cessful in carrying his great financial measure, in spite of the violent opposition which it met with. Pasquier and M. de Chateaubriand were violent in their hostility to it. On one amendment which was proposed in the Chamber of Peers, he prevailed only by a majority of 123 to 103; but, upon the final division, the law was adopted by 134 against 92. The period allowed to the holders of rentes for demanding their conversion into a 3 per cent stock at 75, was extended to the 5th of August. Those proprietors of inscriptions in the 5 per cents, who should not demand their conversion into either 3 per cents or 4 per cents, were to retain the enjoyment of the actual interest and the power of transfer, under the same forms, and at the same periods of payment as before; subject, however, to any future enactment which the government might make with respect to them, and unprotected by that guarantee against being paid off, which the two new species of stock possessed. After the law was passed, great doubts were entertained, whether its practical operation would not be baffled by the refusal of the holders of rentes to any considerable amount to accept the newlycreated stock. Unfortunately for M. de Villèle, this scheme had scarcely passed into a law, when the aspect of the money market throughout Europe began to be somewhat unsettled; and, finally, the amount of rentes, which were converted, was very limited. The total amount of 5 per cents converted into 3 per cents was 30,574,116 francs of rentes, and the amount of 3 per cents arising from this conversion was stock yielding 24,459,035 francs of yearly divi On the other hand, a diminution of another cent would, it was obvious, greatly exceed this overplus ; but it would suffice to diminish by six cents, instead of three, the door and window-tax, which was the most onerous of all the direct taxes to the poorer contributors. The whole reduction would then be for the land-tax, poll-tax,and tax on household furniture, at 3 cents Francs. Cents. On the door and windowper franc ......... 5,457,464 5 tax, at 6 cents per franc 768,747 98 Total ...... 6,226,212 3 This, therefore, was the scheme of reduction which the minister recommended; and which was adopted accordingly. Thus, the diminution which France effected in the annual interest of her debt, and in the amount of her taxation, was only about 250,000l.; and had the plan been delayed a few months longer, even this benefit could not have been gained; for, before the end of the year, the 3 per cent stock, which had been accepted at 75, fell as low as 65 and 63; and even the 5 per cents fluctuated between 94 and 98. In opening the budget, M. de Villèle gave a very flattering pic ture of the financial state of France. The whole receipts of 1823 (the year of the Spanish war) including the loan, amounted to 1,123,456,392 francs (or about 45,000,000l. sterling), and the expenditure to 1,118,025,162 francs, or about 200,000l. less. The whole resources of 1824 amounted to 992,333,953 francs (or about 39,693,3581.), and the whole expenditure to 990,119,582 francs. The revenue for the current year was estimated at 928,000,000 francs (or a little more than 37 millions sterling), and the expenditure at 926,500,000 francs of this sum. In extending his view to the year 1826, the minister estimated the national income at 924,095,704 francs (or 37,000,000l.), and the expenditure at 915,504,499 francs, leaving an excess of the former over the latter to the amount of 8,591,205 francs, or about 343,3281. The expenses of the consolidated debt, and the sinking fund came to 241,585,785 francs; and the general expenses of the government 672,918,714 francs. From a report made of the state of the Caisse d'Amortissement, or Sinking Fund, it appeared that, during the preceding six months, it had purchased 317,286 francs of rentes, 5 per cents, which cost 7,696,027 francs, 8 cents; and also 509,865 rentes at 3 per cent, which cost 12,761,513 francs, 6 cents. The stock, of which it was in possession, amounted to 37,579,972 francs of rentes, which had cost, in all, 607,675,592 francs 61 cents. measure Another ministerial which excited considerable interest, especially in England, was a law introduced for the punishment of sacrilege, breathing a spirit of barbarous bigotry worthy of the darkest age. This law first defined the crime which it sought to coerce, in the following manner : "The profanation of the sacred utensils, and of the consecrated wafers (hosties), is the crime of sacrilege. "Every overt act committed voluntarily and through hatred or contempt of religion, on the sacred utensils or the consecrated wafers, is declared a profanation. "There is legal proof of the consecration of the wafers, when they are placed in the tribunals or exposed in the ostensoir, and when the priest gives the communion or carries the viaticum to the sick. "There is legal proof of the consecration of the pyx, the ostensoir, the patten, and of the chalice employed in the ceremonies of religion, at the moment of the commission of the crime. "There is also legal proof of the consecration of