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PARIS, MAY 2-Declaration of the King." Louis, by the Grace of God, King of France and Navarre, to all those to whom these presents shall come, greet

vantageous for the State; but such treaties charge of their respective functions, ac and conventions shall not take effect until cording to the instructions of the Governthey be ratified by the Legislative Bodies. ment. With respect, however, to the general Peace about to be concluded in Paris between the Emperors and Kings in person, and with the Minister Plenipotentiary of England, in case the Prince of Wales ing-Recalled by the love of our people should not personally assist, as eagerly de- to the Throne of our fathers---enlightened sired by the French. This Peace, which by the misfortunes of the nation which we is so nearly connected with our internal are destined to govern, the first wish of tranquillity, will be secured by Constitu- our heart is to invoke that mutual confitional Institutions.-This Peace, in short, dence so necessary to our repose, to our so long desired, concluded after too long happiness. After having carefully read an interval of tyranny, shall be definitive- the Plan of the Constitution proposed by ly concluded and signed by the King, with the Senate, in the Sitting of the 6th of the different Powers, without the necessity April last, we acknowledge that the bases of any ratification by the Legislative Bodies. of it were good; but that there being a great Acceptance of the Constitution.-The number of articles bearing the impression Constitution shall be forwarded to the De- of the precipitancy with which they were partmental Authorities, for the Acceptance drawn up, they cannot in their present of the French people in the manner hereia- form become fundamental laws of the State. after prescribed-The King will after- Resolved to adopt a liberal Constitution, wards declare his acceptation to the Provi- we wish that it should be wisely combined, sional Government in these terms-" I ac- and as we cannot accept of one which it is cept the Constitution, I swear to observe it, indispensable to correct, we convene for the and to cause it to be observed."-The mode 10th of June, in the present year, the Seof its acceptation, on the part of the French nate and Legislative Body, with intent to people will be by the opening of the Regis-lay before them the business which we shall tries in each Commune.-The suffrages have prepared, with a Select Committee will be received during fifteen days by the from the bosom of these two Bodies, and respective Mayors, and will be expressed to give for a basis to this Constitution the after the names of individuals, by "Oui," following bases:or "Non."Duplicates shall be made The Representative Government shall be of the Registries, one copy of which shall maintained as it at present exists, divided be transmitted to the Provisional Govern-into two Bodies, viz.-The Senate and the meat, or to Monsieur, Lieut.-General of Chamber, composed of Deputies of the the Kingdom, who will proclaim the gene- Departments.-Taxes shall be granted ral vote of the French in the following with consent.-Public and private liberty month. The other duplicate shall be depo- secured.-The Liberty of the Press resited in the archives of each Department.spected, saving the precautions necessary Neither Holland or Italy shall participate to the public tranquility. Religious liberin the votes.The other countries united ty secured.-Property shall be inviolable to Antient France in 1789, or in 1792, and sacred; the sale of national property shall not vote till after the pacification. shall be irrevocable.-The Ministers, reTheir acceptance shall not therefore be thesponsible, may be prosecuted by one of the less valid. After the double acceptation Legislative Bodies, and tried by the other. shall consummate the social compact, the -The Judges are not removeable, and the King shall issue a Proclamation as fol- judicial power is independent.-The pubJows" Louis XVIII. by the Grace of lic debt shall be guaranteed. Pensions, "God, and the Constitutional Law of the rank, and military honours shall be pre"State, King of the French (or of France, served; as also the old and the new Noaccording to the majority of opinion in bility.-The Legion of Honour, the deco"the acceptation), to all present and to ration of which we will determine, shall be come, &c." The King will renew his maintained.-Every, Frenchman shall be Oath at the sacred solemnity of his Corona- admissible to civil and military employtion. After which the Constituted Au-ments.-Finally, no person shall be mothorities shall enter upon the regular dis- lested for his opinions and votes.-LOUIS,

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Printed and Published by J. MORTON, No. 94, Strand.

COBBETT'S WEEKLY POLITICAL REGISTER.

VOL. XXV. No. 21.] LONDON, SATURDAY, MAY 21, 1814. [Price 1s.

641]

SUMMARY OF POLITICS.

