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Order for Suppressing the Newspapers
January 17, 1800 (27 Nivôse, Year VIII)
Shortly after the Constitution of the Year VIII went into effect the First Consul began a series of vigorous measures against possible opposition to his rule. This document is typical of the series.
Moniteur, January 19, 1800 (29 Nivôse, Year VIII).
The consuls of the Republic, considering that a part of the newspapers which are printed in the department of the Seine are instruments in the hands of the enemies of the Republic; that the government is particularly charged by the French people to look after their security, orders as follows:
- The minister of police shall permit to be printed, published, and circulated during the whole course of the war only the following newspapers: ... [Here follows the names of thirteen newspapers], and newspapers devoted exclusively to science, arts, literature, commerce, announcements and notices.
- The minister of the general police shall immediately make a report upon all the newspapers that are printed in the other departments.
- The minister of the general police shall see that no new newspaper be printed in the department of the Seine, as well as in all the other departments of the Republic.
- The proprietors and editors of the newspapers preserved by the present order shall present themselves to the minister of the police in order to attest their character as French citizens, their residences and signatures, and they shall promise fidelity to the constitution.
- All newspapers which shall insert articles opposed to the respect that is due to the social compact, to the sovereignty of the people and the glory of the armies, or which shall publish invectives against the governments and nations who are friends or allies of the Republic, even when these articles may be extracts from foreign periodicals, shall be immediately suppressed.
- The minister of the general police is charged with the execution of the present order, which shall be inserted in the Bulletin of the Laws.
Bibliography
Title: The constitutions and other select documents illustrative of the history of France, 1789-1901
Author(s): Anderson, Frank Maloy, 1871-
Publication: Minneapolis, The H.W. Wilson company,
Year: 1904
Description: xxvi, 671 p. p., 20 cm.
References
Cambridge Modern History, IX, 14-15; Fournier, Napoleon, 238. Sloane, Napoleon, II, 96; Lavisse and Rambaud, Histoire générale, 716; Jaurès, Histoire socialiste, VI, 55-57.
Placed on the Napoleon Series 5/00
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