The French House of Commons is, in many re spects, similar to the British ; each being the arena in which political parties try their strength, and in which the support or the overthrow of a ministry is decided. The nature of the subjects discussed, the privileges of the house, the admission of the public to the debates, are all similar to our usages ; but there are some important differences as to the legal qualifications of the members, and the constitution of the body. No one is capable of being elected a re presentative of the commons till he is forty years of age. The number of deputies or members is regulat ed by the amount of population. This, however, has nothing in common with universal suffrage, for the basis of the qualification of a voter is property ; it being an indispensable requisite that every voter shall pay L.12 a-year in direct taxes. This sum seems a very proper medium. From the nature of French taxation, it comprises a vast number of petty proprietors worth from L. 60 to L. 100 or L. 150 a-year. In like manner, the payment of L.40, the qualification for a member, implies only the posses sion of L. 200 or L. 300 a-year.
The right of voting for Members of Parliament in France was long exercised by delegation, the voters choosing a committee (college electoral) composed of persons paying L. 40 in taxes, with whom rested the choice and nomination of the member ; but this cold and indirect course was abrogated by the law of 5th February 1817 ; since which the voters have made a direct nomination of their members as in England. In this manner took place the two elec tions (each of a fifth of the house) in 1817 and 1818. The predilection shown in them to the liberaux, or moderate revolutionists, excited the fears of the royalists; but the King resisted all attempts to mo dify the established law, until a third trial in 1819, which, by giving another powerful addition to the li beraux, induced both him and his counsellors to project a change. This change is now (May 1820) in its progress through the House, and bids fair to be temperately conducted ; the present number of mem bers (258) being evidently too small for so great a country, it is proposed to extend them to 480, and to confine the election of the additional number (172) to electoral committees on the old plan. Another part of the proposed change is to dispense with annual elections, and to declare the whole House of Commons entitled to sit for five years as it is in England for seven.
The new law proposes no change in the qualifica tion of' voters. The number of the latter is of course very different in different departments ; the medium is from 1500 to 2500, but in the department of Paris they exceed 10,000. In the cities, the majority of
the voters are patents, that is, they derive the pro perty entitling them to vote from mercantile busi ness ; but in the small towns, and still more in rural districts, the great majority consist of petits proprie. aires. Family influence is of very little account in France ; voters, when so numerous and independent, are actuated, as in our popular elections, by motives of more comprehensive operation, such as the public character of the candidate, or a sense of the national wants at the time. The King is bound to convoke the chamber annually ; he has, as in England, unli mited power to prorogue or dissolve ; but in that case, a new chamber must be called in the course of three months.
The members of the French parliament are now only beginning to reap the benefit of influence ; the distribution of patronage not being as yet reduced to a system. The same observation applies to parlia mentary tactics ; for, though the parties are marked by a very distinct line, their votes are not to be an ticipated with so much certainty as in St Stephen's Chapel. The usage, in the French Parliament, is to read a speech ; and, if at all remarkable. it is soon after printed at full length. Many of these afford tolerable specimens of 'Parliamentary elo quence, but prepared less with a view to a practi• cal result than to attract attention to the speak er, and to give him son jour de renomtnie, son Beare de gloire.
The cabinet consists properly of eight members; the President, or premier ; the Keeper of the seals, or Chancellor ; the Master of the Royal Household, and the five Secretaries of State. When, as generally hap pens, the premier is also one of the secretaries of state, the number of the cabinet is seven. The secretary. ships are, as in England, the foreign affairs, the war department, the home department ; the treasury, and, finally, the navy ; to which are joined the cola nies. The functions are so similar to those of the cor responding offices in our own country, that the only branch requiring explantition to an English reader is the police, formerly a separate secretaryship, but blended, since January 1819, with the home depart ment. Exclusive of the care of public tranquillity, and the detection of state offences, the police in France has the surveillance of the newspapers ; the latter being subject, before printing, to inspection and alteration by government agents. This unpo pular restriction, after being removed in 1819, has been reimposed by an act of the present year (1820), founded on the danger of unreserved discussion dur ing the present animosity of parties.