The Press. — London, England, 1856-08-30 00:00:00

AUGUST 30, 1856. would be required to carry out the plan. Resolutions cordially approving the message were adopted in both iliouses. THE EXILES OF CAYENNE. THE following letter, addressed to the " Editors,' having appeared in all the daily journals of the past yeek, we reprint it : Sir,—ln February, 1855, I received a letter that was signed as follows : Fassiliez, a political prisoner, transported in June, 1848, and •tvho has now been working fourteen months, like many others among his fellow-sufferers, under a chain forty pounds in weight, with a cannon-ball at the end of it. In that letter, dated " St. Joseph, Island of Despair, Oct., 1854," the gratuitous and unheard-of acts of barbaric!, were stated which are inflicted at Cayenne upon men belonging to all classes of society—artists, ..radesmen, workmen, barristers, physicians, farmers, journalists, scholars—these men having been vio• lastly driven out of their country, not in consequence d any lawful judgment, but by the mere impulse of political passions. I was requested to lay before the civilised world the heartrending details, which 1 did at far as my power went. Since that period no change whatever appears to Lave taken place in the situation of these unfortunate people, who are subjected to forced labours (trona= fortes) on a lonely rock, surrounded by the sea, at a distance of about 6,000 miles from their native land. Six months ago a second letter, which appeared in the Leader, was forwarded to me, relating what follows : Every ship that comes from the pestilential shores of Cayenne brings the death of a new victim. The latest victim is Perot, some time mayor of Beziers, a most gene. roua•hearted man, feeling acutely while he was rich that many of his fellow-creatures were perishing of hunger, and ready to spare neither his tOrtune nor his life to the cant-e of humanity. Having been deported to Cayenne without trial for resisting the coup-d'etat of the 2nd of December, he attempted, with six fellow-prisoners, to escape from that living tomb. They put to sea at night in a boat. Two hours after they were drivenon the rocks. Peret, entangled is his cloak, was drowned. The six others survived. But what an existence ! For two days they live,' on what shell fish they could find on a desolate rock in the midst of the mean, that threatened every moment to overwhelm them. At last one of them resolved to risk his life for the rest. Seeing no succour come he threw himself into the sea, and, after three hours' swimming, reached the land. Un happily, the land was French Guiana. He could only save his life on condition of surrendering himself a prisoner; his five companions were rescued from the devouring sea only to be cast in another dungeon. Tomb for tomb. Now, sir, here is a third letter which has now reached me : To Mr. Louis Blanc, those deported to the French Guiana, with urgent request to make public this appeal. Those deported to the French Guiana make an appeal to the feelings of justice and humanity of all honest men, to whatever party they may belong. At the very moment when it is so much spoken in France of clemency and generosity, while so many families are lulling themselves with the hope of clasping to their hearts the dear ones whose absence they have so long lamented, the political victims are treated in the French Guiana in a manner worthy of the darkest ages of barbarity. It is certainly a painful task to unveil such an amount of iniquity, but how is it possible to pass over in silence the unjust and cruel behaviour of French officers towards their fellow-countrymen? Let it be known, therefore, that we are unspeakably tortured on the flimsiest pretences, while people, deceived by the solemn declarations of the French Government, think perhaps that every prison is open, and that we are at liberty. Let it be known for in stance that, out of five men lately arrested for some talk it had been the fancy of an overseer to invent, two were tied to a stake and dealt with as the most vile criminals ! As they were reluctant to submit to an ignominious punish ment, soldiers were called for, who, rushing upon the vic tims, bruised them with blows, tore off their beards, and, reckless of shrieks with which wild beasts would have been moved, bound them with cords so fast as to make the blood gush. To relate all we suffer is more than we can possibly do. Our cheeks kindle with shame and our hearts are bleeding. Suffice it to say th a t, w hil e the French Government has its clemency cried up everywhere, there are Frenchmen in Guiana who do gasp for life. Nor are they allowed the sojourn of the Island of Despair, horrible as it is ; barbs row; administrators drag them violently on the continent, to compel them to a labour of eight hours a day in the marshy forests, from which pestilential vapours are conti nually rising. We refused to submit to this outrage upon laws, to this murderous attempt ; we claimed promised liberty, the answer is death—a magnanimous answer after the birth of a prince ! Is there, indeed, for us any other prcspect but imminent death ? With no proper food, no garments, no shoes, no wine since February last, is there any chance that we should long be able to bear both the influence of an exhausting toil, and a deadly climate ? Again, where is the law which assimilates political proscripta to galley slaves ? From beneath the brutal force that weighs upon us, heaped up together, almost breathless, but strengthened by the courage we draw from the sacredness of our cause, and our hope in the triumph of justice, we protest against