The Express.
London, England, 1859-09-19 00:00:00

THE FRENCH

AND THE
LIBERTY OF THE PRESS.

The Moniresor of yesterday oostaine the following:
" Several newspapers have alluded to a decree
which it was supposed would appear to modify the
laws of the prem. This news is without any foun-
dation. In Frames the pram is free to discuss all the
acts of the government, sad by so doing enlighten
the public mind. Certain papers, in becoming with-
out their knowledge the organs of hostile parties,
claim a larger amount of freedom, which would have
no other object than facilitating their attack. against
the constitution and the fundamental laws of social
order.

The Government of the Emperor will not deviate
front the established system, which, in allowing •
Reid wailleisatly large for discussion, controversy, and
•aa)yi, recants on the other hand the disastrous
effects of blesbood, calumny, and error."

PAIIIB, Sur. 19.
To-day the Momiteur publishes a circular
of the Minister of the Interior, addressed to the
Prefects, and dated Bepternbee 18, concerning the
regime of the press.
The Minister holds it necessary to remind the
Prefects of the principle upon which the late
decree concerning the effect of the warnings given
to newspapers was founded. He says the 'decree of
the 17th of February, 1852, is not a law enacted on
account of a particular crisis, and which would not
be available during a time of peace and itranquillity.
Like every political law, this one is also capable of
improvement, but the principles of the law are
closely connected with the restoration of authority
in France, and with the creation of unity of power,
based on universal suffrage. The government does
not fear the discussion of its acts in a loyal spirit,
neither does it fear any attacks, but the general
welfare of the people imposed upon the government
the obligation of not petting aside lawful arms,
which are guarantees and not obstructions to
the right of publication of one's opinion, which
could not be taken away from an enlightened people
like the French. This right is not to be confounded
with the exercise of the liberty of the press by
means of newspapers. If the government reserves
to itself the right to punish abuses, it does not in-
terfere with the libertyof expressing one's thoughts,
and will retain those restrictions only which are re-
quired, out of respect for the constitution, the
legitimacy of the imperial dynasty, and the interest
of order, morality, and religion. The government
is far from imposing • servile approbation of its
measures, it will always tolerate opposition in a
serious spirit, and will not confound the right of con-
trol with a systematic opposition and premeditated
ill-will. The government will be only too glad to
be enlightened itself, by fair criticism and discus-
sion, but will not permit society to be troubled by
culpable excitation or hostile passions.

The Press* of yesterday evening contains the fol-
lowing ahem remarks :
The Monitor, hoe spoken : there Ia to be no new decree
with respect to the press : the legislation of 1852 will remain
so it te: the journele bare sufficient liberty to &muss
the acts of the government sad to enlighten public
opinion. those who require a greater liberty of the
prose are the involuntary organs of hostile parties, who de•
sue to upset the constitution and the fundamental laws of
aortal order. This is what the Mosher addressee to ilia
journals. We shall not inquire whether too much impor-
tante is not attribated to the prom, and to these
hostile parries, in supposing that the first could
supply the second with a power which would
enable them to aim at such results. If we were speeldng on

behalf of the government we should not bane reinceeetda it

as being et the mercy of a few strokes of the pen ; but this
Weston is not ours, and the Moniker best know, what it
says, and what it wishes to say. Only, as the liberty
of diseases, the rota of the government has been
reoognised, and as the note of this day'. ifonileur is MEP
doubtedly ea act, we &hall permit ourselves to observe Uri
an one asked the government to give free poops " to
shammies, and errors." Lees and calunniss are
mimes cognisable by the legal tribunate, and error,
even when committed without mat" is a misdeed which
has not moaped the watchfulness of the legislature. We
believe we have read all that has been written on this sub•
Jut during the short period of hope to whiob the note ta
the Ifoniterr hem put en end, and we could only per.
can the utterance of desires which were by no mesas
incompatible with the constitution and the fundamental
laws of social order. Would the constitution and the laws
of social order be endsagered if the journals had the common
right of labour and of industry restored to them by the sup-
pression of the preliminary sanction, and the common sight of
judicial trial restored to them by the abolition of warniess ?
Wade not thick so; and we avail ourselves of the lathed.
which the ifroliteur permits to say eo. It would not be M-
esh to demonstrate this ; but it is useless to team, by any
greed display of argument, against a fact ; and the Mat boss
is that the Jfeeitsur Is net of ens opinics. That disidis
&equation. The situation, tterefors, will nmain what it
le, and the jottruals will be obliged to act acacedhiey. Caw-
, strain' hangs over them, but the responsibility—and, we ell
bold to say, the chief incoevimience of the present spiels
&bides with others.

M. Legonve, of Ow Ataslesti, and M. Henri
Martin, the Metorias, Mn WI Bin for Italy M tspessol
the Minds of Italian liberty la Frame at the appeasable"
familial ceremonial in Wooer of Natio, the brims ishader
filVtai

-c7-7-1114.-. naA.
tu j.... , TURIN, 8E7%17.
for Pavia, Crow
arts= , will go at Wedaeaday to
witor.VANllllliirtuthe will be held.
Boiegaideelepatation will be rewind at
__

*Ma on tiaturday next.

ST. PETERSBURG, Barr. IL

A supplement to the Issealie Arm hie fast been
'published, sad dates that araerding to a verbal re-
port of Lientsciaat-Colonel Gribbe, a victorious
swank has bee& made on Ganes, sad the reascothad
'been taken by the Russians. Schamyl was taken
prisoner, and his eons and family were captured or

Ile Urdu lON did not exceed 100 am.

