The Sun.
London, England, 1859-08-20 00:00:00

THE FRENCH PRESS.

The Imperial decree by which the public journals
are exonerated from the effects of any warnings they
may have received is remarked on generally by the
Paris press in terms of great approbation. The
Constitutionnel makes the following observations:—
" The official journal• has again pronounced the word
Amnesty. This time it is in favour of the press that the
Government is generous. Yesterday it forgot the faults of
party men ; to-day it consents to pardon political writers,
'whose- faults—and simple errors were, for the most part,
only of gravity on account of the circumstances
of the moment. We sincerely thank the Govern
•
ment for this generosity. Though only applicable
to a small number of men, and concerning only re-
stricted interests, the decree of the 16th relative to the
warnings received by the French and Algerian press will
not the less obtain general approbation. Relieved from
the disquietude which the penalties of the decree of 1852
caused them, the journals which derive most benefit from
the amnesty will, we are sure, be grateful to the Govern-
ment. Their convictions may remain unchanged, but they
will bring to the examination of political and administra-
tive questions the calm and the reserve which perhaps their
precarious situation prevented them from displaying."
The Debuts merely says :

" It is easy to see that the decree has been conceived
with the same view, and will obtain the same approbation,
as that proclaiming the general amnesty. In fact, it only
extends the principle of the amnesty to the press."
The Siecle, after expressing its satisfaction,
touches on an incidental effect of the decree :
" In the opinion of a former Minister, If. Billault, warn-
ings to a journal were not a punishment. We maintain
the contrary, as it is impossible not to regard as a penal in-
fliction an act which, if repeated, empowers a Minister to
suspend a journal for two months. We are most happy
to see that the Minister of the Interior and the director
of the press adopt the opinion which we think the only
true one. The natural consequence to be drawn
from cancelling the warnings is that they are recognised to
have a penal character. Now that penalty, like all others,
as those for misdemeanours, may be set aside. We hope,
however, that the existing legislation, invoked in the de-
cree of amnesty, will be completely remodellal."
The following is from the Patrie
" The bearinc, of this decree must be manifest to every
body; it is evidently another step towards free discussion.
We are the more delighted with it because this noble initia-
tive is no doubt connected, as the happiest of omens, with
the wise and straightforward policy of the new Minister of
the Interior, the Duke de Padone, and also with the new
organisation of the service of the press recently announced,
at the head of which the Emperor has placed a person so
remarkable for his liberal character."

The Presse, more than any other of the Paris
journals, enters into the question of freedom of
writing, maintaining that the government would
gain rather than lose by fair discussion. History,
it declares, shows that every attempt to shackle the
press has proved fatal to its author :

"The Convention," it says, "proscribed public writers,
and yet, although victorious in Europe, it was overcome
by general opinion, raised against it. The Directory pro-
scribed in one day 120 journalists, and it fell soon after in
the midst of profound indifference. Napoleon gained no-
thing by putting down the press ; Charles X. wanted to
sweep it aside' and he died in exile. The same experiment
was made in England. Charles I. attacked the liberty of
the press, and lit up the civil war in which he perished ;
the Long Parliament imposed silence on journals, and it fell
under the yoke of a despot ; Charles 11. enacted restrictions
for the press, and he repared the destruction of his family.
Without liberty of the press, twenty Governments have
been shipwrecked ; who can say that it would not
have shipwrecked ? who can say that it would not have
saved them, and in every case nothing worse could
have happened to them with it."
The allusion to Charles the First's interference with
the general press may be questioned, as it was
against the pamphlets of the day that his Govern-
ment directed their enactments. The writer then
proceeds in these terms :
_ .

"It is not by its form, whatever it may be, that a Go-
vernment can preserve itself. Its only foundation is p
iblic
opinion, and without that co-operation there is no duration
possible, and there is no public opinion without freedom of
the press. A just and moderate authority is placed in no
more danger by liberty of criticism than is truth by free-
dom of examination. The English Government was never
shaken by Junius's letters. Measures which are good ap-
pear more so after they have been discussed, and their
credit is, on the contrary, compromised if the objections
against them are not allowed- to be made known.
Before and since its revolutions, booksellers have been
prosecuted, printers ruined, and writers proscribed—has the
progress of reason been checked or the march of ideas pre-
vented ? The silence of the pre!s has for authority incon-
veniences of every kind. By rejecting freedom of discus-
sion the Government envelopes itself in darkness ; if its
agents commit excesses, it bears the responsibility of their
acts, while being at the same time frequently in ignorance
of their existence. Liberty of the press renders such abuses
impossible; it enlightens the Government when deceived,
and nyf
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security,
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andr from nofthvoluntarily
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Government is no other than that of liberty."

APOTHECARIES HALL.—At a court of examiners
of the Society of Apothecaries, held on Thursday, the 18th
inst., the following gentlemen were admitted licentiates of
the society, viz. :—Messrs. E. G. Chapman, of Longfield,
Surrey; H. M. Ferris, of Yeldon, Bedfordshire; N.
Heelas, of Wokingham ; J. B. Jardine, of Chatham ; J. H.
Love, of Wolverhampton; H. T. Marsh, of Upton-on-
Severn ; and T. Miller, of Boyton.
The Ceylon Railway Company have arranged for
Messrs. Waring Brothers to send an agent to the island by
the present steamer, with the view to obtain a subsequent
tender from that firm for the construction of the line. An
agent on the part of Mr. Brassey will shortly follow under
like circumstances.
A petition in bankruptcy was filed yesterday
against Mr. John Edward Buller, of the firm of Smart d
Buller, solicitors, of 56, Lincoln's-inn-fields,
ab-
sconded with liabilities believed to exceed 0 who has
0 ,_
solicitoreaidhe haans
a
wlt is
1
dmtrusisaptpeer.o
prmiarte.dsmlarargte sisumins
ni not rwus ty implicated
in these charges.e d to him as
9 FRIDAY, Aug. 1 • .
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