the violence which is offered to us. May public opinion be moved at our misfortunes, and energetically rise against THE PRESS. deeds so well calculated to bring to shame a nation reputed the most enlightened and civilised in the world. Berbeja Alexandre, Gibert, Goret, Bodin, Jecegaly, Dalivie, Fernlaud, Snffmil , Pech, Guerard, Bonnasiolle, Salleles, Sasini, E. Beaufour, ',scour, Bockensky, Lafond, Dime Gustave, Pelletier, Deem'lle, Bijoux, Dore, Raymond, Meuniere, Cayet, Casnac, Prison, Patdouar.i, Labrousse, Ailhaud, Davaux, Bivors, Perrimond, Chaudron, Caudret, Caumette, Hullas. These are the lines, sir, whose insertion in your columns I earnestly request, not as a republican— not even as a Frenchman—but as a man. For this is not a question of political feeling—it is one of simple justice and humanity. Let it be carefully remembered that the tortured victims are men who have never been tried in any court, nor prosecuted by any form of law. It lies in your power, sir, as I said on a similar occasion, that the groan they utter from the place where they are, so to speak, buried alive, should be heard in the world of the living. The French press is gagged, and whoever has recently resided in France must of necessity know— as stated in a letter addressed by Mr. James Aytoun to the most influential paper of this country— That when the press is controlled by an arbitrary Go vernment, every species of injustice, jobbing, and oppres- sion may be perpetrated, uncommented upon, and even unknown, to the great majority of the population. Such being the case in France, the liberty of the English press remains the only possible resort for the oppressed to have the justice of their complaints at least examined. I apply, therefore, to the English press, and that all the more confidently, since I read in the Times but a few days ago : The press is emphatically the representative of the people. If wisely directed, it guards the interests of all classes and conditions of society, and has a right, iu turn, to the sympathies and assistance of all. I remind, sir, your most obedient servant, Lotus BLANC. [Pending explanation from the French Govern ment, judgment, we tb nk, should be withheld. No official reply has yet been given to M. Louis Blanc's statements, but the Paris correspondent of the Time*, Friday, writes that he is enabled on official informa tion to contradict some of M. Louis Blanc's state ments as to the cruelties inflicted on the French political prisoners at Cayenne. The decree of am nesty which followed the birth of the imperial Prince was fol owed by several applications for pardon ; while waiting for replies to these applica• tions the prisoners who signed the memorial to M. Louis Blanc refused to work; but as yet no decision has been taken regarding them : Seven of the persons who sign the letter he gives, and who were condemned by a mixed commission, had pre viously undergone punishments to which they had been sentenced by ordinarycriminal tribunals. Pelletier, Cayet, and Patdonani are liberated galley-slaves; Descalles, Dore, Priol, and Ailhaud are repris de justice, men who have been punished for offences against the laws, and not of a poll• tical nature. As regards the cruelties alleged to have been practised upon the prisoners, the chains, with a cannon ball attached, which they were compelled to dreg, the floggings at the stake, and the blows and brutal outrages their guards were allowed to inflict upon them, these are formally and completely denied. It is positively stated that the sole punishments to which they have been sub jected for misconduct are imprisonment and stoppage of their wine or of some other portion of their rations, and that in no one instance has corporal punishment been applied, except in the case of the criminals confined on the Isle Royale. These are not political prisoners, but proceed from the French bagnes, and constitute quite a dif ferent category. From the Ist to the 30th June (in the hottest season of the year) there were but two deaths out of 181 convicts, This can hardly be considered to indicate overpowering toil or a very unhealthy condition, in a cli mate which is so notoriously insalubrious. Two of the persons who signed the letter to M. Blanc, I abrousse and Frison, have been pardoned.; FOREIGN MISCELLANEA. THE SUBMARINE TELEGRAPH between ; America and Ireland promises to be effected. A cable has already been laid down from the northern point of Nova Scotia to Cape Ray, Newfoundland, a distance of eighty-five miles, and this will be extended across Newfoundland to SL John's Bay, whence the ocean distance to the west coast of Ireland is 1,640 miles. Meanwhile the small steamer Arctic, despatched by the United States' Government to make soundings between these two points, has left Newfoundland on the 31st of July, and arrived at Queenstown, Cork, having satisfactorily performed the object of her voyage, so that the next step will be laying out the cable. THE REPORTED VISITS OF THE EMPEROR OF THE FRENCH to various parts of Germany, Switzerland, &c., were not without some ground. A letter from Berlin this week says : in the mouth of May a young French ph)sician, of high repute with the faculty in Paris, arrived at Carlsbad, and consulted one of the most skilful pathologists of this place, described very accurately the symptoms of his patient, all of which pointed distinctly to an affection of the liver, and inquired if the Carlsbad waters were well calculated to give his patient relief, giving, at the same time, the distinct intimation that nothing but the absolute certainty of a cure 823 would induce his patient