Private Correspondence.
The Times, 1824-09-02T00:00:00

I * ~~~~~~~~PARIS, Aere. 2&. We begir to revive from the surprise into which the Minister has thrown ue by suddenly subjecting all joumrals not hisl own to the preydous arbitrary censorship of certain police agents. We now even console ourselves with the idea that this proceeding is by no means strange, and that it is only what we ought to have expected long ago, bad not our foresight been very limited but we have so high an esteem for ourselves, that we forget the past with great facility; and we arc so disposed to place confidence in the powerful, that an act by which the Ministers prove that they are pust aU shame, and pay no regard to the public, now excites amongst us only surprise, but no general feeling of indignation. We readily sonsole ourselves by reilecting, that they pay no more attention to their old friends than to any other persons. You are aware that while a small portion of liberty was left tO the journals, the Mlinistry reserved the power of annihilating that liberty without the neces8ity of appealing to the Chambers, if dir- cumstatnces should render the ordinary means of repre-ss0n insufficient. The anticipated circumstances occurred. The Alinis- ters succeeded in purchasing five or six journals from the two oppo- sitions. But they were only able to obtain five-twelfths of the Quotsidic,z,e, seven-twentieths of the Coanitutionvel, and failed to detach any share whatever from the Courrier FranSais. To secure themselves still farther, they tried to suppress the Colurier Froira:i, on a charge of tendncy, and to prevent another journal from re- appearing, on the pretext that it had been too long dorrnnt- The Courts, however, rejected the pretensions of tie iil inisters, whr' were as much surprised as the public at the judgments pronounced. Thus, the refusal of the majority of the proprietors of these journals to sell their shares, are the two apparent clrcuR1stance,s which have brought about the re-establishment of the previous and arbitrarY censorship. But there is a third circumstance which, though littJe suspectedl has had far mere influence than the forner two. On this occasion, as on some others of a similar kind, we have once mo-e perceived the hand of the Holv Alliance; and the wishes of Austria -nd Russia have had no less weight than the incorraptibility of the Quotidicnne, In 1814, when the Ministers of IJO.nis XVIII. subjected the jour- nals to the censorship, they placed over each journal an agent, who inspeeted the articles preparei for intertion, adtd suppressed such as he supposed woull be disagreeable to the Government. Some time after this censorship ceased to exist. In 1820 other Ainisters prc- posed its re-cstablishment, but public opinion had then madt so much pi.igress, that K sufficient number of properly qualified per. sons could not be found willing to be attached to the journals as censors. The Government, therefore, created a Commission of 12, who muet every evening at one of the Mliaisterial offices, whither the editors of the journals were obliged to send proofs of their paper. The articles which did-not please were mparked in red ink. Thlis Was to them a sign of proscription, or of death, for they were not r.l- lowed tobe published in any other way whatever. The Comn:is- sioners always formed a secret conclave; no one was allowed to come into their presence, either Eo ask or to give any explanation. In the present year, the censorslhip has assumed a very different clharacter. It is, indeed, still in the dark, as iR 1820, but itis under the direction of a man devoted to Austria. Wlhat is singular is, that the very man who now determines what may or may not be published in France, is the same who gave actiijty to the diplo- matic maclhine under the administration of M. de Chateaxubriand, though he really was a stranger to that Minister. He furnished the lists of the persons whom Austria wished to be persecuted in foreign countries; and when representations were made to the noble Viscount on the injustice of such persecutions, he had the modesty to declate that he vas only a paSSive inst-rumeTt, as the lists were sent to him by 3U. P. - u ltong Decan scspectetd triat this man was the agent of foreign Powers, when an incident occurred which converted suspicion into certainty. Last summer a German officer had occasion to wait on him. Our police gentleman, by a sinilarity of names, mistook the officer for an Austrian agent, whom he expected, and immediately addressed him on official business. Herelatedcertain serviceswhich he had recently performed for his Imperial Majesty, hinted at the nature of some still muore important, which it would soon be in his power to render, and expressed hiis