Liberte de la Presse.
Paris: Ca. 1790. A four page pamphlet which was possibly included in the French Revolutionary journal "Le Patriote françois", which was published in Paris by Buisson from 1789-1793. Beginning with the "Avis de l'Auteur du Patriote Francois", concerning a proposed libel law, it appears to reference the American Declaration of Independence; "'Le peuple a droit a la liberte de parler, d'ecrire et de publier ses sentimens. La liberte de la presse ne peut donc recevoir d'entraves.' Declaration des droits de la Pensylvanie." It translates approximately as "The people have the right to the freedom to speak, write and publish their sentiments. Freedom of the press can not therefore be subject to any barriers." The last notation references the Declaration of Independence "de Pensylvanie". The French Declaration of the rights of man and the citizen (1789) was inspired by the American Declaration of Independence of 1776 and it remains one of France's founding texts.
The piece continues with a response letter by M. Lanthenas, a French revolutionary, and the chief translator of Thomas Paine into French. It is sprinkled with the buzz words of the day "Droit; Responsbilite; Nation; Tyrannie; Une Nation Libre; Justice; Verite. Paine spent much of the 1790s in France.
Lanthenas' letter concerns the freedom of the press written in the early stages of the French Revolution, and is dated March 24, 1790. At this point, the storming of the Bastille had taken place the preceding summer, the National Assembly had been formed only 9 months earlier, it had published the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizens only 6 months earlier, Louis XVI and his family had been forced to return to Paris from Versailles only five months earlier, and all religious orders had been dissolved only one month earlier! He believed in rejecting the laws of the Ancien Regime in favor of new guidelines which would allow for unlimited freedom of communication of ideas: "La liberte de la presse la plus illimitee est donc de droit divin, pour une nation et pour tous les individus... elle doit donc former la base de toute constitution libre." (The most unlimited freedom of the press is thus a divine right, for a nation and its people... (this freedom) must form the foundation for any free constitution". Disbound, small pen line at upper right corner front page, o/w very good condition.
8vo, 4pp, in French, text in 2 columns, with footnotes, which reference Lanthenas earlier work "Inconveniens du Droit d'Ainesse, etc"; "Tracts concerning the Ancient and only true legal means of National Defense by a Free Militia by Granville Sharp" and describes how to subscribe to the "Journal du Patriote Francois".
See FRBNF32834106 for "Le Patriote françois [Texte imprimé] : journal libre, impartial et national / par une société de citoyens, & dirigé par J. P. Brissot de Warville". This pamphlet does not appear recorded on the French National Library site by Warville. Item #14578
Price: $450.00