GOVERNMENT.
France, before the Revolution, was much less of an integral body than England, its component parts having been united at a much later date, and each preserving a number of privileges which embarrassed and retarded the action of government. The coun tries called Pays d'Etat were governed by their own assemblies; taxation was different in different provinces; each clung with pertinacity to the pre servation of transmitted usages ; and nothing but a general convulsion could have broken down barriers supported by such a mass of separate prejudices and interests. It would be superfluous to enlarge on the different constitutions that followed each other so rapidly during the Revolution,—whether that of 1791, the work of a liberal but inexperienced As sembly ; that of 1798, the work of the Jacobins; or the very different one of 1795, perverted first by the Directory, and finally overturned by the usurpa, tion of Bonaparte. There is a brief sketch of each in the article FRANCE, in the Encyclopredia ; and as they have long ceased to interest the public, we pro ceed at once to the present constitution founded on the Charter granted on the return of the King in May 1814. That charter is appealed to by all parties as the safeguard of the French constitution, and is in substance as follows: All ranks are equally admissible to public em ployments, whether civil or military. (The object of this clause is to do away any claim for preference on the part of the noblesse.) The Catholic is the state religion, but all other religions may be openly professed, and none imply political disqualification.
All sales of national property during the Revolu tion are confirmed to the purchasers.
The person of the King is inviolable; the respon sibility rests with his Ministers.
The executive power is vested in the King ; the legislative, in the two Houses of Parliament as in England, with the distinction, that no bill can be brought in but by a Minister of the Crown, Parlia ment having the right only of praying the King to bring in any particular bill. (This restriction serves to prevent motions which might produce agitation in a country still very divided, and new to the dis cussions of a representative body.) The House of Peers cannot be lawfully assembled except at the same time as the House of Com mons.
The members of the Commons House are elect ed for five •years, the house being renewable by a' fifth annually. No one can be a member of this
house unless of the age of forty or upwards, and unless he pays direct taxes to the amount of L.40 a•year.
The sitings of the House of Commons are open to the public ; those of the Peers are private; all money bills must originate with the Commons.
The judges are named by the King ; and, when appointed, are not rewoveable. Juries are employ ed in criminal cases only.
The House of Peers in France is, in many re spects, on the same footing as in England, their number being unlimited ; their nomination vested in the crown ; their dignity hereditary. Like our Peers they meet every session on the same day as the Commons ; and their proceedings, unless accom panied by simultaneous proceedings of the lower house, would be void. Like our Peers also, they take cognizance of charges of treason and of high political misdemeanours ; but they do not form a court of judicial appeal. All bills, with the excep tion of money bills, may originate in either house ; but the degree of public interest, excited by the debates of the Peers, is not so great as by those of the lower house. The restrictions as to attend ing the debates, and printing the speeches of the Peers, though not absolute, are greater than in Eng land.
The King's brothers and nephews, with the princes of the blood (Orleans, Bourbon, Conde), are Peers in right of their birth.
The number of Peers in France is at present (1820) nearly 280, a number comprising two very distinct classes, the old nobility of France, strip ped of the greater part of their paternal estates, but dignified by such names as Montmorency, Tre mouille, Luxembourg ; and the senators or gene rals of the Revolution, who can boast of no an cestry; and who, in point of property, are, in general, very limited, but who lay claim to public regard for their personal exertions ; such are Lan juinais, Pastoret, Bartholemy, Macdonald. Those who were members of the senate, on the abdication of Bonaparte, were made Peers, and had their life pension (L. 1500 a-year) confirmed to them by Louis XVIII.; but the constitution requires that all future peers shall posses a certain entailed property, the amount of which, evidently adapted to the level ling effects of the Revolution, is only L. 1250 of clear income for a duke , L. 800 for a marquis or earl ; and L. 400 for a viscount or baron.