21 MAY 1842, Page 2

The French are a free people, ergo they have a

free press ; and its freedom has been testified by a recent event. On Saturday, the Temps, a moderate Opposition paper, which is said to have been in the pay of some of the Ministers, was sentenced to pay a fine of 100,000 francs, its responsible proprietors one year's imprisonment in default of payment, and the journal itself to be suppressed— for what ? sedition ? exciting the loyal Parisians to new conspira- cies against the blood-royal, or new revolutions against tax-surveys ? The crime of the offender was, that a number of the paper had appeared without the signature of the proprietor who ought to have signed it ! The outrageous fine might be supposed a piece of judicial tyranny, a stretching of the law ; but it was the very re- verse—the Court imposed the minimum fine allowed by law. The whole proceeding was a matter of course: the journal was one of no vast importance, and there was no extraordinary motive to seve- rity. The wonder is, not that the Temp has been suppressed, but that the law which permitted its suppression is on the statute-book, or ever came there. In Austrian Italy, indeed, the law might pass with the rest ; but France is a free country, and it has, forsooth, a free press!

The French are also an honourable people. In February 1838, Count SEBASTIANI, Count Moas Minister here, signed a protocol foreshadowing the Quintuple Slave-trade Treaty : on Wednesday last, Count Moil declared that he had always opposed the prin- ciple on which that treaty is based. M. GUIZOT proved the Count to be in error, and avowed that be considered himself bound by the negotiations of Count SEBASTIANI, the representative of the Moth Cabinet ; and he concluded by announcing that he should not consummate those negotiations by ratifying the treaty ! Pro- bably the French attach less importance than we do to the subject of suppressing the slave-trade ; but then, the point of honour !— They used to manage these things better in France.