ous kind has been spread in Paris where no
independent journal is allowed to appear." From these few lines it may
be concluded, that in the eyes of the Government of Versailles the whole
of the Paris newspapers, whose editors have not deserted their posts,
have entirely submitted to the Commune, and only think and say what the
Commune permits them to think and say. This is an egregious calumny. No,
thank heaven! The Parisian press has not renounced its independence, and
if no account is taken (as is perfectly justifiable) of a heap of
miserable little sheets which no sooner appear than they die, and of
some few others edited by members of the Commune, one would be obliged
to acknowledge, on the contrary, that since the 18th of March the great
majority of journals have exhibited proofs of a proud and courageous
independence. Each day, without allowing themselves to be intimidated,
either by menaces of forcible suppression or threats of arrest, they
have fearlessly told the members of the Commune their opinion without
concealment or circumlocution. The French press has undoubtedly
committed many offences during the last few years, and is not altogether
irresponsible for the troubles which have overwhelmed the unhappy
country; but reparation is being made for these offences in this present
hour of danger, and the fearless attitude which it has maintained before
these men of the Hotel de Ville, atones nobly for the past. It has
constituted itself judge; condemns what is condemnable, resists
violence, endeavours to enlighten the masses. Sometimes too--and this is
perhaps its greatest crime in the eyes of the Versailles Government--it
permits itself to disapprove entirely of the acts of the National
Assembly; some journals going as far as to insinuate that the Government
is not altogether innocent of the present calamities. But what does this
prove? That the press is no more the servant of the Assembly than it is
the slave of the Commune; in a word, that it is free.

And what false news is this of which the _Journal Officiel_ of
Versailles complains, and against which it seems to warn us? Does it
think it likely that we should be silly enough to give credence to the
shouts of victory that are recorded each morning, on the handbills of
the Commune? Does it suppose that we look upon the deputies as nothing
but a race of anthropophagi who dine every day off Communists and
Federals at the _tables d'hote_ of the Hotel des Reservoir