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the general approval, which the part performed by these gentlemen still continued to receive, was tempered by some misgivings in regard to their motives, for which no room had been found on the first consideration of their adventure. In spite of the liberal concession universally made in favour of a merciful purpose, the propriety of the conduct of Sir Robert Wilson, a general officer in the English army, in deceiving the ambassador of his own country that he might screen the criminal of another, was looked upon as more than questionable; while any argument that might have been drawn from the comparative levity of Lavalette's own offence, was weakened by the violence with which his defenders defended also the cause of the doubly treacherous, ungrateful, and dishonourable Ney. As both Wilson and Hutchison were British officers of some distinction, it was impossible for the Prince Regent (in the situation where

in he then stood towards the King of France) to take no notice whatever of an adventure which had subjected these gentlemen to the penal sentence of a French jurisdiction. He accordingly caused his opinion of their conduct to be conveyed them in the usual manner; and we imagine that, on the whole, the opinion expressed by his Royal Highness coincided very closely with that entertained by the more calm and judicious of his subjects. While he condemned their rashness in interfering with the internal affairs ot France, and reproved them for a departure from the propriety of their own character as English officers, his Royal Highness nevertheless implied his feeling of the extraordinary situation in which they had been placed, and forebore from inflicting upon them any additional punishment beyond what this expression of his censure might convey.

CHAP. X.

Debates on the Law of Amnesty.-Necessity for a Law of this kind.-Projet of M. de la Bourdonnaye.—Royal Projet.-Amendments proposed in the Chamber of Deputies respecting the Regicides-Speech of M. Betizy-The Bill is carried, with the Amendments, in both Houses, by a great majority.Reflections. Celebration of the Anniversary of the Death of Louis XVI.— Last Letter of Marie Antoinette is read to the Chambers.-Speech of M. de Chateaubriand delivered upon this occasion.

THE most important part of the his tory of the Chambers for this year, refers to those long, various, and diversified debates, which preceded the passing of the law of amnesty in the end of January. From the very beginning of the session, it was well known that such a law was in agitation; indeed, till such a law should be passed, it could never be supposed that entire tranquillity should be re-established. The persons, even of very high rank, who had taken an early and effective part in the management of the usurp er's concerns-nay, who had tendered him their good offices previous to his being invested with the character of sovereign de facto, was so great, that, while any doubt should be allowed to remain upon their minds respecting their ultimate fate, no repose could be looked for among the most important classes of society in which these persons moved. The terms of the first ordinance of the king, to which we have already frequently alluded, might certainly bear an interpretation more or less merciful, according to the

inclination of those who were to expound it. Something of a more definite and unequivocal character was therefore loudly called for by the country, and felt to be necessary alike by the king, the ministry, and the Chambers.

It was announced in the circles of Paris, long before the end of November, that M. de la Bourdonnaye had laid the projet of a law of amnesty be fore a secret committee of the lower House. According to the common report, which was probably in the main a pretty correct one, the exceptions to the mercy of this projected statute were exceedingly numerous; and, after considerable discussion, its cruelty had determined the committee not to allow its being brought openly before the House. The ministry, in the mean time, might derive useful hints for the framing of their own bill from the tenour of this discussion; and it appeared, on the 8th of December, when the Duke of Richelieu came down with the royal projet, that their design, professedly at least, was free

from the fault which had proved fatal to that of M. de la Bourdonnaye. Richelieu, after giving a rapid sketch of the state of the country, and explaining the necessity for a law of the nature about to be proposed, concluded with saying, that, anxious as the government had been for several months to see all discussion respecting the late tumults at a close, it was only in consequence of the new strength they had derived from the two laws already passed, that they found themselves able to bring this bill before the House. The vigour which had been infused into their measures was such, that they could now afford to throw up all the advantages they might have derived from the fears of the malcontents; and they were willing, henceforth, to hold in their hands the power of punishing no crimes but such as should henceforth be committed, The bill which his majesty submitted to the House was, therefore, scarcely anything more than a repetition, in more exact terms, of the ordinance of the 24th of July. It offered complete amnesty to "all the individuals who had, directly or indirectly, taken part in the rebellion and usurpation of Napoleon Buonaparte," with the exception of those whose names had already appeared in the above-mentioned ordinance. The great offenders excepted in the first article of that ordinance should be dealt with as there expressed; those named in the second article should be held bound to quit France within two months after the passing of the present statute. All the members of the family of Buonaparte should be excluded for ever from France, and held incapable of acquiring any property there the property possessed by them within the kingdom should be forfeited, if it had been obtained gratuitously, and sold immediately for their behoof, if it had been acquired

by purchase. Finally, the present amnesty should be held to apply to no persons, of whatever description, against whom proceedings had already been commenced by the government; neither should it be interpreted as furnishing any hope of protection from the punishment due to offences against individuals, at whatever period these offences might have been committed. The Duke concluded his speech with reminding the deputies, that this law bore a striking resemblance to that passed by Henry IV. in 1594. All the members, when he sate down, rose up, and the roof rung with their shouts of" Vive le Roi!"

A committee was appointed to take this bill into consideration, and M. de Corbiere brought up its report on the 27th of December. The result of its investigation was, a conviction that the proposal of the king, instead of being too severe, was too lenient in its character; and M. Corbiere proposed to add to the projet two amendments, as follows:-To the list of the persons excepted from the general amnesty he would have added, not names of individuals, but some whole classes of criminals-" crimes, not persons," as he expressed it, "being the objects of public revenge." These classes comprehended, under various heads, all those who had in any measure contributed to the return of Buonaparte previous to his resumption of the sovereign power de facto, all those prefects appointed by the king who had recognised the authority of the usurper before the 23d of March,—all those marshals and generals of Buonaparte who had declared for him before his entry into Paris, and all those generals-in-chief who had commanded forces against the royal armies. To these sweeping exceptions was added a clause, providing, that a delay of three months should be held sufficient to prescribe them, in the

same manner as if the legal prescription of ten years had taken place; and another, directing the expences of all prosecutions against these state criminals to be discharged out of the private funds of the criminals themselves.

