288 



FRANCE, THE PEESS OF, IN 1868. 



establishing the new official journal, which 

 was to hear the name Moniteur Officiel. M. 

 Dalloz appealed to the courts to enjoin the 

 Minister of State from applying the name 

 Moniteur to the new paper, and a permanent 

 injunction to this effect was granted, where- 

 upon M. Kouher decreed that the new Govern- 

 ment paper should he entitled Journal Officiel 

 de V Empire Francais; the offer of M. Dalloz 

 to let the Government use the name Moniteur 

 upon the payment of 2,800,000 francs having 

 been previously rejected. The Moniteur Uni- 

 versel, which, it is believed, is now contrelled 

 by the princes of the Orleans dynasty, will be 

 published, as heretofore, twice a day. 



The list of press trials in France from the 

 promulgation of the law of May 11, 1868, 

 down to the 31st of December, 1868, shows 

 that the defendants were convicted in sixty- 

 four cases, and that they were sentenced to 

 undergo terms of imprisonment amounting in 

 the aggregate to sixty-six months, and to pay 

 fines footing up to 121,957 francs. The two 

 most severe sentences were those passed upon 

 Henri Rochefort, who was condemned to be 

 imprisoned for twenty-nine months, and fined 

 26,000 francs. 



According to the official reports published 

 on the 15th of October, 1868, 1,668 journals 

 are published in the French empire. Paris 

 has 69 political and V10 non-political journals. 

 The Siecle, the organ of the Democratic 

 bourgeoisie, has still the largest circulation of 

 any political paper in France, its daily sales 

 being rarely less than 42,000 copies. Its ad- 

 vertising receipts are upward of nine hundred 

 thousand francs. In the autumn of 1868 it 

 sustained a heavy loss in the death of its 

 principal stockholder and managing editor, M. 

 Havin, to whose judicious management the 

 Sidcle is indebted for much of its prosperity. 

 Louts Jourdan remains the leading editor. The 

 Temps, another organ of the moderate democ- 

 racy, circulates about ten thousand copies, 

 and is noted for the great ability of its editorial 

 staff, which embraces some of the most illustri- 

 ous names of French journalism. The Avenir 

 National, advocating the principles of the 

 more advanced wing of the Democratic party, 

 had a circulation of eight thousand copies on 

 the 1st of July, 1868, which its publishers 

 claim has been nearly doubled in November 

 and December. It has sustained heavy losses 

 in consequence of repeated prosecutions on 

 the part of the Government. Its managing 

 editor is M. A. Peyrat. The Journal des De- 

 late, the organ of the liberal Orleanists, has a 

 circulation of nine thousand copies. It maintains 

 its high reputation for literary ability, Prevost- 

 Paradol, Edouard Laboulaye, Michel Chevalier, 

 Jules Janin, and other eminent writers being 

 among its editors and contributors. La Li- 

 oerte, Emil de Girardin's journal, claims the 

 largest circulation next to the Sitcle. At the 

 beginning of 1868 it had upward of thirty 

 thousand subscribers, but it is said to have 



lost over ten thousand of them in the course 

 of the year. Its advertising receipts are over 

 eight hundred thousand francs a year. Le 

 Figaro, Villemessant's paper, a gossipy, but 

 able and brilliant sheet, has also a very large 

 circulation. The rival of the Figaro is the 

 Gaulois, which was started in the spring of 

 1868 and acquired great popularity by the 

 articles of Edmond About and the enterprise 

 it displayed in obtaining early and reliable 

 news about the Spanish revolution. In Novem- 

 ber M. Henri de Pene, one of the founders of 

 the Gaulois, withdrew from that journal and 

 established a similar one, called Paris, which 

 has as yet not obtained a very marked success. 

 The Opinion Nationale, A. Gu6roult's paper, 

 an advocate of moderate democratic principles, 

 and not entirely hostile to the Second Empire, 

 lost in 1868 much of its former popularity, 

 its circulation having dwindled down in the 

 course of the year from sixteen thousand cop- 

 ies to less than half that number. 



The ultramontane and legitimist papers, the 

 Gazette de France, the Union, the Monde, and 

 the Uhivers, have only between three and six 

 thousand subscribers each. Though edited 

 with much ability, they are losing concerns, 

 and are kept alive only by liberal contributions 

 from wealthy members of their respective par- 

 ties. 



The Patrie and the Constitutionnel are the 

 two leading semi-official papers. The Constitu- 

 tionnel, with a circulation of ten thousand cop- 

 ies, is edited by M. Henri Baudrillart, the dis- 

 tinguished political economist, and Robert 

 Mitchell, the son of an American, but natural- 

 ized in France. The Patrie, with a circula- 

 tion of fourteen thousand copies, is now under 

 the editorial control of Clement Duvernois, 

 heretofore managing editor of the Epoque, a 

 paper representing the principles of the liberal 

 wing of the Bonapartists, but of very limited 

 circulation. Ernest Dr6olle, for many years 

 the leading writer on the staff of the Patrie, 

 was forced in October to leave that journal in 

 consequence of a quarrel between two members 

 of the imperial Cabinet, and he issued in No- 

 vember the first number of a new semi-official 

 paper, named Le Public, which met with but 

 very little success. The Etendard, with be- 

 tween three and four thousand subscribers, is 

 edited by M. Aug. Yitu. The France, the or- 

 gan of the Vicomte de Lagu&ronniere, has six 

 thousand subscribers ; and the Pays, edited by 

 Granier and Paul de Cassagnac, sells only be- 

 tween 800 and 1,000 copies daily, and is con- 

 sidered the most unpopular paper in.. France.' 

 The Cassagnacs pay to the owners of the Pays 

 fifty thousand francs a year, and in return re- 

 ceive all the money paid in for subscriptions 

 and advertisements. La Presse, now under 

 the control of Mires, the famous banker, circu- 

 lates between 5,000 and 8,000 copies. 



Among the first-class political weeklies es- 

 tablished in Paris since the promulgation of 

 the new press law, the Electeur, the organ of 



