civilized people, the press has not hesitated, by false alarms on the dangers to be incurred, to cause discouragement in the army, and pointing out to its hatred the commander of the enterprise, it has, as it were, excited the soldiers to raise against him the standard of revolt, or to desert their colours. This is what the organs of a party, which pretends to be national, have dared to do.

"What it dares to do every day in the interior of the kingdom tends to no less than to disperse the elements of public peace, to dissolve the bonds of society, and evidently to make the ground tremble under our feet. Let us not fear to disclose here the whole extent of our evils, in order the better to appreciate the whole extent of our resources. A system of defamation, organized on a great scale, and directed with unequalled perseverance, reaches, either near at hand or at a distance, the most humble of the agents of the government. None of your subjects, Sire, is secure from an insult, if he receives from his sovereign the least mark of confidence or satisfaction. A

vast net thrown over France envelops all the public functionaries. Placed in a constant state of accusation, they seem to be in a manner cut off from civil society; only those are spared whose fidelity wavers, only those are praised whose fidelity gives way: the others are marked by the faction, to be in the sequel, without doubt, sacrificed to popular vengeance.

"The periodical press has not displayed less ardour in pursuing with its poisoned darts religion and its priests. Its object is, and always will be, to root out of the heart of the people even the last germ of religious sentiments. Sire,

do not doubt that it will succeed in this, by attacking the foundations of the press, by poisoning the sources of public morals, and by covering the ministers of the altars by derision and contempt.

"No strength, it must be confessed, is able to resist a dissolving power so active, as the press at all times, when it has been freed from its fetters, has made an irruption and invasion in the state. One cannot but be singularly struck with the similitude of its effects during these last fifteen years, notwithstanding circumstances, and notwithstanding the changes of the men who have figured on the political stage. Its destiny, in a word, is to recommence the Revolution, the principles of which it loudly proclaims. Placed and replaced at various intervals under the yoke of the censorship, it has always resumed its liberty only to recommence its interrupted work. In order to continue it with the more success, it has found an active auxiliary in the departmental press, which, engaging in combat local jealousies and hatreds, striking terror into the minds of timid men, harassing authority by endless intrigues, has exercised a decisive influence on the elections.

"These last effects, Sire, are transitory; but effects more durable are observed in the manners and in the character of the nation. An ardent, lying, and passionate spirit of contention-the school of scandal and licentiousness—has produced in it important changes, and profound alterations: it gives a false direction to people's minds, it fills them with prejudices-diverts them from serious studies-retards them in the progress of the sciences and the arts-excites among us a fermentation, which is constantly

increasing-maintains, even in the bosom of our families, fatal dissensions, and might, by degrees, throw us back into barbarism.

"Against so many evils, engendered by the periodical press, the law and justice are equally obliged to confess their want of power. It would be superfluous to inquire into the causes which have weakened the power of repression, and have insensibly made it an ineffectual weapon in the hands of the authorities. It is sufficient to appeal to experience, and to show the present state of things.

"Judicial forms do not easily lend themselves to an effectual repression. This truth has long since struck reflecting minds; it has lately become still more evident. To satisfy the wants which caused its institution, the repression ought to be prompt and strong; it has been slow, weak, and almost null. When it interferes, the mischief is already done, and the punishment, far from repairing it, only adds the scandal of the discussion.

"The judicial prosecution is wearied out, but the seditious press is never weary. The one stops because there is too much to prosecute, the other multiplies its strength by multiplying its transgressions. In these divers circumstances the prosecutions have had their appearances of activity or of relaxation. But what does the press care for zeal or lukewarmness in the public prosecutor? It seeks in multiplying its successes the certainty of their impunity.

"The insufficiency, or even the inutility of the institutions established in the laws now in force, is demonstrated by facts. It is equally proved by facts, that the public safety is endangered by the licentiousness of the press. It is

time, it is more than time, to arrest its ravages.

"Give ear, Sire, to the prolonged cry of indignation and of terror which rises from all points of your kingdom. All peaceable men, the upright, the friends of order, stretch to your Majesty their suppliant hands. All implore you to preserve them from the return of the calamities by which their fathers or themselves have been so severely afflicted. These alarms are too real not to be listened to-these wishes are too legitimate not to be regarded.

