Petty tyranny is the besetting sin of constitutional governments; it
is thus they are disloyal to themselves, and on the other hand, who
are so cruel as the weak? The present government is a spoilt child,
and does what it likes, excepting that it fails to secure the public
weal or the public vote.

Must he proceed to prove that _Vautrin_ is as innocent a work as a
drama of Berquin's? To inquire into the morality or immorality of the
stage would imply servile submission to the stupid Prudhommes who
bring the matter in question.

Shall he attack the newspapers? He could do no more than declare that
they have verified by their conduct all he ever said about them.

Yet in the midst of the disaster which the energy of government has
caused, but which the slightest sagacity in the world might have
prevented, the author has found some compensation in the testimony of
public sympathy which has been given him. M. Victor Hugo, among
others, has shown himself as steadfast in friendship as he is
pre-eminent in poetry; and the present writer has the greater
happiness in publishing the good will of M. Hugo, inasmuch as the
enemies of that distinguished man have no hesitation in blackening his
character.

Let me conclude by saying that _Vautrin_ is two months old, and in the
rush of Parisian life a novelty of two months has survived a couple of
centuries. The real preface to _Vautrin_ will be found in the play,
_Richard-Coeur-d'Eponge_,[*] which the administration permits to be
acted in order to save the prolific stage of Porte-Saint-Martin from
being overrun by children.