The Sun.
London, England, 1868-06-10 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS,

The Times declares that there is no doubt that the new
Press Law marks an epoch of considerable progress in
France. As M. Pinard puts it, the French press is now
of age. Every citizen may print his journal as he may
carry his pocket-knife. He is only responsible; for the use
to which he puts either weapon. There is an end of pre-
vious " authorisation," of all the discretionary powers of
the Government. The equality before the law is fully
established, and the only disability which can arise is in
the case of persons too poor to afford the rather heavy
caution money. The use of the press is allowed ; its
abuse is punished ; and the proper limits between
use and abuse are to be fixed by the, ordinary tribunals in
every case that the public prosecutor ir ly see fit to bring

before them. The Minister of Justice inveighs with some

warmth against those who have expressed any doubt as to
the fitness of the French magistrates to deal with offences

against the Press Law. There is no innovation whatever,
he asserts, in their jurisdiction. For the last fifty
years they have taken cognisance of written as well
as of spoken libels, and their impartiality has been
at all times above suspicion. We, indeed, always
thought the integrity of the French magistrates so
well established that the Minister's apology seems a work
of supererogation. But it is not emancipation from the
courts that the French Liberals were clamouring for. All
they wanted was that prosecutions of the press might be
tried by jury. In all differences arising between public
writers and the authorities they wished for the opinion of
plain citizens rather than of lawyers. They were afraid
of that letter of the law which kills ; they longed for that
spirit which saves ; they dreaded that inexorable technica-
lity of interpretation which is apt to numb the lawyer's brain.
The control of the Government being thus strongly esta-
blished, the Ministers seem sufficiently willing that it should
be fairly and even temperately exercised. "The Govern-
ment," says M. Baroche, " will ask of the magistrates, as
it has invariably done hitherto, only well-grounded,
logical, and impartial sentences. Nothing is further from
its intentions than a jealous and restless surveillance of
the slightest slips of the 1 ;s. The criticism and discus.
sion of political and administrative acts should suffer
no hindrance." The Tines does not think these words
have been spoken without earnest and deliberate meaning.
Nay, it is convinced they convey the Emperor's mind, and
his whole mind. Compatibly with the exigencies of what
he calls " order," the Emperor is bent upon countenancing
freedom of opinion. The criticism which a Frenchman
cmild hitherto freely allow himself in the pages of a fort-
nightly chronicle may now be reproduced in the columns
of a. daily paper. The principles to which he could give
A witolesale utterance in an octavo sheet may now be
retailed in so many paragraphs of a few lines. The
French will have a fight for it, no doubt. What the
Emperur intended for the benefit of his subjects was not
a ready made liberty ; it was a liberty to be earned
inch by finch. Had even the bent of his own mind
inclined hix.a to the acknowledgment of unlimited popular
rights, he -was well aware of the strong and stubborn
array of illibta-alism he had to deal with on his own side.
We know the trouble he had in dragging the so-called
"Arcadians" after him even so far as he has gone;
we are not sure how much further they would have
followed him. The bane of his whole existence—his
own irresolution more than anything else—has stood
in the way of his generous impulses. Between his

desire to come to terms with the men of progress

and his anxiety to compound with the men of
" order," the Emperor was as embarrassed as he has
so long been and still is between a policy of peace and the

partisans of war, as he has b,3en at all times, and will, perhaps,
for ever be, between the champions of clerical ultramon-
tanism and the advocates of a national and independent
Gallican Church. With sli his hesitation, however, the
new law on the Press is one step, and a very significant

