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———— a^l ^ j^g THE IjE APE R. [JS"o. 414...
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CONTINENTAL. NOTES. That narrow arxd unc...
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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The 'Public Safkty' Bill In France. This...
for laws of public safety ! Do you not fear that the country may reply to you : — ' I have sacrificed for you my liberties , my franchises , my traditions , all that I had conquered with my blood , all that has made me glorious and illustrious among nations . I have made all these sacrifices for the sake of a little tranquillity , and now you want more . But where will you stop ? If the power which you have had in your hands for so many years is not sufficient , this law -will not satisfy you . You will be obliged to ask fot others still more severe ; other and more terrible measures will follow until you come to the end of things . If with the peace which you have promised . me I must be ever on the watch , ever trembling , always struggling , I prefer the watchings , the terrors , and the struggles of liberty
to those of exceptional laws . ' Certain journalists who mislead power by their adulation have spoken of William III . in connexion with this bill . They have exhumed a very hackneyed parallel . It was first suggested after the Hundred Days , by Barrfere , for Napoleon I . Chateaubriand had recourse to it for Louis XVIII . ; it was often repeated for Xouis Philippe , and now it is relied upon again . A very useful lesson may indeed be learned by studying the history of that great but dark personage . Why did he succeed ? Was it because in a barbarous age , and just after the termination of an atrocious regime , he maintained the laws of the Stuarts against the press , and two or three times suspended the Habeas Corpus Act—which , remember , is always suspended here , for we have never at any time
had guarantees for individual liberty ? Charles I . had done worse than William , and he fell . The Republic and Cromwell imitated him , and they fell . Janies II . outdid them all , and he fell . William III . succeeded , because he sanctioned the Declaration of Rights , and because he proposed the Bill of Pardons , in spite of his councillors , his Parliament , and the party which had called him to the throne—a party which , after the unheard-of persecutions which it had suffered for years , had indeed grounds to be vindictive . ' This , ' says the illustrious Macaulay , ' was his best title to fame . ' William III . succeeded , because , at . the end of his thirteen years' reign , he had deserved from the proud and powerful English people the appellation of ' The Restorer of Public Liberties . '"
M . Granier de Cassagnac of course defended the measure , and affirmed that neither the first Empire nor the old monarchy ~ had imprisoned nearly so many persons for political or . religious causes as the first Republic . The Marquis d'Andelarre opposed the measure , which he thought was dangerous and uncalled for , and would violate the principles of non-retroactivity and of the non-liability of L the citizen to be removed from the jurisdiction of his natural judges . M . Itiche , who said he belonged in politics to the school of common sense ,
supported the bill , which he conceived would not injure or menace well-conducted persons . " Drawing-rooms would preserve their liberty of conversation , and the press its freedom of remark ; " (!) " it was the poniard alone which the Government desired to Tvrench from the hands of its enemies . " M . Plichon opposed the measure , and criticized its retroactive effect . Still , he admitted that society was menaced with perils , owing to " the profound demoralization of the masses , and the propagation of frightful doctrines . " He thought , moreover , that the evil is encouraged by universal suffrage .
M . Baroche , President of the Council of Mate , in explaining the bearing and effect of the bill , observed : — " Perpetual concessions , exaggerated respect for the scruples of jurists , and systematic tolerance , had in succession led two Governments to the abysses of 1830 and 1848 . The Empire would not imitate any such acts of weakness ; it knew that the attempt of the 14 th of January had been committed by some foreigners coming from other countries , and that the assassins had not exposed their lives without being sustained in their undertaking by some hopes of beholding tlicir crime prove profitable to anarchy . . Already on several points of the territory a certain anticipation of approaching disturbances had been perceived : all tho information received after the uttempt of January 14 th had tended to prove the existence of such a state of thingH . For his part , ho
desired neither to exaggerate nor to ox tenuate the evil : there still existed in Franco some remnants of tho insurrectionary bodies of 1848 , who received , no ono could say how , mysterious intelligence , and townrds whom wore turned the regards of the abettors ol' disorder . The country could not remain exposed to tho enterprises of that incorrigible minority , and find itself constantly held in check by a low factious malcontents . It was noce » sary to ronder thorn powerless to do Imini , and such waa tho object of thu present bill . The Government wanted to have nejthor a law for the euspootod nor a ^ metasurjBLDl ^ wJnjjuj ^ it naked for was an arm to do « j ? uLitfl rf " intinTTactf of Tiny , ail d the Legislative Body , associated , as it was , so closely with it in jits policy of ronjtfation , could > " > t refuse what it asked . "
