The Northern Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1856-11-06 00:00:00

ALLEGED POLITICAL OFFENDERS IN

FRANCE

M. Louis Blanc's statements regarding the treatment of
political exiles at Cayenne were met, on the part of the
French government, by a denial. Nevertheless, the
French government has subsequently deemed it expedient
to announce that New Caledonia is henceforth to be the
destination of its political prisoners. Is not this tantamount
to a confession that the detention of political prisoners in a
place so unhealthy as Cayenne was indefensible? New
Caledonia is believed to be more healthy than Guiana; but
then it is more remote—herein the French government
may find some compensation. It is also announced that
the detenus at Belie Isle are to be transcerred to the new
political prison at Corte, in Corsica. Here again there is
compensation—Corsica is the first stage on the journey to
Africa.

These changes, however, show that although the French
Government may resent the criticism of the press, it
modifies its conduct in deference to that criticism when well
founded: This affords encouragement !o persevere in
offering good advice to the French Government—adviec:
which has in view at once its own interest and the prosperity
of France. The judicious physician, when obliged to
perform a painful operation, pays no attention to the abusive
epithets his patient may heap upon him.
In this friendly spirit we proceed to remark that the fact
mentioned by M. Louis Blanc, of a workman who had
disappeared having been, without sentence, clasdestinely
transported to Cayenne, is by no means an exc,,ptional case.
It is an event of frequent recurrence. If Bord Age of Tours,
Lecamp of Rheins, and others removed from Belle Isle on
the 17th of May last, about the time that their sentence
would have expired, have not been transported to Cayenne,
Moniteur to inform us where they are to

auk th

be found. Are we to understand that men disappear in the
hands of the French government like lulls in the hands of

a juggler
Whilst we wait for an answer to our question we may
mention a practice of the French Government that appears
to throw some light on the disappearance of the persons to
whom we have alluded. When individuals are sentenced in
Francs to imprisonment during a year, a year and a half, or
two years, for belonging to secret societies, or for using
abusive language against the Gevernment or the person of
the Emperor, or any other delict of a similar kind, the judi-
cially decreed intention for a year, or a year and a half, or
two years, is sometimes only:part of the penalty they undergo.
If a man is found too proud to condescend to beg for mercy.,
he has to undergo transportation at the expiration of his
term. When the year, or year and a half, or two years,
are about to expire, he is removed, and, without accusa-
tion, trial, or sentence, conducted to the frontier by " /a
correspowlance," and thrust out into exile—that is, when he
is not in)sterionsly conveyed to Cayenne or Lambessa.
The number of exiles at present in London who have
been thus dealt with is considerable, and nothing can be
more easy than for any one who doubts the statement to
test its accuracy. Among many similar cases may be
mentioned that of Guerin, a day labourer, who died in
London a few weeks ago, and whose body was followed
to the grave by a number of English as well as of his
countrymen. This man—an uneducated man, it may be
remarked—had been condemned to eighteen months' impri-
sonment for applying vituperative epithets to the Emperor.
Ho underwent his sentence in a inaison centrale, among
pickpockets; and when the term expired, instead of being
liberated, he was conducted by gensd'armes to Calais, and
forcibly embarked for England. Poor, sick, ignorant of the
English language, he died after a brief sojourn in this coun-
try. It is in this manner that the ranks of untried political
exiles amongst us, constantly diminished by death; are
recruited.

CONFESSION OF A FILLIBUSTER

(Prom El Nicaraguense, 5ept.....20)

At five o'clock on the evening of Friday, the 19th
inst., Second-Lieutenant Jennings Estelle suffered the
extreme penalty of the law, by being shot on the Plaza,
for the murder of Second- Lieutenant Charles Gordon,
in the guardhouse, in the city of Granada, while acting
as officer of the guard.
Estelle had been previously arrested for shooting
Thomas Edwards, and was, when he committed the
unfortunate act for which he suffered death, a prisoner
confined to his quarters. He had a fair and impartial
trial, and the gentlemen who sat in judgment upon
him gave him every opportunity to establish a defence,
but in this he utterly failed. The deed was committed
without any provocation
.or wsthout any aggravating
circumstance. He was sentenced to be hung,
but the Commander-in Chief cansed It to be so
far mitigated as to allow him to be shot. There was a
large concourse gathered to witness the execution.
Estelle walked with a firm step by the side of a reverend
father of the church, who prayed with him and for him
from the guardhouse to the place of execution. When
he arrived at the spot where he was to breathe his last,
he requested that his hands might be untied, as he wished
to address the crowd. This request being granted, he
spoke in a firm, unfaltering voice. In his speech he
asked forgiveness of the officers and soldiers of the
Nicaraguan army. Voices responded from the crowd
" God forgive you !" While in prison he wrote the fol
lowing address, which he requested to have published :
Granada, September 15, 1856.—These are the dying
declarations of Jennings Estelle :—I was born in
Marshall, Tennessee, in the year 1833, and was raised
from my infancy in Hinds County, Mississippi. I
started to California in 1852. On the road I had a
difficulty with a man of the name of Howard, and shot
him. I afterwards shot a man of the name of Hays, but
the wound did not happen to prove fatal. In the same
year I had a difficulty with Charles Robinson, and
stabbed him in three places. My last two difficulties,
while in California, occurred at the State Prison, where
I had been employed for the last two years. After getting.
in the last scrape I came to Nicaragua, and shot Thomas
Edwards. I afterwards shot Charles Gordon. I must
say that, in all my difficulties, I was not once in my
right mind.= Twice I bad been forgiven, and hope to be
forgiven for them all. I think there is a God in Heaven
that will and can forgive ; and He knows, and I know,
that it was not I that killed Charles Gordon. It was
whisky and my crazy mind that did it. I say that I was
not in my right mind when I did the deed, and God
knows it. Forgive me officers and soldiers, and I can
die a happy man.

Commerrtal Intelligente.

LIVERPOOL COTTON MARKET.—Nov 5

There has been a moderately fair demand for cotton to
day, and, with an average supply, prices are unchanged
The sales—including 100 Bahia.s 7d, 100 Egyptians 61d
to 7 d, 1,800 Surats 411 to bid—are reported 7,000 bale. ,
of which 1,500 are on speculation and for export.