the ostensoir, and of the pyx shut up in the tabernacle of the church.' Then came the denunciation of the punishment. "The profanation of the sacred utensils shall be punished with death. "The profanation of the consecrated wafers shall be punished in the manner as parricide." was This horrible law passed the Chamber of Deputies by a majority of 210 to 95; and, though the severity of the enactment somewhat mollified, there was in its provisions, such as they were when it received the final sanction of the legislature, no deviation from the principle on which it had been framed for the clauses denouncing the punishment of sacrilege were, ultimately, in the following form: The profanation of the sacred vessels shall be punished with death, if it has been accompanied by the two following circumstances: "1st. If the sacred vessels contained, at the moment of the crime, the consecrated elements. "2nd. If the profanation is committed publicly-when it is committed in a public place, and in presence of several persons. "The profanation of the sacred vessels shall be punished by perpetual hard labour, when not accompanied by one of the two circumstances stated in the preceding article. "The profanation of the consecrated elements, committed publicly, shall be punished with death. The execution shall be preceded by the amende honorable of the condemned person before the principal church of the place where the crime shall have been committed, or of the place where the Court of Assize sits." The following amendment was proposed by the count de Bastard, and seconded by the viscount de Chateaubriand : "The profanation of the sacred vessels is punished by hard labour for a limited time. "The profanation of the sacred elements is punished by hard labour for life." It was rejected by 108 votes against 104; and the entire law was adopted by the Chamber, by a majority of 127 to 92. The archbishop of Paris and the bishop of Hermopolis did not attend the discussions on this sanguinary law. The low state of the Catholic clergy in France was strongly proved by a very remarkable cir cumstance the difficulty of finding recruits to fill up their numbers. From a return made of the number of clerical places which were vacant, and of the number of aspirants in the seminaries, it appeared, that the number of vacancies was 14,085, and the number of pupils in the seminaries only 4,044; so that there was a deficiency of more than 10,000 Catholic priests. Besides this, the youth devoted to the ccclesiastical career all belonged to the lowest rank of society; they took orders only because they had no other means of existence, and were educated for . the church at the expense of the public. On the other hand, as many respectable candidates as were wanted always presented themselves to fill up vacancies among the Protestant clergy. Towards the latter end of the year, the public interest was very much excited, especially in Paris, by the legal proceedings which the ministry instituted against the two best known and most esteemed liberal journals, the Constitutionnel and the Courier Français, for alleged attacks on the church and the government of France. By the last law on the press, the public prosecutor in attacking a journal is not bound to present any specific article as containing the libel, but may collect the political discussions of a whole year, and ask the court to decide on their tendency. If the Cour Royale thinks that the tendency of the cited articles is anti-monarchical, anti-religious, anti-moral, or otherwise blameable, it may suspend. the publication of the accused journal for such a period as in its discretion it may think fit or may decree its final suppression. phrases on serious subjects, yet the spirit resulting from those articles is not of a nature to cast a slur on the respect due to the religion of the state; and likewise resolving, that it is neither casting such slur, nor abusing the liberty of the press, to discuss and oppose the introduction into the kingdom, of all establishments not authorized by the law; and that every paper has a right to point out such facts as are notoriously established as offensive to religion or morality, or such dangers and excesses as are likely to arise from a doctrine which would threaten the independence of the monarchy, the sovereignty of the king, and the public liberty, guaranteed by the Constitutional Charter, and by the declaration of the clergy of France in 1682, a declaration that has always been recognized and proclaimed the law of the countrydecree, that there is no cause for pronouncing the required suspension, though we at the same time enjoin the editors of the Constitutionnel to be more circumspect. The cause is therefore dismissed, free of expense to the defendants." In the present case, the requisitoire, or information of the attorneygeneral, Bellart, demanded the suspension of the Constitutionnel and Courier Français for three months. Many of the passages which were specified as supporting the accusation, were of the most frivolous kind. For instance, the following apparently very innocent