On Civil Liberty and Self-Government
French Charter of 1830, declaration of the chamber of deputies.
19th Century Theodore Dwight Woolsey EnglishIf of the absolute majority of departments, the tenth part of their regularly formed primary assemblies demand a revision of the constitution, or an alteration of some of its articles; the legislative body is obliged to call together all primary assemblies of the republic, in order to ascertain whether a national convention shall be called.
The national convention is formed in like manner as the legislatures, and unites in itself the highest power.
It is occupied, as regards the constitution, only with those subjects which caused its being called together.
The French nation is the friend and natural ally of free nations.
It does not interfere with the affairs of government of other nations. It suffers no interference of other nations with its own.
It serves as a place of refuge for all who, on account of liberty, are banished from their native country.
These it refuses to deliver up to tyrants.
It concludes no peace with an enemy that holds possession of its territory.
The constitution guarantees to all Frenchmen equality, liberty, security, property, the public debt, free exercise of religion, general instruction, public assistance, absolute liberty of the press, the right of petition, the right to hold popular assemblies, and the enjoyment of all the rights of man.
The French republic respects loyalty, courage, age, filial love, misfortune. It places the constitution under the guaranty of all virtues.
The declaration of the rights of man and the constitution shall be engraven on tables, to be placed in the midst of the legislative body, and in public places.
The following is the charter of 1830, as I translated it in that year, for a work published in Boston, under the title of “Events in Paris during the 26th, 27th, 28th and 29th of July: translated from the French.”
This charter of August 8, 1830, is in substance the charter of Louis XVIII. with such changes as the chambers adopted in favor of liberty. The new articles, or the amendments of the old ones, are printed in italics, and the old readings or suppressed articles are given in notes: so that the paper exhibits both the charters.
The whole preamble of the ancient charter was suppressed, as containing the principle of concession and octroi (grant), incompatible with that of the acknowledgment of national sovereignty.
The following is the substitution of the preamble:
The chamber of deputies, taking into consideration the imperious necessity which results from the events of the 26th, 27th, 28th and 29th of July, and the following days; and from the situation in which France is placed in consequence of the violation of the constitutional charter:
Considering, moreover, that by this violation, and the heroic resistance of the citizens of Paris, his majesty Charles X., his royal highness Louis Antoine, dauphin, and all the members of the senior branch of the royal house, are leaving, at this moment, the French territory—
Declares that the throne is vacant de facto et de jure, and that it is necessary to fill it.
The chamber of deputies declares secondly, that according to the wish, and for the interest of the French people, the preamble of the constitutional charter is suppressed, as wounding the national dignity in appearing to grant to the French rights which essentially belong to them; and that the following articles of the same charter ought to be suppressed or modified in the following manner.
Louis Philippe, King of the French, to all to whom these presents shall come, greeting:
We have ordained and ordain, that the constitutional charter of 1814, as amended by the two chambers on the 7th August, and adopted by us on the 9th, be published anew in the following terms: