PRINCIPLE AND NO PRINCIPLE. 377 



inspired by Laffitte, and Benjamin Constant, who wrote and caused 

 to be published in his journal that famous leading article for which 

 the "National'' was prosecuted ex-qfficio; and as Thiers had nei- 

 ther the manliness nor the generosity of fathering his own child, who 

 had predicted the approaching downfal of the Bourbons and the 

 triumph of the popular party, that prosecution caused the ruin and 

 suicide of the only responsible person, the innocent and unfortunate 

 publisher Chatelain. 



On the 26th July, 1830, when the arbitrary ordinances of Charles 

 X. made their appearance in the Moniteur, the sensible and reflective 

 Parisian public of all classes and of all parties were almost thunder- 

 struck, and the proprietors and conductors of the liberal periodicals, 

 whose private interest and welfare were not only paralysed, but al- 

 most annihilated by the unconstitutional restrictions imposed upon the 

 press by the new laws, were suddenly thrown into a state bordering 

 on madness ; consequently they soon assembled in the committees of 

 their respective journals, to consult with their legal advisers on the 

 best plan to be adopted in so dreadful a crisis. But when it was 

 known that M. Dupin, the present president of the chamber of depu- 

 ties, the best legal authority of France, had declared himself in favour 

 of the legality of the ordinances of Charles X., and had advised his 

 clients to submit to the new laws, the Debats, the Quotidienne, the 

 Drapeau Blanc, the Courier d'Europe, the Avenir, the Gazette de 

 France, and the Constitutionnel, decided to make their submission, and 

 to send to obtain from M. de Peyronnet, the permission of continuing 

 their periodicals according to the new regulations of the press. 



However the junior journals, such as the National, the Temps, the 

 Tribune, the Globe, the Journal de Paris, the Corsaire, the Figaro, 

 and the Pandore, remained still undecided, and as Evariste Dumoulin 

 and Couchois Lemaire, two of the fourteen share-holders of the 

 Constitutionel, had protested against the decision of their colleagues, 

 Armand Carrel composed a protest against the illegality of the ordi- 

 nances of Charles X., and M. Laffitte having ordered Theirs to join 

 his colleague on that subject, in the evening of the 26th of July, the 

 offices of the National became the rendezvous of the dissentient poli- 

 tical writers, and the protest of Carrel, having been examined and 

 approved of, was signed by 47 of the youngest conductors of the 

 Parisian press, and was printed and published by the National. 



On the morning of the 27th, ,'the cunning Thiers having been 

 informed that the prefect of police, Mangin, had received official in- 

 structions of seizing the presses of the dissentient journals, and of 

 arresting all those who had dared to sign the protest, all of a sudden 

 disappeared from the scene of action, and some say that he repaired 

 to the Chateau of Neuilly to be at the elbow of the duke of Orleans, 

 and others assert that he concealed himself in the house of M. Berard, 

 where, after the three glorious days, the present improvised charter 

 was concocted. The fact is that during the struggle between the 

 people and the army Thiers deserted his editorial post, which was 

 however nobly and courageously maintained by Carrel, who not 

 only with his pen and advice, but also with his personal bravery, 

 example, and skill, led the people during the fight, and was one of 