abhiorrence of all those low wretches whose existence gave offence to the Holy Alliance. The German was at first thunderstruck at this contidence; and when he recovered from his astonishment, was afraid to let the man of the police know how imprudently he had disclosed his secrets. He there- fore left him without explaining who he was, and hastened to con- sult one of his friends, a member of the Chamber of Dfeputies. His ifrientl advised him to leave France as speedily as possible, and this counsel he was not slow in following. The handiwork of this mysterious personage, who, from his ob- scure chamber, dictated the instructions which Ml. de Chateaubriand signed for expelling from the European continent those Italian. or other refugees whonm Austria thought too near her provinces, ceased to be noticed when there was no longer any refugee to proscribe. But when it was hnown that he was invested with a control over the journals, his former deeds were soon recollectedt. It was then readily perceived that the sanme Power which crushed the press in Genera. the canton de Vaud, and all the other Swiss cantons, had sufficient influence to suppress that degree of liberty of the press which had been allowed to exist on the banks of the Seine. It would, in fact, have been a very incornplete and futile measure to suppress the jourDals of Geneva and Lausanne, and leave those of Paris in the same language, which might be sent to Switzerland, at liberty. One of the things which it is al ways easy to perceive and yet diffi- cultto proye, is the influence exercised in France by foreign Powers, and more particularly by the members of the Holy Alliance. Aftes the restoration of 1815, there was placed at the head of the fo- reign department a man whose talents could give him ro in. fluence in the legislative chambers, but who possessed the ad- vantage of having governed a Russian province during the greater part of his life. M. de Monmorency afterwards appeared, and hedid not need to be urged to follow the path t a, ad out by the Holy Al- liance. To him succeeded 3'. de Chateaubriand, who returned fronm Vcona quite inflated with the flattery he had received fromi the Russian Autocrat, who was never consulted when the affairs of France were exclusively considered, and who nerer exercised an in- fluence abroad except as the instrument of a roan devoted to Austria. Finally, 1M. de Chateaubriand has for his successor, not an influen- tial member of either Chamber, but a man who once was a Russian Colonel. A. de Villele, who seems to put tie machine in motion, and to whom his enemies do the honour of supposing that he hr.s a will of his own, will doubtless say that this circtrumstance is the mere effect of accident: but since he himself declared in the Ckamber that the war with Spain was dictated by Austria and Russia-since he confessed that lie was placed under the alternative of either marching an army to the Rhine or to the Pyreneeahbow can hc expect that the public will attribute to him an indepen- dence which he has openly disavowed ? How carn he expect it to be at the same time believed, that Russia and Austria could oblige hirn to undertake an impolitie war, and yet that those Powers lad not sufficient influence to mnake hin give the office of Foreign Affairs to a Russian Colonel, or to place the Frencis journals under the con- trol of a Russian agent ? This would be supposing that the illus. trious Heads of the lHoly Alliance want either the power or the will to dictate such1 tbings; but we have Al. de Villele's atcknowledg- inent that they are able to do a great deal more; and we can judge of their wishes by the declarations they liave issued, and the deeds they have done in Switzerland and Germnany. Besides, the great Mlonarchs of the north are fsar from concealing the influence they exercise over us, even with respect to those atTairs which ongh, to be most foreign to theno. Surely nobody can have forgotten the flattering letter whIich the Royal Autocrat of Russia wrote with his own liatd to one of oer Crown lawyers, on his Suc- cess in sending to the scaffold somee unfortunate youths acctsed of conspiracy. This letter, which would have been objectionable had it even have been written by the King of France, seems to have been the nakingoi'l. AAttorney Mlarchangi. Eversince he received it, Court favours have been lavished on him; within a short period he passed through all the gradations of the judicial order, and he is at length advanced to a place in the first tribuanl of the kingdom. He has been withirn thest few days appointed Advocate-G eneral to the Court of Cessation. Ts it, then, too nmuch to suppose that a Mv{onarch, who tbought tit to co=npliment the subaltern law agent of a foreign Government on