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ther, they know not what to think of it, or what to do or say.- -To their utter

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AFFAIRS OF FRANCE.-The fear and astonishment, they perceive, that a the malice (natural offspring of fear) which establishment of the old order of things is some persons, in this country, discover to-impossible. They perceive, that the Revowards the French nation, and even towards lution, upon the whole, must end in great the King of France, is truly wonderful. good to France. They perceive, that the One would have thought, that common result will not answer their expectations; decency; that the ordinary feelings of no, nor any one of their expectations. They men, would, for some months, at least, see, that France will enjoy something like have restrained these persons from disco- freedom, at least, and they dread the effect vering their odious passions. When they, of such an example. Their first endeawho have so long been bawling for the fall vour, therefore, is to prevent the King of Napoleon, and for the restoration of the from keeping his promise with the nation; Bourbons; when they saw the accomplish- or, at least, to prepare, before hand, a ment of their wishes; when their very de-justification for his so doing.—Relative sires seem to have been outstripped by to this subject, I am about to quote a pasevents, surely we had a right to expect, sage from the COURIER newspaper of the that they would not endeavour to throw 12th instant :- Pamphlets (says that obstacles in the way of peace. We, surely," Journal) are published at Faris both for had a right to expect, that, after having" and against the Senate; in other words, spent eight hundred millions of debt, and" whether a Representative Government four hundred millions of taxes, upon the " shall be given to France; or whether war, and for the sake of "social order," "the old Constitution shall be restored as real peace with France would be the fruit" nearly as possible? The King, we of such enormous sacrifices. It was not 66 know, has pledged himself to establish the peace with Holland, and the Germans and " former. But we have little difficulty in Russians, that we so much sighed for;" saying, that the people of France, at prebut with France, that fighting nation n; sent, are not in a condition to bear the that nation so near to us; that nation, 66 representative system. If we may be whose hatred we ought to dread, and whose" allowed the expression, they are not sofriendship we ought to cultivate; that" ber enough for legislative dissussions. nation, which, in fact, is Europe in itself." We have grown up with our ConstituBut, behold the King of France is not" tion, and our Constitution has grown up yet crowned, before these same people, "with us. We have been framed for it these identical persons, begin to endea-" by our forefathers; but it were absurd vour to excite all sorts of suspicions, not" to expect that the public mind in anoonly against the French nation, but against "ther nation should all at once be fitted the French Court. They appear to have" for the same system. However, the exdiscovered, that France, though her Ruler" periment is to be tried again, and we be changed, is still the same country, in-" have little doubt it will fail again. May habited by the same people, endued with" its failure not be attended with the same the same qualities and faculties. This" disasters and miseries to which France was, indeed, a discovery, that it was very "has been subject for nearly a quarter of easy to make; facts casy to have foreseen. a century!" The first remark that of But these people were blinded by their fers itself here is, that there must, if this dread of Napoleon, and their eagerness to statement be true, be a great deal of overset his power. They have now opened real liberty of the press in France: not their eyes, and, the real truth is, that, up-sham, not humbug liberty of the press; on looking at the state of things altoge- but real liberty of the press. For, unless

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in practising, a system like this? There will be no complexity in the thing. There will be no exclusions which are not bottomed upon some general principle. There will be no everlasting doubts, and scrutinies, and law suits, about old charters.—

agree, be very difficult to arrange the matter. It requires centuries of time, and the profoundest state of wisdom, to bring a constitution to this pitch. But, though the French people cannot be fitted for such a system as ours, all at once, it does not follow, that they are incapable of a system which is representative. They have voices, as well as other nations; and they

this were the case, there could not be such discussions. I like this; for discussion, free discussion, must do good. I do not object to any man's writing in favour of the ancient regime, provided, that other men are allowed freely to answer him.But, it is a sad sham, when the libertyThere will be no disputes about who has of the press is all on one side; when every boiled a pot, and who has not boiled a pot. one may write in favour of a system, how- If, indeed, the system about to be conever corrupt and essentially tyrannical, firmed in France included the existence while no one dares to say a word to prove of peculiar privileges in pot-walloppers, or the falsehood of what has been said in fa- any other persons, relative to elections, I vour of such system. Discussion must do should agree with this writer, that it must great good in France; and, in spite of all take time to fit the peoples' minds to it; that fraud, and bribery, and force can do, but, amongst all the freaks of Napoleon, some of the good must, in the end, extend he never appears to have once thought of itself to other countries.- -We are told pot-walloppers. Oh, no! there are to here, that, though the King has pledged be no burgage tenures and pot-walloppers himself to establish a representative go-in France. If there were, it would, I vernment, the people of France are not in a condition to bear the representative system. And, then, we are reminded, that WE have grown up with OUR Constitution, and that it has grown with us; but, that we are not to expect that the public mind, in another nation, should, all at once, be fitted for the SAME system. Very true. But this writer scems to labour under a very great error. He apare as capable of making use of them. pears to suppose, that, if the King of France adheres to his promise, the French people will have the same system as we have; than which nothing can be farther from the truth. There will be no boroughs in France; no counties, where it will cost many hundreds of thousands of lives to obtain a seat in the Corps Legislative; no Gattons, no Old Sarum, no St. Michels, no Corporations. These, indeed, it would require time, and a long time, to make the minds of the people of France familiar with. A system like this, indeed, the French people may, very likely, not be "in a condition to bear." It requires much time, and many measures, to convince a people of the excellence of such a system, and to induce them to look upon it as the best in the whole universe. But, the system of representation about to be established, or, rather, confirmed, in France, the people there will easily understand, and as easily practise. For, what difficulty is there in the people who pay the taxes meeting, in their several districts, and there choosing Electors, who, again, are to choose the members of the Corps Legislative, by whose voice the taxes are to be granted? What difficulty can there be, either in understanding, or

