ed out by the English 'Athenaeum' and other prints. Surely a cause
must be bad which is supported by such bad means. In the first place,
Beranger did _not_ write the verses attributed to him. The internal
evidence was sufficient--for Victor Hugo is his personal enemy--to say
nothing of the poetry. Then it would be wise, I think, in considering
this question, and in taking for granted that the 'literature and
talent' of the country are against the Government, to analyse the
antecedents and character of the persons who _do_ stand out, persons
implicated in former Governments, or favored by former Governments, and
whose vanity and prejudices are necessarily contrary to a new order.
These persons, either in themselves or their friends, have all been
tried in action and found wanting. They have all lost the confidence of
the French people, either by their misconduct or their ill-fortune.
They are all cast aside as broken instruments. Under these circumstances
they think it desirable to break themselves into the lock, to prevent
the turning of another key; they consider it noble and patriotic to
stand aside and revile and throw mud, in order to hinder the action of
those who _are_ acting for the country. In my mind, it is quite
otherwise; in my mind and in many other minds--Robert's, for instance!
and he began with a most intense hatred of this Government, as you well
know. But he does not shut his eyes to all that is noble and admirable
going on, on all sides. At last he is sick of the Opposition, he admits.
In respect to literature, nothing can be more mendacious than to say
there are restraints upon literature. Books of freer opinion are printed
now than would ever have been permitted under Louis Philippe, as was
reproached against Napoleon by an enemy the other day--books of free
opinion, even licentious opinion, on religion and philosophy. _There is
restraint in the newspapers only._ That the 'Athenaeum' should venture to
say that in consequence of the suppression of books compositors are
thrown out of work and forced to become transcribers of verses like
Beranger's (which are not Beranger's) is so stupendous a falsehood in
the face of _statistics which prove a yearly increase in the amount of
books printed_ that I quite lose my breath, you see, in speaking of it.

The Government is steadily solving, or attempting to solve, that
difficult modern problem of possible _Socialism_ which has been knocking
at all our heads and