religion, is understood by the meanest
individual, and the temptation to these prohibited enjoyments is assisted
both by affection and prejudice.--An almanack, with a pleasantry on the
Convention, or a couplet in behalf of royalism, is handed mysteriously
through half a town, and a _brochure_ [A pamphlet.] of higher
pretensions, though on the same principles, is the very bonne bouche of
our political _gourmands_. [Gluttons.]

There is, in fact, no liberty of the press. It is permitted to write
against Barrere or the Jacobins, because they are no longer in power; but
a single word of disrespect towards the Convention is more certain of
being followed by a Lettre de Cachet, than a volume of satire on any of
Louis the Fourteenth's ministers would have been formerly. The only
period in which a real freedom of the press has existed in France were
those years of the late King's reign immediately preceding the
revolution; and either through the contempt, supineness, or worse
motives, of those who should have checked it, it existed in too great a
degree: so that deists and republicans were permitted to corrupt the
people, and undermine the government without restraint.*

* It is well known that Calonne encouraged libels on the Queen, to
obtain credit for his zeal in suppressing them; and the culpable
vanity of Necker made made him but too willing to raise his own
reputation on the wreck of that of an unsuspecting and unfortunate
Monarch.

After the fourteenth of July 1789, political literature became more
subject to mobs and the lanterne, than ever it had been to Ministers and
Bastilles; and at the tenth of August 1792, every vestige of the liberty
of the press disappeared.*--

* "What impartial man among us must not be forced to acknowledge,
that since the revolution it has become dangerous for any one, I
will not say to attack the government, but to emit opinions contrary
to those which the government has adopted."
Discours de Jean Bon St. Andre sur la Liberte de la Presse, 30th
April, 1795.

A law was passed on the first of May, 1795, a short time after this
letter was written, making it transportation to vilify the National
Representation, either by words or writing; and if the offence were
committed publicly, or among a certain number of people, it became
capital.

--Under the Brissotins it was fatal to write, and hazardous to read, an