In Sweden, by an edict of 1766, and accord ingly under the aristocratical constitution, the abolition of the censorship was ordered; yet Gustavus III, personally a friend of the liberty of the press, was obliged to retain the censor ship, and even to execute it with severity, dur ing the aristocratical machinations which dis turbed his reign, and which were but imper fectly counteracted in the Revolution of 1771. Gustavus IV issued an edict soon after he as cended the throne, by which the censorship was retained only in matters of religion, and was administered by the consistories. This, how ever, was not permanent ; at first penalties were enacted, and in 1802 the censorship was entirely re-established, committed to the chancellor of the court and executed with severity. French and German books were prohibited. King Charles XIII immediately after his ascension to the throne abolished it entirely by a pro visional order of 12 April 1809, which was confirmed as an article of the constitution (sec. 86) 6 June 1809. In Denmark, by a royal re script of 14 Sept. 1770 (under the minister Struensee), the censorship was wholly abol ished; neither has it been restored, though the laws by which the liberty of the press has been regulated have been changing, and have some times been very oppressive. In France the cen sorship, which had belonged to the department of the chancellor and been administered by royal censors was annihilated by the Revolution. All the constitutions, from 1791 to the Charte Con stitutionelle in 1814, declare the liberty of the press one of the fundamental laws. During the republic there was no censorship, but the revo lutionary tribunals took its place. Napoleon re stored it in another form by the decree of 5 Feb. 1810 (Direction de l'Imprimerie). Since the Restoration it has also undergone various changes. Books of more than 20 sheets have always remained free, but the censorship has been exercised over pamphlets and journals at different periods. Under the government of the Emperor Napoleon III the censorship was re-established with new penalties and is still maintained.
In the kingdom of the Netherlands the cen sorship was abolished by a fundamental statute of 24 Aug. 1815 (art. ccxxvi), and this statute is still in force in the kingdom of Holland. By art. xviii of the constitution of Belgium, 1831, it is declared that the press is free and that no censorship can ever be established. In the German states the liberty of the press was much restrained till 1806, the state-attorney having till then had control over it. After 1814
several states abolished the censorship, though with very different provisions as to the respon sibility of authors, printers and booksellers. In accordance with the unhappy decrees of Carlsbad, 1819, and the resolutions of the Ger man Diet of 20 Sept. 1819, the censorship in all the states of the German confederation became one of the conditions of union, but only with regard to books of less than 20 sheets and jour nals. These laws were repealed in 1849, but in the course of a few years they were gradually introduced, although in a modified form, and in this form they still exist in most of the separate German states as well as in the empire. In Russia and Austria there is naturally a despotic censorship. In the United States of America a censorship has never existed, though a power somewhat akin to censorship is vested in the Post Office authorities, based on the statutory exclusion from the mails of all gambling, fraud ulent and obscene publications.
Besides the different degrees of severity with which the censorship is exercised in differ ent countries, it may be divided into different kinds, according to the field which it embraces: (1) A general censorship of the book trade and of the press, under which even foreign books cannot be sold without the consent of the cen sors, exists in Russia, Austria, Spain, etc. (Austria has, in the censorship of foreign books, four formulas: (a) admittitur, entirely free; (b) transeat, free but without public ad vertisements for sale; (c) erga schedam, to be sold only to public officers and literary men on the delivery of a receipt; (d) damnatur, en tirely forbidden). (2) A general censorship of the press, extending only to books printed in the country, exists in Prussia (edict of 19 Sept. 1788; order of the cabinet of 28 Dec. 1824; law of 12 May 1851). (3) A limited censorship, only over works of less than 20 sheets and journals, is at present the law in the states of the German empire, but these old laws have for many years remained a dead letter, no publisher being ever required to present a work for inspection before publication, as is rigidly demanded in Russia. Since the out break of the war special restrictions on printed matter have been established in Germany Austria, applying especially to periodical liter ature. See DRAMA, CENSORSHIP OF; MOTION PICTURES, CENSORSHIP OF ; PRESS, LIBERTY Or THE.