to resort to that place. The young French physician, on leaving Berlin, proceeded to Vienna and Prague, for the purpose of consulting further medical a ithorities in Austria. In the latter part of last July the physician whom he had consulted at Carlsbad received a costly snufflxox from Paris, with a few lines from his French medical colleague, requesting his acceptance of it as a token of acknowledgment for his professional advice ; he would probably guess for whose benefit the service had been asked, but the consultation had, he grieved to say, been unproductive of any result, for our Emperor is re stricted by political consideration even in the choice of a spa." THE famous mot of Bordeaux, "L'Empire c'est la Paix," is not, as most people suppose, the expression of the Emperor Napoleon's ripened judgment, founded upon a consideration of the political situation of Europe in 1852, but of much older date. M. Bel montet, at the late Bonapartist dinner at Paris, ex plained this. In 1833, a short time after the death of the Duke de Reichstadt, the young prince, Louis Napoleon, was invited to a little town in the duchy of Baden, on the lower lake of Constance, and nearly opposite to the Chateau of Arenemberg. There, in Rudolfszell, secret emissaries from several sovereigns were, according to M. Belmontet, sent for the pur pose of learning the real political opinions of the son of Hortense. M. Belmontet had the honour to ac company the prince in a "little boat, with a single waterman," but which frail bark carried " Cesar and his fortunes." In returning, the prince confided to M. Belmontet that the sovereigns of the north of Europe, feeling distrustful of the duration of Louis Philippe's power, and " doubtless " foreseeing the inevitable revival of the empire, were anxious to know what Louis Napoleon's ideas were, and that he had told them that the re-establishment of the em pire could not but consolidate friendly relations be tween France and the powers of Europe; that, having received the "baptism of glory," France bad now only to fructify the institutions created or strengthened by the Emperor, and to improve her material and moral position—in a word, that " l'Empire c'etait la paix," but " a peace great, solid, and durable by reason of its own strength." THE AUSTRIAN FORTRESS OF POLA, commanding the entrance to the Gulf of Venice, threatens to be come the Sebastopol of the Adriatic. Strangers are quite as jealously kept out, and very little as really known of the result of the eighteen millions ex pended by Austria within the last three years in the construction of this first marine military arsenal. A letter from Turin this week says : With the exception of Gibraltar there is not a more im pregnable fortress in Eurone than Pola, not only from its position, but from the art and science with which it I.as been constructed. It commands the entrance into the Gulf of Venice, and into that large bay in which Venice is placed. The water to the very shores is so deep that vessels of large burden can approach in safety, and the bay is sheltered from every wind that blows, and so extensive as to harbour an immense fleet. The neighbouring hills are crowned with enormous batteries, armed with guns of the heaviest calibre. The numerous islets are turned into forts similarly armed, so that there is not perhaps in all Europe a more formidable fortress and arsenal than Pole. Austria during the last three peals has spent more than eighteen millions of francs, and, besides the impreg nable fortress of Pols, has constructed three docks, where she is now building and equipping men-of-war. She has enlisted into her naval service officers of every nation, but principally Prussians, Swedes, and Norwegians. All along her side of the Adriatic are fishermen engaged in the Tun fishery ; as soon as the sons of these fishermen attain the age of fifteen they are drafted into the Austrian marine, a .d in a few years will become first-rate seamen. THE RUSSIAN VICE-ADMIRAL VON ULASENAP is still very carefully inspecting all the Norwegian mari time establishments and arsenals; " from these elaborate measures of precaution and surveillance (sap; a letter this week from Sweden', the rest of Europe way measure how apprehensive Russia is of Sweden attaining an amount of defensive strength that would relieve her from all fear of her overpower ing neighbour." In the meantime the Swedish jour nals continue to repeat with great pertinacity the confident statement that the Russians are com mencing the conversion of the Island of Kaskoe, known to he very suitable for the purpose, into a fortified maritime establishment. General von Berg, who was there at the latter end of last month, se companied by two engineers, is understood to have inspected the works already in progress there. The Swedes profess to dread the future Kaskoe more than they did the past Bomarsund. JEWISH DISABILITIES IN RUSSIA are by no means yet removed. Some Jewish passengers lately arriving at Odessa were not allowed to land there, although their passports were in perfect order, on the ground that Hebrews can be admitted only when somebody will be answerable for them ; and, as thee persons had no acquaintances in Odessa who would undertake for them, they were obliged to return to Constantinople. That all the Jewish disabilities are not yet removed is evident from the statement in a letter from Berlin this week.— The Emperor has ordered the Jews in every govern ment to depute five of their number to proceed to St. Petersburg in September, and form a conference there, for the purpose of discussing what changes are desirable