The French correspondent of the Times declares that the new
Chamber must put a check on the torrent of libel which is now destroying all reputations in France. The Premier,
Tirard, for instance, was allowed 210,750 for entertain- ments to be given by him during the Exhibition. He spent only £4,000, sent the balance back to the Treasury, and forwarded with it detailed accounts of the outlay of the remainder. Nevertheless, the journals opposed to him in- sinuated that he had pocketed much of the money, and when his vindication appeared, only half of them had the fair- ness to publish it. It is easy enough to stop libel of that sort—that is, libel imputing crime—if the nations choose. Let them treat it as common assaults are treated, and punish it, like assaults, with a few weeks' real imprison-
ment inflicted by the Magistrates. There would not be, under that law, a libel of the kind published in a century. No such law, however, will be passed, for the simple reason that the democracy likes libel, and will pay for it, and does not see why a public man should not be libelled. That drives from its service all but the thick-skinned; but then it has no scales to weigh the thin-skinned in.
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