The Sun.
London, England, 1868-01-29 00:00:00

), / --- _ ,

_,V,2

rincE 4d.
ED 5d

SPIRIT OF THE tUBLIO JOURNALS

The judgment of the Correctional Tribunal on ten of
cur Paris journals is, in the opinion of the Times, a disas-
trous success for the French Government. The officious

zeal of the Minister who instituted the prosecution was

understood to have displeased the Emperor Napoleon, in
spite of M. Rouher's justification, and the result will
gratify no one who appreciates, as he does, the present
critical state of popular feeling in France. The law which

has been thus harshly enforced was passed in the year

1852, before the Empire was established, and when some
of the Paris journals were accused, justly or unjustly, of
garbling their reports of speeches delivered in the Legis-
lature. It prohibits the publication of any summary of
proceedings in the Senate except that already inserted in
the 11foniteur, and imposes a minimum penalty of I,ooof.
on the publication of any summary of the proceedings
in the Corps Ldgislatif, except the proces-verbal
drawn up under the direction of the President. It

appears, however, that of late this law had received
a liberal interpretation, and it was supposed that
fair comments on debates were legitimate so long as the
debates themselves were published at length in the form
approved by the Government. For several years past, in
fact, the leading. French journals had exercised consider-
able freedom of criticism, not without encouragement from
the highest quarters. It has been reserved for M.
Pinard, the present Minister of the Interior, to raise
most inopportunely an issue which his wiser predeces.
sors had avoided. The occasion which he selected was
the debate in the Corps L6gislatif on the bill for the re-

organisation of the French army. Seventeen newspapers,
besides reproducing the authorised version of this debate.
had given a summary of it for the benefit of their
readers, or otherwise transgressed the function of mere
_ _ _ _ _

copyists. Some had recorded the impression made by

particular speakers, others had related incidents of
more or less significance, others had reviewed its
general course, but the offence common to all was

that of having " appreciated" that which they should

only have recorded. All their editors, therefore, were
summoned to answer for a breach of the organic
law regulating the press, but the charge was abandoned,
on various grounds, against seven of the number. The

remaining ten were sentenced to a fine of I,ooof. with

costs, or six months' imprisonment in default of payment.
This decision took no one by surprise, but it is probable
that an appeal will be made against it to a higher court,
with a view to ascertain whether parliamentary debates in
France are not only above criticism, but above abridg-
ment. In the meantime a feeling of great indignation has
been awakened in the Liberal party, and the Government,

which just now has no popularity to . spare, is gratuitously

placed in the position of restricting, instead of extending,
liberty. Whatever may be the legal bearings of the
question, there can be no doubt or dispute upon its
merits. The freedom of the press, as we have often

acknowledged, has its proper limits, and no Government
can tolerate public attacks, whether by deed, word, or
writing, upon its very existence. Subjects may, of
course, appeal, at their own peril, to a higher law
than that of the land, but this appeal constitutes revolu-
tion, and revolution is that which every established
Government binds itself to prevent as the condition of its
existence by every means in its power. But these con-
siderations have nothing really to do with the case of our
Paris contemporaries. They were never accused of gar-
bling, or even of colouring, the reports or abstracts of the
debates on which the prosecution was founded. For all
that appears, the reports they furnished were faithful, so
far as they went ; indeed, had it been otherwise, they
might have been punished for circulating false intelligence.
The only point in dispute was their right to do more than
transcribe official statements of what had passed in the
Legislature. Now, if this be not among the rights of
journalism, it is a mockery to speak of the press as free
in any sense at all.
- -

The Post comments upon Mr. Butler-Johnstone's pro-
posal to create a separate Irish Parliament. Our contem-
porary is of opinion that the political power acquired by
an independent national Legislature, if it did not destroy
Ireland, could hardly work for its regeneration. Let us
rather, as Lord Palmerston advised with regard to the
agitation which was abated by Catholic Emancipation,
" turn materials of mischief into elements of strength."
The Post cannot follow Mr. Butler-Johnstone to the con-
clusion that measures of real improvement will be lost
upon a kindly and generous people. As to the " sun of
royalty," our contemporary acknowledges that it is pri-
marily responsible for a theory which, though Mr. Butler-
Johnstone seems to make light of it, is, it apprehends,
perfectly in lfarmony with the character he gives the
Irish for loyalty, and in which it heartily concurs. Not-
withstanding all that is said about the " average Celt,"
the Post ventures to hope that there is a better future in
store for Ireland. It may be a " naive idea," but it trusts
that its realisation is not remote. The wrong which lies
like a stumbling-block in the path of improvement can be
redressed by an act of simple justice. A nation divided
into two very unequal parts, and separated by a religious
distinction which maintains the ascendancy of the small
minority, is to all intents and purposes a nation divided
against itself.

