London, Wednesday, July 1...
The French papers of Sunday, which arrived last night, contain a judicial decision extremely important in the pre- sent state of French politics, aud in the present position of the French Cabinet-namely, one which relates to a journal prosecuted on the law of tendency. The Courier Franeai*v was last year brought before the Royal Court on a charge of baving, in more than a hundred articles, given utterance to sentiments whose tendency was subversive of legitimate government. These articles were chiefly directed against the policy of the Spanish war, and the principles of national interference professed by the Holy Alliance. It was brought as an unpardonable offence against the journal, that it had spoken with levity of the Army of the Faith, when that army was described as rebels by the Allied Go- vernment, which it was endeavouring to subvert; and had praised the Constitutional Government of Spain at the time 'when that Government had an Ambassador at the Court of the Tuileries. The whole charge, in fact, was made up of absurdities and inconsistencies like these, not alleged to be contained in specific articles, but collected from a long series of papers filled with foreign and domestwc news, editorial remarks, and political discussion. The KING'S law officer put a twelvemonth's publication of the Courier into his alembick, and baving thrown in along with itI his own opinions, prejudices, and fabrications, applied heat to the mass, and distilled over the genuine spirit of jacobinism and disorder. The Court adopted the charge, and sus- pended the journal for a fortnight. Another suspension,- and suppression would have followed. Accordingly, the same law bfficer commenced a new process, and required the suspension of the Courier for a longer period. The charges were nearly the same as before, afid embraced the contioued series of the journal, from the date of its former 8iaiatfoato'tW Qrtnmdnee hie1t df itprcebet trial: 1tntho to.say, the 2 Jd wfio comnposedthe solemn assembly of t.herefbrebe pro*ounced; and if thecase is to be considered of a criminal or c'orreetional nature, the defendant must be acquitted.'' In civilcases, wliare the Royal Court'is equally divided, the pracetice-is to refer the decision to a so. lemu sitting, comiosl of -the original Jutdges and others takenfr,om another Court ; but 'in the present sn- stance the shting' was already a solemn one, as the tribunal was composed of Judges from three Cham- bers. When the division of opinion happens as to the result of a criminal or correctional trial, the defendant is immediately acquitted; and surely the suspension of a journal, and the confiscation of its property, on the allega- tion that it preaches doctrines subyersive of Government and religion, must be considered as belonging to this class of eases. It will be scen by a paragraph which we quote from the Reoile, that the public prosecutor is now flying at higher game, and is about 'to proceed against the production of an Archbiahop and a Cardinal, wlhose s.cnt menta we alluded to b A,or1day. in the C4lanmber ef Deputies no- thing new or interesting occurred. (Frorm the Eloik, dated Mlonday, July 12.) " ST. CLOUD, JULY 11. "The King having heard mass in h1t apartments, received the great Offlicers of State, the Ambassadors, the Ministers, reers of France, Dep4tjes, and a great number of fi ctjQnarves both civil and mllitary. " BAYONNE, JULY 4. " The fair of Pampeluna attracting at this moment a great con- course of people to that city, some French troops have marched from Vittoria to reinforce the garrison of Pampeluna during the fair; though perfect tranquillity prevails in that city and throughout Navarre, we cannot but applaud this measare. s The 2d Swiss regiment is nIow here. The gprdes-du-corps, who have left Madrid will arrive here on the 24th of this month. "PARIS, JULY 11. "The Etoile, quotingsome extracts from the English papers rela- tive to the afsirs of Portugal, adds by way of note- " 'I t is true that Portugal had asked troopS of England, but it seems to us, tbat, except this fact, there is notling certain in all that the English journals have been saying for some days uast. As for 8,000 Hanoverian troops, we believe it would not know where to find them,' " The Monitcar of Sunday contains the requisition of the Attor- ney-General in the tribunal of theSeine,against the responsible editor of the Quotidienne, for having publisbed in No. 190, of the 8th of July, page 2, col. 2, an article beginning with these words- ' Copie, i. e., Copy of a letter from Monseigaeur the Arch- b.shop, &c.,' and ending with these-Commne non avennzs agreez, cc.; referring to the declaration of the French dergy, presented by them in 1682, to Louis XIV., and the King's edict of Mlarch the same year; and to articles of various laws. "The Attorney-General demands that the editor shall be sum- moned toappear to be condenmned for having published this article, which has the character of incitement to disobedience to the laws. The declaration of the clergy (of 1682) is annexed." LONDON, WBDAESDAY, JULY 14, 1824.