admit 'no balanced advantages, or diverging claims.' All the capacities, and energies, and habitudes of private life, are unrelentingly wrested to the production of force, for the subjugation of the globe, or, as coordinate with this object, for the aggrandizement of the reigning family. The changes of form in their government have occasioned no remission in this pursuit. It has always been spoken of among them with confidence and zeal. Events have recently brought it more into notice; and nothing now remains but to achieve the ultimate object, la grande pensée,' as it is emphatically styled in the cotéries of Paris. ‡ That our readers may the better understand our abstract of the laws on the Conscription, it is proper to premise, that France is divided into about 30 military governments, subject to a general of division and his staff, to which commissaries are attached as executive officers. The civil division consists of 122 departments; 24 of which have been acquired since the overthrow of the monarchy, exclusive of Tuscany, not included in any part of this statement. The departments are divided into districts or arrondissements, from 3 to 5 in number; the arrondissements into cantons, and the cantons into municipalities, amounting to about 55,000. Each department is governed by a prefect and his council, composed of a commissary of police, a mayor, and certain inspectors, denominated counsellors of prefecture. The district or arrondissement, by a subprefect and his council, of a similar for For the opinions of the CIVIL politicians of France, on the subject of Universal Monarchy, we refer the reader to Rousseau (Projet de paix perpetuelle), to Montesquieu (Esprit des lois, Liv. 9. c. 7.), and to Mably (Observations sur les Romains, Liv. 1. P. 2.) With their doctrines, he should compare the higher authority of a MILITARY statesman, Folard, one of the most amusing and instructive commentators on the Politics of Antiquity. For the edification of those who would wish to know what feeling, on this subject, has uniformly prevailed in the French metropolis, we shall extract a few passages from Folard's Observations on Polybius. On peut voir par tout ceque nous avons avancé sur la politique des Romains, que l'idée de la monarchie universelle n'est pas une illusion. Ils se virent les maitres du monde en très peu de temps, c'est à dire, dès qu'ils penserent à sẹ rendre puissans sur mer; car, sans cela, toute leur politique ne leur eût servi de rien. Je ne sais même s'ils eussent pu se maintenir sur terre Que ceci nous serve d'un pensez-y-bien. Cette politique est très digne de nos eloges; et d'être imitée par des princes ambitieux et guerriers, qui se fournissent d'une milice bien entretenue et bien disciplinée. On va loin avec cela. J'admire les Romains en-tout; car ce crime, dont on les accuse, de s'être frayés un chemin à la mo narchit mation. The cantons and municipalities are under the supervision of an administration, composed of the civil authorities, with a president at their head. A mayor, a commissary of police, and two officers of the government, styled adjuncts, are allotted to every division having a population above 5000 souls. * These several authorities are in strict subordination to each other, and at the controul of the prefects and subprefects; who, themselves, are charged with a weighty and inflexible responsibility as to the military levies. The Conscription was first published in the form of a general law by the Council of Antients in the year 1798, and has since undergone some slight modifications. + The directorial plan is attributed to Carnot, who, in the revolutionary language, is said to have organized victory in the French armies. Its author, who was enthusiastically devoted to the forms of antiquity, and still preserves, within the rays of the imperial purple, all the simplicity of antient manners, found his model in the constitution of the Roman Republic, which made every citizen a soldier before the age of forty-six,-in their annual levies, which admitted of no exception, and in the peremptory orders issued by their consuls to the magistrates of Italy, specifying the number of troops required, and the place of assemblage. By the law of the Directory, all Frenchmen are pronounced soldiers; and when the country is declared in danger, are liable to be summoned to its defence. In any other conjuncture, the wants of the army are relieved by the Conscription; and the requisite number of conscripts is determined by the Senate or Legislative Body, at the suggestion of the executive government. The law which limits the whole number, regulates, at the same time, the contingent of each department, proportionally to its population. Within eight days after publication, the prefect distributes this contingent among the districts, by the same rule; and the subprefect narchie universelle par tant de guerres injustes, peut fournir une très ample matiere d'éloge d'un prince qui entreprendra un semblable dessein avec les mêmes moyens et les mesures necessaires. On accuse Louis XIV d'avoir aspiré à la monarchie universelle; et moi je l'en loue. Cela eût reussi infalliblement, s'il eût toujours eu à la tête de ses armées, de ces hommes, qui semblent nés pour être ensemble la terreur et l'admiration de la terre. Avec ce secours, il eût sans difficulté fait la conquête de toute l'Europe. Il me seroit très aisé de le prouver,' &c. (Observ. T. 2. ch. 18.) *Peuchet, Statistique de la France, 1807. + The Requisition' which preceded this system, was of a charac ter still more arbitrary. Mr Burke entitles it, A Sweeping Law of Unprecedented Despotism.? subprefect among the cantons and municipalities. All Frenchmen between the full age of twenty and twenty-five complete, are liable to the conscription. They are each year thrown into five classes; the first of which, consists of those who have completed their twentieth year on the 1st Vendemaire, or 16th September preceding; the second of those who, at the same period, have terminated their twenty-first year, and so on, in the order of seniority. Thus, the conscript, who has attained the full age of twenty-five, remains liable, until the month and day just mentioned. The municipal administrations are bound to prepare lists. framed from the registers of births, and from common notoriety, which particularize the name, domicile, stature, &c. of all the individuals subject to the conscription, within their jurisdiction. The same individuals are also bound to enrol themselves, with a similar specification, at the office of the municipality, as soon as the law is published. Both lists are then transmitted to the prefects, who are responsible for their accuracy, and who immediately consign them over to the minister of war. * The con Eight days are allotted to the preparation of the lists. scripts are then assembled in each canton, and examined by the administration, or by a special commission, created ad hoc by the prefect. The merits of all pleas of exemption