The Sun.
London, England, 1829-12-21 00:00:00

PROJECT OF LAW RELATIVE TO THE LIBERTY OF

THE PRESS.

We, William, &c.

Having taken into consideration that the law of
the 16th of May, 1829, far from having answered
its intention, has been followed by gross abuses,
given rise to a greater number of offences, multiplied
uneasiness and suspicions, and served as a pretext for
sowing disunion ;
That it has consequently become indispensable
to efficaciously repress disorder, in order to be able
to maintain the peaceable inhabitants of the kingdom
in the enjoyment of liberty and repose; to support
the government and the authorities in the peaceable
exercise of their functions, and to preserve entire the
rights guaranteed to us and to our House by the
fundamental law of the kingdom;
By these conside:ations, and after consulting our
Council of State, we have decreed and do decree as
follows :

Art. 1. Every becoming (detente) criticism of the
acts of the public authority ha works and periodical
writings, journals, and pamphlets, continues to be
free, and permitted to every person.
2. All those who in any manner, or by any means
whatever, shall attack the dignity, power, or rights
of the Royal Family, or shall be guilty in one way
or another of the manifestation of hostile sentiments
towards tile King, of contempt of the ordinances
or decrees emanating directly from him ; of insult
or outrage towards the person of the King, or of
any Member of the Royal Family, shall be punished
'with from one to live years' imprisonment.
3. Shall be punished with imprisonment of from
one to three years, those who shall -be guilty of
attacks upon the obligatory force of existing laws,
or who shall excite disobedience to those laws ;—all
those who shall be guilty of disturbing or endanger-
ing public safety, in sowing disunion, fomenting
alarm and suspicion; as also those who shall com-
mit the offence of attack and insult against the
Government or one of its branches, or who shall
outrage its acts or calumniate its intentions, or who
shall endeavour to sap its authority.
4. In case of a repetition of the offence, the pri-
mitive punishment shall be doubled.

5. The prosecution of the offences mentioned in
this law shall be ordered within three months.

6. All the existing legislative dispositions which
are not abrogated or modified by the present law,
and particularly the articles 201 to 206 of the Penal
Code, are maintained; articles 4; 5, and 6, of the
law of the 16;h May, 1829, are annulled; article 3
of that law is not to be applicable in calumny or in-
sult committed in writing ugaimst public function-
aries, for in those cases the offences will be prose-
cuted officially, without the necessity of complaint
on the part of the persons insulted or calumniated.

A MARE'S NEsT,—This phenomenon, in
comparison with which the /Amnia? " hides its diminished
head," and the discovery of which has been so frequently
•aaeribed to wondtr.seekii:g persons, though held by
"-thinking people" to be the beau ideal of the Marplots,
hai At length been really found out ! But there are many
sorts of mares; there are lord mayors, grey mares, and
night mares : and, in the very interesting narrative which
-we are about to submit, the " grey mare" proved not
only the " better horse," but the better mare, by scaring
her grim namesake from the frightful usurpation of a so-
vereignty due only to herself. A few nights since, a re-
spectable couple (man and wife, •of course), residing in
Chorlton-row, had retired to their chamber; and, after
the-hiss of mutual affection had been exhangtal, and the
kind " good night" had been uttered, tl'ey both fell into-
a tranquil slumber. At length, however, the husband
groaned deeply, and his loving partner, in the greatest
alarm, stinted from her bed, and seizing a candle which
was burning in the room, held it over the convulsed frame
of her husband, whom she supposed in the last agony;
then screaming for aid, she quickly roused a female ser-
vant, and dispatched her for a neighbouring surgeon ; • but-,
in her anxiety for the speedy attainment of menical ad-
vice, she ran after the maid, and the trio,—namely, the
surgeon, good wife, and servant, shortly arrived at the door
together. In the meantime, the husband, who had only been
suffering from the temporary oppression-of the night mare,
had awakened; and territiel by the noises he heard, and the
unaccountable abs?nee of his wife, hurried down stairs in
his shirt, where he found the street door Open, which con-
firmed his worst feara for the fate of his wife and his pre-
petty. Hearing fortsteps approaching, at this unlucky
moment, and rendered desperate by what he conceived the
peril of his situation, he armed -himself with a broom, the
head of which fell with no slight force upon the shoulder
of the unfortunate disciple of ESCnr.APIus, who liSppened
fi!st to present himself for entrance! A violent struggle
ensued, during which the mistress and maid ran for assist- 1
Alice ; and; deeming the infuriated husband ..rood, he was
quickly secured ill a straight waistcoat, his head. shaved,
blisters applied, and every reme ly resorted to: which his'
-melancholy ease appeared to require. It is•-ahnost needless.
to sty, that finding raving availed him nothing, the poor
'gentleman at length became composed, and was. permitted
to see his wife, when mutual explanation soon restored
:matters to their former itate, which this discovery.oi-the
'mare's nest will, it 'is:hoped, secure from future interitip-
•tion,--Nanchester Advertiser.