Denis in great solemnity, the princes of the blood attending, with deputations of the two chambers, and of other public bodies. The same solemnization was also observed in the capital at the metropolitan and the other churches, and the temples of the Protestants; and it is affirmed, that on the whole day, the most impressive tokens were given of the public sorrow.

About this time, however, insurrectionary movements were taking place at and near Lyons. The following details appeared in the Paris papers. The commandant-general of the department sent to the police for examination on Jan. 20th, a subaltern officer, who made several discoveries; in consequence of which, three suspected persons were arrested at Lyons, and one of their adherents at Roanne. On the night between the 23d and 24th, fifty of the national guard mounted were conducted to Condrieux, whence they brought 140 muskets. Lyons remained afterwards in a state of tranquillity, though arrests frequently occurred. With respect to the cause and origin of this commotion, it is affirmed, that a party hostile to the existing government arose at the time of Buonaparte's landing from Elba, of which the professed object was the preservation of the country from the incursions of a foreign enemy. For this purpose, five thousand of the citizens of Lyons met in the hall of St. Clare, and entered into certain resolutions for bringing it to effect Their

association was termed La Federation; and all the persons composing it have been regarded

with much suspicion since the restoration of the Bourbons, and many of them have been arrested.

At Tarascon on the Rhone, disturbances broke out in the early part of February, which are affirmed to have had no connection with any plan of revolt, but to have originated in popular effervescence. They were, however, of sufficient consequence to occasion a royal ordinance, dated Feb. 22d. In this it is declared, that the laws have been violated at Tarascon; seditious persons have rendered necessary the infliction of a legal punishment by the magistrates: prisoners legally apprehended have been wrested from the hands of justice the national guard, when called upon to preserve order, have stood motionless; and the sub-prefect himself was obliged to withdraw, in order to escape the violence with which he was threatened. By way of punishment for these criminal disorders, the ordinance decrees, that the seat of the sub-prefecture and tribunal of Tarascon be transferred to the city of Arles, and the prisoners, forcibly released on the 13th, be conducted to the prisons of Arles, to be proceeded against according to the laws; and that proceedings be immediately instituted against the authors of the outrages committed at Tarascon. These vigorous measures appear to have entirely suppressed the commotions in that quarter.

In the beginning of March a royal ordinance was published on the important subject of national education. The plan adopted was

the

the establishment of cantonal schools under the superintendence of local gratuitous committees, and subject to the visitation of the superior clergy and magistrates. The children of the poor are to be taught gratuitously. The system of instruction is to proceed in gradation from the first elements of reading, writing, and arithmetic, to those attainments which may be useful in ordinary life, such as mensuration, surveying, &c. Masters are to be employed at salaries proportioned to their abilities in three distinct classes. Moral and religious principles are particularly to be attended to; and provision is made for the instruction of Protestant children, under the superintendence of their own clergy, or conjointly with those in the general schools where there are no separate establishments for them. Besides the public funds destined to the support of this system, private donations and bequests are encouraged. This plan, if duly carried into effect, seems well calculated to remedy that ignorance which has long been the reproach of the lower orders of people in France.

Of the party differences prevailing in the French legislature, some notice was taken in the history of the last year. They were such as might with certainty be expected from the political state of the country, and the rapid and extraordinary changes it had undergone in the system of public authority; and independently of peculiar circumstances, they might in great part be referred to those diversities of opinion, which are always found in constitutions the

basis of which is partly monarchical, partly popular. As the Whigs and Tories of England have always divided on the principle of regal authority, one deriving its origin from national choice, the other from indefeasible hereditary right, so, after the restoration of the Bourbon dynasty, there was a party in France which chose to regard Louis XVIII. as reigning by the authorization of the people, and on conditions settled by a national constitution; and another, which considered him as the heir of le gitimacy, as the term is applied, and regarded as null every claim which was the product of the revolution. The latter were cordingly eminently monarchical in their principles, and were invidiously branded with the title of ultra-royalists; whilst the former, under the name of constitutionalists, were charged with a leaning to republicanism. A zealous attachment to the established religion, as in other countries, was a feature of the votaries of monarchy; while the greater part of those who embraced revolution politics, were supposed to be more than indifferent to the interests of religion.

ac

The contests of these opposite parties afford a leading topic for the domestic history of France in the present year. An important document connected with it, appeared in an English paper, with the title of "Declaration of the principles of the majority of the Chamber of Deputies, Jan. 20th, 1816." Considering it as a real exposition of the views and principles avowed by the royalist party, we shall give it without abridgment.

We,

"We, the members composing the majority of the Chamber of Deputies, are united on principles; of which we here make a formal declaration.

1. We are invariably attached to the monarchical government, and to the legitimate succession in the reigning house.

2. We fully adopt the principles of the constitutional charter, and the division of powers which it establishes. We will maintain the spirit, and follow up the consequences of that system, as the most rational substitution of our ancient institutions, liberties, and franchises.

3. We look back to the past only for the purpose of drawing therefrom lessons for the future, and between which we wish to erect a wall of brass. It is accordingly our opinion, that all the interests created by the revolution, and which are completed, shall be irrevocably assured; we will maintain the abolition of privileges and privileged orders as political bodies, the equality of rights and admission to all employments, the liberty of worship, the alienation of the property sold during the revolution, whatever may be its origin; but we will not hereafter admit the application of the principles which created these interests, and we regard them as destructive of all government.

