The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1826-09-29 00:00:00

LIBERTY OF THE PRESS IN FRANCE.

A question of tromr titteftlt ta the "French rue his
lately been decided in the Coat Royale of Lyons. M.
Baron, a man of letters, residing in that city, produced
upon the stage there a comedy in three acts, entitled Le
31nri sans Femme. The pieee was damned; and the
.Journal du Commerce of Lyons thus expresses itself with
respect to this dramatic failure:—." The public has pushed
its vengeance.even to cruelty in insisting on the name of
the author being given up to expiatory hisses: he wisely pre-
fers preserving his incognito. In the mean time it has been
whispered in the saloon that this is the production of the
purchasers of the 7obletter LNonnaites, and that they mean
shortly to exhibit their wit in a new journal. Truly their
debut is one of marvellous bad augury."
M. Baron, on this, writes thus to the Editor:—

" The comedy of Mai Ana Femme has hut one author, myself.
I may perhaps require some courage to confess this, considering
its fate, but I owe it to truth so declare, since you assign me
fellow-labourers in the composition, and designate dient as the
nurehe.ers of the rablrla.s Lyounaises, that your assertion is false.
I require you to correct this account in your next number, other.
wise I shall take such proceedings against you as the law directs.
(Signed) "THE AUTHOR OP rilaut SANS FEMME."
The editor takes no notice of this requisition, which
circumstance produces a second letter, enclosing a copy of
the first, re-demanding its insertion, and concluding, " As
for the low invectives and foolish personalities you have
indulged in, they are worthy of you, and it would be un-
worthy of tree were I to treat them otherwise than with si-
knee and contempt." The editor, M. Galois, still declin-
ing to notice his communications, M. Baron cited him be-
fore the Correctional Tribunal, whith gave the following
sentence " The Court, considering Opt M. Galois, the
proprietor of the Journal dti commerce, had refused to
insert the answer of the Sieur Baron after two requisitions
made according to law, find that the said M. Galois has
acted in contravention of the II th article of the law
of the 25th of March, ISW, whirl' provides that the pro-
prietors and editors of every journal, or other periodical
paper, shall be compelled to insert, within three days
from its reception, or in their next number, should
that not be published till after the expiration of three
days, the reply of every person named or noticed in their
journal or periodical work, under a penalty of not less than
fifty, nor exceeding one hundred francs; the Court therefore
condemns M. Galois in the sum of fifty francs and costs."
From ibis ju Igment Galois mitred an appeal to the Cour
Royale, and contended by his counsel that the action was
altogether of a frivolous nature; that the Editor hail only
chimed in with the public voice as far as regarded the con-
ch rimed comedy ; that the law of thel:ith March, 1822, was
merely Li tended to repress defamation, not to grant a license
of impunity to datnuell authors ; thst the paper had dealt no
very heavy blotti upon the work of Mc Baron; it had not pro-
nounced his comedy detestable, or said that he had inherited
the name alone and not the wit of his namesake; still less that
lie might tmt become a man of bosses fintwees at the Court
of Thalia. had this paper, one of some weight in the re-
public of letters, no right to notice M. Baron's productions?
M. Baron has written a bad comedy: the ridiculous conies
properly within the province of the critic. " What would
become of a journalist, or his undertaking," said M. the
Duke de Broglio in the Chamber of Peers during the dis-
cussion of this law of the 25th March, 1822, " if every
day he were obliged to insert a reply, which would per-
haps take up all his columns, from every actor or author
who might wish to insert his apology to the public?" So
M. Baron, having been only noticed in the Journal du com-
merce in his literary capacity, hail no right to demand any
insertion of his answer, and the Tribunal had made a wrong
application of the law in question. On the other side it
was argued, that by hie retusal the editor had made lthn-
self amenable to the Art, inasmuch as that from the word-
ing of the law it was not necessary that defamation should
he joined to the other offence. The law recognised the
right of reply to allegations even of an Innocent nature, and
this intention of the enactment was evident from the addi-
tion which it contained of the words " without prejudice
to any other pains and penalties." And lastly, that M.
Baron had demanded the contradiction of an aslettion
which might have been injurious to him. He was not one
of the purchasers of the Tabh lies Lyonnires ; if lie had
been, he would have been liable to a penalty of 3000 francs
to be paid to M. Galoia, in consequence of a stipulated
agreonent between them. Even ttlblly, the Court confirmed
the judgment of the Lower Tribunal, in opposition to the
opinion of M. Rienssee,•the AttonatoGlneral•

MILTON'S LATIN LETTERS.

