ied after having obtained its free certificate and its
permit of circulation. Napoleon declares "the printing-office[6252] to
be an arsenal which must not be within the reach of everybody... It is
very important for me that only those be allowed to print who have the
confidence of the government. A man who addresses the public in print is
like the man who speaks in public in an assembly, and certainly no
one can dispute the sovereign's right to prevent the first comer from
haranguing the public."--On the strength of this, he makes publishing
a privileged, authorized and regulated office of the State. The writer,
consequently, before reaching the public, must previously undergo the
scrutiny of the printer and bookseller, who, both responsible, sworn
and patented, will take good care not to risk their patent, the loss of
their daily bread, ruin, and, besides this, a fine and imprisonment.--In
the second place, the printer, the bookseller and the author are obliged
to place the manuscript or, by way of toleration, the work as it goes
through the press, in the hands of the official censors;[6253] the
latter read it and make their weekly report to the general director
of publications; they indicate the good or bad spirit of the work,
the "unsuitable or forbidden passages according to circumstances,"
the intended, involuntary or merely possible allusions; they exact the
necessary suppressions, rectifications and additions. The publisher
obeys, the printers furnish proofs, and the author has submitted; his
proceedings and attendance in the bureaux are at end. He thinks himself
safe in port, but he is not.

Through an express reservation, the director-general always has the
right to suppress works, "even after they have been examined, printed
and authorized to appear." In addition to this, the minister of
the police,[6254] who, above the director-general, likewise has his
censorship bureau, may, in his own right, place seals on the sheets
already printed, destroy the plates and forms in the printing-office,
send a thousand copies of the "Germany" by Madame de Stael to the
paper-mill, "take measures to see that not a sheet remains," demand of
the author his manuscript, recover from the author's friends the two
copies he has lent to them, and take back from the director-general
himself the two copies for his service locked up in a drawer in
his cabinet.--Two years before this, Napoleon said to Auguste de
Stael,[6255]

"Your mot