The Sun.
London, England, 1827-11-10 00:00:00

THE CENSORSHIP.

(From the Constitutionr4el.)

It isjast that France should accurately know—in,
order that she may never forget, never doubt of—
the nature of Censorship. We shall endeavour to
show what it is. Let us begin by recalling to recol-
lection—for that, too, ought to be held in remem-
brance—that the last Censorship, which has just
expired, and under the burden of which we have
groaned for more than four months, was exercised in
Paris by Messrs. de Lourdoueix, Deliege, Beaure-
gard, Joseph Pain, Berchoux, Leveque, Levacher
Duplessis,and Sinai's, under the inspection of a Com-
e mittee of Superintendence, whose influence we have
at no time experienced without its proving fatal.
This Committee was compored of the Viscount de
Bonalde, Peer of France, President; the Marquis
d'Herbouville' Peer of France; the Count de Bre-
tenil, Peer of France; 011irier, ex-Deputy, now a
Peer; De Blair, Councillor of State; De Frenilly,
ex-Deputy, now a Peer; Count de Macquiller, ex-
Deputy, now a Peer; De Guilhermy, President of
the Court of Accounts. .

..•_ _
Under the rule of a Censorship thus organized,
we were obliged to send every day previous to pub-
lication, to the office in the house of the Minister of
the Interior, rue de Grenelle, St. Germain's, proofs
of the Journal of the next day. They returned them
to us, at all times, mutilated, torn, and, for the most
part, those which appeared to us of the most im-
portance, were not sent back at all, which was as
much as to say, that not a single phrase, or a single
word, in those articles, found grace in the eyes of
this censorial Areopagus. In countrip, where jus-
tice is exercised in the most despotic manner, in
Spain, in Turkey, those that are accused are allowed
to present their defence, or their justification. They
do not, indeed, enjoy the benefit of publicity, they
are deprived of the salutary asssistance of an advo-
cate; but at any rate they are not tried nor con-
demned in their absence. The inquisition of the
rue de Grenelle followed another plan; they deli-
berated and tried with shut doors, without allowing
the parties to be present. The sentence of condem-
nation was without appeal or review, and the pain
of death Vas inflicted upon every one who refused
submission. We are not at all exaggerating. A
Journal, which, through inadvertency or otherwise,
should have published not an entire article,not a para-
graph of two lines, but the smallest portion of the ar-
ticle or the piece of news, without the previous audio-
xity of the Censorship, became liable to prosecution;
and the simple fact of a prosecution:being commenced
against it, gave totheAdministration the power of inter-
dictingits publication until sentence was pronounced,
and, for a newspaper, prolonged suspension is death.
This was not all; we were menaced besides with
the pain of death, had we, while struggling with
difficulty, under chains the most galling, suffered it
to be suspected that we were not in • the full enjoy-
ment of entire freedoM. Whatever was remarkable
or striking in an article,. was erased without. pity.—
Had we allowed those destructive mutilations to be
perceived by the smallest spot left blank, or by a few
suspensive points, the next day again, perhaps for
ever, the whole of our proofs would have been re-
tained, and we should have found ourselves con-
demned, never to see the light again. On this head,
due care had been taken-to give us all information ;
we had been told in so many words, " the slaves of
Algiers and of Morocco have every liberty of avow-
ing that they are no longer masters of their own ac-
tions," but that permission is forbidden to the slaves
of Paris and of the whole of France. They are or-
dained to permit it to be believed, nay, every day to
proclaim, that they are free. And what a slavery
was ours—the slavery of the mind Such a piece
of Machiavelism, an arrangement se diabolical, was
unknown to the invisible tribunals of Germany, to
the Star Chamber of England, to the expeditious
justice of Constantinople. All' Paris must be
aware of the revolting crime of Contrafatto—all
Paris still dwells with horror on its enormity—all
Paris shudders at the idea that such a monster
should succeed in blinding the searching eye of the
Police Magistrate. Yet, it was not until after
twenty fruitless Attempts that it was allowed to
give a hint in a very few words to the alarmed minds
of the public,. that they might resume their confi-
dence, for that justice had recovered its power.—
Such was the solicitude of the censorship for this
infamous Contrafatto, that they redoubled their
zeal in his favour, even when the condemnation
of
the criminal had been unanimously pronounced.—
They did more, they took his part against his
victims. The public was not admitted to the Cour
d'Assizes; but according to custom, the doors were
thrown open when the debates were finished, and
the President summed up publicly. M. de Mont-
rnerque, with the honest view of leaving no trace
of the most odious calumnies, described, in all their
modest splendour, the irreproachable conduct, the
rational piety, and: the virtuous example, which the
mother of the unfortunate child had constantly ex-
hibited in her conduct, and in her advice to her
family. The pitiless pen of Censorship erased the
whole of the summing up of the President. At
Versailles another ecclesiastic was guilty of the same
mimes as Contrafatto. Justice inflicted on him
the same punishment. He was pilloried and
branded. Public indignation,—the outrage of-•
fered tosociety, alike' demanded that the punishment
of the criminal should be published as widely as pos-
sible. He too fouled protection under the wing of
the Inquisition of the rue de Grenelle. The
decrees of the Magistracy, the supreme decisions of
justice, very • rarely found favour with the Censors.
They were almost always mutilated, and the publi-
cation of many of therm was wholly prohibited, espe-
cially. sentences Of condemnation pronounced against
the agents of police. It was worthy of the protec-
tors of Molitor and Contrafatto to fend their helping
hand to robbers and to spies. It would be easy for
us to multiply proofs of censorial injury ; we have
enough in reserve to fill a hundred columns of the
,Moniteur. What would,be the ease, if, from parti-
cular facts, we went on to qubstions affecting our
general policy ? ' On this head they finished, by
shutting our mouths altogether. On the affairs of
Spain, of Portugal, of Turkey, ofAlgiers,ofAmerica,
our doubts and our arguments were, per advancer
proscribed 1 Never, for example, were we allowed
to inform the public; that the troubles in Catalonia
had been fomented, kept up, and 'nourished, by the
monks; and that hence it was that the rebels had
inscribed upon their banners those terOde words--
" Viva P Inquisicion." At a future period we shall
return to the discussion of these misdaeds.