-The Daily News, after again telling the story of the
Clerkenwell plot as revealed by Mullany in the witness-
box, observes : They may not, perhaps, add any one
fact of single importance to those elicited by the inquiries
of the police, but they supply some missing links in the
previous evidence, and render the whole story of the plot
more coherent. Taken by themselves, the statements of
an approver might have little value ; but the significance
of the more solid testimony is increased by the light re-
flected.
Mullany told Sir Thomas Henry that he " knew
a great deal more about the case," and the man, having
chosen his part, evidently wants to make a clean breast of
it. He says tlfat Barrett told him that he another man
went down to Bow-street armed with revolvers, and re-
mained there all day, watching for an opportunity, which
did not arrive, of shooting Corydon the informer. Cer-
tainly, if these Fenians do us some mischief, it must be
acknowledged that they have a knack of destroying one
another. Mullany is the second of this group who has
turned upon his associates ; and if the prosecution should
have the result which everybody expects, it will be in great
part owing to the evidence of these two men. We get now
a view of the type of character and intellect which have
produced this great crime, and can see how well adapted
they were at once to injure us and bring the conspirators
to ruin.
The Herald reviews the report of the London ant.
Brighton Railway. The directors, when they took the
management last year, had no easy task before them.
Even now they find new items of charge continually crop-
ping up, and fresh exemplifications of the wastefulness and
improvidence of the former management making them-
selves manifest at every turn. To give but one example,
1 they tell us that, with all the lavish expenditure of capital
for f
of
rr fresh
Irisworks, rights
rightst haen rolling lllii.insgh srteofcokrmh
,a swni
with
sufficientra.e
u wi).
osehee dhaacu-d e
ac-
commodation,
coadnattiaoiiii,e spor(tnihdaity",
neontg•livnitehs asnudchcaaarriaggivees otfhethe
murderervalue
of several hundred thousand pounds are now standing ex-
posed to the weather for want of sufficient shed room,"
while other examples of the same kind are also mentioned.
But, notwithstanding all this, the board believe in the
future of the line. They look forward sanguinely to the
day when all the preferences shall be provided for, and
when the ordinary stocks will once more pay an honest
dividend. They do not expect to be popular when they
have to tell these truths to shareholders who have been
accustomed to receive six per cent. But they unmistake-
ably show their anxiety to bring the concern out of its
difficulties, and they avow their readiness to resign their
places if the proprietors do not like what they have done.
In short, they seem to have begun with the intention to
make their advent to office the commencement of a new
era in railway economics ; and it is to be hoped that they
may continue in a course which must be inflexibly pursued
if railway property is ever to resume its former place
among the investments of the country.
The Standard argues against an opinion lately expressed
in the Times, which appears to be gaining ground
in the public mind daily, that it would have
been better to have sent a smaller army to Abyssinia.
Our object in relieving the prisoners is surely to let it be
seen that we are a Power which has force entolusgh
etoop3uinniiasnh
such outrages. We desire to behindleaveat
the pleasure ofl any
that Englishmen are not to be caged
of those barbarian kings. But if we had used the
proposed
alternative, and sent a flying_ column of a thousand men,
and depended upon chancea for any native allies that we
might pick up on the ro d how would this have convinced
the people of Abyssinia, 'or of the countries adjoining,
that England had power
.to punish outrages upon her
citizens? 'The very insignificance of the force emuupltoiyteiad
th we have
would be accepted asdevideonfcaenoaflotuerrnwateiavleaNivehs
idle to discuss the wisdom
agreed not to adopt.
the safer
the two courses the Government
has certainly chosen safer and the more efficacious •
and whether it is more or less expensive is nothing to the
point. The work.had to be done at whatever cost. Upon
the whole it is being done well, and at no more expense
than was inevitable.
The result of the forthcoming press trials will, in the
• • of the Telegraph, guide us, to a great extent, as
opinion
regards the future government of Ireland. We shall then
know whether we can still rely on the middle-classs juries
to suppress, not actual conspiracy alone, but that mur-
derous literature of sedition that helps on the plot more
efficaciously than a thousand secret oaths. Irish jur3rmen
will know better than the Government itself how far
continued political excitement keeps Ireland poor,
affrights capital, paralyses enterprise, destroys trade.
Far be it from us to interfere with our boasted
liberty of the press, through the action of an em-
panelled. jury ; we do not want a conviction of our
contemporaries—we want to see the honour and the in-
fluence of the press preserved. It hurts us all to have
among us those who use the influence which has grown up
under the fair' ames of Reason and Right for the behoof
of assassins and bravoes. Let an Irish jury say whether
this language which we condemned was or was not of such
a character, and we shall know to what we are come. As
regards Ireland, it is because we care for her so much that
we are thus '' very jealous." We want to have the shield
of her champions kept bright and their weapons, unrusted
with vile stains of that blood which never ' comes out,"
namely, innocent blood. We wish to go to Parliament,
a secret grip.