"There is but one means to satisfy them: it is to return to the Charter (rentrer dans la Charte).

"If the terms of the 8th Article are ambiguous, its spirit is manifest. It is certain that the Charter has not given the liberty of the journals and of periodical writings. The right of publishing one's personal opinions certainly does not imply the right of publishing the opinions of others. The one is the use of a faculty which the law might leave free or subject to restrictions: the other is a commercial speculation, which, like others, and more than others, supposes the superintendence of the public authority.

"The intentions of the Charter on this subject are accurately explained in the law of the 21st of October, 1814, which is in some measure the appendix to it: this is the less doubtful, as this law was presented to the Chambers on the 5th of July-that is to say, one month after the promulgation of the Charter. In 1819, at the time when a contrary system prevailed in the Chambers, it was openly proclaimed there that the periodical press was not governed by the enactments of the 8th Article. This truth is besides attested by the

very laws which have imposed upon the journals the condition of giving securities.

"Now, Sire, nothing remains but to inquire how this return to the Charter, and to the law of the 21st of October, 1814, is to be effected. The gravity of the present juncture has solved this question.

"We must not deceive ourselves, we are no longer in the ordinary condition of a representative government. The principles on which it has been established could not remain entire amidst the political vicissitudes. A turbulent democracy, which has penetrated even into our laws, tends to put itself in the place of legitimate power. It disposes of the majority of the elections by means of the journals, and the assistance of numerous affiliations. It has paralyzed, as far as has depended on it, the regular exercise of the most essential prerogative of the Crown -that of dissolving the elective chamber. By this very thing the constitution of the state is shaken. Your Majesty alone retains the power to replace and consolidate it upon its foundations.

"The right, as well as the duty, of assuring its maintenance, is the inseparable attribute of the sove reignty. No government on earth would remain standing if it had not the right to provide for its own security. This power exists before the laws, because it is in the nature

of things. These, Sire, are maxims which have in their favour the sanction of time, and the assent of all the publicists of Europe.

"But these maxims have another sanction still more positivethat of the Charter itself. The 14th Article has invested your majesty with a sufficient power, not, undoubtedly, to change our institutions, but to consolidate them and render them more stable.

"Circumstances of imperious necessity do not permit the exercise of this supreme power to be any longer deferred. The moment is come, to have recourse to measures which are in the spirit of the Charter, but which are beyond the limits of legal order, the resources of which have been exhausted in vain.

"These measures, Sire, your ministers, who are to secure the success of them, do not hesitate to propose to you, convinced as they are that justice will remain the strongest.

"We are, with the most profound respect, Sire, your majesty's most humble and most faithful subjects,

(Signed)

"Prince de POLIGNAC.
"CHANTELAUZE.

"Baron D'HAUSSEZ.
"Count de PEYRONNET.
"MONTBEL.

"Count de Guernon Ranville. "Baron CAPELLE."

"CHARLES, &c.

"To all to whom these presents shall come, health. "On the report of our Council

of Ministers, we have ordained and ordain as follows:

"ART. 1. The liberty of the periodical press is suspended.

"2. The regulations of the Articles 1st, 2nd, and 9th of the 1st section of the law of the 21st of October, 1814, are again put in force, in consequence of which no journal, or periodical, or semiperiodical writing, established, or about to be established, without distinction of the matters therein treated, shall appear either in Paris or in the departments, except by virtue of an authority first obtained from us respectively by the authors and the printer. This authority shall be renewed every three months. It may also be revoked.

"3. The authority shall be provisionally granted and provisionally withdrawn by the prefects from journals and periodicals, or semi-periodical works, published, or about to be published, in the departments.

"4. Journals and writings published in contravention of Article 2, shall be immediately seized. The presses and types used in the printing of them shall be placed in a public dépôt under seals, or rendered unfit for use.

