FKANCE.] NEWSPAPERS 427 meeting of the shareholders at which, she tells us, about five hundred resolutions were moved for the guidance of the editor at his desk. L jZclaireur did not shed its lustre on the department of the Indre for much length of time. In later days Le Monde, under very various editorships, has amply vindicated the change in its title. The impulse given to the growth of advertisements in the days which followed July 1830, although trivial in comparison with what British newspaper readers are daily familiar with, became, as the years rolled on, sufficiently developed to induce the formation of a company in which one of the Lafittes took part to farm them, 1 at a yearly rent of 12,000 sterling (300,000 francs), so far (at first) as regarded the four leadingjournals (Debats, Constitutionnel, Siecle, Presse), to which were afterwards added two others (Lc Pays and Let Patrie). The combination greatly embarrassed advertisers, first, since its great aim was to force them either to advertise in all, whether addressing the classes intended to be canvassed or not, or else to pay for each advertisement in a selected newspaper the price of many proffered advertisements in all the papers collectively, and, secondly, because by many repetitions in certain newspapers no additional publicity was really gained, two or three of the favoured journals circulating for the main amongst the same class of buyers. La France was then the newspaper of the Conservative aristocracy of the nation ; Le Monde and the Union more especially addressed the clergy ; the Debats and the Temps were the journals of the upper mercantile class, the Siecle and L Opinion of the lower or shopkeeping class. A man who asked to advertise briefly, in the Siecle, for example, alone, was charged 2 francs for each several insertion. If he went the round of the six, his advertisement cost him only 75 centimes per journal, for ten successive insertions in each of them, all round. To a great extent, the inundation of newspapers which followed the revolution of February 1848 was but a parody on the revolu tionary press of 1793. Most of them, of course, had very short lives. When Cavaignac took the helm he suppressed eleven jour nals, including La Presse and L J Assemblee Nationale. The former had at this period a circulation of nearly 70,000, and its proprietor, in a petition to the National Assembly, declared that it gave sub sistence to more than one thousand persons, and was worth in the market at least 1,500,000 francs. In August the system of sureties was restored. On the 13th June 1849 the president of the republic suspended Le Peuple, La Revolution Democratique et Sociale, La Vraie Republique, La Democratic Pacifique, La Reforme, and La Tribune dcs Peiqjlcs. On July 16, 1850, the assembly passed what is called the "Loi Tinguy," by which the author of every news paper article on any subject, political, philosophical, or religious, was bound to affix his name to it, on penalty of a fine of 500 francs for the first offence, and of 1000 francs for its repetition. Every false or feigned signature was to be punished by a fine of 1000 francs, " together with six months imprisonment, both for the author and the editor." The practical working of this law lay in the creation of a new functionary in the more important newspaper offices, who was called "secretaire de la redaction," and was, in fact, the scapegoat ex officio. In February 1852 all the press laws were incorporated, with increased stringency, into a " Decret organique sur la presse." The stamp duty for each sheet was fixed at 6 centimes, within certain dimensions, and a proportional in crease in case of excess. In 1858 the order of the six leading Parisian papers in point of circulation was (1) Siecle, (2) Presse, (3) Constitutionnel, (4) Patrie, (5) Debats, (6) Assemblee Nationale. The number of provincial papers exceeded five hundred. "Newspapers, nowadays," wrote a keenly observant publicist in that year, "are almanacs, bulle tins, advertising mediums, rather than the guides and the centres of opinion." In 1866 the change had become more marked still. The monetary success of Girardin s many commercial speculations in this branch of commerce greatly increased the number of Parisian journals, whilst lowering the status of those of estab lished rank. The aggregate daily issue of the Parisian dailies " had increased to about 350,000 copies, but the evening paper, Le Petit Moniteur, alone issued nearly 130,000 of these. The average circu lation of Le Siecle had fallen from 55,000 to 45,000 copies ; that of La Patrie was reduced by one-half (32,000 to 16,000) ; that of Le Constitutionnel from 24,000 to 13,000; of L Opinion Nationale from 18,000 to 15,000; whilst the chief journal of all, with grand ante cedents, and with a brilliant history of public service rendered, had for a time descended, it is said, from 12,000 copies to 9000. And yet almost over the whole of this very period the brilliant " Lundis" of Sainte-Beuve were making their punctual appearance in Le Consti tutionnel, to be presently continued in Le Moniteur and in Le Temps ; and writers like St Marc Girardin, Cuvillier-Fleury, and