1814. BOOK XII. —against a government so vigorous, which, if not pressed upon by another force, would, no doubt, CHAP. VIII. end by destroying itself. I admit, that the morality of those who compose this power, and who are worthy to command such a nation, is a perfect model for integrity; and what has a government so powerful to fear from this boasted liberty of the press? Pamphlets are neutralized-responsibility escapes from their vain declamations. They have no power whatever against the strength of the government; they serve to amuse the public: this is all. "England maintains the liberty of the press by means which we know not how to imitate. The prisoner there lives and dies in prison abandoned by all. You ought not, gentlemen, to envy such manners. Here the prisoner is an object of interest: he receives the visits and the consultations of friendship: in France, liberty is more moderate and our manners are gentler. Let us leave the English those means which our national character repels. In that country, the laws repressive of defamation are supported by terrible means. Libel is punished by sentences which ruin individuals, which cause them to die in prison; for offenders are often subjected to fines beyond all proportion to their fortunes. In France the judges are more mild; they sometimes look to the accused alone, they consider the deplorable situation of his family. "It has been said, that the liberty of the press, if permitted, might at length make us insensible to its abuses. This would be a dreadful evil: when 'calumny ceases to annoy us, what will become of morality and honor? "What is it that the advocates against the law requires it to protect the sciences? No!-contemptible journals, pamphlets meagre like the books of the Sybils-these are the trifles for which the representatives of the people are contending. I figure to myself Louis XIV. and the ministers who illustrated his reign, now present in this assembly, listening to these animated debates for the sake of journals, pamphlets, abortions of the brain! and to these you would sacrifice the security of the state. When the king has released you from the most dreadful tyranny, and introduced you into a mild and peaceful regime-when he has operated this change, by a revolution after the manner of Henry IV., after the manner of the Bourbons, has he not a right to ask you to grant something for the security of the throne and the preservation of good order?" The minister then observed, that it was important to leave to the king the right of permitting the publication of periodical writings, as a measure which afforded a double security; "For," said he, the ministers then become responsible for the influence of the authorised journals. The chamber would demand from them an account of this 1 influence, would thus participate in the guarantee of which he spoke, and contribute to a reasonable latitude being allowed them. But if they remained in absolute independence, to whom could you complain of the disorders which their license may have caused." M. Montesquieu concluded by conceding, on the part of the king, certain amendments to the effect that no censure should apply to a work exceeding twenty sheets, and that the law should cease to operate at the end of the session 1816. He then asked if the deputies wished the law to declare, that their opinions should not be subject to any censure? The members with one voice answered in the negative, considering this as unnecessary. M. Raynouard, the reporter from the central committee, was heard at great length in reply. He took a view of the different periods of the revolution, of which he contended, that the licentiousness of the press was only a secondary cause, of which factious men availed themselves. But there was no resemblance between those periods and the present, when the government had a moral influence which was every day increasing. What was now the wish of the people, of their magistrates, their defenders? tranquillity and the stability of the government. Referring to English history, he observed, that if ever any remarkable circumstance in it would have authorised the fixing limits to the liberty of the press, it was when the house of Hanover was invited to the throne. But the idea of curtailing the liberty of the press was never thought of; no danger had resulted, and England prided herself on the advantages which this liberty procured to her. He descanted on the mischiefs which the censorship would produce. "Place that crime," said he," in the hands of ministers, and public opinion will be perverted; your institutious, your conduct will be accused and condemned; you will be reduced to a stupid silence. "Why," he asked, "should not political contests be decided by equal arms? But when he spoke of equal arms, it was allowing too much; for would not ministers always have the most ample means of addressing public opinion? would not they have their journals and their writers? They would always find Addisons and Steeles to avenge the government if it was unjustly attacked. They would even find writers enough to vindicate and extol their errors. By means of their official journal can they not even at present attack the opinions which displease or thwart them? Let them enjoy this privilege, provided they allow to Frenchmen the liberty of the prese.' He concluded with conjuring the chamber to reject the law. The Abbé Montesquieu again rose, and adverted with warmth to the journals of the Marats and the Père Duchenes, to their threats, their incendiary appeals dispersed in all the provinces. For three years those men laboured in destroying the social edifice: they at last effected their purpose. Such were the results of an unbounded liberty of the press! "What good can you expect," said he, "from these agitators-these promoters of disorder, who cannot even suggest a new idea? You alone are the guardians of the constitution. France demands you, and you only. Give her that repose of which she has so much need, and which the government is so anxious that she should enjoy." Here a loud cry of question! question! burst from all parts