This was the first decided manifestation of the true spirit of this Chamber of Deputies. The ascendancy which the ministers seemed to have had was now visibly counterbalanced, not only by the small minority, who always voted rather on the side of the revolution, but by a much more considerable body more attached to the cause of royalty than the ministers, nay, than the king himself. The violence of this party was rendered more and more conspicuous on every succeeding evening of the discussion concerning this amnesty bill-a discussion which was not terminated till the latter end of January, a month after the bill had first been brought into the House by the Duke of Richelieu. The inclination of the majority of the members was at last so manifestly hostile to the extreme lenity of the royal projet, that a part of the amendment of M, de Corbiere was adopted by the government. The proposal concerning the classes of persons to be excepted, in addition to those individuals mentioned in the ordinance of the 24th of July, was not adopted in its full extent; but enough of it was retained to include those of the regicides who had voted for the acte additionel, and who had thus, in the words of the amended projet, "shewn themselves to be the irreconcileable enemies of the monarchy, and of France." The proposal respecting the defraying of the expences of prosecutions, which meant, in fact, nothing short of the revival of a system of confiscations, was not adopted,

Enough, however, had been done, to shew that a great change had occurred in the temper of the House,

even in the short period which had elapsed from the commencement of the present session. Although the proposal of M. de Corbiere did not finally form the substance of a law, yet the fate of the regicides was determined in consequence of it; and, in truth, the banishment of these men from the soil of France, was perhaps the least sacrifice that could be offered, with any appearance of propriety, to the principles of that monarchy which they so grievously and so incorrigibly offended. If any of their number might appear to be deserving of greater indulgence, it was left to the crown to extend that indulgence of its own free will. In the mean time, the public were rid of the sight of a set of men, inseparably connected with the memory of principles and feelings which had become utterly odious to all men, of whatever party, excepting only the few scattered and puny relics, among whom the ferocious spirit of the first revolutionary period still preserved some faint symptoms of existence.

The words of M. Betizy, the last speaker who addressed the House with regard to these men, may be given as a specimen of the style in which the whole discussion was carried on. "They say," said he, "that none should be more severe than the king. Yes, gentlemen, men sometimes may be there are circumstances wherein we should be more severe. Let us leave to the king the privilege of pardon. Who would wish to affix limits to his clemency, to prevent him from being merciful even to magnanimity? No, surely; this would be to render the king no longer himself. The gentle blood of the Bourbons flows in his veins, and, the eldest son of the church, it is his birthright and privilege to pardon.

"But we, gentlemen, who owe to France the sacred duty of seeing the

horror of a great guilt thrown where it should be, let us burden ourselves with the weight of severity, of justice. "Let us carry ourselves back to the days of that execrable transgression. Who is he among us, that, three and twenty years ago, would have dared to defend the regicides in the presence of France and of Europe? Who is he among us that would dare to do so now?

"We have lifted up again the ancient bulwark of our monarchy; these men work unceasingly in the hope to overturn it. It belongs to us, the representatives of France, to mount the breach and defend it. We must not parry only, but return the thrusts of our adversaries; the king is the pledge of general peace, and it is ours to be answerable for his safety to France, to Europe, and to the world.

"Assuredly, gentlemen, it must ever grieve us to act, even for a moment, in contradiction to the desires of our king-we, who have given him so many pledges of our love, our devotion, our fidelity-we, who, during five and twenty years of affliction, have recognised no cry of rallying but that which expressed our resolution, -to live for the king, to die for the king.

"But, gentlemen, let us never forget that the device of our fathers was "God, honour, and the king!" and if inflexible honour compel us for an instant to go beyond the will of our king; and if, dissatisfied with his faithful serwants, displeased with seeing them contradict in any thing his royal and pious clemency, he should turn from us for a moment that countenance of kindness which is the best of all our recompenses-we will speak like the inhabitants of the west, like those brave soldiers of the throne and the lilies, whose love for the Bourbons was as

unalterable as it was deep-we will say," God save the king, even although

This speech was the summary of all that was said by the triumphant party. The words with which it concluded, quand meme, had indeed become known already as a sort of pass-word of the ultra-royalist party; and the reception which they met with here would, even of itself, have been no slight proof of the state in which the opinions of the majority of the Chamber were.

Immediately on the conclusion of this speech, the question was put, and the law, with the modifications we have already mentioned, was carried by a majority of 334 to 32. It passed the House of Peers, as might have been expected, with less discussion, and by a still more ample majority. The sentiments of the two Chambers were now, indeed, far more nearly alike than had been supposed at the opening of the session. In the course of the debates on this question, several questions of considerable moment, in regard to the distribution of the powers of legislation, were indirectly treated of, although not, certainly, by any means, at the length which they deserved. The constitution of the charter had left, as we have seen, the initiative, or right of proposing laws, with the king. The inconveniencies inseparable, as we are led to suspect, from this arrangement, were very soon felt by all parties, excepting only that of the ministry themselves. Nay, it is very possible, that even the ministry felt, that by this arrangement they were themselves loaded with the burden of many duties, and disagreeable duties too, which, or at least the appearance of which, might, by another plan, have been spared to them. One set of orators in the Chamber of Deputies were perpetually repeating, that

*Vive le Roi, quand meme!

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