his getting men condemned to death, will hesitate to compliment the Judges by whons the senterces were proinounced, and to give marks of his high favour to thie Miuisters who knew how to choose such able ageats and Judges ? The measure by which Al. de Villele has deprived the journals of the little Liberty they enjoyed, is an act of comaplaisance, from which he can derive no advantage, but which is likely to prove fatal to him. You mayj udge from the barrenness of our journals when they were Iree, that no important fact occurred in France which it was the interest of the Blinisters to conceal. All they have gained. therefore, is, the stopping of discussion on fact- zlready knswn, and respecting which the psic mind is lorg since franned. Such discussions could not injure the Ministry, mnd had indeed already began to lose all interest. Finally, the censorship being established for the joarnals only, statentents of facts and discussions will find their place in pamphlets; and as the Ministers look only to the pub- lic opinion of Paris, the pamphlets will form that opinion. The censorship will then yield no advalitage to AL. de Villele: but it will not bhe equally ftee ftrom inconvertiences. This measure appears, in the first instance, to have becn ddirected more aginst the Ultras than the Liberals. Though in all probability the giat object in view wts to please the menabers of the Holy Alliance, the immecdatt effect has bseato deprive theUltras of thi inataeats of cminm icatao;ia pm4a th t 6Dd,n , f4c;,tblt ps=Ydes ttot oYtcav toge ttLernJ& Ir mnem6tB5ersacattered throughdistrntdepartWnen1pd lb,sttof tba country were athommunicationsaremost dificolt-thatis to saythast in those places which are least civilized, the Uitrat abound the mnot.. The paMphIet3 vrhich are published at Paris cala be of very little laea te them, for their party is insignificant in the capital ;n ds the minioters have the control of' the post-office, they allow no pam- phlets to circulate which they think unfavourable to themselves. On the other hand, the ordinance which re-establishes the censor- ship, has, by the effect of that re-establishment, annulied tse judg- ments in favourt of the journal. That orAinanee was a direct af. front given to the Royal Court of Paris and the Court of Cassation, the influential members ofwvhich are of M?. de Chateaubriand's party. The D?inisters rely on the servilitr of the Charmber of It:put ties for receiving itb sanction to this measure, and I do not- thaink that in this rerpect their hopes will be disappointed; bt. they wiW find the Chamber of Peers Ites complying. Two partdes its that Chamber unite in wishing to oust the Ministry-namlely, te, Liberals and the dedded tltras; but both together2are Uot uffic3ent ly numerous to tnake a majority, and to secure succesr the vweight of tbe Bishops must be thrown into the scale- If it be simply proposed to continue the censorship on the journals, the probability ic that the ministers will fail, because the Bishops are aware that the great questions of religion are not discussed in newspapers; but if it bec proposed to make all works indiecriminately subject to the censor. ship. the Bisbops will be gained over; for, much a. they dislikeVil, iele, he is less odious to them than free discussion and philosephy. But our Government need not look forward to Perceive rnore se- rious dangers than any that czn await It from the disEcontents of tha Chambers. The te rible disorders which prevail in Spain.the quar-. rels between the Spaniards and the French troapz-the discontew which are ill kept dowvn in the invading 2rmy-the acts of violence which the French are obliged to aid or connive at-the imposd-jjtyx- of moderating the cruelty of the Spanish Vltras or of bringing thern under any regular system of government-the dangers which woild fol- low the withdrawing the French troops_-the necessity of pleasing the foreign Powers even in acts of internal:dministratioa-tbae isatilfac. tion which is consequently rpreadthroughout al classes of society and all pArties-finally. even the increasing prosperity of France,whereby the numberofin(lependent and well-infornied men isaugruented- are all considerations which impress oar Government with certain iIl. disguised fears. It is equally alarmed at the contemplation of the circunstances which predominatcd at its establishmet t, and R anticipation o' the ovents which its flly is preparing. Not daring to look either back-ward or forward, it is wholly engronsed by the present moment. During the ten years which it has existed, not a law has been passed wrhich has lasted one year. It saet-s to Consider itself as an accident, which circumstances have made, and which cir- cumstances may unmake. PrIV47Z CORRESPONDENCE.