was supreme law, and there was no resisting it.
If the government preferred, however, it could
punish otherwise than by admonitions; it could
prosecute a newspaper criminally (in the person
of the editor, of the printer, and the writer of
an offending article) before the Sixth Chamber
of Correctional Police, and under the indictment
of " exciting the citizens to hatred or
contempt of the government." Printer, editor,
and journalist were all three liable, under such
a charge, to fine and imprisonment. The fine
might vary between fifty francs and ten thousand
francs (two pounds and four hundred
pounds); the imprisonment, from seven days to
two years. There was no jury for press trials,
and a prosecution was therefore almost certain
to entail a conviction. During the fifteen
years that have elapsed since the establishment
of the Second Empire, there have been,
perhaps, a couple of hundred journalists prosecuted
for boldness of speech in the different
towns of France; but it is a melancholy fact
that " not a single one of them has ever been
acquitted."

Any literary paper making even an
accidental allusion to politics, incurred immediate
suppression, and its editor was invariably
sentenced to at least a month's imprisonment
(under the heading " politics" are included
political and social economy, and all questions
relating to duties, taxes, or government
generally). None but political papers were allowed
to publish advertisements: the infraction of
this law entailed the suppression of the paper,
and the imprisonment of the editor, with a fine
in addition. No article could be published in
a political paper without the signature either of
the writer or of the editor, who became de
facto responsible for its contents.

In the case of non-political papers, it was
the editor, and not the writer of an offending
article, who was responsible. This anomaly
led to some deplorable results, as in the
instance of the Evènement, which was suppressed
in October, 1866, for touching upon a question
of social economy, and the editor of which,
M. H. de Villemessant, was condemned to a
month's imprisonment for an article written by
M. Alphonse Duchesne whilst he (M. de
Villemessant) was absent from Paris!

Finally, the law of 1852 empowered the
Minister of the Interior to order the seizure of
any paper he chose, and to interdict its sale in
the public thoroughfares for any length of time
he pleased, and under any pretext—that is to
say, the minister could ruin a paper, without
let or hindrance, at his sole pleasure.

The new laws in some degree soften these
pitiless regulations. It is now possible to found
a paper without obtaining ministerial leave;
the duty upon journals is reduced from six
centimes to five centimes per copy. The
system of admonitions is abolished; and
journalists indicted for press offences are no longer
liable to imprisonment, but are amenable to
fines and to interdiction of political rights
(that is, right of voting for, or being elected
to, the Corps Législatif and the Municipal
Councils) for five years.

The condition of French papers are still the
reverse of enviable. Interdiction of political
rights for five years may blast a man's entire
career. However, there is no denying that there
is progress in these laws; the imperial government
has taken a step in the right direction:
one step, too, if prudently taken, may lead to
another; and by degrees, by a few more such
little steps, the French people, if cautious and
steady, will reach their great goal, Liberty!

ANOTHER SPECIES OF OFFICIAL
MIDGE.*

IT appears, by the Foreign Office List, that we
appoint, in different parts of the world, about
one hundred consular judges, who have no
knowledge of the laws they administer. Some
of them are Englishmen, some are foreigners,
some paid, some unpaid, but all alike in this
respect, that they are invested with judicial
functions without being in any way fitted to
perform them. They have no definite principle
or regulations to guide them beyond some
confused and contradictory instructions from the
Foreign Office, composed by certain clerks.
These clerks have never received any legal
education, nor been employed in any manner
whatsoever in the countries for which they
legislate; and, nevertheless, to those clerks all
cases of appeal must be ultimately referred as
a last resort in case of injustice. In the places
where these judgeships exist there is no public
opinion. There are no newspapers. Anything
and everything may be done in a corner. We
have habitually sent out there, to act as judges
of thousands and tens of thousands of our
fellow-countrymen in civil and criminal cases,
men who could not understand one word of
the depositions submitted to them. Sometimes
we have pitched upon a bankrupt merchant,
sometimes a domestic servant, sometimes
upon a man who could sing a cheerful song,
and sometimes upon a spirit-rapper. Let there
be no mistake or misunderstanding as to who
are the people who nominate such candidates to
these judgeships. They are the Assistant Under-
Secretary for Foreign Affairs and the Foreign
Office agents, who, for many years past, have
kept the patronage of the diplomatic and
consular services so completely in their hands, that,
on a recent appointment, worth exactly five
thousand one hundred pounds a year, the chief
merit of the candidate (who had never been
heard of before) was that he " had acquired
the confidence of the office"—by which, in plain
English, may be meant the friendship of the
clerks above mentioned.

* See MIDGES IN OFFICE, page 31 of the present
volume.

It cannot, perhaps, be justly said that for
such friendship a charge is made of from one to
two per cent; but, in reality, the servants of