JB/109/140/001

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1820 Apr. 27
Collectanea – La Fayette for liberty of the Press – applied by Morn. Chron.

Morn. Chron. April 27th, 1820.

"The measures for the suspension of the securities of individual
"liberty, and the imposition of a Censorship on the Journals,
"did not pass without very strong opposition, to the particulars
"of which, from the small space we can in general allot to French
"debates, we could not always do justice. Among the many respectable
"individuals who joined in the defence of the liberties
"of the Country, it gives us great satisfaction to find among the foremost
in the good cause the excellent Lafayette, whose consistency
"in the support of freedom, after having suffered severely
"from those who abused its name, presents a refreshing spectacle
"and an encouraging example. The manner is happy in
"which he applies, in the following passage, the facts with which
"the experience of a long life furnishes him, to the illustration
"of the designs of the Court faction now attempting to
"enslave France. It is from a speech on the 8th, of March:–

When in the early times of the Revolution, some deplorable
crime had rent the hearts of the promoters of liberty,
our affliction was increased by the earnestness of our enemies
to profit by that pretext to calumniate liberty itself; and
subsequently, after all the constitutional barriers had been
overthrown by the combined efforts of internal anarchy and
counter-revolutionary invasion – when crimes & affliction
had exceeded the expectation of the most pitiless partisans of
the system of pessimism, the minds of all feeling & those
truly unfortunate men to whatever system of opinions
they belonged, were indignant at the cold calculation of
factious spirits which, speculating on the most dreadful
misfortunes, on the most legitimate subjects of lamentation
still asked themselves to what advantage they
might be turned.

The speakers who have preceded me have called to
your mind, how, at the moment of a deplorable catastrophe,
the King's Ministers had renewed this scandalous example;
– they might have added, that a general sentiment
of indignation had done justice to it. Called upon this
day to deliberate, not on three draughts of laws but
on one – called it the law against suspicious persons,
or for lettres de cachet, the name does not matter – permit
me to renew the appeal which I have already
made to the consciences of each of you; is there a
man who thinks that this law, previously promulgated,
could have averted the fatal blow (the assassination
of the Duke de Berri)? Who can believe that
if a minister, a functionary any citizen whatever had
the least knowledge of it, there were not in the

Identifier: | JB/109/140/001 "JB/" can not be assigned to a declared number type with value 109.
Date_1	1820-04-27	Marginal Summary Numbering
Box	109	Main Headings	Liberty of the Press
Folio number	140	Info in main headings field	Collectanea La Fayette for liberty of the Press - applied by Morn. Chron.
Image	001	Titles	Morn. Chron. April 27th 1820
Category	Collectanea	Number of Pages	1
Recto/Verso	recto	Page Numbering	D1 / E1
Penner		Watermarks
Marginals		Paper Producer
Corrections		Paper Produced in Year
Notes public		ID Number	35795
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