The Revolution soon produced a reaction. The 'holy rights" of the press lost their sponsors. Erode de Girardin was thrown into prison. General Cavaignac suppressed seven papers and ordere ' — something new—that henceforth all articles be signed. Rochefort and Paul de Cassagnac prove that they are great controvertists. Ledru-Rollin, in 1849, helped the press to defend its rights. The coup d'etcit of Louis Napoleon surprised L' Union (conservative), the Opinion Publique (moderate conservative), in which Barbey d'Aurevilly published his 'Prophets of the Past" and to which the staff contributed without any salary, for the sake of proselytism; the Patric, founded in 1841; the Ordre (Oilcan's° ; the Pays (conservative), adhering to the republic. The printing presses of the most passionate of these papers were seized. The Debats, Presse and Univers appeared then under con trol of the censorship and the Moniteur be came the official organ. The censorship made use of brutality: fines, suspension, prison. It was forbidden to mention the suits brought for press offenses. A newspaper could he sus pended by ministerial decision after a first warning. Victor Hugo in his Napoleon-le Petit branded the new laws on the press.
Villemessant's Figaro appeared sprightly and charming in 1854. Weekly at first, then appearing daily, its directors were in turn Magnard, Perivier, de Rodays, Calmette and Capus. Napoleon III said of it: 'I believe the Figaro owes its success to its way of pro ceeding by short, varied, numerous articles, each offering some new idea." It was the mirror of Parisian life. Every morning it brought a spark of gaiety; it collected all the witty sayings of the Boulevards. In the Patrie, which had become a Bonapartist organ, Cuche val-Clarigny published every week excellent articles on'English and American politics. The best contributor to the Debats was then Prevos Paradol, who died at Washington, 20 July 1870, as Ambassador of Napoleon III. The Chronicle had a great development. It was fashionable to improvise a witty dialogue on the anecdote of the day. Laughter was the order of the day and French wit sparkled on every side. Aurelien Scholl published the Nain Jaune, and he was not the worst joker. But there were also serious newspapers, the Courrier du Dimanche (republican), the Opinion Nationale (1859), the Temps (1861), to which contributed at its foundation Louis Blanc, Jules Ferry, Henri Brisson and Charles Floquet. This paper was to have a deep liberal influence over the ((bourgeoisie." Jules Valles published the Rue. The Petit Journal came out in 1863, with the daily writings of Thimothee Trimm, became the vogue, a real fanaticism.* In 1868 came out the Gaulois, a rival of the Figaro and the official organ of the after-war imperialism, nowadays following the legitimists under the guidance of a Jew converted to Catholicism, Mr. Arthur Meyer. Henri Rochefort started his Lanterne; the Eclipse of Gill; the Corsaire, to which Jules Claretie was a contributor, were fore runners of the coming storm. Rochefort had said, 'France contains 36 millions of subjects for discontent." The fall of the empire was
drawing close. An article of Pascal Grousset in the Marseillaise brought on the murder of Victor Noir by Prince Bonaparte. The affair Hohenzollern-Spain burst out and then came the war. ((The press is gagged by the Law of Silence," said the Figaro on 29 July, after the battle of Wissembourg. In October the press is accused of giving information to the enemy by publishing too many details, and on 23 Dec. 1870, the was suppressed for having published a relation of war operations. On 4 September the Empire fell, and on that day appeared the Pattie en Danger of Blanqui, the Peuple Souverain, the Verite of Portalis. the Tribun du Peuple, the Vengeur of Felix Pyat, the Mot d'Ordre of Rochefort, the Cri du Pets p/e, and sundry other journals. The Combat opened a one-cent subscription to offer a gun of honor to the soldiers who should kill the king of Prussia. As a joke, to keep up the good spirits during the siege of Paris, the Trac appeared— the papers of the cowards. All these papers, paper being lacking, appeared in small sheets, often no bigger than note-paper. They were sent into the provinces by balloon. When the Prussians entered the capital the papers stopped appearing of their own accord. The commune began on 18 March 1871 only to create others, amongst them the Drapeau Rouge. All those revolutionary sheets were far from being on good terms with one another, disagreeing either on principles, on persons or on the means of action. After those tragic events a regular and less unusual France was reorganized. The Journal des Debats, which had once been liberal-royalist, became in 1872 a moderate Republican. This centenary organ was then read by the liberal and cultured public. A huge press-movement set in. In the provinces big papers started and developed; such were the Phare de la Loire, the Gironde, the Petite Gironde, the Journal de Rouen, the Depeche de Toulouse, the Progres de Lyon and the Petit Marseillais. On 2 July 1871 Gambetta founded in Paris the parliamentary group of the "Union Ripublicaine* and its organ the Republique Francaise. In the same year also appeared the X/X° Siecle, In April 1872 came out the first Matin, declaring in an editorial, "Go ahead . . . said the pioneers of the New World. Let this powerful watchword become that of Republican France. . . . Like the Americans, we have but one aim: progress.* Magnier in 1872 created the Evenement, reviv ing the old title Victor Hugo had chosen in 1848. The Soleil of Edouard Nerve (Orleanist), shone in 1873; Petit Parisien appeared in 1876 under Jules Roche. Two years later Aurilien Scholl started the Voltaire, in which Mr. Ray mond Poincari, future President of the re public, wrote the judicial chronicle. In 1880 Georges Clemenceau, Camille Pelletan, Stephen Pichon and Millerand founded Justice, and Rochefort published the Intransigeant. For a year there had appeared Gil Blas, a gay, light and very fast gazette. The Fathers of the Assumption took a hold on the Catholic readers through Croix (1880).