"5. No writing below twenty printed pages shall appear, except with the authority of our Minister Secretary of State for the Interior at Paris, and of the prefects in the departments. Every writing of more than twenty printed pages, which shall not constitute one single work, must also equally be published under authority only. Writings published without authority shall be immediately seized, the presses and types used in printing of them shall be placed in a public dépôt, and under seals, or rendered unfit

for use.

“6. Memoirs relating to legal process, and memoirs of scientific and literary societies, must be pre

viously authorized, if they treat in whole or in part of political matters, in which case the measures prescribed by Article 5 shall be applicable.

"7. Every regulation contrary to the present shall be without effect.

"8. The execution of the present ordinance shall take place in conformity to Article 4 of the ordinance of November 27, 1816, and of that which is prescribed by the ordinance of the 18th of January, 1817.

"9. Our Secretaries of State are charged with the execution of this ordinance.

"Given at Chateau St. Cloud, the 25th of July, of the year of Grace 1830, and the 6th of our reign. (Signed) (Countersigned)

"CHARLES.

"Prince de POLIGNAC, President. "CHANTELAUZE, Keeper of the Seals.

"Baron D'HAUSSEZ, Minister of Marine.

"MONTBEL, Minister of Finance. "Count GUERNON RANVILLE,

Minister of Ecclesiastical Affairs. "Baron CAPELLE, Secretary of State for Public Works."

"CHARLES, &c.

"To all to whom these pre

sents shall come, health. "Having considered Article 50 of the Constitutional Charter, being informed of the manoeuvres which have been practised in various parts of our kingdom, to deceive and mislead the electors during the late operations of the electoral colleges; having heard our council, we have ordained and ordain as follows:

"ART. 1. The Chamber of Deputies of Departments is dissolved.

"2. Our Minister Secretary of State of the Interior is charged with the execution of the present ordinance.

"Given at St. Cloud, the 25th day of July, the year of Grace 1830, and the 6th of our reign. (Signed) "CHARLES. (Countersigned) "Count de PEYRONNET, Peer of France, Secretary of State for the Interior."

"CHARLES, &c.

66

"To all those who shall see

these presents, health. Having resolved to prevent the return of the manoeuvres which have exercised a pernicious influence on the late operations of the electoral colleges, wishing, in consequence, to reform according to the principles of the Constitutional Charter the rules of election, of which experience has shown the inconvenience, we have recognized the necessity of using the right which belongs to us, to provide by acts emanating from ourselves, for the safety of the state, and for the suppression of every enterprise injurious to the dignity of our Crown. For these reasons, having heard our council, we have ordained and ordain

"ART. 1. Conformably to the Articles 15, 30, and 36, of the Constitutional Charter, the Chamber of Deputies shall consist only of Deputies of Departments.

"2. The electoral rate, and the rate of eligibility shall consist exclusively of the sums for which the elector and the candidate shall be inscribed individually, as holders of real or personal property in the roll of the land-tax, or of personal taxes.

"3. Each department shall have the number of deputies al

lotted to it by the 36th Article of the Constitutional Charter.

"4. The deputies shall be elected, and the Chamber renewed, in the form and for the time fixed by the 37th Article of the Constitutional Charter.

"5. The electoral colleges shall be divided into colleges of arrondissements, and colleges of departments, except the case of electoral colleges of departments, to which only one deputy is allotted.

6. The electoral colleges of arrondissement shall consist of all the electors whose political domicile is established in the arrondissement. The electoral colleges of departments shall consist of a fourth part the highest taxed of the electors of departments.

"7. The present limits of the electoral colleges of arrondissements are retained.

"8. Every electoral college of arrondissement shall elect a number of candidates equal to the number of departmental deputies.

"9. The college of arrondissement shall be divided into as many sections as candidates. Each di vision shall be in proportion to the number of sections, and to the total number of electors, having regard as much as possible to the convenience of place and neighbourhood.

"10. The sections of the electoral college of arrondissements may assemble in different places.

"11. Every section of the electoral college of arrondissements shall choose a candidate, and proceed separately.

"12. The presidents of the sections of the electoral college of arrondissement shall be nominated by the prefects from among the electors of the arrondissement.

"13. The college of depart