It is reported from Paris, that the publisher of the
Count de Montalembert's pamphlet is to be prosecuted, having already been warned without preventing people in France or England from reading the brochure. Indeed, the warning gives piquancy to what would otherwise, notwithstanding the Count's finished style, have been really the most tedious production that ever emanated from his pen. It is a strange tirade against the oppo- nents of the Pope—for all who oppose the policy of Cardinal Antonelli are identified by the Count, as they have been by .the Pope's worst advisers, with the enemies of the Papacy itself. In this country the Count's effusion would have been talked of for a single day, and then lost in the general sea of pamphlets ; for Laocoon himself would have attracted little attention if he had published his objections to the Greeks in the form of a pamphlet. The authorities in Paris, however, consider that the coupling of the Emperor's name with that of Machiavelli, the diatribes against England, and similar follies, lead to dangerous miscon- ceptions ; and in what we English cannot but regard as a mis- 'taken policy of universal state insurance in political matters, the Government is about to prosecute. We leave pamphleteers to prosecute themselves,—and they are generally fined in a large bookseller's bill.
Previous page
