Page:Readings in European History Vol 2.djvu/587

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Europe after the Congress of Vienna 549 i. So long as this decree shall remain in force no pub- Press law. lication which appears in the form of daiiy issues, or as a serial not exceeding twenty sheets of printed matter, shall go to press in any state of the union without the previous knowledge and approval of the state officials. Writings which do not belong to one of the above-men- tioned classes shall be treated according to the laws now in force, or which may be enacted, in the individual states of the union. . . . 4. Each state of the union is responsible, not only to the state against which the offense is directly committed, but to the whole Confederation, for every publication appearing under its supervision in which the honor or security of other states is infringed or their constitution or adminis- tration attacked. . . . 6. The Diet shall have the right, moreover, to suppress on its own authority, without being petitioned, such writ- ings included in Article 1, in whatever German state they may appear, as, in the opinion of a commission appointed by it, are inimical to the honor of the union, the safety of individual states, or the maintenance of peace and quiet in Germany. There shall be no appeal from such decisions, and the governments involved are bound to see that they are put into execution. . . . 7. When a newspaper or periodical is suppressed by a decision of the Diet, the editor thereof may not within a period of five years edit a similar publication in any state of the union. 1. Within a fortnight, reckoned from the passage of this Establish- decree, there shall convene, under the auspices of the Con- ment of an r i • -i • iriir r -k r investigating federation, in the city and federal fortress of Mayence, an committee at extraordinary commission of investigation to consist of Mayence. seven members, including the chairman. 2. The object of the commission shall be a joint investi- gation, as thorough and extensive as possible, of the facts relating to the origin and manifold ramifications of the revolutionary plots and demagogical associations directed