ment of foreign affairs; marshal St. Cyr and baron Louis resigned; Decazes became minister for the interior, and was placed at the head of his colleagues, with the title of president of the council of minis

ters.

The first proceeding of the Chambers, which attracted attention, was the resolution annulling the election of M. Gregoire. This man, formerly bishop of Blois, had voted in the convention for the murder of Louis XVI., and had been just returned by the department of the Isère. It was deemed a scandal, that there should exist even a possibility of clothing such a man with the functions of a legislator. The liberals were ashamed of a choice, which gave them so discreditable an ally; the ultraroyalists exulted in it, as a proof of the consequences that might be expected, if a new course of policy was not followed. The resolution annulling his election, on the ground of some real or pretended informality, was carried by acclamation.

In the mean time, as it was known that a new system of election was in agitation, the public attention was every where directed to it with the keenest anxiety. According to general report, the ministers were not yet agreed as to the nature or extent of the alteration that was to be made. They were divided, it was said, between two plans. According to the first, there were to be two sets of electoral colleges, the one consisting of persons who paid 300 francs of direct contribution, the other of persons paying 1,000 francs. These two sets of colleges were to elect each one half of the Chamber, and were to exercise each a control over the elections of the other. The second plan, pro

posed and supported by M. Laine, was, that persons paying 600 franes of taxes, should choose a number of candidates equal to double the number of deputies, and that from the persons thus chosen, the deputies should be elected by the votes of those who payed 300 francs of taxes. Both projects aimed at the same end, and employed similar means. Both were intended to render the Chamber of Deputies less democratical in its composition, and sought to accomplish this by making the elections, in one stage or other, dependent on the more opulent classes.

While it was yet uncertain what the intended change would be, numerous petitions were presented in favour of the existing system, and deprecating, in the strongest terms, any alteration. These produced very violent discussions; and on a question, whether the further consideration of them should be gotten rid of by passing on to the order of the day, the ministers prevailed only by a majority of 117 to 112. In this debate, complaints were made of the improper arts which had been used to multiply petitions, and to increase the number of signatures. A pamphlet, said baron Pasquier, minister of foreign affairs, had been circulated in the department of La Sarthe, which announced, in the most alarming terms, that in four years the charter would be abrogated, the purchasers of national estates dispossessed, the feudal government restored, and blood shed in torrents. This department had, in consequence, produced the greatest number of petitioners-a circumstance, which alone was calculated to excite the vigilance of the Chamber in respect to these

petitions generally. The circulation of the pamphlet was admitted by B. Constant.

The fact is, that it was by such representations as those contained in this pamphlet, that the public interest was principally excited. Few would have cared about a modification of the elective system, had it not been, that they were persuaded to identify the continuance of the existing plan with the security of property, aud to believe that a change in it would be followed by an attack of the rights which had accrued under or after the revolution. To calm these fears, some laws were introduced sauctioning, more or Jess directly, the purchases which had been made of national do mains.

The new law was expected from day to day with extreme anxiety, but the indisposition of M. Decazes prevented it from being propounded. The 18th of February arrived, and still it had not been brought forward. On that day the duc de Berri fell under the blow of an assassin named Louvel; and this event, for the particulars of which we refer to the Chronicle, entirely changed the relative position of the political parties.

The general horror, excited by such a deed, gave the eager royalists courage as well as strength; and to oppose them at such a moment, when atrocious deeds threatened the very existence of the monarchy, had almost the air of making common cause with anarchy and murder. Their indignation was strongly directed against Decazes. They had always disliked him, probably because, without adopting their -principles or sympathizing in their

feelings, he had more than shared with them the personal attachment and confidence of the sovereign. Now they openly maintained, that, by his leaning to demecratical principles of government, he had brought on the late melancholy event. Nay, one of their party, M. Clausel de Cossergues, on the day after the assassination, made a formal proposition in the Chamber of Deputies, that M. Decazes should be impeached as an accomplice in the murder, and as guilty of treason, according to the 56th article of the charter. Nor was this the wild ebullition of momentary passion. On the next day, he coolly persisted in it, disclaimed all motives of personal animosity to the minister, and requested a time to be fixed for the discussion of the charge; and though he afterwards withdrew it, yet he did so, not because he thought it unfounded, but because the resignation of Decazes, which had by that time taken place, rendered it unnecessary.