are scrutinized at these meetings. Such as plead infirmities, if able to attend, are examined on the spot; and if not, are visited at their dwellings by the inspectors and health-officers. The latter, generally physicians in the army, are not selected until the moment of examination; and, to obviate collusion, must belong to a district different from that of the conscript. The final decision of all cases of exemption, is referred to a commission of higher resort, composed of the prefect, the general officers and commissaries of the department. When these claims are disposed of, lists are formed of those who are adjudged competent to serve, whether present or absent; and the subprefect then proceeds to the drawing,' or designation by lot, of such as are to constitute the quota of the district. Tickets regularly numbered to the amount of the names on the list, are publicly deposited in an urn, and indiscriminately drawn out by the conscripts or their friends. The lot falls upon those who draw the numbers below the amount of the quota. The higher numbers drawn by the rest are annexed to their names, in order that they may be forthcoming in their order, should any casualty disable their predecessors. Absentees not presenting them selves *Two brigades of Gendarmerie usually attend. This is a body of military having the same functions as our constables, and abott 16,000 in number.-Peuchet. selves within a month after the drawing, are declared refractory, proclaimed throughout the Empire, and pursued as deserters. These are the conscripts of the active service.' But besides these, the law requires an equal number, to form what is termed, in contradistinction, the conscription of the reserve. The members of the reserve are nominated, with the same formalities, to march only in cases of emergency; are regularly organized, and carefully disciplined, within their own department, from which they are not suffered to absent themselves. A third body is then created, of supplemental conscripts, equal in number to one fourth of the whole contingent, and destined to fill up the vacancies which may be occasioned before junction at head-quarters, by death, desertion, or other causes. If the supplement should not be adequate to this purpose, the reserve supplies its place; and at all events no deficiency is permitted, as each canton is accountable for its full assessment. No Frenchman under the age of thirty can travel through the empire, or hold any situation under government, or serve in any public office, unless he can produce a certificate, duly authenticated, attesting that he has discharged his liability to the conscription. All the authorities are bound in solidum, and under the severest sanctions, to observe that the conscripts are assembled, reviewed and dismissed to their destination without delay. They are marched, under an escort of gendarmerie, and in bodies strictly limited to the number of one hundred, to various quarters or depôts throughout the empire, and there first supplied with arms and clothing. They are never permitted to exist in separate battalions, but are individually (nominativement) draughted into, or scattered through, distinct corps of the preexisting army, to which they are marched in exceedingly small detachments, and sometimes from an astonishing distance. Dispensations are given by the higher military tribunal of the prefect; and are provisional or definitive, according to the nature of the disability pleaded. For all diseases pronounced cureable, the discharge is but temporary. The infirmities which tend to disqualify, are discriminated with the nicest care, and accompanied by copious scientific explanations. The minister of war reviews the decisions of this tribunal; and if a suspicion of partiality arise, orders the medical inquiry to be renewed. The party released pays an indemnity to the government, the amount of which is proportioned, by the prefect, to his taxes, or those of his parents. No exceptions were originally allowed to the law of active service;' but at this moment, the eldest brother of an orphan family, the only son of a widow, or of a labourer above the age of seventy, or one who has a brother in the active service, may, may, on soliciting the indulgence, be transferred to the reserve. The same privilege is accorded to those who have taken the order of subdeacon in the ecclesiastical seminaries. Parents continue responsible for their absent children, until they can produce an official attestation of their death. * The Directory admitted of no substitution; but the severity of this principle is now relaxed in favour of such as are adjudged incapable of sustaining the fatigues of war,' or, whose labours and studies are deemed more useful to the state than their military service.' Proxies are therefore received only ad libi tum; not as a matter of right; and never without a special mandate from the Minister of War. The conscript furnishes a sum of about 51. (100 francs) for the equipment of his substitute, who must be between the age of twenty-five and forty, of the middle size at least, of a robust constitution, of a good character certified by his municipality, and himself beyond the reach of the conseription laws. He bears the surname of his principal, in order that the latter may be known and compelled to march, should his proxy desert, or be lost from any other cause than death, or wounds received in battle within the term of two years. All the enacting clauses of this system are fortified by heavy denunciations against public functionaries, parents, or others who contribute to defeat or retard its operation. Any health-officer or other functionary convicted of furnishing a false certificate of infirmity, &c. is subjected to five years imprisonment in irons, All * We find, on the subject of dispensation, two decrees which should be noted. One, p. 100, of the year ninety-nine, by which all workmen engaged in the manufacture of arms and of gunpowder, or employed in the national magazines of saltpetre, &c. are exempted; and another, p. 104, of the year 1802, enacting, that congés equal in number to the one fourth of the whole body of soldiers and subalterns in the army, should be given to such as had served irreproachably during the whole war, or during five campaigns, as soon as they could be replaced by new recruits. The inspector charged with the distribution of these congés, is enjoined, however, to remind the soldiers how much they are in the wrong to abandon the first of professions (le premier des etats). In the year ninety-eight, the law was repealed which exempted married persons from the con scription. Depere, and with him Malthus, attributes the increased proportion of births in the country, anterior to that period, to pres mature marriages, to avoid the military levies. (Malthus, b. 2. c. 6.) Les mariages prematurés et multipliés par la crainte des loix miliz taires,' are particularly noticed in the statistical reports of the prefects for the year eight. |