The Sun.
London, England, 1860-12-10 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, MONDAY EVENING, DECEMBER 10, 1860,

GREAT WESTERN RAILWAY.
CIIRISTMAS HOLIDAYS.—RETURN TICKETS
issued on Saturday, the 22d Dec., and intermediate days will
be available until Thursday the 27th inclusive.
ON CHRISTMAS DAI the Trains will run as on Sun-
days, with the addition of the Day Mail Trains, as per bills,

ORIENTAL INLAND STEAM COMPANY
(Limited).
NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN, That the FIFTH HALF-
YEARLY MEETING of the Shareholders of this Company
will be held at the London Tavern, Bishops„ ate-street,
in
the City of London, on THURSDAY, the 20th day of Decem-
ber instant, at Two o'clock in the Afternoon precisely.
• By Order.
JOHN MATHEWSON, Secretary.
9, Billiter-street, London, Dec. 5, 1860.

ORIENTAL INLAND STEAM COMPANY
(Limited).
The TRANSFER. ROOKS of this Company will be
CLOSED from the 20th to the 31st day of December current,
both inclusive, preparatory to issuing the interest warrants
for the current half-year.
JOHN MATHEWSON, Secretary.
9, Billiter-street, London, Dec. 5, 1860.'

UILDHAL L, Ist December, 1860. The
Committee for Letting the City's Lands will Meet at
GUILDHALL, on WEDNESDAY, the 12th instant, at One
o'clock precisely, to receive PROPOSALS for a BUILDING
LEASE for Eighty Years of a Piece of GROUND on the
north side of Queenhithe Dock in the City of London ; also,
to receive Proposals for a Lease of a House, No. 3, Giltspur-
street.
Plans of the property may be seen, and further particulars
and forms of tender obtained, upon application at the
Architect's Office, Guildhall.
FERDINAND BRAND, Comptroller.

UNIVERSITY OF LONDON.
NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN, That the next Half-
yearly Examination for MATRICULATION in this Univer•,
sity will commence on MONDAY, the 14th of JANUARY,
1801.
Every Candi&le is required to transmit his Certificate of
Age to the Registrar (Burlington House, London, W.) at
least fourteen days before the commencement of the Exa-
mination.
WILLIAM B. CARPENTER, M.D., Registrar.
Dec. 7th, 1860.

aARIBAT,DI and ITALY. —WEDNESDAY
NEXT.—ST. JAMES'S TIALL.—Mr. MASON JONES
will deliver a SECOND ORATION on Garibaldi and Italy,
at the above Hall, on Wednesday Evening next, Dec. 12, com-
mencing at 8 o'clock.
Stalls, ss. ; area reserved, 3s. ; body of hall, 25.,; galleries,
ls. Tickets to be obtained at the Hall ; Messrs. Keith and
Prowse, 48, Cheapside ; and at Mr. Mitchell's, Royal Library,
33, Old Bond-street.

►THE BUCKLEYS IN LONDON, at the ST.
JAMES'S HALL, Piccadilly, Every Night at 8, and
a Day Peformance on Saturday Afternoon at 3. Full Pro-
gramme and Tickets may be obtained at 28, Piccadilly, from
10 till 5, and at the Principal Libraries and Musicsellers.
Admission, Stalls, Is. ; Area, 2s. ; Gallery, ls.—Doors open
at Half-past Seven, and Saturday Afternoon, at Half-past
Two. *** Grand Change of Programme !

ARGYLL ROOMS, Windmill-street, Piccadilly.
The Handsomest and best proportioned rooms in
Europe, are open for CONCERTS and DANCING, Conducted
by the well-known artiste Mons. ANTONY LAMOTTE, of
Parisian celebrity. M. Boulcourt, the greatest Cornet player
in this country, plays solos nightly. Doors open at half-past
Seven. Dancing at Nine o'clock. Admission, One Shilling.
N.l3.—A magnificent Smoking and Reading--room is added to
this establishment.

THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY ROOMS,
Digit Ilolborn.—The Best Entertainment in London .
—ln consequence of the great influx of strangers to the Me-
tropolis during the CAT rLE SHOW, and the kind patron-
age the establishment always receives on this occasion, the
concert will commence at half-past Seven, and Dancing con-
tinue one hour later than usual. The Smoking and Refresh-
ment Saloons are most commodious, especial regard being
paid to the comfort of the visitors. and the Reading-room is
well supplied with English and Foreign Journals. Mr. W.
M. Packer's celebrated Band will perform Overtures and
Selections from the standard Operas, and a choice programme
of dance music. The Wines and Refreshments are of the
very first class. Admission, ls.

CATTLE SHOW and SMITHFIELD CLUB.
EVANS'S ➢IAGNIFICENT MUSIC and SUPPER
1100 MS.—Gentlemen visiting London during the Cattle
Show Week are invited to the above world-known Institu-
tion, now regarded so for its respectability and the meeting
place of the gentlemen of the country. Commencing every
evening at eight o'clock.

FRENCH GOVERN NEE T AND

TILE _PRESS.

The Minister of the Interior has addressed the
following circular to the Prefects on the system
which ought to be pursued relative to the press in
France :

PARIS, Dec. 6.

Monsieur le Prefet,—Charged with the dis-
cretionary power which the law on the press
i
known
on the Minister of the Interior, I am
anxious to mal own to you clearly in what
spirit I intend t ",eivikie that power.
I have jast been living among a people who may
be justly proun of their institutions ; where the
liberty of the press is openly exercised, without
being a danger either to the state, to public order,
or to the safety of persons and of things; and where
useful to all parties, appealed to and respected by
all, it forms the surest guarantee of public liberty,
of order, and of the prosperity of the country. I
have long witnessed that noble spectacle, and if
formerly I had not liked true liberty, I should
have acquired a taste for it in that country.
As England, therefore, has preceded us in that
career, it is natural that we should endeavour to
ascertain by what means she has succeeded in
assimilating to herself the liberty of the press,
which amongst us still meet with so many enemies,
excites so much uneasiness, and presents so many
dangers. Let us, then, see how this great problem
has been solved in England, and like the Romans,
who, constantly improving their means of fighting,
adopted even t,...,,,..yeeap0ns of:their enemies, let us
-proarby the example 'Of our rivals in glory and in
power.
When we study the law on the Press in England
from the period of the accession of the House of
Hanover, we are first of all struck with its extreme
rigour. The passions of the times and the violent
struggle between the partisans of two rival dynas-
ties and of two opposite religions, appear at first to
explain this terrible legislation ; bat when we
arrive at the present period, when nothing of the pas-
sions of the last century exists, and when nevertheless
we behold the new laws inspired by the same spirit of
severity, by the same political preoccupations, and
interdicting quite as absolutely the same thing, we
cannot but be struck by the contrast which is to be
remarked between the extreme liberty which in our
eyes is enjoyed by the English press and the rigour
of the laws which govern it ; the question presents
itself as to the cause of this phenomenon, which
appears so strange, and as it bursts forth at each
page of the history of England, and at each article
of her legislation, astonishment is felt that it should
have been so long the custom on the Continent to
invoke the example of England, not only for the
purpose of claiming the great freedom enjoyed by
the English press, but also other liberties which
the most severe and most rigorous legislation inter-
dicts to this latter.

Thus, down to the complete annihilation of the
party of the Stuarts, the English laws on the press
appear to have only a single object—to defend the
new dynasty against its political or religious

enemies, and to interdict in the name of liberty, as
it were, the arms and instruments of liberty to the
adversaries of the new institutions of the country.
From 1692, already under William of Orange, to
the fall of the Stuart party, in place of the censor-
ship which had for some time existed under him,
but which was a mild measure compared to what
followed, the regime of the press, of books, of jour-
nals, of publications of all kinds, was subjected to
the jurisdiation of the common law.
To understand the character of that jurisdiction,
it must be stated that, contrary to the statute law,
which is the law written and voted by the parlia-
ment, the common law is the unwritten law, lex
non scripta, which remains in the memory and
consciences of the judges, interpreting the traditions
of the past; that this law gives a discretionary
power to the judges of the crown as regards the
penalties to be pronounced after the verdict of the
jury; and that thus' during all the time that the
House of Hanover had in the interior political or re-
ligious enemies—that is to say, during all that period
of passions and violence—the judges of the crown
exercised the rigorous right of condemning any per-
son guilty of having written, published, or printed
attacks on the crown and state, not only to fine, im-
prisonment, scourging, and the pillory, but even to
death ; and that, not as now, on a declaration of the
jury on the offence itself, but on the simple decla-
ration on the fact is such a person the author, pub-
lisher, or printer of such a work.
Now, if we reflect that the judges nominated by

