279 - VEUILLOT (Louis), 1813–1883.

VEUILLOT (Louis), 1813–1883. Autograph letter, “Louis Veuillot,” Paris, April 16, 1860, [to the Viscountess de Pitray]; 4 pp., in-8. A very fine letter on the suppression of *L’Univers* by Napoleon III, in which Veuillot directs biting and particularly inspired irony at the Emperor! Editor since 1843 of *L’Univers*, the principal organ of ultramontane Catholicism in France, Veuillot had seen his newspaper banned by decree on January 29, 1860, following the publication of Pope Pius IX’s encyclical *Nullis certe*, which was hostile to Napoleon III’s Italian policy. Having left for Rome shortly after this ban, he had just returned to Paris when this letter was written. To his correspondent, who asks for his opinion on the Emperor, Veuillot responds with a declaration of loyalty whose exaggeration immediately reveals the sarcasm: “We must love the Emperor, we must serve him, we must adore him. He is great, he is wise, he is pious, and no sovereign has such a fine police force. Long live the Emperor, Madam. Long live the Emperor! [...] It would be pure bliss if we could not envy the fate of our children, who will live in this world under the laws of our immortal (though not an academician) Emperor"" He then recounts with fierce verve the search he has just undergone: “Your delightful emperor deigned to do this for me […] He has a whole host of angels whom he has dragged out of all sorts of sewers to entrust them with the guardianship of the honest people of his empire.” The police seized his papers, including some blank paper: “With the insight that sets him apart from all mortals, the Emperor guessed that I had bought this blank paper to write on. But what would I have written on this blank paper? A thousand follies, perhaps, and I certainly deserve to be punished for that.” Veuillot finally takes the irony to the point of a striking evocation of political repression: “The two great scourges of mankind are freedom and life. The Emperor has already completely rid me of the first. If he were to rid me of the second as well, I could no longer be guilty of anything; I would no longer risk putting nonsense on white paper. What a happy fate!” He concludes this veritable indictment of the regime by asking his correspondent to burn the letter and keep only the accompanying note: “I sign with a fictitious name, to throw the angels off the trail. The one I adopt, blushing, will serve my purpose.” A very fine political letter by Veuillot, written just a few weeks after the suppression of *L’Univers*, blending dark humor, satire of the imperial police, and a provocative assertion of the freedom to write. Enclosed is another autograph letter from the same author, unsigned, dated November 6, 1850, 2 pp. and ½ in-8, addressed to A. Giron, a high school teacher in Brussels (with postmarks and a red wax seal bearing a coat of arms). Veuillot thanks his correspondent for his manuscript intended for the “Bibliothèque nouvelle,” which he finds “very good,” but “a little too flowery.” He urges him to streamline his style, promising to “proofread the galleys” and to “strip away the superfluous flourishes with a more practiced hand.” Without these corrections, he writes, “people will find that you come too close to Chateaubriand.” Veuillot urges Giron to finish his work, also mentioning a project for a French abridgment of a history of Emperor Ferdinand focusing on the religious wars in Germany. Finally, he mentions the difficulties he is currently facing with the Archbishop of Paris.