the caprice of an intendant; Napoleon left them to
that of the Minister. The same principle governed both, though its
consequences were more or less remote.

Appendix L

The immutability of the constitution of France is a necessary
consequence of the laws of that country. To begin with the most
important of all the laws, that which decides the order of succession to
the throne; what can be more immutable in its principle than a political
order founded upon the natural succession of father to son? In 1814,
Louis XVIII had established the perpetual law of hereditary succession
in favor of his own family. The individuals who regulated the
consequences of the Revolution of 1830 followed his example; they merely
established the perpetuity of the law in favor of another family. In
this respect they imitated the Chancellor Meaupou, who, when he erected
the new Parliament upon the ruins of the old, took care to declare in
the same ordinance that the rights of the new magistrates should be as
inalienable as those of their predecessors had been. The laws of 1830,
like those of 1814, point out no way of changing the constitution: and
it is evident that the ordinary means of legislation are insufficient
for this purpose. As the King, the Peers, and the Deputies, all derive
their authority from the constitution, these three powers united cannot
alter a law by virtue of which alone they govern. Out of the pale of the
constitution they are nothing: where, when, could they take their stand
to effect a change in its provisions? The alternative is clear: either
their efforts are powerless against the charter, which continues to
exist in spite of them, in which case they only reign in the name of the
charter; or they succeed in changing the charter, and then, the law by
which they existed being annulled, they themselves cease to exist.
By destroying the charter, they destroy themselves. This is much more
evident in the laws of 1830 than in those of 1814. In 1814, the royal
prerogative took its stand above and beyond the constitution; but in
1830, it was avowedly created by, and dependent on, the constitution. A
part, therefore, of the French constitution is immutable, because it is
united to the destiny of a family; and the body of the constitution is
equally immutable, because there appear to be no legal means of changing
it. These remarks are not applicable to England. That country having no
written constitution, who can assert w