statement of an undeniable fact, was one of the passages quoted from the Courier Français as subversive of the religion of the state:-"The petition of the Protestants of Nerac, expelled from their church, was laid on the table of the Chamber of Deputies the day before yesterday by general Foy." The articles selected from the Constitutionnel as libels against the established church amounted to 34, and were spread over a space of three months from the 1st of May to the 31st of July. The following was one of them :- "But while the schools of the Frères Ignorantins are established and supported by means of taxes, pray allow Lancasterian schools to subsist by voluntary contributions." The prosecutions, though urged with much vehemence, were unsuccessful. On the 3rd of December, the Cour Royale pronounced their decision. In the case of the Constitutionnel, the judgment was in the following words:-"The court, having considered the requisition of the Procureur-general of the king, dated the 30th of July, 1825-having considered the 34 culpatory articles extracted from the paper called the Constitutionnel, and having considered the law of the 17th of March, 1822, on the police of the journals, resolve, that, though many of the articles contain expressions and improper In the case of the Courier Français, the judgment was in these terms:- "The court, upon article 3 of the law of the 17th of March, 1822, and the demand of the Procureur-general, considering that the greater part of the articles objected to, inserted in the Courier, although very blameable in their form, do not possess at bottom a sufficient character to affect the respect due to the religion of the state; and that, although in fact other articles do possess this character, yet they are by no means numerous, and have appeared under circumstances attended with miti gation, such as the establishment in France of religious orders not sanctioned by the laws; ultramontane doctrines publicly preached by a part of the French clergydoctrines which tend to compromise the rights of the throne, and the liberties guaranteed by our institutions; "Declares, That there is no ground for suspension, but admonishes the publisher and editors of the Courier to be more circumspect.” The resistance of the tribunals to the known and anxious wishes of the government, was ascribed, in a great measure, to the disgust and aversion with which they regarded the endeavours that were made to diffuse a spirit of bigotry through the nation, and to increase the influence of the priests, and especially of the Jesuits. The French ministry were placed in a very perplexing situation with respect to the states of South America. On the one hand, the maxims of legitimacy and of desclear interests of the nation, and the potism were to be treated with deference; on the other hand, the apprehension that England would, by her liberal policy, acquire a preponderating influence in the new world, prescribed a different line of conduct. They endeavoured to steer clear of the difficulties of their situation by adopting no decided course, and by using ambiguous language. In the month of April, sixty of the chief commercial and banking houses of Paris presented a petition to the king, praying him to follow the example of the English governments, in sending consuls to the new states of America, and forming commercial treaties with them. The petition was received graciously, but produced no result. About a month afterwards, when, in the discussion of the budget, the Chamber of deputies was called upon to vote the sums required for the expenses of the foreign service, general Foy took occasion to make some very severe strictures on the conduct of the cabinet in their diplomatic proceedings, and to criticise particularly the policy which they had observed towards the new states of America. What advantage, he asked, had France derived from her subserviency to the illiberal dictates of the Holy Alliance? Had she even recovered the fortresses of SarreLouis and Landau, which had been constructed by Louis 14th, had been possessed by Louis 16th, and were still astonished to find themselves possessed by any but a Bourbon? He alluded also to a late visit of prince Metternich to Paris, and stated the rumours which were in circulation respecting its objects; one of which was supposed to be, to obtain an engagement from the French ministry for the destruction of the liberty of the French press. M. de Villèle did not shrink from the attack, but defended his party with a cautious boldness. The commercial part of the question, he argued, could not have been prudently arranged in any different manner. France stood towards the late Spanish colonies in a different position from England, both as regarded interests and principles. England had been the protectress of those states from the infancy of their independence; she had embarked a large capital in the trade with them, before the conclusion of the war of 1815; she had, besides, objected to the enterprise for restoring Ferdinand to his rights, and therefore had no wish to see him preserve his colo |