NEIVS PAPE 1:.
4/--"-s
.7 -7-------,----H.-:it
.5;.--tf,l, ~ -k‘ , '.-' A
I
.
NAPOLEON BIND 771 E PRE'
rX'" -t.t-,`-,-,.:c/

[We have a satisfaction in giving To
~drnestly-expressed opinions from Vas oak). S
able correspondent.]—En. Sun.
IN January 1867 NAPOLEON promised that lib
would at length " crown the edifice." In January
1868 he has fulfilled his promise, but has crowned •
it with yew instead of bay. The famous procla-
mation of last year announced three important
changes—increased liberty to the press, restored
right of meeting for political purposes, and a reor-
ganisation of the army. To-day it is only the last
measure which has made any progress. Ths
vendors on the Boulevards are hawking the new
Army Bill as though it had already become
law, although' it has still to pass the
Senate. The Senate is the creature of NAPOLEON,
and lie may therefore safely reckon upon its
complacency, and may, without fear of mis-
hap, treat as enacted the law by which
every Frenchman becomes liable to military
service. At the very time that this hateful bill,
against which the country has vainly protested, is
being thrust into the hands of street passengers, the
Paris tribunals have been occupied with a prosecu-
tion brought by the Government against ten of the
leading journals of France, for venturing to report
and to comment upon the debates in the Corps,
Legislatif upon this very measure. It is in this way;
that NAPOLEON redeems his pledge of twelve
months ago. Here was a matter in which the whole,,
nation was intensely and vitally interested, one,
with respect to which the people had a right tot
know all that was said upon it by their representa-,,
tives, yet the Sovereign who claims to be the elect'
of the people has prosecuted the newspapers for
venturing to report what was said, and has obtained
judgment against them, with the punishment of a
fine, or the alternative of six months' imprisonl
ment.