aone, that he has made. "So much won from the enemy,"
the French Liberals may lay. It is not by the amount of
the gain, but by its solidiiy and permanence, that its im-
portance should be valued.
The Herald maintains that the debate on the Telegraphs
Bill .was one-sided. The arguments of the Opposition
were,-with one exception, confined to the time when and
the manner in which the object should be accomplished.
From the leaders of the adverse section we heard nothing
that is not perfectly consistent with a settled purpose on
their part to bring in a bill of their own whenever they
have a chance of doing so. Hence they avoided enuncia-
tions of principle, and enlarged upon hypothetical practical
evils. The scheme was commendable, and its adoption might
possibly be desirable. But what was to be done were
best done slowly, and, indeed, 'twere better not done at
all, by the present Parliament. The only good, hearty,
thoroughgoing opponent was Mr. Leeman, the honourable
member for York, a gentleman in whose bosom the fine
gold of patriotic ardour seems to have mingled wonder.
fully well with the baser metal of regard for the railway
interest. He hates espionage, and he loves block
signals. If, by the bill, all the telegraphs in the
country are placed under the control of Government,
we may possible be scandalised at finding private messages
stopped in transitu and laid upon Prime Ministers'
tables. Again, if railway companies have to pay for
their messages, telegraphic instructions for moving
40,000 waggons and carriages daily can no longer be
forwarded, The anti-climax is really touching. The
sanctity of private messages, and the easy moving about
of railwfly vans ; the old English hatred of espionage, and
" the modern directors' " unwillingness to pay for the
privilege of using the wires ! When such names conjoin,
and such considerations concur, who can stand against
them, or fail to follow where their enunciator and expo-
nent leads? The only difficulty is in ascertaining exactly
which way he is going, because he seems hardly to have
made up his own mind upon the point, seeing that he
began by moving that the bill be read a second time that
day six months, and ended by moving that it be sent to a
select committee.
In dealing with the same subject, the Standard charges
the Opposition with using factious tactics to get rid of the
bill. Just as the leaders of the Opposition strove to burke
the Reform Bill by talking against time, and devising one
scheme after another in taking it out of their rivals'
hands, so do they meet the Telegraphs Bill with pleas for
delay. Mr. Goschen, for example, was compelled to
admit that he was " rather favourable to the Govern-
ment proposition," and Mr. Gladstone himself " believed
the principle to be a practicable, perhaps a desirable
one." But neither of the right honourable gentlemen
appeared able to act upon their beliefs and convictions.
Strangely enough, both those ex-Ministers were sensitive
and apprehensive about the possible influence of the
telegraphs on a general election, " when priority in the
transmission of messages might involve the most serious
consequences." The same argument might, and may still,
be used against the State monopoly of the Post Office.
Our trust in both cases must be in the influence of public
opinion to prevent any abuse of this kind ; and when we
find two leading politicians at once so anxious to postpone
the bill which they do not venture to oppose in toto,
and so apprehensive about its possible influence upon an
election which is now not far off, we cannot help being
reminded of the proverb, Qui s'excuse, s'accuse.
The Telegraph has no reason to be dissatisfied with the
nature of the debate on the Electric Telegraphs Bill, since
the course recommended by the Government is precisely
that which it suggested a fortnight back. The Chancellor
of the Exchequer, who moved the second reading, an-
nounced his willingness to have the measure handed over
to a select committee for detailed examination ; and Mr.
Leeman, who led the opposition, also preferred that form
of inquiry to the risk of defeat by moving a distinctly
hostile amendment. The Ministerial recommendation
will, no doubt, be adopted by the House at a future day ;
and we shall be much surprised if, out of the testimony
that will be adduced before such a tribunal as a select
committee, conviction do not dawn on the minds of some
who are at present hostile to the plan.
The Star has not the least sympathy with Mr. Leeman
in the wholesale hostility which he displays to the Govern-
ment scheme. It is absurd to suppose that the railways
would be deprived of any facilities essential to their busi-
ness, much less of any facilities essential to the security
of life. Indeed, it is not to be supposed that, under
Government administration, any
conspicuous short-
coming in the public telegraph service would
be permitted by Parliament, which would have con-
stant opportunities, as upon all other subjects,
bringof forward abuses. The real difficulties do not lie
in the direction which Mr. Leeman indicated.
There
may be in the very nature of the work something which
unfits it to be undertaken by Government. There may be
temptations in it for Government which would inevitably
create scandals. The enterprise may be too colossal
The financial arrangements may be too onerous. 01;
these and many other points there may be reasons for
pausing and for investigating. But there is no reason to
suppose that the railways will suffer, or that
ordinary
private messages will be either delayed, or pried into, or
ul-delivered.
Who could have imagined, exclaims the Daily News,
that whenever the time should come for the Russian
Government to propose practical reforms for the advantage
of foreign commerce, it would find its measures resisted by
the English merchants on the spot? Well, anybody who
knows what a British factory is, and always has been,
would have imagined it. A factory is a commercial
trades union, and its members invariably judge every
public measure by its real or supposed bearing on their
interests. The changes which the Russian Government
has lately made are in the spirit of free trade, as they
climinish local charges on commerce. But time merchants,
who have for half a century resisted this, go to the
Minister of Finance, and ask that they may be rescinded,
professedly because they wish to retain a necessary hold
on the shipmaster, but really in order to protect their own
exorbitant charges. They have been long accustomed to
levy a kind of black mail, and are naturally indisposed to
relinquish the practice. We trust the Minister of Finance
will stand firm, and not allow the wise and liberal mea-
sures to be defeated by an interested combination. The
St. Petersburg factory was abolished by Act of Parlia-
ment, and has never been sanctioned by the Russian
Government, and it must not be allowed to rob the ship-
masters. Their coalition is one "in restraint of trade,"
and is injuring trade daily. Their proceedings may be
found to require the interference of her Majesty's Govern-
ment ; in any case, Lord Stanley would do well to keep his
eye ILINII thew.