lines to make known to the world? This fear of
publicity, of opposition, you have proved afresh, by the nocturnal
visits of your National Guards to the printing offices, wherein they
forced an entrance like housebreakers. Shall we be reduced to judge of
your acts, and of the bloody incidents of the civil war, only by your
own asseverations and those of your accomplices? You must be very
determined to act guiltily and to be obliged to tell lies, as you take
so much trouble to get rid of those, who might pass sentence on you, and
who might convict you of falsehood. Therefore you have not only
committed a crime in so doing, but made a great mistake as well. No one
can meddle with the liberty of the press with impunity. The persecution
of the press always brings with it its own punishment. Look back to the
many years of the Imperial Government, to the few months of the
Government of the 4th of September; of all the crimes perpetrated by the
former, of all the errors committed by the latter, those crimes and
errors which most particularly hastened the end were those that were
levelled against the freedom of the press. The most valable excuse in
favour of the revolt of the 18th of March was certainly the suppression
of several journals by General Vinoy, with the consent of M. Thiers. How
can you be so rash as to make the very same mistakes which have been the
destruction of former governments, and also so unmindful of your own
honour as to commit the very crime which reduces you to the same level
as your enemies?

Ah I truly those who were ready to judge you with patience and
impartiality, those who at first were perhaps, on the whole, favourable
to you, because it seemed to them that you represented some of the
legitimate aspirations of Paris, even those, seeing you act like
thoughtless tyrants, will feel it quite impossible to blind themselves
any longer to your faults; those who having wished to esteem you for the
sake of liberty, will for the sake of liberty, be obliged to despise
you!

XXXVIII.

It cannot be true. I will not believe it. It cannot be possible that
Paris is to be again bombarded: and by whom? By Frenchmen! In spite of
the danger I was told there was to be apprehended near Neuilly, I wished
to see with my own eyes what was going on. So this morning, the 8th
April, I went to the Champs Elysees.

Until I reached the Rond Point there was nothing unusual, only perhaps
fewer people to be seen about.