The ministers felt that this event had shaken their power. They endeavoured to strengthen themselves in their posts by the adoption of vigorous measures, and immediately brought forward their scheme of a new law for the regulation of elections. In the speech in which Decazes, ou the 15th of February announced it to the Chamber of Deputies, he claimed indulgence for the imperfection of the work, which, he alleged, was still in preparation at the moment when the duc de Berri was assassinated. He founded, however, on the cruel death of the prince, the necessity of strengthening more powerfully and more speedily the hands of the royal government, and de

ferred to the future stages of its progress through the Chamber a more particular discussion of the projet de loi. The details of the measure were comprehended under six heads, or titles. The first related to the number of deputies. They were to consist of 430 members, 258 chosen by the colleges of arrondissement, and 172 by the departmental colleges. The departments were divided into electoral arrondissements, each of which had a college composed of members residing within the arrondissement. The departmental colleges were composed of a number of electors, of which 600 was the maximum, and the minimum 100, named by the colleges of arrondissement, and paying 1,000 f. per annum of direct contributions. The second title related to the contributions of the electors, and of the eligible; the third, to the formation of the bureau, or presidency of the college, all presidents being to be named by the king. The fourth head prescribed the form of voting, which was by writing the name on slips of paper, the scrutiny remaining open five days. The fifth title included some general dispositions. Of these, one was, that, in case of a dissolution of the Chamber, all the deputies, after being newly elected, should hold their seats for 5 years so that the renewal by fifths should not commence until after the expiration of the 5th year, and one-fifth of the body of the Chamber would retain their seats for nine years. The sixth head contained what were termed "transitory dispositions," or such as provided for the manner in which the new projet should affect the composition and dura

tion of the existing Chamber. The 172 members wanting to complete the 430 were to be chosen by the departmental colleges, between that and the en suing session.

On the same day, Decazes introduced into the Chamber of Peers a law for subjecting, during five years, all writings of a political nature to a previous censorship. It was only in the preceding year, that the censorship had been removed, and that the consideration of offensive publications had been transferred from the tribunals of police to the ordinary courts of justice, to be there determined by the verdict of a jury. "Experience (said he, in presenting the new law to the Peers), has shown us the inefficacy of trials. But, complete as was the conviction of government on that point, yet it would have waited for more examples to form or augment your conviction on the same head, or till public indignation, or a just return of moderation, however difficult to expect, had put a stop to the guilty excesses at which there is not one honest man who has not shuddered.

"But the loss which we deplore draws with it a conviction but too powerful: it will make all friends of the throne and of the country recognise but too strongly the imperious necessity of applying to these excesses a remedy, which doubtless will not impair the evil already inflicted ou France, but which, by stopping in its career the fatal impulse given to men's minds, will at least spare us fresh tears.

"This cruel lesson has proved too well that our repressive laws are insufficient, and that the in

terest of society requires, while the late dreadful events compel, the enactment of preventive laws which may supply that want of power but too much felt by our tribunals,

"His majesty, therefore, has ordered us to submit to you a project of law which may supply the insufficiency of the existing means of repressing the deplorable abuses of the licence of the journals. This project contains only a temporary measure, commanded by necessity, pointed out by prudential foresight, and which ought to be transient, as doubtless, thanks to the devoted loyalty of the two Chambers, and to the good feelings of the immense majority of Frenchmen, will be the dangers of our present situation.

"The superintending guardianship, appointed to protect the sacred interests of society against anarchical doctrines, is intrusted to an independent authority. Its operation is placed in impartial but firm hands, guided in the exercise of the discretionary power committed to them by the general interest alone.