What then, when called upon in their different Communes, is to prevent them from choosing men in whom they have confidence? And why is the attempt to confirm their liberty to fail?-But, it seems, that the representatives, if chosen properly,

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are not sober enough for legislative dis"cussion." What does this writer mean? Are the French a drunken people? He will hardly say that. He means then, that they are too hasty, too apt to be passionate. In the first place, this has never appeared; and, whoever looks at the codes of Napoleon will agree, that more wisdom, more real political wisdom, a more profound knowledge of human nature, and a more minute acquaintance with human concerns, joined to a more solicitous and tender regard for human rights and happiness, were never discovered by any legislator, or legislators, in the whole world. Are the French an ignorant or a frivolous people? Let their works, whether philosophical or literary; let their sciences and arts; let these be compared with those of any other nation, and, it will be seen, I believe, that they take the lead in all those endowments which raise man in the scale of beings. Take their theatrical pieces; compare them with our's; put the

elegant language, the wit, the sentiment,, the said Devil to his former state. In the

the reasoning, the philosophy of the Metro- same Poem we are presented with familiar manie, the Joueur, or any one of a hundred dialogues between God the Father, and pieces that might be named, and put them God the Son; and are shown the latter by the side of the grovelling style, the taking a pair of compasses out of a celestial canting palaver, and horse-laughter trash drawer, in order to describe the boundaof our comedies, and then say, whether ries of the earth!--And this is what we the French are a people without solidity admire. To honour and to perpetuate the of mind. The very circumstance that works containing these marks of disordered. pieces, like those that I have named, are imaginations, we lay out thousands and admired in France, and attract crowded thousands of pounds upon splendid printing audiences, is sufficient to characterize the and engraving.-And is it, then, for as to mind of the nation; and, for the sake of charge the French nation; is it for us to my own country, I wish I could say, that charge the admirers of Voltaire, Rousseau, the character of its mind was in no degree Racine, Destouches, and Regnard; is it to be gathered from the circumstance, that for us to charge them with ignorance, preplay-actors in London find their account in judice, and want of solidity of mind? And, uttering strings of dirty double-meanings if the charge, as applied to the whole naand miserable puns from the lips of a person tion, would be unjust, whence are we to swelled out, by the means of pillows and bo!- infer, that the representatives of the people sters, to the size of a sugar-hogshead.-It is of France would not be sufficiently sober the impudent, the malignant observations of for legislative discussion? For my part, this writer, levelled, at bottom, against the I care little about the taste of either counfreedom and happiness of France, that have try; but, it is necessary to meet, in all called forth this comparison from me; sorts of ways, every attempt to justify an though, perhaps, it would, at any time, be endeavour to stifle freedom in France, and one's duty to have made it. I am not to introduce that regime, under which the speaking of exhibitions, where people are French people groaned for so many cenadmitted at two-pence a head. I am speak- turies. Every thing belonging to France ing of the national theatres, which are the is interesting; because, whatever is done criterion of the taste of a people, and of there will have a certain vogue in the the character of the public mind. In that world. The eyes of all the nations of Euof France I see beautiful language, refined rope are fixed upon France: her acts sentiment, brilliant wit, fine reasoning, must, therefore, be of the greatest consesound philosophy, all displayed in the form-quence. And, who can express a sufficient ing and the unravelling of fables the most degree of indignation against those, who, interesting, never violating nature, and like this writer and his like, are endea seldom probability. In ours, I see magi- vouring to cause the ancient regime to be cians calling forth thunder and lightening, re-established in that country? They exand putting spells upon those who offend press their decided opinion, that the rethem; witches, foretelling the fall and rise presentative government arill fail. They of kings, and woods walking over the are ready to din the public with their country to fulfil their predictions; ghosts, fars; but their real fear is, that it will giving information of murders, and troub- succeed in establishing freedom in France ling people in their sleep; and men and under a constitutional King, and under a women so much out of nature, as to make system which, being open and frank, will the whole of the representation a thing too put hypocrisy and shame, and vile cheater y monstrous to be endured by common sense, to shame. Why, I ask, should these And, I see this, too, in those pieces which people be so set against representative goare most admired by fashionable people and vernment in France? Why should they grave critics. But, indeed, even this is not be so eager to decry it? It is notorious, matter of surprise, when we see extolled, that, for ages, previous to the French Revoas the first of Poems, a mass of crabbed lution, we, in this country, were by all our transpositions and inflated periods, narrat- speech-makers, and book-makers, and newsing battles in heaven, in which the Devils writers, hid to hold the French gevernfired cannon against the Angels, and dur-ment in abhorrence. ADDISON, that faing which a Devil, having been split down mous partizan of the Hanoverian Succes the middle by an Angel, the two halves sion, used this argument against the Preinstantly smacked up together, and restored tender. "What," said he, "would Eng

