754 
pardon. How often, these twelve 
years past, has that power been im- 
plored! How many nfortunates 
have fallen the victims of an intlex:- 
ble sternness, with which wise men 
reproached our laws! How many 
criminals have been acquitted through 
2 false indulgence, because our pu- 
nishments were too severe. 
A senatus consultum has restored 
to the people the exercise of those 
rights, which the constituent assem- 
bly had acknowledged; but it has 
restored them surrounded with pre- 
cautions, which preserve the people 
from errors or precipitation in their 
choice; with precautions, which 
guard the influence of property, and 
the preponderance of enlightened 
talents. 
Should the first magistracy become 
vacant, the duties and the proceed- 
ings of the senate are traced out 
for such an emergency: forms of 
certain operation, guide the wisdom 
and the liberty of their choice ; and 
the quick decision of that choice 
deprives ambition of the means of 
conspiring, and anarchy the means 
of destroying. 
The cement of time will every day 
consolidate, more and more, this 
tutelary institution. It will be not 
only the term of all disquietudes, 
and the object of all hopes, but 
likewise the fairest recompences that 
can be held out to public services 
and public virtues. 
Justice embraces all tribunals with 
one common bond, ‘They have 
each their subordinate station and 
their censor: they are always free 
in the exercise of their funttions ; 
always independent of power, but 
never independent of the laws. 
The privilege of granting pardon, 
when the interest of the republic re- 
quires it, or when circumstances 
3 
ANNUAL REGISTER, 1803. 
prescribe indulgence, is entrusted t 
the hands of the first magistrate ; 
but it is only confided to him under 
the guard of justice itself; he is to 
exercise it only under the eyes of a 
council, and after having consulted | 
the severe oracles of the law. 
If institutions may be appreciated 
by their effects, never was any ins 
stitution more important in its result | 
than the organic senatus consultum. 
From that moment the French peo- 
ple began to confide in their desti- 
ny; property began to resume its 
former value, and speculations of 
distant view to be multiplied ; until 
that moment, every thing seemed to 
float in uncertainty. The present 
moment was cherished, the next was 
a subject of alarm, and the enemies 
of the country continued to cherish 
hopes. Since that moment, they 
are reduced to impotence and de- 
testation. 
The island of Elba has been ceded 
to France; that acquisition gives 
her a mild and industrious people ; 
two fine ports, a productive and 
precious mine: but, being separate@ 
from France, it could not be intis’ 
mately united with any of her de- 
partments, or subjected to the regu. 
lations of a common administration, 
Principles have been made to bend 
to the necessity of circumstances 5 
exceptions have been established for 
the island of Elba, which its posi- 
tion, and the public interest, pre« 
seribed. 
The abdication of the sovereign, 
the will of the people, and the ne. 
cessity of existing circumstances, 
had placed Piedmont under the 
power of France. Amidst the na- 
tions that surrounded it, with the 
elements that composed its popula- 
tion, Piedmont was unable to sup- 
port either the weight of its own 
indee 
