The daily exchange. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1858-1861, 1858-03-19
BALTIMORE.
FRIDAY, MARCH 10, 1853.

LEON for the 'hetter regulation of the French
press, srikingly resemble the system which Figaro
IN the play, tells us he found in force at Madrid.
II was informed says he, that, provided did
not alude in my writings to the authorities, nor to
religion, nor to politics, nor to morals, nor to per-
sons in credit nor to the OPERA nor to other play
houses, nor in fact, to any body who is interested
in anything, might freely print what liked I'M
der the inspection of two or three censors ),
''And, adds the witty valet, Tin order more eff
fectually to avoid all risk of offending the author;
Ties or any one else, propose to call nv paper
LIE journal hamile." The description as applicable
to the present state of journalism in Franco s
drawn to the life.
:" NAT snail write about?'' is question which
Government has saved the French journalist the
trouble of answering, by restricting his choice of
SUBJECTS within such narrow bounds as virtually to
he usefulness and value of the press either
az channel OF information, as a representative
OF opinions. 1t is curious to contrast the state of
affairs in France in 1853, with that in 1913. Just
Ten years ago LAMARTINE and his associates in the
provisional Government administered the affairs of
the Republic, where NAPOLEON III now wields tho
powers of the Empire. Then Utopian dream of
L'0eny, Equality and Fraternity, filled the minds
ana excited the imaginations of the French neonle
To-Day the stern and ever-present reality of mill
tary despotism rests like an incubus, upon the
land and STILES all freedom of thought and action
instead OF the stormy debates of the Convention
and OF the National Assembly, we have in the I'M
perlal senate the empty shadow of deberative
Dou9 whose hollow forms of procedure are wholly
isunicient TO veil from ridicule and contempt the
transparent mockery of legislation. Republican
simplicity has given place to Imperial ostentation
ana to Court whose paruenu splendor outvies
That OF the oldest monarchies of Eurone In.
stead OF the promised era of fraternity and
good fellowship the reign of absolutism and
OF terrorism is revived in the odious system
Oh censorship, and espionage which is exer-
cised over the daily walks and talks the
lives and conversation of citizens and which with
argus-eyes of sleepless vigilance is about their
paths and about their beds, and watches their 90
ihgs orth and their comings in, their uprising and
their lying down. The glorious dream of poets
ana philosophers has faded into nothinpness, and
the only result of the days of February, has
peen to substitute for the comparatively mild and
constitutional rule of LOUIS PHILIPPE the iron des-
pohSm OF Louis NAPOLEON Whether this result
mas upon the whole proved beneficial to the best
interests Of France and of the world or the re-
verse, is question which we are not called upon
TO decide, and about which it were idle to specu
i''e. 10 reckon the comparative loss or gain ac-
cruing 10 France from the substitution of any
particular form of government for another, would
be nice calculation, for which, however, the
curiously disposed might easily find the necessary
data and material, without travelling very far into
the remote past of history. The experience of
centuries has been compressed by France into the
limits OF a lifetime, and the duration of a single
Everything by turns and nothing
long, an intermittent fever of revolution appears
to have afflicted her people, and grown by dint of
damned custom into chronic distemper.
With respect to the latest and present phase of
this constitutional malady, il must be said how
ever that if the coup- eat of Louis Napoleon, which
proved the coup-degrace of the Republic frustrated
many hopes, it also averted from France and from
Europe many calamities. To strike the resulting
balance of good and evil may be beyond our power,
put whether for good whether for evil, the re-
'ent and repeated attempts upon the life of the
emperor, and the extreme measures of precaution
md repression adopted in consequence, indicate
he trailty of the tenure by which the Empire
xists. Among those measures, none are so signif-
ant as those which are directed against the liberty
If the press. They prove incontestably, by the
ontession of weakness and the misgivings of dan
ser implied, that though Italians may have planned
md executed the late tragedy of the Rue LIE Pelle
Ter, there must be Frenchmen who sympathized
With their attempt Not. all the addresses of all
he colonies in the French army, backed by the
fiical assurances of the Moneur, can efface the
impression which the recent steps taken to silence
nd muzzle the journalists of Paris are certain to
reduce upon the public mind-an impression, ,
ighly unfavorabe to say the least to the stabili-
y or long continuance of the present regime