The Sun.
London, England, 1834-09-15 00:00:00

On the order of the day being put for the resumed
debate on the petition on the declaration of rights,
Senor Mantillo proposed, thy on account of its extreme
importance, the question should not be declared suffi-
ciently discussed until every member who desired to de-
liver his sentiments upon it had spoken.
This was put to the vote and agreed to.
The second article, which recommends the abolition of
the censorship of the press, was then read.
Senor Avargues rose and said—The freedom of the press
is a right which belongs inherently to man in a social state ;
it is the sentinel of civil liberty and the support of represen-
tative governments. It has received the approbation of the
most enlightened statesmen, and is sanctioned in all modern
constitutions. This right restrains the excesses of power,
diffuses a light through all classes of society, and serves to
consolidate reforms. I can appeal, in confirmation of what
I say, to the two nations which stand the most forward in the
van of civilization,—l mean England and the United States.
.In those nations, so great is the number of persons who desire
to receive information respecting the interests of their coun-
try, that even the commonest artisans, as soon as their daily
labour is over, assemble together for the purpose of reading
the newspapers, discuss their rights, and scrutinize the con-
duct of their representatives ; and it is owing to this cir-
cumstance that in those countries so many extraordinary
men continually make their appearance in Parliament. In
England we have lately witnessed the spirit of liberty
joined to the most mature wisdom. There the people have
the good fortune to possess a reforming King ; have sup-
ported with dignity and order the salutary reforms proceed-
ing from that Monarch and from Lord Grey, though op-
posed by the Tory party ; and have acted like the ancient
Romans, who, after demanding with the majesty of a free
people the plebeian consulship, elected patrician consuls,
because they recognised in them the possession of the great-
est merit. Let me allude to the French revolution, which
some have already appealed to, using it like a*wo-edged
s.vord. The great men who directed that revolution had
at heart to profit by the maxim of the celebrated philo-
sopher, who said that if nations, whenever the occasion
presents itself of becoming free, do not profit by it, five
centuries will pass before another is offered to them. I can
state the memorable decrees which were passed• by
the Constituent Assembly during the revolution, and
among the most prominent of them is one re-
specting the freedom of the press. But speedily
appeared the coalition project, and before the Duke of
Brunswick joined it no means, however infamous, were left
untried to destroy popular institutions. Perfidious counsel-
lors were placed near the Monarch, who advised him to be
at open war with the Assembly ; paid writers to defend the
opinions which they were interested in spreading, and who
attempted to gain over some members of the representative
body, as was justly observed by Count Toreno in the last
sitting. But the majority of the Government combined with
the Assembly, the army, and the National Guard, caused
this ridiculous coalition to fail. It was this coalition, and
not the revolution, nor the excesses which were ascribed to
liberty, that was the cause of the disorders which took
place at that time ; and it was owing to it that Louis XVI.
ascended the scaffold. He was abandoned by the cowardly
miscreants who had forced him to compromise himself, and
Vie Assembly had uo other alternative but to choose be-
tween retaining the King or the freedom of the nation.
As the maxim that Kings are made for nations, and
nof nations for Kings, was well instilled into their
minds, the election was not doubtful, and Louis pe-
rished, an example to monarchs and to nations. Ano-
ther kind of coalition was formed latterly in our own
day, and equally against liberty ; I allude to the
famous expedition to Algiers, undertaken with the view
of gratifying the appetite of the French nation for mili-
tary glory, and attacking at the same time their rights, as
was shown by the attempted invasion of the law respecting
the press, which produced the glorious days of July, and
the triumph of the nation, dethroned Charles, and excluded
from all right to the throne of France that very Angouleme
who conducted a liberticidal expedition into Spain. Let us
pass from the revolution of France to events which have
taken place in Spain, respecting which I shall have some-
thing to say. If it had been the fate of Carlos 111.
to have born 50 years later, perhaps he would also have
had the glory of being a reforming King, and of giving to
the nation that freedom of the press for which we are now
contending. Then there would doubtless never have been
heard of such a thing as the Ministry of Godoy, the journey
of Ferdinand to Bayonne, the surrender of disarmed for-
tresses to the French, nor the approach of an army of 70,000
men to the walls of Madrid. But then happily appeared
the ever-memorable 2d of May, which has contributed to
make this heroic capital so famous, and which gave birth to
the electrical declaration of all the provinces of the mo-
narchy, and to the meeting of the Cortes at Cadiz, where
Arguelles, Mejias, Torreros, Calatrava, and many others,
so eloquently held forth in favour of the freedom of the
press. When I talk of the freedom of the press I mean
the freedom of the press without previous censorship, for
with previous censorship I cannot conceive the freedom of
the press to exist. I should regard the freedom of the press
with a previous censorship (the government having the ap-
pointment and the payment of the censors) worse than use-
less—prejudicial.
Senor Lopes del Bano opposed the petition, not because
he was adverse to the full enjoyment of the rational free-
dom of the press, nor because he believed the Spaniards
were not sufficiently instructed to allow of this right being
more largely conceded to them ; nor, finally, because he
was of opinion that the political disturbances of Spain were
the progeny of the press. It was not for any of these rea-
sons that he opposed the petition, but because he wished
to see the liberty of the press placed on a footing which
would render it advantageous to those who seek it,
without being injurious to those who grant it. There
was, in his opinion, but one way of averting the mischief
arising from the licentiousness of the press, and that was by
establishing a previous censorship, with such limitation, that
while injury was prevented, free operation should be allowed
to the benefits the press was calculated to confer on society.
He proclaimed himself an advocate for the previous censor-
ship, but he would at the same time limit it, as far as re-
ligion was concerned to doctrine, and to doctrine alone ;
and in respect to morals and politics, he would confine its
operations solely to personalities. It might be feared that
such a repressive force in the hands of Government might
neutralize any advantage which might be derived from the
press ; but this result was only to be apprehended under an
absolute Government. Under the blessing, however,
of a representative system, and of a reforming Govern-
ment such an apprehension could not reasonably have place.
It had been said that repressive laws would be found suffi-
cient to correct the excesses of the press : repressive laws
would no doubt in good time be able to punish them, but
they never had succeeded in preventing them. The action
of the laws usually took effect slowly : the mode of prevent-
ing crimes was to inspire among men such a terror as should
produce a greater effect than the pleasure or benefit result-
ing from committing a criminal act. It was an opinion
generally received, that the attainment of this desirable re-
sult would be effected by nothing so much as by education ;
and it was very probable that this would be the case, for it
might be remarked that there is a certain species of crime,
which was only committed by the lowest classes of society.
But did this education exist? If it did, the laws would
have nothing to do. He knew that education could alone
do away with the necessity of a censorship for preventing
the excesses of the press, and consequently he should advo-
cate at the present period, the imposition of a previous cen-

