed, by carrying out his " federation de caisses d'eseomptes." Agreed to ; at least so far as appointing M. Prost.
These events speak, and speak loudly, for themselves ; they remind us of others. Lately, when certain officers of the French Army met for the avowed purpose of challenging a satirical writer to death, the ordinary tribunals proved quite unequal to the task of defending society against organized ruffianism; while the Im- perial Government held back from any effectual interference with so powerful a body as the sous-officiers of the Army. Recent events have almost made it appear that every power in that coun- try might at last claim, and take, a special tribunal of its own—a special tribunal for powerful military criminals, a special tribu- nal for commercial gentlemen whose dealings are measured by millions, a special tribunal for persons of still higher rank, whose money transactions may subject them, like M. Teste, or whose conjugal irregularities may expose them, like the Duke de Pres- lin,—gentlemen mentioned. in M. Barthe's report,—to the vulgar constructions of common juries. How far is the substitution of M. Delangle for General Espinasse a sign that France reverts from these sublimations to the commoner ideas of law and order?
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