ou, Blondet; you, Lousteau; and you,
Finot--we are all Platos, Aristides, and Catos, Plutarch's men, in
short; we are all immaculate; we may wash our hands of all iniquity.
Napoleon's sublime aphorism, suggested by his study of the Convention,
'No one individual is responsible for a crime committed collectively,'
sums up the whole significance of a phenomenon, moral or immoral,
whichever you please. However shamefully a newspaper may behave, the
disgrace attaches to no one person."

"The authorities will resort to repressive legislation," interposed du
Bruel. "A law is going to be passed, in fact."

"Pooh!" retorted Nathan. "What is the law in France against the spirit
in which it is received, the most subtle of all solvents?"

"Ideas and opinions can only be counteracted by opinions and ideas,"
Vignon continued. "By sheer terror and despotism, and by no other means,
can you extinguish the genius of the French nation; for the language
lends itself admirably to allusion and ambiguity. Epigram breaks out the
more for repressive legislation; it is like steam in an engine without
a safety-valve.--The King, for example, does right; if a newspaper is
against him, the Minister gets all the credit of the measure, and _vice
versa_. A newspaper invents a scandalous libel--it has been misinformed.
If the victim complains, the paper gets off with an apology for
taking so great a freedom. If the case is taken into court, the editor
complains that nobody asked him to rectify the mistake; but ask for
redress, and he will laugh in your face and treat his offence as a
mere trifle. The paper scoffs if the victim gains the day; and if
heavy damages are awarded, the plaintiff is held up as an unpatriotic
obscurantist and a menace to the liberties of the country. In the course
of an article purporting to explain that Monsieur So-and-so is as honest
a man as you will find in the kingdom, you are informed that he is not
better than a common thief. The sins of the press? Pooh! mere trifles;
the curtailers of its liberties are monsters; and give him time enough,
the constant reader is persuaded to believe anything you please.
Everything which does not suit the newspaper will be unpatriotic, and
the press will be infallible. One religion will be played off against
another, and the Charter against the King. The press will hold up the
magistracy to scorn for meting out rigorous justice to the press, and
applaud its action when it serves the caus