The Sun.
London, England, 1830-08-23 00:00:00

PRICE in.

STATE OF THE PRESS IN FRANCE,

The following prophetic remarks are extracted
from Sir A. B. Patilicner's " Rambling Notes
on • a Visit, to Paris, in 1827," published two
years since :
The present projet of M. Peyronnet, to restrain
the liberty of the Press, has lent no small force to
the jealousy of the present Government, and, con-
sidering, the awful experience they had in former
times, seems a most unaccountable temerity. If it
were merely one or two acts of an arbitrary nature
they were trying to carry, they might be over-
looked, or at least have the benefit of some equivocal
interpretation; but when a number of convergent mea-
sures are attempted at the same time, the tendency
of which is alike hostile to the spirit f the Charter,
and the wishes of the people; surely little farther
proof is necessary to convince them of the animus
that presides in the Councils of the nation. But,
after all, it is only themselves the. people have to
thank for the whole. They committed a sad over-
sight at the restoration, Before they allowed Louis
IVIII. to put one of his gouty feet on the beach
at Calais they should have presented. him, as we
did in a similar conjuncture, with a bill of rights,
as the positive and peremptory condition of his
being accepted for their Sovereign.
From all 1 hear, I augur nothing but mischief,
should M. Peyronnet'a projet for trammelling the
Press be suffered to pass. If public opinion has
not vent through this channel, it must sooner or
later find another, and one probably the Govern-
ment may like as little. True it is, that before the
revolution, the nation long and patiently endured the
agonies of suppressed opinion; but let us bear in
mind how long they had been strangers to anything
like freedom. The experiment of open, manful re-
monstrance, would have been a fearful venture,
while a leitre de cachet hung over their heads, and
they were ignorant or distrustful of their strength.
The insane abettors of this Bill appear to have for-
gotten that they live in the lath not the 16th cen-
tury. The benefit of all history is thrown away
upon them. It is thrown away upon them that`
England has experimentally proved that the liberty
of the Press is the best bulwark of our religion and
Constitution, by enlightening men to appreciate the
value of both. It is lost upon them too, that there
is no possible mode of getting at an acquaintance
with the true interests of the governed, but through
the free publication of opinion; or if they do know
these things, they force us into the conclusion that
the object is in reality not the suppression of the
licentiousness of the Press, as they would have it
believed, but a step towards the restoration of ab-
selute Government. A Frenchman asked me
to-day, why there should not be a check upon
aristocratic licentiousness us well as popular
licentiousness. " Human nature being the same
in both, is there," said he, " any good reason
why there should not be a mutual guarantee
for the good behaviour of both. The history of
your own country is a pregnant proof of the attach-
ment which a free Press begets for a free Constitu-
don, which you know, spite of the most frightful
commotions and rudest shocks, always righted again,
mainly, if not solely, through its instrumentality."
So fully do I coincide with this view of the subject,
that I am convinced, if her navigators do not look
sharp, the French vessel of State will roon be on her
beam-ends. It is said au pis alter, if the Minister
cannot manage to carry his project by any other
means, fair or foul, he has advised the King to create
sixty new Peers. Better— or I'am fur astray 1n my
French politics—better Charles X. you Intd never
left your pelttiOti in Ilolyroorl Howie.
The common opinion about the Press. Restriction
Bill is, that it must eventually pass into law. It will
behove its authors and abettors to be aware. The
steam of public opinion is at present under high
pressure, and it is doubtful that it will bear much
increase.

The King is never mentioned but in connection
with an incubus of Jesuits, by whom, they say, he
is perpetually and most unmerc►fully bestrode. There
certainly appeals to be no occasion that their bit-

terest enemy should desire the Royal Family any
greater humiliation than they at present may be sup-
posed to endure from the state of popular feeling.
Never, perhaps, did Royalty repose on any thing
more the reverse of a bed of roses. If hearsay and
appearances may be trusted, they !we literally as
exiles among their own people, without one soul
that I could discover to sympathise with this most
unnatural sequestration. In such circumstances, to
render misery complete, I can • conceive nothing
wanting except that to not receiving sympathy, we
should be conscious of not deserving it.