The Cassagnac prosecution has failed, and a very good sign
it is, for the French manliness and love of freedom, that it has failed. No doubt M. Paul de Cassagnac's language in speaking of the present French Government in his articles in the Pays was morally and politically disgraceful. He had likened the head of the Government to a brigand. He had called the Cabinet " a Cabinet of eunuchs and rags." There was hardly an insult he had not lavished on the Government. Nevertheless, when Rochefort published like invectives against the Empire, the Republicans inveighed against prosecuting him for it. And what is good law for their enemies, is clearly good law for themselves. Moreover,. in many cases they still regard it so. M. Paul de Cassagnac showed that the most violent attacks on Ministers and on religion by Republican papers are ignored, though for his. attack, as a Bonapartist, he was prosecuted. The jury felt the force of this argument, and acquitted the defendant ; and by doing so, have done more for the liberty of the Press in France than if they had acquitted a hundred Republicans. Not till men apply their principles against themselves, can their principles be regarded as in any sense fixed.
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