The Emperor, by his decrees issued at Lyons, had in some degree repaired the wrongs imputed to the royal government. One grievance still remained for him; the slavery of the press. The decree of the 24th of March[80], by suppressing the censors, the censorship, and the superintendance of the bookselling trade, completed the imperial restoration.
[Footnote 80: This decree, and all those previously dated from the palace of the Tuileries, contained no title but simply that of "Emperor of the French." The "&c. &c.," noticed with anxiety in the proclamations and decrees from Lyons, were suppressed. They had been inserted without reflection, without object, and merely from custom. The Emperor, too, would not have his familiar letters continue to be concluded in the usual form: "On which I pray God, to have you in his holy keeping, &c." "All those antiquated things," said he, "must be laid aside; they are well enough for kings by the grace of God."]
This last concession was unquestionably the greatest, that Napoleon could make to public opinion. A press in the general interest of the people is the surest protection of their rights. It is the most noble conquest liberty can gain over despotism: to honest men it gives dignity; it inspires them with the love of their country, and of the laws; in fine, according to the English definition, it is the mother of all liberty: but in times of trouble and of revolution, it is a dangerous weapon in the hands of the wicked; and the Emperor foresaw, that the royalists would employ it in the cause of the Bourbons; and the Jacobins, to calumniate his sentiments, and render his designs suspected. But, a declared enemy of half-measures, he resolved, since he had set thought at liberty, that it should circulate unshackled[81].
[Footnote 81: Never, in fact, at any period of the revolution, did writers enjoy such complete liberty and impunity. The seizure of the _Censeur Européen_, which made such noise, was the work of M. Fouché. The Emperor knew nothing of this infringement of the law, till it had been carried into effect; and he immediately ordered, that the copies seized should be returned to the editors of the _Censeur_, and that they should be at liberty to circulate them freely.]