himself and his heirs, the thrones of France and Italy; and that there is no personal sacrifice, even that of life, which he is not ready to make to the interest of France.

"Done at the Palace of Fontainbleau, April, 1814.

CHAP. XXX.

Abstract of the Constitution offered to, and accepted by Louis XVIII. Treaty of Peace between France and the Allied Powers. Military operations of the Marquis of Wellington. Arrival of Bonaparte in the Island of Elba. Review of the war with America.

THE new French Constitution was approved of in the Conservative Senate. It consisted of twenty-nine articles as follow:

1. The French government is monarchical, and hereditary from male to male, in order of primogeniture.

2. The French people call freely to the throne of France, Louis Stanislaus Xavier de France, brother of the late King; and after him, the other members of the House of Bourbon, in the ancient manner.

3. The ancient nobility resume their titles; the new reserve their hereditary. The Legion of honor is maintained with its prerogatives. The King shall fix the declaration.

4. The executive power belongs to the King.

5. The King, the Senate, and the legislative body concur in the making of laws. Plan of laws may be equally proposed in the senate, and in the legislative body. Those relating to contributions can only be proposed in the legislative body. The King can invite equally the two bodies to occupy themselves upon objects which he deems proper. The sanction of the King is necessary for the completion of a law.

6. There shall be one hundred and fifty senators at least, and two hundred at most. Their dignity is immoveable,`

and hereditary from male to male, in order of primogeniture. They are to be named by the King. The present senators, with the exception of those who should renounce the quality of French citizens, are maintained, and form part of this number. The actual endowments of the senate and the senatorship belong to them. The revenues are divided equally between them, and pass to their successors. In case of the death of a senator, without direct male posterity, his portion returns to the public treasure. The senators who shall be named in future, cannot partake of this endowment.

The

7. The Princes of the Royal Family, and the Princes of the blood, are by right members of the senate. functions of a senator cannot be exercised until the person has attained the age of twenty-one years.

8. The senate decides the case, in which the discussion of objects before them shall be public or secret.

9. Each department shall send to the legislative body the same number of deputies it sent thither. The deputies who sat in the last, shall continue to sit there till they are re-placed. They shall be chosen immediately by the electoral bodies which are preserved, with the exception of any change in their organization. The duration of the functions of the deputies to be five years.

10. The legislative body to assemble each year on the 1st of October. The King may convoke it extraordinarily, or adjourn it, or dissolve it: in the latter case, another legislative body must be formed in three months by the electoral colleges.

11. The legislative body to have the right of discussion. The sittings are public, unless in cases of a general committee.

12. No member of the senate, or of the legislative body, can be arrested without previous authority from that body. The trial of a senator to appertain exclusively to the senate.

13. The senate, legislative body, electoral colleges and assemblies of cantons, to elect their president from among themselves.

14. The ministers may be members of the senate, or of the legislative body.

15. Equality of proportion in taxes. No tax to be imposed or received, unless agreed to by the senate or le

gislative body. The land tax to be established only for one year.

16. The mode and amount of the recruiting of the army to be fixed by law.

17. The independence of the judicial power is guaranteed. The institution of Juries is preserved, as well as publicity of trial in criminal matters.

18. Judges are for life, and irremovable. and extraordinary tribunals are abolished.

Commissions

19. The King to name the first presidents, and the public ministry of the Court and tribunals.

20. The military on service, officers and soldiers on half pay, widows and pensioned officers, to preserve their ranks, honors, and pensions.

21. The person of the King is sacred and inviolable. All acts of the government are signed by a minister. The ministers are responsible for any thing those acts may contain in violation of the laws.

22. The freedom of worship and conscience to be granted. The ministers of worship to be protected. 23. Liberty of the press to be preserved entire. 24. The public debt is guaranteed.

25. No Frenchman to be prosecuted for any opinions or votes he has given.

26. Every person to have the right of addressing individual petitious to every constitutional authority.

27. All existing laws to remain in full force until legally repealed. The code of civil laws shall be entitled, "Civil code of the French."