of the hall. Several members endeavoured to speak, but could not obtain a hearing. The president then stated the nature of the question, and after some discussion on the mode of shaping it, it was agreed, that it should stand, whether the law, as amended by the concessions on the part of the crown, should be adopted. The form of voting was this: every member, as his name was called over by one of the secretaries, answered in his place, and came up to the table, where he deposited in an urn one of the balls, white or black, which he had received from the secretary. The ball which he did not use he placed in another urn appropriated for that purpose. This operation being terminated, two of the secretaries emptied the urn for votes, and publicly separated BOOK XIL the white balls from the black, and summed them both up. The number of balls thrown into the CHAP. VIII. other urn was then verified. It finally appeared, that of 217 voters, the proposed law had obtained 137 white balls against 80 black ones. This result being communicated to the president, he delivered, in the name of the chamber, the following declaration: "The chamber adopts the law." The law underwent considerable discussion in the chamber of peers, and various amendments were made. In the mean time the public attention to the subject was kept alive by some prosecutions of libela: and it was not till the 21st of October, that the law was sanctioned and established by a royal decree. Its provisions were not materially different from the abstract which we have already given. The previous censorship of works under twenty sheets was fully established. The regulations respecting clandestine or illegal printing were rendered more precise and severe. By three ordinances, of subsequent dates, various appointments were made for carrying the law into effect, the censors were nominated, of whom nineteen were termed ordinary, and twentytwo honorary. The general direction of the bookselling-trade was placed under the chancellor of France. 1814. CHAPTER IX. Exposé of the State of France.-Legion of Honor continued.-French Budget.-Speech of Talleyrand. DURING the reign of Bonaparte, it was usual for the minister of the interior to lay before the senate and legislative body an exposé of the state of France. That these exposés contained exaggerated reports of the flourishing state of the empire, there cannot be the least doubt; since one of the leading principles of Bonaparte's government was to exaggerate the good, and to conceal the evil which he did. Soon after Louis XVIII. ascended the throne, an exposé of the state of France was laid before the two chambers by the Abbé Montesquieu; this exposé went very much into detail; and it would be a very valuable document, could it be entirely depended upon; but as a strong temptation existed to represent the effects of Bonaparte's tyranny and wars even more dreadful and ex hausting than they actually were, this document must be received with some degree of caution. Still, however, it must be regarded as furnishing the historian with important and interesting information respecting the state of France; and on this account we shall lay it before our readers. It was introduced to the chamber of deputies on the 12th of July, by the Abbé Montesquieu, in the following manner: "Gentlemen," said he," his majesty, on resuming the reins of government, was desirous to make known to his people the state in which he found France. The cause of the misfortunes which overwhelmed our country has disappeared, but its effects remain; and even under a government which will devote itself solely to reparation, France will longer suffer under the wounds in BOOK XII. flicted by a government which gave itself up to 66 War, without doubt, was the principal cause of the ills of France. History presented not any example of a great nation incessantly precipitated against its will into enterprizes constantly increasing in hazard and distress. The world saw with astonishment, mingled with terror, a civilized people compelled to exchange its happiness and repose for the wandering life of barbarous hordes; the ties of families were broken; fathers have grown old far from their children; and children have been hurried off to die 400 leagues from their fathers. No hope of return soothed this frightful separation; habit had caused it to be regarded as eternal; and the peasants of Britany, after conducting their sons to the place of separation, have been seen to return to their churches to put up for them by anticipation the prayers for the dead! "It is impossible to estimate the horrible consumption of men by the late government; fatigue and sickness carried off as many as battle; the enterprises were so vast and so rapid, that every thing was sacrificed to the desire of ensuring success; there was no regularity in the service of the hospitals-none in providing subsistence on the marches; the brave soldiers whose valour constituted the glory of France, and who gave incessantly new proofs of their energy and patience, sustaining the national honour with so much brilliancy, saw themselves deserted amidst their sufferings, and abandoned, without resource, to calamities which they were unable to support. The goodness of the French was insufficent to supply this cruel neglect, and levies of men, which, under other circumstances, would have formed great armies, disappeared in this manner, without taking part in any engagement, Hence arose the necessity of multiplying levies without number, to replace incessantly by new armies the almost total annihilation of the armies preceding. The amount of the calls ordered since the end of the Russian campaign is frightful11th January, 1813 3d April-Guards of honor First loan of national guards Guards for the coast 21th August-Army of Spain Carried forward "Fortunately these last levies could not be fully executed. The war had not time to cut off all those who had joined the standards. But this simple statement of the requisitions, enforced on the population during a period of from fourteen to fifteen months, suffices to give an idea of what the losses of the nation must have been during the last twenty-two years. 