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

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.;