The writer, consequently, before reaching the public, must previously undergo the scrutiny of the printer and bookseller, who, both responsible, sworn and patented, will take good care not to risk their patent, the loss of their daily bread, ruin, and, besides this, a fine and imprisonment .-- In the second place, the printer, the bookseller and the author are obliged to place the manuscript or, by way of toleration, the work as it goes through the press, in the hands of the official censors;[6253] the latter read it and make their weekly report to the general director of publications; they indicate the good or bad spirit of the work, the "unsuitable or forbidden passages according to circumstances," the intended, involuntary or merely possible allusions; they exact the necessary suppressions, rectifications and additions.

The publisher obeys, the printers furnish proofs, and the author has submitted; his proceedings and attendance in the bureaux are at end.

He thinks himself safe in port, but he is not.
Through an express reservation, the director-general always has the right to suppress works, "even after they have been examined, printed and authorized to appear." In addition to this, the minister of the police,[6254] who, above the director-general, likewise has his censorship bureau, may, in his own right, place seals on the sheets already printed, destroy the plates and forms in the printing-office, send a thousand copies of the "Germany" by Madame de Stael to the paper-mill, "take measures to see that not a sheet remains," demand of the author his manuscript, recover from the author's friends the two copies he has lent to them, and take back from the director-general himself the two copies for his service locked up in a drawer in his cabinet .-- Two years before this, Napoleon said to Auguste de Stael,[6255] "Your mother is not bad.

She has intelligence, a good deal of intelligence.

But she is unaccustomed to any kind of discipline.