nAttst.ATtott
OFFICIA,L LETTER OF AI IbTON, WHILE LATIN
S Et; tt ETA It 1"II) t 110 11 L
To the most Serene Prince Leopold, Archduke of Austria, Gave/.

nor of the Spanieh Netherlands.
ffnisoon as we were *pp:iced—not without a moat adieus corn.
plaint—that Jars Puckermg, an heiress of a distinguished and opu-
lent faintly, while yet &minor, under the care of guardians, was
forcibly taken from the hands and fond care of her attendants, not
far from the bonne where she then resided, at Greenwich, and was
suddenly carried tuff to Fl orders, on board a vessel prepared for the
purpose, by the treachery of one Walsh, who, in defiance of laws
both human and divine, planned all manner of schemes, even to
putting her in fear of her life, that he might compel the wealthy
young lady to marry him, we resolved at once to counteract this
equally atrocious as unheard-of rillsny, 111,(1 bare authorized err-
tam persons to treat with the Governors of Newport and Ostend
(fur the unhappy captive wes said to havebeen landed at one or 612
other of those places), in order to rescue her from his hands. Both
individuals, front their remarkable humanity and love of virtue.
readily assisted the young lady thus hell in bondage and carried off
front hsr home by robbery. But, to avoid the violence el the rut.
liana who took her away, she was placed in a nunnery it were
in pledge). Walsh, however. striving to get her out of it, has com-
menced an action in the Ecclesiastical Covert of the Bishop of
Ypres, on a untended matriontrial contract between him and her.
Now, as both parties are natives of our country, as the crime has
been committed within our jurisdiction (a fatt which sworn wit.
nesses can sufficiently prove), and as the splendid fortune, which
alone the criminal evidently gapes after, lift, within cur dominion,
we think that the cognizance. ea well as the decision of this tans:,
must belong solely to us. het the fellow who represents himself* as
the husband come over to this country. Let him colonic:ace his
suit here • here let him dem and that the lady whom he calls his
wife should he delivered up to him. Meanwhile we earnestly re.
quest of your Highness that which we have already frclef-ntly
sought through our 31u:timer at Brussels—namely, that, so far as
lies in your power, you would ails an afflicted and ill-treated young
burn of worthy parents, but pirated trout her native land, to
return home with freedom and safety. ft is not only we thatnak
this of putt. prepared an we are, upon any occasion, to do a similar
favour and ktndnets to your Highness; but humanity itself, at d the
very abhorrence of infamy which ought to characterize good men
in defending the honour and chastity of the sex, would unitedly
and urgently demand it at your hands.
Westminster, March 28, ltkin.

TO rile EDITOR OP TILE MORNING HERA :r

Strt—ln your paper of this morning I observe my name has Leen
most shamefully used by a party of the Sudbury Freemen. rend ng
in London, and I cannot help t.xprinoing my surprise that you
should lend yourself to any set of men. In Bending forth to the
world libels, to the injury of individuals, without giving yourself
the trouble to ascertain whether they aye true or not. Thrugh
a humble individual, I will not allow you, or the worthy non-re-
sident electors of Sudbury, to defame me with impunity= there-
fore, unless vcu forthwith contradict the statement in your paper
of to.day, the whole of which, as regard!: myself, is as gross
as it is false, I will immediately commence an action against you.
I ani, Sir, your most obedient servant,
Tokenliouse.yard, Sept. 27. GEOIWE SCORE.

We can fed little surprise at the indignation of Mr.
Score at. the total absence of gentlemanly feeling which
Characterises the management of the Paper which has
caused his irritation. The Editor of the 1119rning Herald
appears to have run a-muck with all his contempo-
raries, whom en masse, ha charges with supporting the
bubbles which have caused such distress throughout the
kingdom ; and not satisfied with accusing them, he Insists
upon ft that they were interested parties, and actuated in
doing so by fraudulent intentioais. It happens rather un-
fortunately for him, that in every one of Iris assertions as to
the shard held by Reporters, he was grossly in error,
although, even if correct, we can hardly see what the Pro-
prietors of a newspaper, or the public either, have to do
with the manner in which any class of Kentletnen choose to
Invest them money. If he believe what he writes, what-
ever want of intellect his effusions might betray, we could
forgive him; but when we see him challenge a Morning
Paper with giving a report calculated to favotir a particular
party or projector of a public companyif-latid when he al-
leges that that Paper has upon its establiAment a Arporter
holding shares in that Company (thus inferring that the
partial report was given for interested purposes)—and
when we know that that same Editor knew that the re.

port in question was not sent to the riper alluded to by
any ft porter upon its establishment, we cannot acoid ex-
pressing our indignation at such an attempt to impress tapen
the public at. belied' in that which the writer hirnaelf knew
loa Wm. .. - .