28. All Frenchmen to be equally admissible to all civil and military employments.

29. The present constitution shall be submitted to the acceptance of the French people in the form which shall be regulated. Louis Stanislaus Xavier shall be proclaimed King of the French, as soon as he shall have signed and sworn by an act, stating, "I accept the Constitution; I swear to observe it, and cause it to be observed."

The peace between the allied powers and France, was proclaimed at Paris on June 1, and on June 4, Louis went in grand ceremony to the Palace of the Legisla tive Assembly, where his Majesty made the following speech.

“GENTLEMEN,

"Entering for the first time this chamber, and surrounded by the great bodies of the state, the representative of a nation that does not cease to lavish upon me the most touching marks of its affection, I felicitate myself in being the disposer of those benefits, which Divine Providence deigns to confer upon my people.

"I have made with Austria, Russia, England, and Prussia, a peace, in which their Allies, namely, all the Princes of Christendom are included. The war was universal, the reconciliation is equally so.

The rank which France always held amongst nations, has not been transferred to any other; and she retains it without diminution. Whatever security the other states require, equally increases her own, and consequently adds to her true power. What she does not retain of her consequence, ought not therefore to be regarded as a retrenchment of her real force.

The glory of the French armies has received no stain; the monuments of their valour subsist, and the masterpieces of the arts belong to us for the future, by rights more stable and more sacred than those of victory.

"The avenues of commerce, so long closed, are going to be free. The markets of France will not hereafter be alone open to the productions of her soil and of her industry. Those which custom has rendered objects of necessity, or which are useful to the arts which she exercises, will be furnished by the possessions she recovers. She will be no more compelled to deprive herself of them ; or to procure them on the most ruinous terms. Our manufactures will again flourish, our maritime cities will revive, and every thing portends, that a long state of tranquillity abroad, and durability of happiness at home, will be the happy consequences of peace.

"Painful recollections intervene in the mean time, to disturb my joy. I flattered myself, I was born to remain my whole life the most faithful subject of the best of kings and I occupy to day his place! But however, he is not entirely dead; he revives in this testament, which he destined for the instruction of the unjust and unfortunate child, whom I have succeeded. With my eyes fixed upon this immortal work, penetrated with the sentiments which dictated it, guided by the experience, and assisted

7

by the councils of several amongst them. I have drawn up the constitutional charter, which shall be immediately read to you, and which fixes upon a solid basis the prosperity of the state."

After a fulsome speech from the chancellor, the constitutional charter was recited, which was divided into sections. The first related to public rights of Frenchmen, as follows:-That all Frenchmen, whatever their title and rank, were equal in the eye of the law. That all were to contribute, according to their circumstances, to the exigencies of the state. That they were all equally admissible to civ and military employments. That individual liberty is guaranteed. Profession of religion to be free. But the Catholic, Apostolic, and Roman religion to be that of the state. The ministers of the Catholic religion, and those of other religions, to receive salaries from the state. All property, any sacrifice of property for public service, to be indemnified; conscriptions to be abolished. The 2nd section relates to the forms of the government of the King, namely, That the person of the King was sacred. His members alone to be responsible. As supreme head of the state, the King to declare war, to make treaties of peace, alliance, and commerce, &c. The legislative power is collectively exercised by the King, the Chamber of Peers, and the Chamber of the Deputies of the departments. Every law to be freely discussed by the two Chambers. The Chambers to have a right to supplicate the King to propose a law. The King alone to sanction and promulgate. The civil list to be fixed for the whole reign, by the first legislature that assembles after the accession of the King. The 3d section related to the Chamber of Peers. If convoked by the King at the same time as the Chancellor of Deputies. The sessions to commence and finish at the same time. The King to nominate the peers; their number not to be limited. Peers to be adinitted at the age of twenty-five, and a deliberative voice at thirty. The Chancellor of France to preside in this assembly. Members of the Royal Family, and Princes of the Blood, to be peers by right, but not to have a deliberate voice until the age of twenty-five. The Princes not to be set in the Chamber, unless by an order from VOL. IL-38,

3 H