Before a
journal gets one of those its suppression has probably been decided on.
Every day there are communications between the literary police and the
different editors. Such or such a line of argument is altogether
forbidden, another is allowed to be used to a certain extent. Some
subjects are tabooed, others are to be treated partially.
'As the mental food of the lower orders is supplied by the newspapers,
this paternal Government takes care that it shall not be too exciting.'
[Footnote 1: The lowest class.--ED.]
_Paris, Monday, April_ 13.--Tocqueville, Jobez, Marcet, St.-Hilaire,[1]
Charles Sumner, and Lord Granville breakfasted with us.
The conversation turned on public speaking.
'Very few indeed of our speakers,' said Tocqueville, 'have ever ventured
to improvise: Barrot could do it. We have told him sometimes that a
speech must be answered immediately; and when he objected that he had
nothing to say, we used to insist, and to assure him that as soon as he
was in the tribune, the ideas and the words would come; and so they did.
I have known him go on under such circumstances for an hour; of course
neither the matter nor the form could be first rate, but they were
sufficient.
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