On the following duy , tho various Articles were considered aoriutim . Th « first was opposed by M . Logrand £ du Nord ) , who thought it was vaguely and dubiously exproued ; but it found a defender in 1 Y 1 . Adolpho Debef-Iqyme , Count no Pierre , ragardlnjf tlio Government ai perfectly established , could not porcoivo any nocossity
for the bill . He wondered that people should have asked themselves what would have become of the country if the attempt of the 14 th of January had succeeded . "Fox his own part , he did not entertain the slightest doubt that the general cry would have been , UEmperewr est mort ! Vive VEmpereur P " M . Langlois , Councillor of State , and Government Commissioner , contended that the act did not violate any great judicial principle . Art . I . was then voted . With respect to the Second Article , M . Baroche , President of the Council of State , said , in reply to certain charges of vagueness brought by the Marquis de Talhoet , that " the bill had not in view to punish either regrets or reminiscences , or even hopes . He could declare that opinions expressed with more or less warmth of language —epigrams or allusions ^—were not what the bill desired to reach . " M . Emile Ollivier , however , pressed for further explanations , and asked whether any censure on the Government might be safely expressed in a letter
written to a friend in the interior . It appeared to him that the bill was designed to reach and punish the opposition that is to be found in the bosom of family circles . M . Baroche replied that nothing inquisitorial was intended by the article ( the objectionable point in which was the use of the word * manoeuvres' among the political offences which are to be punishable ) . " The fact of having written a letter which might have been seized did not constitute a manoeuvre , and , for his part , he could not conceive an extreme case which might never occur being brought forward as a sufficient reason for opposing a measure intended to defend such grave interests as those which were at stake . " M . Ollivier again insisted that " the bill reached every provocation made in a public place or in the press . That he perfectly understood ; but what he could not understand was that it should be desired to reach the remarks exchanged between friends . "
Articles 2 , 3 , 4 , and 5 , having been adopted , M . Ayme opposed Article 6 , which he thought unnecessary . Article 221 of the Penal Code permits the Judges in extreme cases to subject dangerous persons to the surveillance of the police . The Sixth Article of the new law , however , was adopted , as were Articles 7 , 8 , and 9 . M . Gareau , in speaking of Article 10 ( which was voted like the rest ) , observed that at the moment of voting this most important measure he felt an indescribable sadness in coming . forward to declare that he could not accede to the bill . It was because he was more anxious than any other to behold the firm maintenance of the Empire that he felt unable to vote a bill designated unfortunate by its supporters aiid disastrous by its opponents . The bill in its ensemble was then put to the vote , and adopted by 227 votes to 24 .
———— A^L ^ J^G The Ije Ape R. [Js"O. 414...
j ^ g THE IjE APE R . [ JS " o . 414 , February 27 , 1858 .
Continental. Notes. That Narrow Arxd Unc...
CONTINENTAL . NOTES . That narrow arxd unchristian feeling is to be condemned which , regards wittx jealousy the progress or foreign nations , and cares lor no portion or the baimau race bat that to wmch itself belongs . JJii . AaNoxD . FR-ANCE . The Hrloidt & ur publishes in its official column a Senutus Vonsultum , signed by M . Troplong , President of the Senate , and by the Secretaries , and approved by the Emperor , whose signature is also affixed , to the effect that no candidate for the Legislative Body can come forward unless , at least eight days before tho voting commences , he lias made a formal declaration to tho proper authorities that " ho swears obedience to the Constitution and fidelity to the Emperor . " Any candidate coming forward without having fulfilled such obligation is liable to the penalties prescribed by Article C of tho law of July , 1849 . A funeral service was celebrated last Saturday at the church of tho Madeleine for tlie repose of tho soul ot ' thc kto Signor Lablacho , whose remains wore brought from Naples , where ho died , to bo interred in tho cemetery of Pere-la-Chnise , near those of his wife .
" A young man of seventeen , a musician , named Charles Lei ay , residing at his father ' s house at 40 , Boulevard do Strasbourg , has appeared , " says tho Daily Neios Paris correspondent , " at the bar of the Tribunal of Correctional Police , to answer a charge of' insult agiiinst the person of tho Emporor . ' Tho proceedings buing secret , tho words constituting the alleged offence are nut known . Tho prisoner urged in oxcuso for what ho had said , that ho wus young and inexperienced . Tho court took into consideration this dofenco , and only sentenced him to two months' imprisonment , and a lino of lil ' ty francs . " M . do Persigny , who hud a long interview with Lord Oowley on Sunday evening , has returned to London .
It is almost needless to tilludo to tho remarks of tho Fr ^ n 1 Blr ]^ aWoW ^ n ~ th " onicfoat' -of-TIiordt * Pnlmorflton-oni ^ the night of Friday week . Tho journals arc of course unable to express anything olso than regret at the success of Mr . Milner Gibson's amendment . Thoy adopt a moderate tone , however , and tho general opinion acorns to bo that tho alliance will not bo endangered by existing circumstanoea . " Three mombojs of tho Paris bar , bolonging to tho advanced Republican purty / ' says tho Pivrls correspondent of tho Timet , ?? wore arrested on Taeuihvy .