4. We are of opinion that the new institutions ought to be placed on the ancient and immutable bases of religion and morality. It is therefore our wish to give to the clergy an honourable independence, the administration of property or

revenues

which may secure that independence, and finally a civil establishment, associating them at the same time with the dearest interests of the state, by making them participate in public education, and in the management of institutions consecrated to the solace and the welfare of mankind.

5. In pursuance of the same principles, we are desirous of placing the laws under a higher moral influence--of effacing whatever is contrary to religion or opposed to public morality; and, in fine, whatever does not accord with the spirit of the monarchy. On these grounds we demand the revision of the civil and criminal laws, and wish at the same time to see the magistracy invested with a greater degree of consideration.

6. We believe that the police ought neither to be an odious inquisition nor an agent of despotism, but a guarantee for the throne, and a magistracy serving to make known to the government public opinion, and through that opinion its true intereststhat the press ought to be free, but that its offences should be repressed by severe laws.

7. We wish France to recover the complete independence of her territory, and the first means for attaining that object is, we conceive, the full and entire execution of the engagements contracted with the allied powers; we are equally desirous of preserving honourable alliances, and we regard the prosperity of the nations which surround us as the best pledge of that of France.

8. Free from all spirit of conquest,

quest, we wish for a national army, which, notwithstanding its narrow frame in time of peace, may be capable, in the case of war, of opening its ranks to numerous soldiers: and we do not regard as lost to France the warriors, who, being led away by extraordinary circumstances, were obliged to be disbanded, but who will, by their talents and their bravery, contribute to the security of the country, as they have contributed to its glory.

9. We are of opinion, that the interests of the people ought, in a great measure, to be contided to local administrations, either municipal, departmental, or provincial; that the centralisation of all affairs and all decisions in the ministry is an abuse, and that it ought to cease by confiding powers more extensive to the superior agents delegated by the ministers. On these principles we demand the revision of the administrative laws.

10. We place within our prospect the hope of diminishing the land-tax, and regulating its repartition-of imposing the indirect taxes in a manner less uniform, but better adapted to the interests and habitudes of the different parts of the territory, and so as to make them fall more upon the consumption of the rich than on that of the poor-finally, of establishing a good system of public credit.

11. We shall neglect no opportunity for promoting the interests of commerce, of developing all the branches of industry and every kind of production, and of diffusing all the knowledge capable of perfecting them; and

it is our wish that there should be formed in the different classes of arts and manufactures, free associations for securing their interests, and maintaining a useful discipline among the members, but so that these establishments may not restrain the independence of industry.

12. We define what we mean by purification. It is the removing from public employment, men who, since the restoration, have established themselves in a state of war with the legitimacy of the throne, and the principles of morality; to this we add certain restrictions: We demand that offices of the first order, such as those of ministers, governors, directors-general, and counsellors of state, should not be filled, except by those who, since the restoration, and particularly during the three months of usurpation, have given to the King and the country positive pledges of their attachment-that offices of the second order, such as those of the prefects, commandants, head magistrates, and chiefs of boards of administration, and receivers-general, should be confided to those only who at least cannot be reproached with any act against the royal authority since the restoration in 1814-finally, that in inferior offices all persons should be removed whose conduct is contrary to morality and probity.

13. In stating these principles, and these wishes, the majority of the Chamber of Deputies does not lose sight of the bounds within which the part which it might take in their fulfilment is confined; they desire, therefore, that the King's ministry, united in the

same

same principles, should propose to them, as times and circumstances may permit, the means of their application. In that case they will find in the majority of the Chamber a perfectly frank and disinterested concurrence, but also a firm and constant opposition to the application of any principles of a contrary nature."

The devotion of the chamber to the Royal Family was manifested at the sitting of March 27th, when the order of the day was the discussion on the plan relative to the Duke of Berri's establishment at his approaching marriage. The resolutions of the committee nominated for this purpose were unanimously adopted, and thereby the reduction of 500,000 francs for the first five years from his annual dotation, proposed by the ministers, was not accepted the marriage expenses also, fixed in their proposal at one million, were raised by the chamber to 1,500,000 francs. The Duke of Richelieu then addressing the assembly said, that his Majesty, who anticipated their sentiments, ordered him, when he expressed his sense of them, to add to his acceptance of the offer, that, resolved to maintain the principles of strict economy, and to strip the happy event which was about to console France of all useless pomp and superfluous ostentation, he destined the 500,000 francs which they had voted, to the immediate relief of the departments which had suffered most by the two invasions. The Duke of Berri, also, by the same channel declared his intention of devoting annually the 500,000 francs with

which they had augmented his establishment, to mitigating the calamities that pressed upon many parts of France.

The session of the chambers was adjourned on April 29th.

At the time when nothing but mutual kindness between Prince and people appeared in the intercourse between the court and the legislative body, an insurrection was secretly forming, which too plainly proved, that a dangerous mass of disaffection to the government was still existing in the nation at large. It had for some time been observed at Grenoble and its environs, that certain persons known for their revolution principles, and for the active part they had taken on late occasions, made excursions around that town, for a circuit of several leagues, assembled, and wandered about the streets of Grenoble, with an air of leisure which attracted the attention of the magistracy. They also circulated incendiary writings, and by letters without signatures, invited soldiers on half-pay to repair to Grenoble on Sundays. In the morning of May 4th, the prefect was informed, that there were assemblages of people at Vizille, and Mure, communes near Grenoble. The peasantry had been instigated to rise, by telling them, that all Languedoc was in a state of insurrection, that Paris was in full revolt, and that the garrison of Grenoble had marched to occupy the line through which the Duchess of Berri and her retinue

was to pass. General Donadieu, commandant of the department, informed of these proceedings, immediately took measures for dispersing