when they cease to live in clouds;
they will no longer be continually occupied in calculating how much they
should reject out of the speeches that are addressed to them, the
recitals delivered and the portions presented for investigation; or how
much artifice, dangerous intention, or afterthought remains hidden in
all that proceeds from the throne.... An extended liberty of the press
can alone, while restoring confidence, give back that energy to the King
and the people which neither can dispense with: it is the life of the
soul that requires to be revived in the nation in which it has been
extinguished by despotism; that life lies in the free action of the
press, and thought can only expand and develope itself in full
publicity. No one in France can longer dread the oppression under which
we have lived for ten years; but if the want of action which weakness
engenders were to succeed that which tyranny imposes;--if the weight of
a terrible and mute agitation should be replaced only by the languor of
repose, we should never witness a renewal in France of that national
activity, that brave and generous disposition which makes many
sacrifices to duty;--finally, of that confidence in the sovereign, the
necessity of which will be more acknowledged every day. We should merely
obtain from the nation a barren tranquillity, the insufficiency of which
would compel recourse to measures evil in themselves, and very far
removed from the paternal intentions of the King.

Let us, on the contrary, adopt a system of liberty and frankness; let
truth circulate freely from the throne to the people, and from the
people to the throne; let the paths be opened to those who ought to
speak freely, and to others who desire to learn; we shall then see
apathy dissipate, suspicion vanish, and loyalty become general and
spontaneous, from the certainty of its necessity and usefulness.

Unfortunately, during the twenty-five years which have recently elapsed,
we have so deplorably abused many advantages, that, at present, to name
them suffices to excite the most deplorable apprehensions. We are not
inclined to take into consideration the difference of the times, of
situation, of the march of opinion, or of the temperament of men's
minds: we look upon as always dangerous what has once proved fatal; we
think and act as mothers might do, who, because they saw the infant
fall, would prevent the youth from walking.... This inclination is
general; we retrace