Note 791 — Chapter V

‘L'Averdy was no sooner named controller of finance than he published a decree, in 1764 (arrêt du conseil),—which, according to the state of the then existing constitution, had the force of a law,—by which every man was forbidden to print, or cause to be printed, anything whatever upon administrative affairs, or government regulations in general, under the penalty of a breach of the police laws; by which the man was liable to be punished without defence, and not as was the case before the law courts, where he might defend himself, and could only be judged according to law.’ Schlosser's Eighteenth Century, vol. ii. p. 166: see also Mém. de Morellet, vol. i. p. 141, vol. ii. p. 75, ‘un arrêt du conseil, qui défendait d'imprimer sur les matières d'administration.’