The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1872-09-28 00:00:00

M. ABOUT.

The Stir &tele publhhos the following note :
" I should be most ungrateful if, on returning to
Paris, I did n employ the first moments of my
liberty to thank the President of the Republic, the
Minister of Foreign Affairs, and M. de Orem I for
the diplomatic intervention which they spontane-
ously offered, but which I thought it my duty
to decline. I owe, also, my warm thanks to the Com-
mittees of Dramatic Authors, Men of Letrers, to the
Normal School, and to my generous confreres of the
French and foreign press, who unanimously pleaded in
cause. One of t.l.e numerous Frenchmen with whom I
shook hands to day said, The journalists have shown
a spirit of solidarity which does them honour.' I &'ded
that they exhibited great political tact in guesbing by a
sort of intuition a ihrnger unknown up to the present
which menaces us all. The Court martial at Strasburg
aimed much higher than my bumble person. It aimed
at nothing less than to introduce into international law
an unheard-of principle. The new tyrants of Europe
do not intend that a Frenchman in Paris, an Englishman
in London, or an Italian in Rome shall criticize them
severely in a book or in a journal without becoming ipso
facto amenable to their courts of justice; it is sufficient for
the book to have been introduced into Germany, even
by a German, for the Imperial Procureur to issue a
warrant against the author. If the author at the end
of a year or more should by chance be struggling on
the hospitable Boil of the Germanic Empire, he can be
seized like me, thrown into prison like me, and accused
like me of high treason. lie will be reproached with
having sown hatred and contempt of the German
Government, of having conspired against the unity
of the Empire, and of having thrown revolutionary
ideas into the minds of a conquered people. The
circumstances which permitted me to escape from this
accusation will not be reproduced every day, while the
courts of M. de Bismarck, beaten yesterday, persist in
their theory and obstinately arrange the jurisprudence
in accordance with their interest. It is, therefore,
necessary for all the authors of Europe to put their
shoulders together in the face of a common enemy,
whose pleasure it is to brave public opinion. They will
require all their talent and all their courage to defend
the holy liberty of writing against this arrogant and
foolish pretension."

Referring to M. About's arrest and imprisonment, the
Daily Sews writes

The imprisonment of M. About . . . . . affords
a curious illustration of the truth that "History
repeats itself." An illustrious countryman of NI.
Aboutte, not many years dead, underwent the
same experience as himself very nearly half a century
ago. It was in the year 1824 that the distinguished
philosopher, Victor Cousin, was arrested in Germany
for a supposed political offence, and instead of get-
ting off with about six days', suffered six mouths'
imprisonment. Seven years before, being then 23 years
ol Cousin had made a journey into Germany, and
h been an ardent and admiring listener to the philo-
sophic talk of Hegel and Schelling. Wishing to renew
his intercourse with the Germans, Cousin set out to visit
them in 1824, without the smallest idea that his trans-
cendental pilgrimage would land him in a very
mundane prison, One fine morning while he was at
Dresden' the Saxon police knocked at his door and
showed him a paper covered with German stampa,
from which he learnt that he was accused of Carbo-
narism, and was a prisoner. The Carbonari were at
that time the most dreaded secret society in Europe,
far more feared than the Irish Fenians or the
cosmopolitan Internationalists of our own time. To be
suspected of belonging to the Italian brotherhood was a
very serious matter, not at all unlikely to end in being
marched out one mornicg to be placed against a wall,
bandaged, and shot. Cousin escaped that fate probably
because, though he WAS accused of Carbonarism, he was
not really suspected of that otTence. His actual crime was
that of having spoken rather too freely about German
politics in his philosophical lectures. From Dresden
he was taken to Berlin. There he was kept a pri-
soner for half a year, and during that time he ha
ample opportunity to digest the system of Hegel, an
opportunity which he turned to good account. When
at last he was released, he was received with im-
mense enthusiasm by his fellow countrymen, and ob-
tained so much renown that he speedily took his place
by the side of Villemaiu and Guizot, and with them
drew enthusiastic crowds to their lectures at the Sor-
bonne. The result to Cousin personally was very
satisfactory. He secured early in life a position in the
world of letters, whichhis genius enabled him to main-
tain. Many a time he has said, 'III have become what I
am, I owe it to a Saxon policeman. He acquired more
fame for me in an hour than I should have gained
for myself in twenty years." Probably M. About will
find that he has equal cause to rejoice over his deten-
tion. It has been much milder than his compatriot's
no doubt, but the increased publicity given to it by
modern jouretaliem will amply c impenrate for its
briefer duration, especially as M. About a fortunate
enough to possess a paper of his own.