OONSPIIACT AGAINST THE SULTAN.

We ( name) have roseived the folknrios Worm
from oar Chasteatiseple earrespadeet
a CONOTANTIROPLE, Bm.lB.

" A conspiracy to alismainate the Sultan has bees
discovered. Two hundred persons have been ar.
rested here; among them Djafer Dem, puha of
Albania, who was apparently the chief. Some of
the troops are suspected et participation.
4, The affair originated with a fanatical party."

EXPRESS PROM PARIS.

(Viola Ora OWN

PARIS, BLNDAT Bvasreo•
The dream of liberty in which some journals have
indulged within the last few weeks is this morning
dispelled by a paragraph in the llioniteisr. The
Emperor nails his colours to the mast, and declares,
once for all, that the system which he invented for
keeping a tight hand upon the press is the beet of
all possible systems, and that he baguet the elieMat
intention of departing from it. I em not the lust
surprised at this manifesto, being thoroughly per-
goaded that liberty of the press is and ever will be
radically incompatible with the empire as by law
established. It is quits true, as the lifoniteur says,'
that if the press were free, it would inconti-
nently proceed to attack the "Constitution'
and the fundamental laws," because that Constitution
and those laws are so fundamentally bad that no
discussion touching the internal affairs of the coun-
try could be carried on to any good purpose without
attacking them. The Freese, which was never very
sanguine about the change so confidently anticipated
by the Debate in a selebrated article, pleasantly
takes advantage of "the latitude which the Monitor
gives to discus the acts of the government" to say
that nobody GM asked that a free career should be
opened for " falsehood, calumny, and error." What
was wanted was that a regular court of law
should be the judge of what was calumny
and error, instead of a government func-
tionary, and that the system of arbitrary
warnings, intapentions, and suppressions should be
put a stop to. However, now that the Monitor
has proclaimed itself of a different opinion, the
Prom thinks it useless to argue the question. " The
journals must resign themselves to a continuance of
the present system. The annoyance is for them ;
the responsibility, and, we venture to say, the pain-
algal iooonunienoes are fag others."
The Opinion Nationale regrets the decision of the
government, and permits itself to hope that it is not
even yet definitive. It cannot believe that a system
which gives no legal definition of what is or what
is not fair matter for disoutaion, and in virtue of
which a political writer may be punished without
even knowing wh►t for, can be intended to be per-
manent. Courts of law would, it believe., be often
more severe than the administrative authorities.
But everyone—and the government still more than
writers—should, it thinks, prefer a regimen of
legality, although strict, to an administrative juris-
diction which is alike compromised by indulgence
and severity.
Prince Richard de Metternich arrived in Paris,
from Vienna, yesterday evening. He h►d an inter-
view with Count Walewaki this morning, and will'
leave for Biarritz almost immediately. It is ex-
pected that after his next conference with the
Emperor the world will learn something about the
proceedings at Zurich, as to which we have so long
been in the dark. There is a very general
impression, though I mm quite unable to say upon
what it is founded, that the Italian difficulty is in a
fair way of arrangement. The restoration of the
archdukes ia more than ever oat of the question,
and it is thought that Austria is now resigned to
giving up the point. One rumour is that the King
of the Belgians proposed to the French Emperor a
plan for the organisation of Central Italy, "calcu-
lated to satisfy all interests, to conciliate all opinions,
and to obtain the approbation of the great powers."
This is, indeed, a flattering programme, and if it
should be realised, Leopold will have materially
added in his old age to the reputation which he has
maintained through life for consummate ability.
The King of the Belgians had seareely arrived at
the ►ease prepared for him at Biarritz (La liaison
•rdonin) when a brougham and pair was seen to
Wee from the Villa Eugenie and proceed to his
door. In this carriage was the Emperor Napoleon
111. The Primo. de Chimay received his Majesty
at the foot of the staircase, and King Leopold was in
waiting at the first landing. The sovereigns warmly
shook hands, and retired to a drawing-room, where
they remained in private conversation for an hour
and a half. At the end of that time they left the
beans together and proceeded in the simple
brougham to the Villa Eugenie, where the King was
presented to the Empress.
Count Walswaki and Count Kleczouaki, the first
'serenity of Legation of France in China, have left
Paris for Biarritz this evening.
A child of three months old, the eon of M. Hua, a
!edge, was stolen in the Tuileries Gardens on Friday
afternoon, under most extraordinary circumstances.
The infant was in the arms of its wet nurse, when
a well-dressed woman approached and asked whether
it was not M. child. On being answered
affirmatively, she exclaimed in accents of
joyful surprise, " Why it is my nephew, and I have
suer yet seen him ! Oh, what a beautiful baby
How delighted I am to have met you!" After
devouring the child with caresses and mentioning
the names of several members of the family whom
she said it was like, the lady told the nurse, who
was thrown eompletely off her guard, that she
would go home with her. " Will you be so kind ap
to fetch my parasol, which I have left in yonder
summer house P—l will hold the baby." The rotriel
did as she was bid, and on her return the lady aril
child had disappeared. The police and the tele-
graph have been set to work, bat no news of the
fugitive has yet been obtained. In consequence at
this misfortune the vacation court, of whieh M.
Hua is one of the fudges, was closed at an early
hear yesterday.

At the Amiss Court of St. Omer, a priest aimed
Hestia hem bees convicted of child. order sad eastoacod to
fmpprr t with hard lab= for ills. Tice mother of the
lb must whom he bad educed, wee acquitted.