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"lishmen, free-born Englishmen, have to "ducement to the national vanity, the miexpect at the hands of a King, educated "litary ardour of that people, again, to try "in such a country as France, where the" their strength with their neighbours as Sovereign is absolute, and the people the soon as they have recovered from their "most wretched of slaves?" And yet we "disasters? They who depend much upon now want, or, at least, some of us want, the change which has taken place in their to see re-established that very government!" government will do well to recollect, that What are the French to think of such "the disgraceful interference of France in conduct?--But all this is explained, when "the quarrel between us and our Ameriwe come to another part of the same paper. 66 can colonies took place under a Bourbon Not, indeed, the same article; but the "of the best character; yet, though Louis same paper. There the hatred of France "XVI. himself was averse to the Ameribreaks forth in all its native odiousness; can war, on the ground of its injustice, and, by putting the two together, we see "his voice was overruled by the majoclearly, and, I trust, that all Frenchmen" rity of his Council."This malignant will see, that it is hatred of them (grow-writer could not help even to rip up the old ing out of base fear), which makes these subject of revenge, the American War!persons desirous of seeing the promises of What! now that the Bourbons are restorthe King violated. If we find a man ad-ed, we are to recollect the "disgraceful invising ourselves not to make a certain" terference of France in the quarrel bebargain, for instance, lest we should lose by it, and if we find the same man speaking to others, and endeavouring to excite ill-will against us, we may pretty safely conclude, that such bargain would be to our advantage.The following is the article I allude to:-"To the principle of ceding the Colonies we have conquered, particularly to France, we have before "stated our objections. To render France "powerful by giving her colonies, enabling "her to create an extensive marine, and fostering her political strength by the "wealth of commerce, is a dangerous ex"periment. It is dangerous to us. France "has the means of greatness within her"self. Great Britain owes her political greatness, and even her independence, to "her maritime power and to foreign trade. "France, without trade and colonies, has "been a match for combined Europe; and "it will be well to reflect whether, by giving her these in addition to the combined powers, they are not endangering that equilibrium they have been so anxious to "establish. Is it nothing to say, that "France before the Revolution had the advantages in question? She had, and she "used them for purposes of gross aggres"sion. To raise that monarchy to unli"mited power was for ages the unvarying "aim of her Court. But France knows "her power now better than she ever "knew it. Her vast resources, her milita-poleon has disconcerted them by his ry endowments, her political influence abdication, very nearly as much as he` "have been displayed by the revolutionary ever did before by his wonderful feats in governments in succession, on a scale large arms. Greater at last than ever, he saved "beyond the contemplation of her old poli- France from a civil war, and left her in a Difcuristiclans; and will not this be a strong in-state to be great, and to be a thorn in the

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"tween us and America." And we are
to bear in mind, too, that this took place
under a Bourbon! Take the whole of this
article together, and, I think, you see in it
as much malice as can possibly discover it-
self in a like
The French na-
compass.
tion is to be kept in a low state; the French
nation is mischievous; the French nation
is perfidious; she is the same under all sorts.
of rulers; and, therefore, we ought not to
suffer her to get power by any means.-
The Allies, indeed, before they got to
Paris, told the French people that France
ought to be great and happy; and that it
was for the good of Europe that she should
be so. Nay, they expressed their inten-
tion of extending, her ancient limits; of
leaving her an extent of territory, which,
under her kings, she never knew.--How
different is this language from that of our
newspaper writers! They want even a
part of the allied forces to be kept up in
France for years!· -But the truth is,
that these detestable men think about no-
thing but the prospect of France being
happy and free. The sworn foes of free-
dom, who WRITE these articles, and (by
what means I need not say) cause them to
be published; these supporters of every
thing oppressive; the abettors of tyranny.
These men, who thrive by what renders a
people miserable. These men are, just at
this moment, wonderfully puzzled. Na-

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