FKANCE, THE PKESS OF, IN 1868. 



285 



prehensions that the importunities of the re- 

 actionary party at the imperial court, which 

 was known to be bitterly hostile to the reforms 

 which the Emperor had granted, might induce 

 him not to redeem his promises, were constant- 

 ly gaining ground, although the semi-official 

 journals from time to time tried to reassure the 

 public by asserting that the delays in the pub- 

 lication of the draft of the new law arose solely 

 from the profound and protracted discussions 

 to which the examination of all the questions 

 bearing upon the subject had given rise in the 

 meetings of the imperial Cabinet and the Coun- 

 cil of State. They pointed also to the compar- 

 atively lenient course which the Minister of 

 the Interior, the Marquis de Laval ette, had been 

 pursuing toward the Paris papers since the pub- 

 lication of the imperial letter of January 19, 

 1867. 



At length, in the early part of January, 1868, 

 the Government submitted the new press law 

 to the Corps Legislatif. This law provided in 

 its first paragraph that the French press should 

 be free, but subjected it in its subsequent sec- 

 tions to so many oppressive restrictions that 

 the independent and liberal journals, with one 

 accord, pronounced it utterly unsatisfactory, 

 and even went so far as to declare that it was 

 very doubtful if the existing state of affairs was 

 not preferable to the condition in which the 

 new law would place the French press. While 

 the new law, it is true, put an end to the discre- 

 tionary power of the Minister of the Interior 

 and the prefects of the departments over the 

 political press, and abolished the system of au- 

 thorization for those who wished to start news- 

 papers or establish printing-offices, it proposed 

 no reduction of the burdensome caution-money, 

 lessened the still more burdensome stamp-tax 

 but very slightly, fixed the fines, which the 

 correctional tribunals were empowered to im- 

 pose upon editors, publishers, and printers, for 

 the most trifling press offences, at the most un- 

 heard-of rates, and added to the existing press 

 regime so many new and odious features, that 

 Emile de Girardin, editor-in-chief of LaLiberte, 

 indignantly pronounced the new law a " hate- 

 ful trap " (un piege odieux), and the first im- 

 pulse of all the opposition papers was to call 

 upon the representatives of their party in the 

 halls of the Corps L6gislatif to reject the law 

 in to to. 



The majority of the Corps Legislatif, on its 

 part, did not seem to be very anxious to pass 

 the new law. Largely composed as it was of 

 ultra-conservative members, it was seriously 

 dissatisfied with what few additional liberties 

 the new law granted to the press, especially 

 with the section which permitted every French- 

 man, of good repute and in the full possession 

 of his civil and political rights, to establish po- 

 litical journals without previous authorization 

 on the part of the Government. It was thought 

 that, in consequence of this paragraph, liberal 

 journals would spring up in all rural districts, 

 and by their influence secure the election of a 



great many opposition deputies in districts 

 then represented by conservative adherents of 

 the second empire. Many of the department 

 prefects added to the reluctance of thVmajor- 

 ity of the Corps Legislatif by their protests 

 against the new press law, which they asserted 

 in their reports to the Minister of the Interior 

 would give fresh vitality to the revolutionary 

 (i. e. anti-Bonapartist) element in the country, 

 and greatly lessen their influence over the elec- 

 toral body in the provincial districts. The 

 reactionary club of the so-called Arcadians, 

 embracing upward of one hundred members 

 of the Corps Legislatif, resolved at one time to 

 vote for the rejection of the entire law; and 

 the reactionists at the imperial court were in- 

 cessantly dinning into the ears of Napoleon III. 

 that the " revolutionists " would use the new 

 law as a powerful engine for overthrowing his 

 dynasty. 



In the mean time, however, the opposition 

 journals had thought better of the matter, and 

 deemed it advisable to accept the new law, 

 which was, after all, a slight progress toward 

 liberty; and when the committee, to which the 

 draft of the new law submitted by the Govern- 

 ment had been referred, after a very long de- 

 lay finally reported it back to the Corps Legis- 

 latif, they urged their political friends in the 

 Legislature to vote in such a manner as to se- 

 cure the adoption of the law, without regard 

 to its illiberal features. The amendments pro- 

 posed in the report of the committee added to 

 the oppressive character of the law. The non- 

 authorization clause in regard to the establish- 

 ment of new printing-offices, the reduction of 

 the stamp-tax, and other liberal features, had 

 been struck out from the drafts submitted by 

 the Government, and in their places had been 

 inserted paragraphs rendering the position of 

 political editors, correspondents, publishers, 

 and printers of newspapers, more precarious 

 and difficult than before. 



The debates on the press law in the Corps 

 LSgislatif were exceedingly stormy. The op- 

 position orators fought its oppressive para- 

 graphs step by step, but did not succeed in 

 wresting any concessions from the conservative 

 majority, and giving a more liberal character 

 to the important law. On the contrary, the 

 so-called Guilloutet amendment, which was 

 carried by a very large majority, in rendering 

 more stringent the responsibility of editors, re- 

 porters, and publishers, in regard to articles 

 written about the affairs of private persons, 

 added another most burdensome feature to it. 

 At the final vote on the law it was carried by 

 an overwhelming majority, only seven of the 

 Arcadians voting against it ; the majority of 

 the colleagues of the latter, yielding to the ur- 

 gent wishes of the Government, had voted for 

 the law. The Senate passed the law likewise, 

 though not without gloomy predictions on the 

 part of many of its reactionary members ; and 

 on the llth of May the law was promulgated. 

 The following circular, which M. Pinard, the 



