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INFLUENCE OF THE PRESS AND THE PULPIT. 465

“ Bonaparte entertained a feverish apprehension of the effects ofliterature on the general mind, — the public journals were underthe daily and constant superintendence of the police, and theireditors were summoned before Fouche (the Minister of Police)when any thing was inserted which could be considered as disre-spectful to his authority. Threats and promises were liberallyemployedion such occasions, and such journalists as proved re-fractory were soon made to feel, that the former were no vainmenaces. The suppression of the offensive newspaper was oftenaccompanied by the banishment or imprisonment of the editor.The same measure was dealt to authors, booksellers, and publish-ers, respecting whom the jealousy of Bonaparte amounted to aspecies of disease.”*

Such is the press,—and it is well for all those whose influ-ence consists in the use of it, whether as authors or publishers,to understand, in its full measure, the mighty power of the instru-ment which they are accustomed to wield, and for the rightfulemployment of which they are morally responsible. The Em-peror of the French, in the very zenith of his success, a successunrivalled, perhaps, in the history of the world, heard with anxi-ety, alarm, and dismay its tone of rebuke and reprobation, al-though couched in a foreign language, and coming from a foreigncountry. When we consider, therefore, that the private and pub-lic conduct of the great mass of mankind is regulated by nohigher standard of morals than is required by the force of publicopinion, and that public opinion is moulded and directed, as wellas declared, chiefly by the press, we may understand how im-measurably important it is, that it should raise a voice, clear,decided, unshrinking, and well-sustained, on the side of goodmorals.

The pulpit, in Christian countries, is a means of moral influ-ence and efficiency, whose value it is not easy to estimate toohighly. Of the fifteen millions of inhabitants, which this countrycontains, a very large proportion are in the habit of listening toweekly pulpit instruction ; and the portion thus instructed, byreason of their superior education, morals, and general under-

* Life of Napoleon, Vol. I. p. 500; Vol. II. p. 17.59