Star.
London, England, 1817-12-15 00:00:00

which have since succeeded

in France

have • consecrated this right—all of them have vio-
hted it—and all of them have perished. The
Kiss by his declaration of the 2d of May, 181+,
as prescribed, as one of the bases of the liberal Con-
stitution which be wished to give us, the Liberty of

the Press. The eighth article of the Charter has
guaranteed it but it was not leng till the law of the
21st October, 181+, that law of censorship . and
orrestrictions, which an imprudent Ministry offered
io compliment to the Charterdestroyed that gua-
rantee. Hence has sprung a general inquietude as
to the stability of the Charter, and of new Institutions.
Hence all the aberrations of a Ministry deprived of
the illumination and support of public opinion—hencel
many deplorable catastrophes. Again, however, is
this system of restriction proposed to be continued
amongst us, by the project now under discussion--a
proicct, the heterogeneous elements of which are
first of all particularly deserving of attention.—

It is composed of the law of the 21st October, 1814,
of the 14w upon seditious writings and cries, 'of the
dispositions of the Penal Code, and of the Decrees of
Bonaparte, of February 1811; on the Polite of the
Press. It is in some measure in fact an act atkatinali
to the most unconstitotional laws and decrees of Bo-
IrlPerte i and surprising indeed would it be were li-
berty to issue from the abuse of despotism."

Proceeding to examine the law in its details, M:
de GRAY endeavoured to chew that the disguised but
teal responsibility which its dispositions imposed on,
printers,. booksellers, and all other distributors, was
wholly destructive of every species of liberty—that 80.
NAPARTE. in the height of Ms despotism, never enacted,
any thing equal to it in his decrees upon the press.
....Arriving a; the. 27th Article on the *Journals; hi
insisted that the wort of censorship proposed waisub;
versive of the representative government, contrary to
the rights of property ; that all fears in respect of in-
ternal or external tranquillity, from the liberty of the
Journals, were wholly chimerical ; and that it was as
much for the interest of the governing as of the go-
verned, that the periodical Press should be left to the
completes freedom.
" The Censorship," continued M. de Gray, in
conclusion, will cast a thick veil over out frontiers,
and conceal from us the position of Europe, which
it is of the first importance to the Chamber to know.
Was ever position more false or more humiliating,
than that of a nation which cannot be permitted to
know what passes either within or without ? Was
ever there greater degradation than that thought and
opinion should be the sole pattimony of the Police ?"
JOLLIVIIIT folio, Op -.sod is; a speech of ;cosi.

clerahle length. supported Me Project', And oppOtleti
the amendments of the Commission, with the excep-
don of certain modifications in article 10.

M. Giumn spoke against the Project. The liberty
of the press, said he, is like the lance of Achilles;
it cures the wounds it makes. A great outcry has
been raised against the evils which the journals are
capable of producing. But it is to be remembered,
that this is not a question about suppressing the jour-
nals. The Ministers wish only that they shall have
the monopoly of them, and such a monopoly will have
the same result as all monopolies. It will be both
ruinous to the country it pretends to protect, and to
the government which it is supposed to favour.
Baron PAfQVIER, Keeper of the Seals.—After a
detailed discussion of several articles of the Project,
(of which the Journals profess themselves unable to
give an analysis), his Excellency came to the article
concerning the Journals, on which he thus expressed
himself : " It is necessary (said he) to distinguish
the Journals from other writings. It is a great
mistake to suppose that one Journal can always re-
pair the evil which another Journal does. The con-
straint imposed on the Journals is commanded both
by our interior situation and by peitieal circum .
stances. I need not say more—you will give to these
circumstances all the consideration which they de-
serve. You know all, France knows all.-you will
judge accordingly."
The hour being far advanced, the Sitting was ad-
journed till next day.

The following are other extracts from these papert :
PARIS, DECEMBER 11.
The Budget will probably be presented to the
lumber in the course of the ensuing week. '

Extract of a letter from Moscow, inserted in the
Gazette de France of Thursday last The flattering
reception that our Persian Embassy has experienced,
holds out to us the brightest prospects. It appears
that our Ambassador, Yermaloff, has gained the af-
fections of Feth Aly Sash. We learn that the Per-
sian Monarch has allowed the establishment of Rus-
sian Consulships in the principal cities of his empire ;
and permitted the Russians, on paying a slight duty,
to trade in his dominions, and to have a passage
' through them to India. We have every reason to
hope that the manufactures of our southern provinces
will be admitted under favourable conditions. The
report that Peth Aly Schah is said to have requested
an interview with the Emperor of Russia, and the
meeting of an Asiatic Congress at Astracan, in the
spring, to which the Grand Sultan of Constantinople
is to be invited, for the purpose of regulating the po-
litical and commercial regulations between the Chris-
tian and Mahometan Powers, requires confirmation."
French 5 per Cents. Iltb December, 63 fr. 60c.