66 Many causes contributed, however, to repair these losses: the improvement of the condition of the inhabitants of the country by the division of the great landed properties, the equal distribution of inheritances, the progress of vaccination, were the most powerful. It was by means of the influence of these causes, and by exaggerating their success, that efforts were made to hide from the nation the extent of its sacrifices. The greater the number of men that were snatched away from France, the more studiously was it endeavoured to prove that she courted this frightful destruc tion. But even if the accounts placed under view had been correct, the only result would have been, that the number of births should cause the number of deaths to be regarded with indif ference! But another argument was to point out, even in the conscription itself, a source of increasing population-an impure source which introduced disorder and immorality into marriages concluded with precipitation and imprudence. Hence a multitude of unfortunate families, of ridiculous or indecent connections, so that even many men of the lower orders soon became weary of what they had embraced only to shelter themselves from the conscription, threw themselves once more in the way of the dangers they had sought to avoid, and offered themselves as substitutes to escape misery which they had not foreseen, or to break ties so ill asserted. "How, besides, overlook the reflection, that although by multiplying these deplorable mar riages, the conscriptions should have increased the number of births, it took annually away from 350,000 France a great number of those full-grown men 10,000 who constitute the real strength of a nation. 80,000 Facts prove clearly the truth of so natural a con90,000 sequence. The population under the age of 30,000 twenty years increased; beyond that limit the diminution was prodigious and incontestable. 560,000 Thus, while the government attacked the 66 sources of the national prosperity, it displayed incessantly in pompous array those remnants of resource that maintained a struggle against its wasteful mea'sures; it studied to conceal the evil which it did, under the good, not of its own production, which was yet undestroyed. Master of a country, where long labours had amassed great treasures, where civilization had made the happiest progress, where industry and commerce had, for the sixty previous years, made a wonderful spring, it seized all the fruits of the industry of so many generations, and of the experience of so many ages, at one time to promote its pernicious designs, and at another to cover the sad effects of its influence. The simple account of the present state of the realm will immediately exhibit the inherent prosperity of the nation struggling against a destroying principle, incessantly attacked, often struck with terrible wounds, and perpetually drawing from itself resources always insufficient. MINISTRY OF THE INTERIOR. "Agriculture has made real progress in France; this progress commenced long before the revolution; since that epoch, new causes have accelerated it much, and these causes would have produced effects still more important, if destructive events had not diminished their influence. The propagation of good modes of agriculture by learned societies, the residence of a number of rich proprietors in the country, their experiments, their instructions, and examples, the erection of veterinary schools, produced the most happy effects in many branches of rural economy; but the errors and the faults of government opposed continual obstacles to their developement. "The continental system caused enormous losses to the proprietors of vineyards: in the south of France many vineyards have been rooted up, and the low price of wines and brandies discouraged this branch of culture generally. (Here the report states the effects produced by the forced attempts to introduce the Merino breed of sheep. It cost the government twenty millions, but in consequence of the numberless and harassing orders addressed on the subject to the sheepmasters, many of them renounced their flocks altogether, and the breed of sheep had been rather deteriorated by attempting to force the Merino cross into too hasty and unsuccessful use.) "The establishments of studs had been more successful. Formed at first by the old government, they had been destroyed by the revolution, and were not completely restored till 1806, when six studs were organized, besides thirty depôts of stallions, and studs of experiment. The breed of horses, until the fatal years 1812 and 1813, was excellent, and afforded a numerous cavalry. The loss of a few months, in these years, amounted to 230,000 horses, to be replaced at an expense of 105,200,000 francs. The stock was, of course, BOOK XII. exhausted. Every horse cost the government at the rate of 400 or 460 francs. "The mines in France have very sensibly increased. Our territory now presents 478 mines of every different kind, now working, which employ 17,000 workmen, and produce to France a raw material to the value of 26,800,000 francs, and to the state a revenue of 251,000 francs. This revenue was appropriated to the payment of the administration of the mines. But this particular fund, which, on the 1st of January last, amounted to 700,000 francs, was employed by the government in defraying the expences of the war. Yet, in the midst of these continual vexations, this changeable and tyrannical legislation, our fields have been cultivated, our mines worked, and our flocks even préserved and ameliorated. Certainly, nothing more evidently proves the industry of our nation, and its happy disposition for the first of all the arts, than the progress of its agriculture under an oppressive government. The labourer was torn from the soil by the conscription, his little gains were devoted to purchase substitutes, and the produce of his labours was the subject of endless requisition; but such is the superiority of our soil, and the industry of our cultivators, that agriculture will arise