sorship.
Senor Belda observed that it ought to be recollected that
in the present sitting they were only discussing a petition
which, before it could assume the character of a law, must
even after being approved of, go through all the forms set-
tled by the reglamento. He called the attention of the
Estate to the fact that the principle only of the liberty of
the press was at present the subject of debate, and that the
proper period to discuss measures for preventing the abuses
of the press would be on the introduction of a bill on the
subject.

Senor Vasquez Moscoso contended that the reglamento
had not been complied with in the mode of submitting the
present petition to the Chamber, inasmuch as the petition
ought to have been confined to praying her Majesty that
she would be pleased to lay before the Estate a project of
law on the subject. Instead of which, an initiative charac-
ter was given to the proceeding, which did not fall within
the attributes of the Estate. (Noise in the galleries.) He
proceeded to say that he disapproved of the second article
under discussion, because it appeared to him that it was not
drawn up in the mode proper for petitions, in which no
opinion ought to be expressed as to the convenience or in-
convenience 'of the things prayed for. (This observation
drew forth a fresh murmur from the galleries.)
Senor Alcala Zamora said that one of the rights consi-
dered the most valuable by all nations was .the freedom of
the press, because, by its intervention, a salutary scrutiny
was exercised into all the acts of the Government, and the
people were informed of the state of affairs. It had, there-
fore, been said with reason, that no Government can be
free which does not possess such a guarantee. He pro-
ceeded to notice the argument that Spain was not in such
a state of enlightenment as to allow of her receiving such
an institution as a free press, and in order to prove the con-
trary, he showed that
a free press existed in other coun-
tries, which might be said not to be in such an advanced
state of civilization as Spain. It has been said (continued
the speaker) in this Estate, that the enemies of our august
Queen would be able to strengthen themselves by this free-
dom of the press, and to defend the right which Don Car-
los pretends to have to the Crown. In my mind this is
the last thing we need fear, for the Queen's rights are not
founded in air, as might be inferred from such an appre-