September Laws (1835)
9월법 (1835)
The three repressive laws passed by the July Monarchy in France after Fieschi's attempt on the life of Louis-Philippe on 28 July 1835. They strengthened the powers of the presiding judge and prosecutor of the assize courts in rebellion cases, changed the jury majority needed to convict from two-thirds to a simple majority, and, in the press law of 9 September, outlawed discussion of the king, the dynasty and constitutional monarchy and subjected drawings to prior censorship. Republican newspapers were forced to close.
In depth
The July Monarchy, born of the revolution of July 1830 in defence of press freedom, turned authoritarian towards the newspapers from 1833 and after the silk workers' rising in Lyon in 1834 passed a law against associations. On 28 July 1835, at a review of the National Guard marking the anniversary of the July Revolution, the Corsican Giuseppe Fieschi fired a bank of gun barrels, the "infernal machine", at the king; two republican members of the Society of the Rights of Man were arrested as his accomplices. The government blamed the newspapers that had been attacking the king.
The first law reinforced the powers of the presiding judge of the assize court and of the prosecutor against those accused of rebellion, possession of prohibited weapons or attempted insurrection; it passed on 13 August by 212 votes to 72. The second lowered the jury majority required for a guilty verdict from eight to four to seven to five and passed on 20 August by 224 to 149. The third, the press law, outlawed discussion of the king, the dynasty and constitutional monarchy; after passionate debate it passed on 29 August by 226 votes to 153 and was promulgated on 9 September. Lamartine opposed it in a long speech in the Chamber.
The press law raised the caution money, barred a newspaper from appearing under a manager sentenced to prison for the duration of the sentence, and subjected drawings and engravings to prior authorisation. Prosecutions for offending the king and inciting revolt multiplied, and papers such as La Caricature, Le Populaire and La Tribune disappeared. Commercial newspapers such as Girardin's La Presse grew in place of the political press, and Le Charivari turned from political caricature to the caricature of manners. Together with the association law of 1834 the September Laws drove the republicans underground, opening the era of the secret societies of Blanqui and Barbès.