the crown were chosen from among the most zealous
partisans of the House of Hanover, and were even
liable, up to 1760, to dismissal by the crown, it may
be imagined what was the liberty of the press for
the partisans of the Stuarts, for the Jacobites, the
Catholics, or Papists, as they were then called, and
other enemies of the state. It was only at the end
of the last century, when the House of Hanover had
been long consolidated, the party of the Stuarts
annihilated, and that of the catholics subjected, that
on public opinion demanding a modification of this
rigorous legislation, Fox obtained from parliament
a bill for applying the verdict of the jury not to the
fact alone, but to the character of the seditious pub-
lication or libel, which alteration naturally made
the legislation on the matter considerably milder.
I will Not here dwell on details by enumerating
the arms which the English legislature has placed
at the disposal of the Government, but I will cite
two characteristic circumstances which will serve
to show in what spirit our neighbours regard the
press.
Twenty-five years after Fox's bill, when England
saw herself at the very height of power and only
thought thenceforth of enjoying her liberties in
peace, it happened that after a serious economical
crisis, caused by the dearness of provisions and the
heavy burden of taxation consequent on the war,
and also favoured by the unpopularity of the Prince
Regent—it happened, I say, that a kind of repub-
lican doctrine spreading in the country caused seri-
ous uneasiness to the authorities, and that juries
intimidated or influenced by the new opinions, and
using largely the enactments of Fox's bill, often
prevented the judges of the crown from applying
to the delinquents the principles of the common law.
In those new circumstances the English Parlia-
ment did not hesitate to give to the Government the
means of forcing the jury to defend the state; and,
in consequence, a law was enacted in 1819 which
punished by fine and imprisonment, and, in case of
a second conviction, with transportation, the author,
publisher, and printer of amy seditious writing or
libel against the king, the royal family, the regent,
the government, the constitution, and either house
of parliament ; and this was effected by means of
provisions so minute, so precise, that it was scarcely
possible for the conscience of jurymen to avoid meet-
ing the necessitiel of the state.
But when the crisis of 1848 came on, and with it

new emotions, and new parties hostile to established
order, further difficulties were experienced from
juries. The necessity was then felt of determining
with still greater clearness and precision the attacks
to which the state might be exposed; and a new
law, intituled "An Act for better assuring the
security of the Crown and of the Government," was
accordingly added to the terrible arsenal of English
legislation. This time the success was complete—
the weapon was so keenly sharpened that it
triumphed over even an Irish jury, and on their
verdict two journalists guilty of seditious libels
(John Mitchell and John Machin*) were condemned
by the judges of the crown to fourteen years' trans-
portation with hard labour.
And now, can any one suppose that, if these judi-
cial expedients, in conformity with the genius of
the Anglo-Norman race, proved inefficient, England
would be brought to a halt by mere theories ?
Certainly not. Ever faithful to her grand prin-
ciple that, before being a free people, it is necessary
to be a united one, England, which in the past
century shrank from employing no means when it
was necessary to defend the dynasty of her choice,
would not hesitate now if any peril menaced the
state.
In recapitulation, the spirit of the English legis-
lation, as regards the press, may be thus summed
up: complete liberty for whatever is an advantage
ess enjoys
oso completelyhe political and
t
or not dangerous for the state, and negation of all
liberty of attacking the state; so that the liberty
English
country.p As there is not
r
which
pi,hciiacnrhle sseitntt any p
h ue
reality,ati
o
situation
oathert f
expression
the
any sensible man, who would
for a moment think of overthrowing eeither the
Queen, or the Government, or the Parliament, or
the constitution, there is no ground for any kind
of interference with the liberty of the press, which
is An advantage far all. But if any party should
arise and propose to overthrow the State for the
benefit of some other dynasty or doctrine, from that
moment the liberty of the press would cease to
exist for that party.
Thus when, whether in France or elsewhere,
declared enemies of an established government
adduce the example of England to claim the liberty
of attacking the existing polity, by means of the
press, they act under mistaken views. When they