It may be argued in defence of the Imperial
policy, that it is not so very long since it was
illegal for English journals to report the proceed-
ings of the Houses of Parliament. The Duke,
PERSIGNY is fond of comparing France with Eng-
land, and always assumes that, so far as political
liberty is concerned, France of the 19th century,
should be governed by the same laws as ruled Eng-.
land in the 18th. But even granting the ex-,
Minister's unflattering premise, there is no parallel
between the English press prosecutions of seventy
years ago and the French prosecutions of last week.
Those originated- in the desire of Parliament to
maintain its privileges, the most prized of them
during the corruption and political profligacy which
then prevailed being the right to speak and
vote without being subjected to the scrutiny
of the electors. These are intended to
prevent discussion on Imperial measures. NAPO-
LEON does not prohibit reports of the debates
altogether, but only such as have not been fur-
nished by the Government reporter. This prohi-
bition permits the EMPEROR to suppress all the
strongest arguments which tell against his favourite
measures. Just as Dr. JOHNSON always made the
Whigs have the worst of it in the reports which he
wrote for the Gentleman's Magacine, so NAPOLEON
or his Minister of the Interior may make the Oppo-
sition orators cut a sorry figure by the side of the
Ministerialists—may represent THIERS and PAITRE
and PICARD as crushed by the logic of ROUHER
and PINARD and NIEL. Then, too the EMPEROR
and his subordinate may entirely misrepresent the
temper of the House. We do not know that the
first offence has been charged against the Govern-
ment reporter ; the second certainly has. It has
been complained that all the " marks of apprOba-
tion" and "signs of adhesion" are reserved for
the Government orators, and that, according
to the reports, the Opposition speak amid
chilling apathy and silence. Were the offi-
cial reports ever so honest and ever so perfect,
the people would suspect and be dissatisfied with
them. Wherever there is an interest in suppress-
inc, the truth the public will always believe that
the truth, is suppressed. Especially will this be so
in the present instance. The prosecution just over
was directed against ten journals—against the
Glaneur, for publishing a summary of several days'
debates on the Army Bill, so that the reader might
have them all before him at once ; the Journal de
Paris, for publishing a summary of a particular
debate, and for mentioning that a particular speech
excited considerable interruption, which com-
pelled M. ROUHER to speak ; the Interet
Public, for presenting in a tabular form the de-
bates on the Army Bill with the proposed
amendments ; the Union, for a similar offence,
and for the crime of quoting verbatim part
of two speeches, one by the MINISTER of STATE him-
self • the Journal des Dtbats, for mentioning that a
lively discussion took place between the MINISTER of
WAR and the .Government reporter, and for ana-
lysing the Minister's speech ; the France, for giving
a list of the speeches ; the Avenir National, for
publishing verbatim a portion of JULES SIMON'S
speech ; the Temps, for committing a like offence.
and for analysing another speech ; and the ~zecte
and the Opinion Nationale, for describing the im-
pression produced upon the Assembly by two
speeches. In no instance, it will be seen, was there
any charge of misrepresentation. The high crime
of which the offending journals have been guilty is
that they were too accurate, too faithful.
One would have thought that a Sovereign and a
Government which were bent upon carrying at all
risks a most unpopular measure, would have been
particularly careful not to fly in the face of public
opinion more than was absolutely necessary. In
private life, when a man has to perform a duty dis-
tasteful to his friends, he takes special pains to
make himself agreeable to them in all other respects.
NAPOLEON has chosen the time when he is more
unpopular than at any time since he attained
power, to execute an act of rigour which has induced
even the Government journals and the most devoted
Imperial pamphleteer to protest. The decision just
given against the ten journals diminishes the liberty
which was established by a decision of March 10, 1862.,
Not content with this, he' is now directing other pro-
secutions in every direction. The editor of the Opinion
Nationale is being prosecuted for inciting to hatred
and contempt, because in an article, headed
" January 19," he has compared time promises of
1867 with the performances of 1868. The editoi,
of a provincial paper, the Franche Comte, has
been sent to prison because he ventured to
question the accuracy of a prefect in his explana
tion of the reason why a report of the EMPEROR'd
Speech had been withheld from one of the journals:
M. PINARD, in fact, seems resolved to outdo all his
predecessors in the severity with which he treats
the press. He is exercising his rigour to a degres
that is becoming intolerable, and which must soon
become dangerous. For, whatever the military
strength of a ruler, he cannot long afford to tyrant
nise to this extent over a people so noble and en.:
lightened as the French. NAPOLEON ought to bt
very sure of his position before he sanctions such
extreme measures as the present. Yet it is by
no means certain that his position is secure. The
history of France contains numerous examples to
illustrate the saying that those whom the gods wish
to destroy they first make mad. NAPOLEON'S pre-
decessor on the throne was never so arbitrary as on
the day before he abdicated. NAPOLEON himself
has of late blundered remarkably in his reading
of foreign events. It may be that the man who
was so signally deceived about Mexicoand
EMPEROR
a ORpelospdleointgG
Germany is equally deceived with regard to France.
Endurance has an end, andtihe
theencEe
his best to exhaust the patience
whom, when they ask the bread of liberty, he giveri
the stone of army re-organisation. flavoured with
the sauce of a huge loan.

DRINKING CUSTOMS OF ETON.—Our readers will
hardly believe, what the evidence of this report abundantly
chews, that drinking is " connived at " and " counte
nanced by the authorities, and treated as a part of the
system." It appears that at least a hundred boys may
go into the " Tap " and the " Christopher " every ordinary
day, and stay there " for hours," and that the number of
boys, and the time spent in these places, are greatly in.
creased on Sunday afternoons after four o'clock. It also
appears—and this is the strangest feature of all—that in
spite of a sham prohibition, no master, and certainly nc
monitor, or person in authority of any kind, has power
to interfere with these practices, however much he may
deplore them ; nor would he be aided by the reverend head-
master, provost, or fellows in any attempt he might make
to put a stop to them. Other injurious customs of the
place—such as the initiation into the " swell" set, or
" cellar "—an honour much coveted and valued—by drink.
ing at one breath the contents of a glass twelve or fifteen
inches in depth, are well known and denounced by some of
the masters, and complained of to the head-master, whose
general advice in regard to such points is, we understand,
" that such things should be seen as if they were not seen,
and known as if they were not known "—a principle, if we
consider it well, wonderfully suggestive. The fact is, that
all these evils are maintained consistently with the " feel
ing of what is right and honourable" entertained by the
most influential of the Eton boys—by those whose opinion
on all subjects of morals is paramount—and are rampant
does not fasten the re.
ssptiolit,isjibuisititbyecualusve
n"thethe
system"pusillous head-master, who
ought, ought, by authority, to prevent young boys from learning
to become drunkards or perish in the attempt. Any argu.
meat which justifies the scenes at the " Tap " and the
" Christopher," would have justified the maintenance of the
Chamber of Horrors ; but that has been abolished, and so
Icould these, were the Eton authorities anxious to abolish
them. We are warranted in saying that some, at least, of
the assistant masters would gladly aid in the good work,
—British Quarterly Retie/v.

•