And it was in a country that is called free, under
a Government that is called constitutional,,that citi-
zens were thus treated. It was in France, and in
the 19th century, that men were found, who dread-
ed not to undertake, by the exercise of the most
odious power, to strangle thought, to make war
upon all generous ideas, upon all noble feelings, upon
truth herself, upon that child or Heaven whom eight
individuals have for the last four months banished
from France. She has noW returned amongst us,
we are allowed to invoke her GilL's.'• more, but with a
reserve which is imposed upon every honest man,
aad which will not allow us at all times to call
things by their true names, even when we are dis-
cussing the works of Messrs. Safaris, Levacher
plessis,Le ve'que, Berchoux, Joseph Pain, Peauregard,
DeUge et Lourdoue.x.

m.„ On Wednesday last the Duke of WELLINGTON I
changed horses a,t the Bell Hotel, in this town, on his
way to Bradby, the seat of the Earl of CHESTEUFIELD,
where, we understand, his Grace intends to stop a short
time. The noble host, to his credit be it spoken, desired
the individuals who wished to see his Grace, to come into
the house, where an elegant and sumptuous repast was set
out, consisting of 'game and various sorts of wine. The
Duke, while the compani were partaking of his Lordship's
bounty, walked round the t4le, conversing with the seve-
ral individuals of the house in a kind and affable manner.
While on this subject, we think that our corporate burly
might take the opportunity of waiting on his Grace 1% ith
an Address while he remains at Bradhy..—Leice.qer