ijOffices: in defiance of the Rules, they had themselves granted Privileges
and continuations with profusion, for all the ancient or modern Books. At
the same time they had Permissions du Sceau refused to the Booksellers of
the Provinces, which in respect of the Books whose unique legal Privilege
had expired, were to replace the Permissions of the Judges; there therefore
no longer remained any sustenance for the Book Trade of Province; deprived
of all the means of speculation and of trade, it rapidly fell into ruin,
and would have been altogether annihilated, if an enlightened Administration
had not come to its rescue.
The Wise Laws which had restrained exclusive claims, were, so to speak,
annihilated by the multitude and the audacity of the infractions; illegal
titles increased excessively, were brazenly portrayed as real and Sacred
properties; these injustices were great, protected by private interest,
very difficult to destroy; the Minister did not attempt to eradicate them;
he believed it would suffice to return, in some way, to the Book Trade of
the Provinces, by way of tolerance, a freedom and an activity that it could
only find in good Laws put into force. Privileges, therefore, continued to
be granted to all applicants, without examination, without motives and
without foundation; but in reality, these vain Privileges were regarded as
simple non-exclusive Permissions, and these editions from the Provinces
were tolerated, because there could not be contraventions of titles without
value and contrary to the Law.
So that the tolerance, of which we speak, did not undermine real and
justly acquired rights; a similar condescension is not presupposed in any
Administration. This tolerance consisted solely in suffering that the Trade
of the Provinces conserved the activity which it had enjoyed under the Law,
without forcing itself to abide by the formalities prescribed by this Law.
This remedy was necessary, as, on the one hand, through the Patent Letters
of 1701, the Book Trade of Province had been deprived of the specific
Permissions of its Judges, and on the other hand, it was not possible for
those involved to obtain them from the Chancellery without tearing down the
Obstacles put up by the Booksellers of Paris, and without causing the
annihilation, at the same time, of the innumerable Privileges which they
had illegally obtained over all the Books.
It was therefore necessary, for the sake of printing in the Provinces,
that eyes were closed to the lack of form and title, as they had been closed
for the Capital regarding abusive Privileges; and in order to conserve the sad
remains of our Book Trade, the decision was taken to allow it to practise as
before, but without specific authorisation, on all Books which had once been
approved, which were not guaranteed by a legitimate Privilege and conforming
with the Laws.
Such has been, in France, the Administration of the Book Trade in its
second epoch, that is to say, since the Patent Letters of 1701, until the
present day. Under the protection of this tolerance, the Trade of the Provinces
recovered some activity; but it never rose up to the point from which it had
been made to fall. What use is an uncertain and variable tolerance, which
sometimes closes its eyes, and sometimes opens them to throw out prohibitions;
which silently encourages and threatens aloud; which necessarily changes the
rules in the hands of each Administrator: under which the daring and
enterprising man overruns everything, whilst the industrious Merchant,
enlightened and honest, fears compromising himself, stifles his activity and
groans under the oppression; where the uneducated Citizen does not know if he
is innocent or guilty, and remains undecided on the justice or injustice of
everything that he may undertake? It is therefore very true that tolerance,
of whatever scope that it may be, never provides the Citizen with the security,
the freedom and the advantages that he enjoys under the protection of just
and precise laws; Oh! It would have been a lot to be desired for the national
Book Trade, that those imposed by justice and long experience had been allowed
to act.