The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-05-06
THE PRESS IN FRANCE.

THE PRESS IN FRANCE.
From the NJ y. Tribune.
A well-known Paris journalist, NJ. Louis VI
BACH was fined 300 francs a few weeks ago for a
disrespectful remark about the Emperor in his
journal La CL0che. 1t is Just about year
since Louis Napoleon promulgated the fTess
law which was supposed to raise the profession
of journalism from the disgraceful thraldon III
which il had languished since the "a (l @DecciIi. @
ber 1851 Under this law Journalists iiti WIZ ai
last accorded the privilege of discussing polltcal
questions without the express permission OF the
Government How much the tardy concession
was worth the history of the past year must
show IL seems TO have been In tact llttle else
than n scheme for dragging the enemies of inn
Derialism to the light and bringing them within
reach of the official arm. Republicans who had
hitherto kept silence rather than recognize the
usurper by asking a license TO publish their pO-
litical views through the press, were now at lib
ertv to speak. but speaking was as full of danger
as ever In fact, the severity of the press prose-
cutions under the new system has increased
rather than diminished. When the editor OF
Toulouse paper was acquitted on n trial for pub
fishing the Baudm subscriptions, the prosecutor,
NJ. Seguier received an official notification that
his arguments were too weak, and the Minis
ter of Justice would accept his resignation. He
published a manly reply:-"Speaklng in court
under the surveillance of secret police, and eN-
pressing convictions forced upon me in advance
by the Minister of Justice, are two things to
which cannot stoop." During the year since
hundred suits have been instituted, and almost
every one has been followed by conviction. In
most Instances, the editors have been both fined
and imprisoned. Sevennewspapersh have been alto
gether suppressed. Three have been temporarily
interdicted. NJ. Delescluze, Paris editor, has
been, moreover, divested of his civil and politi-
cal rghts-denied the privilege of voting, of
holding office, of publishing anything over his
signatuTe-placed, in fine, on level with con-
Victed felons. Fines and imprisonments and
disfranchisement are not the only penalties
which editors have to dread. Summary sup
preston of the sale of obnoxious journals in
the streets and at railway stations precedes the
formality of trial. and if by any rare luck the
trial end in acquittal there is no redress for the
wrong already done. The Government there
fore can ruin any newspaper, even without cause.
Though the paper be never so cautious to keep
within the law, it may be practically suspended
during trial for some imaginary offense, and its
business ruined before the jury can declare it
innocent.
But the animosity of an offended Government
does not safe itself on the editors and propre-
tors The business agents and type-setters share
in the punishments for obnoxious articles which
they never saw. This is blow not at free
thought but at free industry. The Frenchman
cannot follow an honest trade except with the
approval of the Emperor. He must work only
for Napoeon's friends We wonder that the
offenses of republican journals are not visited
on the mill-owners who manufacture their paper
and the founders who make their type. The
scrutiny is as rigid under the new law as it was
under the old. The censorship, which is blind
to the grossest assaults upon morality and de-
cency, has keen eye for the slightest departure
from political orthodoxy. 1t is no offense to
lampoOn the Almighty, but his Majesty the En-
perOr must be treated with becoming respect.
We are told in recent letters from France that
NapoleOnism as a popular worship is fast dying
out. The reverence for the great founder of the
dynasty has been rudey shaken; the splendor
which surrounded that grand historic name fades
gradually away; the proposal to celebrate the
centenary of his birth by pension TO his few
surviving soldiers-even this, though it might
well be deemed an homage to the military glory
of the French nation-is disfavored by the En-
peror's own servants Whatever strength NapO-
leon III may have derived from his uncles fame
has now failed him. He could not preserve the
glory; he could not keep alive the reverence; he
cannot trust to the memories of Austerlitz. He
stands now by his own strength He holds his
people only by heavy curb. 1t is Il dangerous
hold, and 1t cannot last for ever.
THE CONTINENT OPEN TO COLONIES.
From the N. y. Times.
The substantial completion of the Pacific Rail-
road is event as significant TO the Old World
as to the New, and will have special effect on
the many Europeans who have been dreaming
of trying their fortunes in the republic of the
West. Close upon every great epoch like the
present comes q fuller swell in the eVer-cOnstant
flood of immigration. When news has spread
among all would-be emigrants that the American
war is over, or that new and cheaper transporta-
tion across the ocean is furnished, or that
better homestead law has been passed by Con-
gress, or, as now, that the vast continent has
been spanned by railroad and the inner terri
tories penetrated by steam power-that the
locomotive, emblem of progress, will hence
forth fly like shuttle between the Atlantic
and Pacific, weaving something new, with
each journey, into the grand fabric of American
ciVilization-the effect is instantly seen in the
fresh influx of foreign populations. While to
those of us who may not be personally interested
in grand strokes of interior progress, they pass
as seven days wonders, to the Americans of the
future they are of supreme Importance To
these incpient citizens they become pregnant
with meaning we do not instinctively attach to
them; a trans-continental railroad implies, for
example, complete exploration, subdung the
wilderness to civilization, easy transit to distant
homes, and the means of returning if disap-
pointed: it implies the opening of a continent to
colonization, and the interest of powerful cor
poration and of Government itself to keep at
least one broad belt between the oceans secure
from perils to travel and to settlement.
PROGRESS OF POLITICAL LIGHT.
From the NJ Y. Times.
We see a case reported in England which
shows how slowly improvements are made in
that country, and how far behind us, in practi-
cal politics, the inhabitants of that "etfete old
monarchy" are as yet. 1t seems that the Adm
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