The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1860-07-19
L..,, Na.al.en and Che French Prem.

I,e.,. Napoleon and the French Press.
The government Of LOUIS NAPOLEON, from
the beginning, has been founded upon the de-
sradation OF intelligence Almost his first ex-
ercise of power was the suppression Of the
Press. 1t is interesting TO mark the progress
of this tyranny, and to observe the precise
character of the restrictions imposed by the
French government upon the public Journals
which, at one time, had more influence upon
public opinion in that country than the oe-
bates of its greatest legislators and statesmen
We may see by this how the nature OF uo'
pots position involves the dethroneheh' Va
the human mind, and then we may "onuei
WHY this particular despot, VINO VIII no.
mi, T ibertv so much AS to whisper oeneatn the
sn.aovv of his throne, is so much Interested In
the rights of man in other countries.
The very day that LOUIS NAPOLEON as
snrned exclusive power, witnessed the sup
nr.ssion of some influential and respectable
journals, and in less than year from that
,eriod, a decree was issued by which no new
journal could be published without the pre-
vious sanction Of the government, by whom,
also, the editor was to be appointed, or, at
least, confirmed. BY the same decree, If pa
per published a statement OF any kind dis
pleasing to the government, it was liable to an
official reproof, and three such reproofs ex-
posed 1t 10 the punishment of sRspensiOn.-
Moreover, the government limits as II likes
the journals allowed to be sold by the news
vendors in the streets. Nor are these open
and sanctioned meas ures the only oppressive
features of the restrictive system. Not only for
State purposes, bur for those which have not
that excuse, the Government estinely for
bids the notification of events whose publicity
may be on any account disagreeable to It,
When some Paris journals yentured to pub
lsh, in connection with certain measures of
government, sentiments expressed in the
Memorial de Ste Helene and the writings of
Louis NAPOLEON, they were forbidden to
quote either the one or the other. If any scan
dal occurs among the beneficiaries of an
Imperial establis hment, the journals are
directed not 10 publish it, lest it might cast
discredit on an institution of Government
In one ms lance the papers were forbidden to
advertise the prospectus of an individual COM
mercial enterprise, upon the pretence that it
wonid be in competition with a speculative
under taking connected with public works
which the Government had adopted as a fe-
verish stimulant to industry. On another
occasion, an admirable weekly journal, in
tended for circulation amongst the country
schoolmasters, which had been in existence
twenty five years, which never meddled with
political polemics and contained only articles
of merit on literary and general instruction,
gave umbrage to the Government because it
did not inculcate upon the influential class
among whom it circulated, Imperial doctrines.
Accordingly, the Minister of Instruction de-
scended to the unspeakable littleness of caus-
ing a new journal for teachers to be started,
endowing it with such Government aid that
it could be published for price with which
the old journal could not compete, and in
structing the Inspectors of Schools TO use their
utmost influence to induce their su bordinates
the teachers, to take the Government paper,
which con tanned nothing valuable, but which
teens with articles intoxicating doctrines of
absolute government. The old journal came
to an end, having, after its long useful career,
been virtually suppressed by LOUIS NAPo-
LEON, because it would not dabble in politics
on his side of the question.
Nor is it only newspapers, but books which
are gagged and shackled, under the imperial
rule. No dealer can establish himself with
out patent from Government which is re-
vocable On the premises of its publisher. the
sale of a book is allowable, subject to prosecu-
ton for libel, immortality, treason or INSIDE
meanor but the dealers, by whom the prin-
cipal business. in the way of SALE is transact
ed, are forbidden to offer any copy of any
work not previously submitted to the Minis
istry of the Interior, and there furnished with
a stamp. But this is not all. 1t is not only
the newspaper and the book but the school
and the academy, that have been chained to
the car of despotism. Whenever a school
MASTER dependent on authority, INDUCED the
luxury of Independent sentiments, he was at
once deprived of his position, and his school
often closed, to the deprivation of the COM
munity. II is estimated that from four to five
hundred schools have been suppressed from
this cause in France. Moreover, in the whole
system of instruction, the Government has
aimed at eliminating all studies likely TO
nourish an interest in moral and political
questions Such is the abject subsection of
the human mind which Louis NAPOLEON re.
qaires, and to which France submits I'M
INJURED within the iron bars of military des-
potism, which does not permit her to breathe
the free air, nor to utter free thought. an i'm
prisonment more complete and ignominious
than that of st. Helena, she looks out with
fearful eyes upon the woes of Italy, and is
taught to breathe revenge against perfidious
Albion. 1t remains to be seen whether the
foreign policy of LOUIS NAPOLEON can much
longer be relied on for the support of his dy-
nasty. and whether the total obstruction of
every channel of free thought will not lead
10 a political explosion, compared with which
the revolution of as was child's play.