The Express.
London, England, 1861-05-20 00:00:00

THE FRENCH CENSORSHIP.

Yesterday's Moniker publishes the following cir-
cular, addressed by the Minister of the Interior to
the Priffets :

Park. May 13, 18431.

Monsieur le Prefet—The judicial prosecution of a recent
brochure has raised • question, to which I think It right to
call your attention, It is asked, if persona banished or
exiled from the territory, and consequently placed outside
of the common law, and withdrawn by their very position
from all judicial action, should be able to make use in Frame
of the benefits of publicity by sheltering themselves behind
• printer or bookseller.
In the writing in question there was so decided an attack
on our institutions, so manifest so incitement to hatred and
contempt of the government, that the laudable eagerness of
the magi trace to prosecute the seditious writing was com-
manded by the very nature of the case, and when once the
seizure had taken place justice bail to take its course.
But you know, M. le Prffet, the inconvenience of such
prosecutions. n the one hand a writer, by the publication
of many thousands of copies, may have every facility of
casting insult and calumny on persons and things, whilst
I on the other he is protected, he and hie, by the judicial
seizure itself, spinet all reply and all recrimination ; and in
this way a representative of the policy of 1440 has been able
to put to the conqueror of Polferino this strange question,
„What have you Ards ci Prancer
However that may be, it is to be presumed that yireten.
sloes so clearly avowed will be reproduced afresh ; that the
example set will be followed, and that the government
which has drawn France from the abyss will find itself again
exposed to the insults of those very persons who let her fall
into it. It has already come to my knowledge that writings
of the saute kind are being prepared at this very moment ;
that, being better advised, the instigators or authors of those
little maureuvres flatter themselves that they will escape,
even in the person of the printers, from the rigour of
justice by artifices of editing and publication, thus hoping
through the fissures of the IJw, to penetrate with impunity
to the very heart of our institutions.
But the government =not suffer the renewal of such
scandals. As far as lam concerned, the more I strive to
remain faithful to the liberal ideas of Nov. 24, by favour-
ing freedom of discussion, the more anxiously ought I to
guard the state itself against the attacks of its enemies. I
request you then to watch with care all attempts at publi-
cation that may be made in the name of persons banished
or exiled from the territory. Of whatever nature those
publications may be, under whatever form they may be
produced—books, journals, brochures, it will be your duty
to proceed on the spot to an administrative seizure, to refer
to me immediatel , and await my instruetions.—Renajets
The of the Interior, F. DE PEBISIONT.

Gatigrumi says !—" A large meeting of Americans,
summoned at a short notice, wax held vestenlay (Saturday)
at the rooms of the Hou. Mr. Ssmiford, United States
minister to Belgium, for the purpose of sustaining the
federal government. Addresses were delivered by the Rev.
Dr. McClintock, of the American chapel. Paris ; Dr. Mac-
Gowan, from Chins; and Mr. Strong, of New York, chair-
man of the meeting, and a large amount of money was
subscribed, which, with what he. been collected in Man-
chester and Liverpool from the Americans, will secure all
the Whitworth guns that can be supplied for a long time.
Gentlemen who require good and fashionable
Dram am depend an the bat materials and toted style at
Hamilton sad Kimptases. les. Iltrartil, opposite Exeter /Wl.
[Advertimesent.l