Dorfetfl. James Frampton, of Suflex. Thomas Richardson, of Moreton, efq Derbyfh. Sacheverell Pole, of Radbourn, efq. Effex. Staines Chamberlayne, of Hatfield Broad Oak, esq Gloucefterfh Chr. Codrington, of Doddington, efq. Herts. Geo. Will. Prefcott, of Theobalds, efq. Hereford. J. Keyfall, of Bourton Court, efq. Kent George Norman, of Brom ley common, efq. Leiceft. J. Noon, of Bourton on the Woulds, efq. Lincoln. Rich. Ellifon, of Sudbroke Holme, efq. Monmouth/h. J. Hanbury Wil- Rutland. Tho. Barfoot, of Ayfton, efq. Shroph. John Corbett, of Sunden, efq. Somerfetfh. Samuel Bailward, of Horfington, efq. Stafford. G. Molineux, of Wolverhampton, efq. Suffolk George Doughty, of Leifton, efq. Southampton. Sir George Ivefon Tapps, of Hinton Admiral, bart. Surrey J. Hodidon Durand, of Carshalton, efq. Warminghurst, efq. Warwick/h. Evelyn Shirley, of Eatington, efq. Worcestersh. Samuel Steward, of Stone, efq. Wilts. J Gaisford, of Westwood and Ilford, efq. York/h. Richard Henry Beaumont, of Whitley, efq. Anglefea. Evan Lloyd, of Maes y Porth, efq. Carnarvon. Wm. Owen, of Pencraig, efq. Merioneth. Will. J. Lenthal, of Denbighsh. Edw. Eyton, of Eyton Flint. Richard Pulefton, of Emrall, efq. SHERIFF appointed by his Royal Highnefs the Prince of Wales for the Year 1793. Cornwall. Fr. Glanville, of Catch-french, efq. APPENDIX [76] APPENDIX to the CHRONICLE. ABSTRACT OF THE NEW CONSTI TUTION OF FRANCE. [The tendency of this important code cannot be too generally known; but, as it is too long to be given here in detail, we prefent the following abftract for the information of the general reader.] HE object, it begins, of all THE union of men in fociety, being the maintaining of natural, civil, and political, rights, these rights ought to be the bafis of the focial compact. The acknowledgment and declaration of them ought to precede the conftitution which affures the guarantee of them. (Then follows the declaration of the natural, political, and civil, rights of man.) After the recognition of thefe rights, on which the government is founded, the French nation is declared to form one indivitible republic. The divifion into departments is retained; each department is divided into communes or diftricts, and each commune into municipal fections and primary affemblies. Primary Affemblies. In the primary affemblies, every man aged twenty-one years has a right to vote, provided that his name is infcribed on the civic table, and that he thall have re-. fided one year in France. The primary affemblies fhall be fo diftributed in each department, that none thall confift of less than four hundred and nine, or more than nine hundred members; in cach of these a felect committee is to be chofen by ballot, confifting of as many members as there are fifties of citizens in the affembly. In this committee, he who has the majority of votes fhall be prefident of the affembly; the three next on the lift shall be secretaries. The duty of the felect committee is to keep the records, and to arrange and fubmit the business to the affembly, All elections are to be carried on in thofe affemblies. The intermediate, or electorial, affemblies, have no place in this code. The elections are to be made by what is called a double fcrutiny; each gives a figned lift of candidates equal to the number of places to be filled. Thefe bulletins, or lifts, of prefentation, as they are termed, are fent to the adminiftration of each de. partment. They felect a triple number of thofe candidates who have moft votes, which from these are sent back to the primary affemblies; a definitive definitive election is made, each citizen giving in, as before, a figned lift of the candidates to whom he gives his preference. In the deliberations of thefe affemblies, the fame mode is to be followed as in the elections. The queftion is to be shaped fo as to be anfwered by a fimple negative or affirmative. On the day appointed for the decision, each citizen gives in a bulletin, or flip of paper, infcribed with his name, and the word yes or no. Thefe are to be tranfmitted from the district to the department where the general refult is to be afcertained Adminiftrative Bodies. There fhall be in each depart. ment an administrative council of eighteen members; and, in each district, an adminftration of twelve members, with fubordinate agencies. The former are to controul the revenue, and to correfpond with the executive government. The inferior adminiftrations are not as yet organized. The adminiftrators are to be elected in the primary affemblies, and the half renewed every two years. Executive Council. I. The executive council of the republic fhall be compofed of feveral general agents or minifters, and a fecretary. II. There thall be, 1. A minifter of legiflation. 3. A minifter for foreign affairs. 4. A minitter of public contributions. 5. A minifter of the marine. 6 A minister of agriculture, Commerce, and manufactures. 7. A minifter of works, aids, public eftablishments, and arts. III. Each of the minifters fhall alternately prefide in the executive council, and the prefident shall be changed every fifteen days.