"All the acts of government and of the administration, will continue to receive the greatest publicity, and will be freely appreciated. The proposed law will not restrain the discussion of political matters: it will prevent merely the odious abuse daily made of it in publications full of audacity and disloyalty, which attack at once all our institutions, and the public peace, of which these institutions are the basis."

A third measure of the ministry was analogous to a suspension of the Habeas Corpus act with us.

The provisions of the new law proposed on this subject were twofold:

1. That any individual accused of plots or machinations against the person of the king, the safety of the state, or the persons of the royal family, may be arrested and detained, without the necessity of being brought to trial, in virtue of an order determined on in the council of ministers, and signed by three ministers at least.

2. That all gaolers shall be required to send, within 24 hours from the arrival of the person arrested, a copy of the warrant of arrest to the attorney-general, who shall hear immediately the prisoner, draw up a proces-verbal of what he says, receive his memoirs, petitions, or other documents, and transmit them to the minister of justice, to be reported on to the king's council. The minister of justice will make known to the prisoner the decision of the council. If the present law is not renewed, in the approaching session of the Chambers, it will cease to have effect.

"The charter (said the baron Pasquier, in bringing forward this measure), protects individual liberty, with especial care. None can be arrested but in the cases provided for by law, and in the forms which it prescribes; and to the magistrates alone belongs the right of arrest under the obligation of bringing the prisoner immediately before the courts. But the law may correct and modify itself; it can demand temporary extraordinary powers. Those, which we now require, are not unprecedented; they were granted to the government by the law of Feb. 12, 1817; and the circumstances

We

were then less grave, the fermentation of parties less violent. hoped for tranquil and serene days; but for a year past this fermentation has been renewed, and is increased to a degree which it never before reached. We have just reaped the fruits of it. Is this crime the act merely of a fanatic, blinded and misled by the perverted opinions which are daily published, and with impunity, because, forsooth, they are only opinions as if opinions did not corrupt the mind? Is it, I say, such an insulated act, or has the assassin accomplices? Are we in such a happy state, that in the midst of such excitation, and so many errors, we have only one fanatic amongst us? Are we not, on the contrary, too forcibly reminded, by this unforeseen calamity, that we must watch over the preservation of that venerable and sacred trunk, whose youngest scion has been demolished by a sacrilegious hand? Well, then, in this alarming crisis, we demand of you, for one year, the renewal of the law of the 12th of

February, 1817. We demand the means of watching, in particular, over the safety of the king, of his family, and of the state. All these are menaced, not by mere words, but, alas! by a dreadful blow. We demand of you, therefore, the power to arrest, without being compelled to go through any preliminary judicial form, any individual suspected of plots or machinations against the person of the king, the safety of the state, or that of the royal family. We hope not to have occasion to use it, but we ought to be invested with it, that we may not remain unarmed before

opinions, plots, and crimes of the same nature, which might have the same source, and which we must turn aside, or prevent."?

Of the wisdom of these measures it is not easy to form a fair opinion. They might be requisite in the actual state of France; but, if requisite, the necessity for them must have been long felt, and they ought to have been adopted sooner and more gradually. It is impossible to conceive that the act of a single desperado, however atrocious, can be a sufficient reason for a complete change in the internal administration of a great country.

They failed, at least, to accom¬ plish the end for which they were more especially intended. That was, to confirm the power of the ministry, by stemming the odium which poured in upon them for the indecisiveness of their past conduct, and by inducing the royalists to rally round their banner. The ministers, however, by the course which they now adopted, only alienated the Liberals still further from them, without engaging the confidence or gaining the support of the high monarchical party. On the 18th of February, Decazes was obliged to resign his portfolio, and the duke of Richelieu was placed. at the head of the government. Decazes, however, retired with every mark of royal favour. He conti❤ nued a member of the privy council, was raised to the rank of duke, and was soon afterwards named ambassador to our own court.

The measures, which he had introduced, were prosecuted by the new ministers. The law of arrests was keenly debated in the Cham❤