The Express.
London, England, 1868-02-01 00:00:00

EXPRESS FROM PARIS.

(FROM OWE OWN

PARIS, FRMAY EVEKING.
M. Thiers pronounced yesterday a grand oration
in favour of the liberty of the press. It was most
carefully studied from beginning to end, and will
take rank with the best of his speeches on record.
In the mouth of anyone less accustomed than M.
Thiers to command attention much of what he said
would have been found tedious, for he took his
subject ab ors, and sketched the history of the
world during the last "thirty centuries" for the
purpose of showing that a free press was now a
necessity in every state pretending to self-govern-
ment. •He approved of the prohibition of dis-
cussing such things as the rights of property and
the obligations of family ties. But what he
wished particularly to insist upon was the absurdity
of asking correctional judges to decide whether
a discussion on a subject allowed to be controverted
had been conducted with sufficient moderation.
There was no standard for moderation in argu-
ment. There was a standard yard measure in the
French museums, but who should find a measure
for press moderation i They in that chamber, as
the elect of universal suffrage, might proudly call
themselves the very salt of the nation, and yet
which of them could pretend to say that
in the heat of argument he would always
be just and fair and moderate I And yet this im-
possible perfection was exacted from journalists,
many of whom must necessarily be young and ob-
scure men. The oldest statesman among them
might often take a lesson from a young journalist
just out of school. The flashes of genius brought
to bear upon publio affairs in the press by
young men were in his opinion prices
in a lottery of intellect which it was most
important to encourage. He had said when
he was a minister, thirty-three years ago, that
he was for allowing the press " to discuss minis-
terial acts without restriction, even to calumniate
or bring against ministers charges, true or false,
and probably more often false than true, and in
short to do what now was held so abhorrent—to ex-
cite to hatred and contempt against them." He was
still of that opinion, and he wished to take
the opportunity of confessing before the
country that whereas many of his friends
were less liberal than formerly, he now in his old
age was more liberal than he had ever been in his
life. There was a time in 1848, when he saw the
novel and turbulent composition of an assembly cf
100 deputies, whose speeches were listened to by
an audience of 2,000 people in the tribunes, that
his heart had to some extent failed him. But
the experience of the working of that very
assembly, and the way in which it had ulti-
tastely been brought to hear reason, bad con-
vinced him that liberty was its cum best
corrective. He greatly exalted the example of
•Bngland, and concluded by hoping that govern-
ment would not let slip the decisive moment which
called for a large progressive step.
Pinard, the new Minister of the Interior,
snswered M. Thiess in a speech which will gain
no laurels to disturb the atop of M. Senior.
It was a dry lawyer's oration, taking up the
clauses of the bill and justifying them one by one