Jules SIMON (Jules SUISSE dit) Lorient/ Morbihan 1814 - 1896 - Lot 556

Jules SIMON (Jules SUISSE dit) Lorient/ Morbihan 1814 - 1896 - Minister of Public Instruction, then Head of Government 1876, Senator. 2 Letters A.S. Autograph letter signed, 2 pages in-8°, Senate letterhead, April 7, 1890 (postmark on envelope enclosed), to "La France" editor Ludovic NAUDEAU: responding to a journalistic survey (very much in vogue at the time) to find out what he thought of "reporters", he castigates "reporters who enter your home in spite of you, snatch from you what you didn't mean to say, add embellishments of their own, presenting you to the public in an unpleasant light, and in any case, different from the truth, they respect nothing and nobody" + Enclosed: another autograph letter signed by Jules SIMON, 1 p in-8°, (undated) in which he quotes a letter from King Frederick II of Prussia in 1777, concerning the Pope and money: My dear friend. Would you like to dine with us on Thursday... Here is the opinion of Frederick II, King of Prussia: "The Pope and the monks will undoubtedly come to an end; their fall will not be the work of reason, but they will perish as the finances of the great potentates are disrupted. In France, when we have exhausted all means to obtain cash, we will be forced to secularize abbeys and convents. This example will be imitated... ; In Austria, the same need for money will give rise to the idea of having recourse to the easy conquest of the States of the Holy See to have enough to provide for extraordinary expenses... to Voltaire on July 9th 1777.... "