Prevost- Paradol were constantly writing in the Journal dcs Debats. Mean while, Villemessant and his colleagues were making their for tunes out of Figaro, and helping to make frivolous petty para- 1 Or, to speak more precisely, to farm a certain conspicuous page of each newspaper, in perpetuity. graphs " on matters of literature almost everywhere take the place of able and well- elaborated articles. Well might Albert Sorel say, 2 "Our trumpery newspapers are the newspapers that pay." And the descent in the sterling characteristics of journalism con tinued at an increased speed. In 1872 the circulation of Le Petit Journal was 212,500 ; in June 1877 it reached nearly to 500,000. No incident in recent newspaper history made more temporary noise than did the strange charges brought in 1867 against the Debats, the Siecle, and L Opinion Nationale, by M. Kerveguen, member for Toulon, in the French assembly. He charged them collectively with receiving bribes, both from the Government of Prussia and from that of Italy, upon the faith, as it afterwards appeared, of statements made by another newspaper, not of France but of Belgium, La Finance. An elaborate inquiry, presided over by M. Berryer, pronounced the accusation to be absolutely ground less. Yet it was soon revived by Le Pays, in the shape of a specific charge against an individual editor of Le Siecle, La Yarenne. All that was eventually proved, in due course of law, was merely the agency in Paris of La Varenne for the Italian Government, at a time prior to the events of 1866. In 1874 an elaborate return showed that in thirty-five principal towns of France, comprising a population of 2,566,000, their re spective journals had an aggregate weekly issue of 2,800,000 copies. The details in round numbers are as follows : Copies of News papers issued weekly. Approxim ate Popu lation in 1874. Copies of News papers issued weekly. Approxim ate Popu lation in 1874. Lyons 426,000 3i7,000 247,000 188,600 142,500 135,000 121.500 98,500 87,500 80.000 78,500 71,500 70,000 61.000 57,000 54,000 45,500 325.000 315,000 200,000 158,000 57.000 127,000 31,000 109,000 42.000 87,000 42,000 53,000 118,000 43.000 47.000 37,000 58,000 Orle ans 45,500 44,000 42,000 41,500 40,500 37.000 36,500 35,000 34,000 34,000 33,500 33,500 29,500 29,500 28,500 28,000 17,000 13,000 50,000 25,000 65,000 18,000 49,000 26,000 10,000 27,000 38,000 111,000 52,000 52,000? 72,000 12,000 15,000 22,000 70,000 3,000 Marseilles Bordeaux Lille Angouleme Chalons Montpellier Toulouse Poitiers Uesan9or. Arras Laon Rouen Perpignan Havre StEtienne Nice Caen Nantes Kheims Tours Le Mans Clermont- Fer- rand Beauvais Perigueux Toulon Angers Avesnes In 1878 the total number of journals of all kinds published in Fiance was 2200. Of these 150 were political, strictly speaking, of which Paris published 49. Of Parisian journals other than political there were 1141 (including 71 religious, 104 legal, 153 commercial, 134 technological, 98 scientific and medical, 59 artistic). At that date Figaro had a circulation of about 70,000, Le Petit Journal (at a halfpenny) one of about 650, 000. 3 At the great show of newspapers of all countries held that year at the International Exhibition of Prague the French newspapers were conspicuous. The principal Parisian newspapers in 1883 may be classified thus : a. Organs of the Legitimists and of the Church of France : Gazette de France, Lc Monde, L Union, La Defense, La Civilisation, L Univers. b. Orleanist organs : Le Moniteur Universe?, Le Constitutionnel, Le Francais (under the auspices of the Due de Broglie), Lc Soldi. c. Bonapartist organ : Lc Pays (edited at onetime by Lamartine). d. Republican organs : Journal des Debats, Le Temps (the paper of the republican middle classes, and read largely by Protes tants), Le Siecle (now of declining importance, Yoltairean in tone), Le XIX. Siecle (also Voltairean), Le Paix (M. Grevy s paper), La Justice, Paris, La Republique Fra7icaise (founded in 1871 byGambetta), Le Parlcmcnt (founded byDufaure ; circulation less than that of La Rci:>ubliquc, but political weight considerable). The law concerning the liberty of the press, of July 29, 1881, abolished suretyship for newspapers, and transferred their registra tion from the ministry of justice at Paris to the local representa tive of the attorney-general (I c parquet) in each town respectively. It made the establishment of a newspaper virtually free, upon legal deposit of two copies, and upon due registration of each newspaper under the simple guarantee of a registered director, French by birth, responsible in case of libel. And it took away the^former discretionary power, lodged in the home office, of interdicting the 2 When comparing the French newspaper press as it stood in 1873 with that of Germany, in the Revue des deux Mondes, article " La Presse Allemande, " vol. ii. of 1873, p. 715. 3 It is curious to notice the comparatively small sale of the French illustrated papers. In 1880 the sale of L Illustration was only about 15,000 copies, and that of Le Journal Amusant about twice that number. At the same date the Illustrated London News sold 95,000, and the Illustrirte Welt of Stuttgart 107,000.