———— a ^ l ^^ Their names , I am told , are Maillard , who was one of the Commissioners of the Provisional Government , and a candidate at the last election in the department of the Correze ; Viukin , who was Deputy-Procureur in Africa under the same reyime ; and Hubbard , who was imprisoned for three yeara for the Opera Comique plot Hardly six months have passed since his release . It is also said that an actor of the Ode " on is under arrest . The cause of these arrests is probably some indiscreet or violent language . "
ITALY . The Gazzetta Popolare of Cagliari announces the arrest of the oldest bandit on the island , named Meluddu . He had been the terror of the district of Orosei since 1 . , and had up to this time defied every attempt to arrest him , having chosen one of the most inaccessible mountains of Sardinia , called De Su Angiu , for his stronghold . He was at length arrested on the 28 th ult ., about midnight , by a party of carbineers , who had die boldness to venture among the precipices of the mountain in utter darkness , though the rocks and paths were slipperv with frost . Meluddu has many murders and other crimes to answer for . An Englishman has been arrested at Genoa on a charge of being implicated in the attack on the French Emperor of the 14 th of January . His name is Darrell Hodges .
The Sardinian Government has presented to the Chambers a bill on conspiracies against the life of the heads of foreign countries . Like the ill-fated bill introduced into our own House of Commons by Lord Palmerston , this measure proposes an increase of punishment for those who conspire , and it also proposes to punish the defence of political assassination by imprisonment of from three to twelve months . The bill , moreover , increases the number of challenges of the jury allowed both to the Government prosecutor aud the accused . The Italian refugees , Captain Palestrini and the brothers Pezzi , have been arrested at Genoa . A considerable number of arrests have been made at Palermo in consequence of the attempt in Paris of tlie 14 th of January ; but no political trials have taken place . The fortitications at Palermo have been strengthened , and the Government seems to be taking precautions against a surprise .
Pit ' tet , a Swiss citizen living at Xaples , and for many years the confidential servant of the late Sir William Temple , has been ordered to leave the kingdom , lie recently demanded payment of a debt from a countryman , who immediately denounced him to the police as a malcontent . He has therefore left for England . Two young students have been arrested at Rome for carrying on a political correspondence with some inhabitants of the province of Ascoli . The Duke of Zitta has been stopped on his way to Paris at Via MaUa , near the Lake of Constance , by a band of brigands , and plundered . He was travelling with the Duchess in a coach and pair . In the boot wero found five thousand gold Napoleons , besides several valuable papers , and a brilliant set of diamond ornaments belonging to the Duchess .
A tender , signed by Signor Bonelli , the well-known constructor of telegraphs , has been made to the English Government on behalf of a proposed company to be called " The Company of the Anylo-Indian Telegraph Mail . ' ' The line is to puss from Malta to Alexandria . TUllKEV . The weather has been unusually severe in European Turkey , oven us far south as Constantinople itself . " Fur inoro than forty days , " says tho Times corrospondeuf , " hills and dales , tho houses and streets , have been covered with snow , and tho Golden Horn down tho Arsenal-bridgo repeatedly frozen over . The oldest inhabitants don ' t remember such a succession of cold wuatuer . There are , indeed , records of greater momentary cold , but nono of such a continuation of it . In rending tlie local papers , you would almost think yourself in liussia ;—accounts of houses sunk under the weight of snow ou tlicir roofd , iVurful stories of wolves pronu : iiudiug in the streets , tho guard turning out with buyoiiets lixal and charging tho hungry visitors , shepherds and tbttir flocks lost in the snow-drifts , or devoured by tho mimo hungry rovers , and other similar horrors und wonders . " As a consequence of this unusual state of the uliuos ^ liure , tho poor havo suffered terribly , and oveu tho rich havo beou afflicted by grippe , or inuuonzu .
Thu late events in Servia and tho dhsturbancun in tlio Herzegovina have induced tho Government to n | i | wi « t Etlioni Pn » hn , Minister of Foreign Affairs undor Ue < lsohid ' u administration , aud ICabull Effuudi , chief of u section iu that : department , as tiouiniidttiouoro to those co untrieu . Tho insurrection in tho Herzegovina continues , and there lmvo bei'u some sovero encounters between thu ill ' jurgentajtnd tlio Turks . Tho troops of the Sultan linvo oibo iittuTuair « 'i p "' encouritefiTWlth ~ the ~ Montonegri » a- » e « r the forlitteu town of Podgoritzu , on tho eastern frontier of Montenegro . Tho result iu not stated ; but suvural wore killed mid wounded ou both sides . PRUSSIA . A vnut number of presents , including many of grout richness and some of humbler pretensions , havo boon sent to tho Prinoo « nd Princess Frederick-William . i < ' 0 various cities , towns , and ' Estates' have contributed t °
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Feb. 27, 1858, page 6, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_27021858/page/6/
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