from its ruins, and become more prosperous than even under the paternal government which will terminate its calamities. "Manufacturing industry has much need to recover the same liberty. Mechanics and chemistry, enriched by numerous discoveries, and skilfully applied to the arts, had enabled it to make rapid progress: the continental system, by compelling manufacturers to search on our own territory for resources previously unknown, produced some useful results; but the obstacles which it opposed to the introduction of a great number of raw materials, and the want of competition which it occasioned, have raised beyond measure the price of most of the articles of French manufacture, and thus perniciously affected both the rights and interests of the consumers. Some of these obstacles have already been removed; reasonable laws, with regard to importation and export, will henceforward conciliate the interests of the consumers and those of the manufacturers; interests which are never conflicting but when the claims on either side are exaggerated. "Our cotton-manufacturers are stated to employ 400,000 persons, and a capital of 100 millions. Those of Rouen have already considerably revived. The linen-manufactures of Laval and Bretagne suffered much by the war with Spain, where they found their principal market. Those of silk experienced the same fate. Their produce also passed through Spain to America and the colonies; but that channel was soon closed; Italy CHAP. IX. 1814. BOOK XII. alone remained for them. It is true, that our own "In 1787 the manufactures at Lyons kept at COMMERCE. "Prohibitive laws did still more mischief to commerce than to manufacturing industry: if the difficulty of external communications narrowed the market of our manufacturers, in that at least which remained open to them, they had nothing to fear from the competition of foreign articles; and though this might injure the interests of the consumers, at least a certain class of citizens seemed to profit by it. mass of funds more than 58, 59, or 60 millions. The remainder arose from special duties and imposts." Here the report states, that additional centimes on the general contribution were imposed for roads, prisons, canals, barracks, administration-expenses, tribunals, buildings, publicworship, depôt of mendicity, &c. Thus the departments paid at an average forty-five centimes additional per franc, some sixty-two, and others even seventy-two. But even these were not regularly given out by the treasury for public works, &c. Hence, in the two years 1812 and 13, 60 millions were taken from the administration expenses; and the provinces, impoverished by additional imposts, enjoyed only a small part of those establishments, constructions, or other public works of utility, the hope of which had at least alleviated the weight of their sacrifices. The report next proceeds to give a variety of details on the subject of the administration of communes and of hospitals. The communes had been successively charged with expenses which should have been borne by the general funds of the state, or by the departmental funds; of this kind were the salaries of commissaries of police, military buildings and beds, depôts of mendicity, prisons, &c. Hence the scale of communal octrois had vexatiously increased: the medium charge per head on every inhabitant was about seven francs, twenty-four cents, and in some cities it even amounted to seventeen francs, thirty-five cents. "But commerce requires a more extensive and unimpeded field. Reduced to narrow and slightly gainful speculations, whenever it attempted to enlarge them, it found itself the slave of the uncertainties of a government which wished to subject it to its caprices and calculations. The system of licenses ruined and discouraged a great number of merchants, by raising hopes that were destroyed in a moment by the will which had fostered them. Speculations, necessarily hazardous, On the subject of hospitals, it is mentioned, require that the stability of laws should aid the that a decree of the 19th of January, 1811, prudence of men; but that abrupt and perpetual allowed only four millions for the expense of change from the system of licenses to a system founding hospitals throughout the kingdom, absolutely prohibitive, caused immense losses to though that expense now amounted annually to commerce. What tranquillity also could the mer- 9,000,000. The war-department owed at present chants enjoy, who saw in the government a rival to the hospitals at Paris, for sick and wounded as greedy as powerful, and always determined to soldiers alone, the sum of 1,393,365 francs. The reserve for itself the exclusive cultivation of a medicines were besides exhausted; the reservefield which it interdicted to them? A long peace stores of lint, furnishings, &c. were either wasted and stable and liberal laws can alone inspire mer- or lost; the amount of these losses could not be cantile men with sufficient confidence to embark calculated, but might be estimated at several without apprehension in their useful pursuits. millions. "If we pass to the objects depending on the ministry of the interior, and immediately subject to the government, their situation will appear still more deplorable. GENERAL ADMINISTRATION OF THE INTERIOR. "The budget of the ministry of the interior, that is, the mass of all the funds appropriated to the different services of that department, amounted, PUBLIC WORKS. Great enterprizes had been undertaken; some from motives of real utility, many from ostentation, or from views in which the happiness of France had no share. While magnificent roads were opened on the frontiers, those of the interior were neglected; and the cross-roads, abandoned by the communes which had not funds to support them, were very much deteriorated. The sum of 15,500,000 francs, voted by the departments for the roads, had been misappropriated. There was an arrear of more than 28,000,000 in the de"The public treasury never contributed to this partment of bridges and causeways; and yet this In 1811 In 1813 to to 143 millions. 150 millions. 140 millions. |