* This is n misprint, WO presume; it should be John
Martin,

utter indignant invectives because they are not
allowed to attack the State, if their indignation is
sincere, they misunderstand the conditions of
liberty possible among men, and at all events they
calumniate English liberty.
The truth is that the example of England proves

to us, on the contrary, and in the most striking
manner, that the liberty of the press must follow,
not precede, the consolidation of a new state, or
new. dynasty; that so long as there are parties hos-
tile to the established order, struggling not like the
Tories and Whigs for the Ministry, but as the
Jacobites formerly did, to overthrow the throne—
that is to say, as long as there are nations within
the nation, liberty can be given to the enemies of
established order only among degenerate nations,
who, like the Greeks of the Lower Empire, prefer
the right to quarrel and to destroy themselves to
the safety of the State.
And now, Monsieur le Prefet, I . need scarcely
draw up the instructions which I have to give you.
If all parties, all writers, really submitting to the
constitutive laws of our society, to universal suf-

frage, which has founded the throne of the Napo-
leons in order to make it the basis of our institu-
tions ; if those parties, those writers, respecting
the will of the French people, only desire the liberty
of the press for the maintenance and prosperity of
the State, then they have, in fact and in law, the
liberty of the press in England, and the law
on warnings becomes a dead letter. That
abuses in society or in the government
be exposed—that the acts of administration be dis-
cussed—that injustice be revealed—that the move-
ment of ideas, of sentiments, of contrary opinions
shall everywhere awaken social, political, commer-
cial, and industrial life—who can reasonably com-
plain ?
But if there are parties who propose to them-
selves, not to have their ideas, their doctrines, and
their sentiments accepted by the Government of the
State, but to overthrow the State itself—to oppose
to the Government such another Government—and
to the dynasty another dynasty—then, whatever
may be the weakness bf those parties, respect for
national will, public interest, and the law do not
permit that passions hostile to established order
shall be kept alive; for, without speaking even of
any danger, all that retards the fusion of parties in
the great family of the State retards, at the same
time, the enjoyment of the liberties of our country.
As to the instrument which the law at present
existing places in my hards by the system of warn-
ings, I have not to discuss it. Nevertheless, if I
may be allowed to express my opinion candidly and
without circumlocution, that system, as an excep-
tional measure, subordinate to the exigencies im-
posed by :the establishment of a new order of
things, is doubtless in principle as dictatorial as
that founded by the defenders of the House of
Hanover • but in application it is more frank and
sincere than if it were disguised under judicial
forms in the manner of the Hanoverians. It is

likewise infinitely more in conformity with the
manners and situation of our country. It is doubt-
less a difficult matter, as it has been in England, to
define the point which separates useful discussion
from that which is injurious to the State. It is
an affair of conscience as delicate for a Napoleonian
Minister as for a Hanoverian judge; but what I
can say is, that if I am ready not to draw back before
any responsibility, in interdicting the press to make
attacks on the State, under whatever pretext, or
with whatever authority they may be made, on the
other hand I will not consult any [private conside-
rations, from whatever quarter they may come, in
the resolutions I shall have to take for the pur-
pose of constantly favouring in our country
the acclamation, if I may use the expression, of
habits of free discussion.
Such, Monsieur le Prefet, is the order of ideas
which I recommend to your attention, and which I
beg you to take as your rule of conduct in all the
propositions which you have to submit to me. Do
not forget that the more exceptional the discre-
tionary power of the administration is over the
press, the mere should the exercise of it be directed
by a scrupulous good faith. Call to mind more
particularly that it is in the interest of the State
and not of the administration that this power has
been delegated to my ministry. Let not your acts,
therefore, shelter themselves behind that protec-
tion, but let them, on the contrary, be like mine,
exposed to public discussion. Lastly, inspire your-
self with the great example set you by the Emperor,
and be assured that it is only by your zeal for the
public interest that you will prove your devotedness
to him.—Accept, &c.

F. DE PERSIGNY.