An insertion in the _Journal Officiel_ of Versailles has justly
irritated the greater part of the French press. This is the paragraph.
“False news of the most infamous kind has been spread in Paris where no
independent journal is allowed to appear.” From these few lines it may
be concluded, that in the eyes of the Government of Versailles the
whole of the Paris newspapers, whose editors have not deserted their
posts, have entirely submitted to the Commune, and only think and say
what the Commune permits them to think and say. This is an egregious
calumny. No, thank heaven! The Parisian press has not renounced its
independence, and if no account is taken (as is perfectly justifiable)
of a heap of miserable little sheets which no sooner appear than they
die, and of some few others edited by members of the Commune, one would
be obliged to acknowledge, on the contrary, that since the 18th of
March the great majority of journals have exhibited proofs of a proud
and courageous independence. Each day, without allowing themselves to
be intimidated, either by menaces of forcible suppression or threats of
arrest, they have fearlessly told the members of the Commune their
opinion without concealment or circumlocution. The French press has
undoubtedly committed many offences during the last few years, and is
not altogether irresponsible for the troubles which have overwhelmed
the unhappy country; but reparation is being made for these offences in
this present hour of danger, and the fearless attitude which it has
maintained before these men of the Hôtel de Ville, atones nobly for the
past. It has constituted itself judge; condemns what is condemnable,
resists violence, endeavours to enlighten the masses. Sometimes too—and
this is perhaps its greatest crime in the eyes of the Versailles
Government—it permits itself to disapprove entirely of the acts of the
National Assembly; some journals going as far as to insinuate that the
Government is not altogether innocent of the present calamities. But
what does this prove? That the press is no more the servant of the
Assembly than it is the slave of the Commune; in a word, that it is
free.
And what false news is this of which the _Journal Officiel_ of
Versailles complains, and against which it seems to warn us? Does it
think it likely that we should be silly enough to give credence to the
shouts of victory that are recorded each morning, on the handbills of
the Commune? Does it suppose that we look upon the deputies as nothing
but a race of anthropophagi who dine every day off Communists and
Federals at the _tables d’hôte_ of the Hôtel des Réservoirs? Not at
all. We easily unravel the truth, from the entanglement of
exaggerations forged by the men of the Hôtel de Ville; and it is
precisely this just appreciation of things that we owe to those papers
which the _Journal Officiel_ condemns so inconsiderately.
But it is not of fake news alone, probably, that the Versailles
Assembly is afraid. It would not perhaps be sorry that we should ignore
the real state of things, and I wager that if it had the power it would
willingly suppress ill-informed journals—although they are not
Communist the least in the world—who allow themselves to state that for
six days the shells of Versailles have fallen upon Les Ternes, the
Champs Elysées and the Avenue Wagram, and have already cost as many
tears and as much bloodshed, as the Prussian shells of fearful memory.