第62章

"And therefore,"said Blondet,"if the press did not exist,it would be necessary to invent it forthwith.But here we have it,and live by it.""You will die of it,"returned the German diplomatist."Can you not see that if you enlighten the masses,and raise them in the political scale,you make it all the harder for the individual to rise above their level?Can you not see that if you sow the seeds of reasoning among the working-classes,you will reap revolt,and be the first to fall victims?What do they smash in Paris when a riot begins?""The street-lamps!"said Nathan;"but we are too modest to fear for ourselves,we only run the risk of cracks.""As a nation,you have too much mental activity to allow any government to run its course without interference.But for that,you would make the conquest of Europe a second time,and win with the pen all that you failed to keep with the sword.""Journalism is an evil,"said Claude Vignon."The evil may have its uses,but the present Government is resolved to put it down.There will be a battle over it.Who will give way?That is the question.""The Government will give way,"said Blondet."I keep telling people that with all my might!Intellectual power is THE great power in France;and the press has more wit than all men of intellect put together,and the hypocrisy of Tartufe besides.""Blondet!Blondet!you are going too far!"called Finot."Subscribers are present.""You are the proprietor of one of those poison shops;you have reason to be afraid;but I can laugh at the whole business,even if I live by it.""Blondet is right,"said Claude Vignon."Journalism,so far from being in the hands of a priesthood,came to be first a party weapon,and then a commercial speculation,carried on without conscience or scruple,like other commercial speculations.Every newspaper,as Blondet says,is a shop to which people come for opinions of the right shade.If there were a paper for hunchbacks,it would set forth plainly,morning and evening,in its columns,the beauty,the utility,and necessity of deformity.A newspaper is not supposed to enlighten its readers,but to supply them with congenial opinions.Give any newspaper time enough,and it will be base,hypocritical,shameless,and treacherous;the periodical press will be the death of ideas,systems,and individuals;nay,it will flourish upon their decay.It will take the credit of all creations of the brain;the harm that it does is done anonymously.We,for instance--I,Claude Vignon;you,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 cause of party hatred.The most sensational fictions will be invented to increase the circulation;Journalism will descend to mountebanks'tricks worthy of Bobeche;Journalism would serve up its father with the Attic salt of its own wit sooner than fail to interest or amuse the public;Journalism will outdo the actor who put his son's ashes into the urn to draw real tears from his eyes,or the mistress who sacrifices everything to her lover.""Journalism is,in fact,the People in folio form,"interrupted Blondet.

"The people with hypocrisy added and generosity lacking,"said Vignon.