The press is probably subjected at this moment to more
relentless persecution in the French republic than even in the most despotic state of Germany. - M. Francois -Victor-Hugo has been sentenced to imprisonment and a fine for publishing a protest against the - enlogiums lavished in the Constitutionnel on the indiscriminate ar- rest of two hundred foreigners of all nations, 'on mere suspicion of their complicity in a plot. In the writings of most Continental politicians there is What Englishmen, blase with political writing, deem- to be an exaggerated tone ; and this peculiarity a. youth of twenty-three (M. Francois Hugo's age) was little likely to escape. Making allowance; however, for its somewhat ambitious diction, his protest is sound in-principle and unexceptionable in sentiment. But even had it been -otherwise,- can that country be-Oonsidered free in -which a little excess of language in political discussion is immediately visited by penal inflictions? In America such a thing could never have been thought of; nor in this country since the days of Sir Vieary :Gibbs. That it is otherwise in France, betrays on the part of her rulers an utter forgetfulness of the secret of allowing angry passions to. capend themselves an words—the great seed .cif goveiating in any frec glade. Persons' so thin-skinned to the piieklings of journalist8-7so anosbidly qp- prehensive of the stimnldting effieaoy of iniresione4 words--47e not fit to rule a country where thought and voice are free. To si- lence the voice of complaint, is too often to act like those empirics who by driving eruptions of the skin inwards convert the healthy efforts of nature to relieve itself into lethal diseases.
The President, however, has no misgivings as to his capacity to sway the destinies of France. In his speech on the occasion of laying the foundation-stone of the Central Markets of Paris, he hinted his hope of being reelected, with a frankness that has at least naivete and bonhomie to recommend it.