-To this council it belongs to execute all the laws and all the decrees paffed by the legislative body. The minifters are to be chofen in the primary atfemblies, and in the manner before defcribed. Eight fuppléans, or fubftitutes, are to be chofen at the same time. The members of the council are to be chofen for two years. The half thall be renewed every year; but they may be re-elected."" The executive council are accountable to, and cannot be members of, the legislative body. They have no controul over the national treafury, which is to be directed by three commiffioners appointed for that purpose, and elected in the fame manner. Two hundred members are to be chofen in the legiflative body, of whom a jury of feven is to audit each account. Legislative Rody. The legiilative body is to confift of one chamber, and to be renewed annually, by election in the manner before mentioned. The number of deputies to be fent from each department is to be newly fixed every ten years, aċcording to the increase or decrease of the population. The members of the legislative body shall not at any time be profecuted, impeached, or tried for any thing which they may have faid or written in the exercife of their functions. No propofition fhall pass into 3 law, unleis it be tirit propofed in the the affembly, then referred to a committee of thirteen, and, after the interval of a fortnight, if the time fhould permit, re-debated in the affembly. Cenforfhip of the People. Under this head it is propofed, that any citizen fhall have the right of convoking the primary affembly where he refides, to confider of the enactment of a new, or the repeal of an exifting law. If they agree to the propofition, they are to addrefs the people of other affem blies, and the with of the department, thus collected, is to be tranfmitted to and decided upon by the members of the legislative body. The citizens fhall likewife have the right to demand an inquiry into the conduct of public functionaries, in cafe of an abuse of power and violations of the law.. A Convention. A convention is to be fummoned whenever any change is to be made in the legislative body. In the twentieth year after paffing of the conftitutional code, a convention fhall be called to revise and improve. The convention cannot hold its fittings within fifty leagues of the legislative body. It fhall be formed of two members from each depart ment. Adminiftration of Justice. In the civil as well as the cri minal code, the trial by jury is to be eftablifhed. The jurors as well as judges are to be elected. The former to be taken one from every hundred citizens. The jury to confift of a director, a réporter, a national commiffioner, and the number of jurymen to be specified. The punishment of death is abolifhed for all private offences. There are to be two juries, whofe functions correfpond with thofe of the grand and petty juries in the English conflitution." pointed to travel at fixed periods, Judicial cenfors are to be apand to try all queftions of appeal. A national jury, confifting of three jurors from each department, is to try all questions of high treafon. The arreft and detention of an individual are qualified by a number of minute regulations, highly favourable to perfonal liberty. The liberty of the prefs is declared to be indefinite. None can be judged either civilly or criminally, on account of writ ings printed or published, except it thall have been recognized and declared by a jury, 1ft. whether there is any criminality in the writing denounced; 2dly, whether the perfon profecuted is guilty of it. Public Force. The forces of the republic are placed under the controul of the executive council. The public force is declared to be effentially obedient, as no armed body can deliberate. The commander's in chief are to have annual and revocable commiflion from the executive council. tional guards fhall be elected anThe commanders of all the nanually by the citizens in each district. Public Contributions. The public contributions ought never to exceed the exigencies of the ftate. There There cannot be eftablished any contribution, which by its nature or by its mode of exaction ought to be injurious to the free difpofal of property, to the progrefs of induftry and of commerce, to the circulation of capitals, or might produce the violation of the rights recognized and declared by the conftitution. The amount fhall be fixed each year by the legislative body, and cannot exceed that term. They are to be published annually. Relation to Foreign Powers. The French will only take up arms for the fake of their liberty. It renounces all accellion of territory, unless by the with, freely expreffed of its inhabitants. The declaration of war fhall be made by the legiflative body; treaties of peace, commerce, and alliance, fhall be made by the executive council, and ratified by the legiflative body, &c. Prefented by the members forming the committee of conftitution. Barrere, Briffot, Condorcet, The Epiftle from the Yearly Meeting, held in London, by adjournments, from the 20th to the 28th of the Fifth Month, 1793, inclufire, to the Quarterly and Monthly Meetings of Friends in Great Britain, Ireland, aud elsewhere. "Dear Friends, E falute you in gofpel ligious fociety hath produced: for, although we at this time may thankfully acknowledge that we have not found things in to neglected a condition as in fome former years; and fome increafing concern appears to have invefted the minds of many brethren for the fupport of our teftimonies; yet much remains to be done, and much laborious exercife of fpirit to be patiently endured, before our Sion can become, fo eminently as we truft fhe is defigned to be, the praife of nations. Friends! may every one of you, who may read or hear this our tender falutation, clofely and effectually confider in what inftance, and to what degree, he obstructs, in his practice, the accomplishment of a defign fo gracious. Our meeting hath been large, and, through the mercy of our Holy Head and High Prief, hath been favoured with the renewed affiftance of his fpirit; and, although divers matters have occurred which have been fubjects of confiderable difcuffion, we have afreth experienced the prevalence of chriftian condefcenfion. The account of fufferings brought in this year amount, in Great Britain, to fix thoufand and eighty pounds, and, in Ireland, to one thoufand fix hundred and twentynine pounds. The largest part, as ufual, is for thofe ecclefiaftical demands with which we fcruple actively to comply, as being the fupport of a minitiry formed by the will of man; and not only inefficacious in combating the defires of the carnal mind, (which, faith the holy fcripture, is at enmity with WE you in gree-Gud,) but too generally made sub of that humility, which a clofe in fpection into the state of our re-' fervient in its purposes. |