Tocqueville. Biography of thought [a fragment of a book]

Further repression followed the arrest of deputies. The freedom of the press was reduced, closing most of the newspapers. A decree of the fresh power provided prefects with the right to usage the alleged lettres de cachet – specially sealed letters in which, according to tradition, the French monarch sentenced the recipient of the letter to prison or exile – and thus in practice to insert into prisons any persons he indicated without a court.