The Sun.
London, England, 1864-09-05 00:00:00

A Persecuted Author.

Alexandre Dumas addressed the following °ham•
teristic letter to the Emperor on the subject of his
piece recently produced in Paris, and called the
" Mohicans of Paris." The " Mohicans" had been
stopped by the censorship, and Dumas wrote :
Sire,—la 1836, and even to-day, there were three men at
the head of French literature, Victor Hugo, Lamartine, and
myself. Victor Hugo is proscribed. Lamartine is mined.
I cannot be exiled like victor Hugo, as neither by word,
theyt e
haavpub avolu
writing, nor act, have I given the authorities any hold over
not
me. But I can be ruined like Lamartine, and lam being
ruined. I know not what has excited the censorship against
tu
for me to appreciate their literary merits. Translated into
all tongues
them. Although the least worthy of the three, in the five
e.I have
written ned
gonelishsed far
a 1,200 s volumes.
steam could
. It is
carry
parts of the world I have become the most popular, because
one is a thinker, the other a dreamer, whilst I write for all
suis
,moi, un vulyarisateur). Of these 1,200 volumes
there is not one but could be given to any workman
of the Faubourg St. Antoine, the most republican, or
to any young girl of the Faubourg St. Germain, the
most modest of our Faubourgs. Well, sire, in the eyes of
the censure lam the most impure man alive. Within
12 years the censure has successively stopped " Isaac La-
queden,"sold 80,500 francs ; the " Tour de Nesle," after 800
representations, stopped for seven years. "Angelo" stopped
after 300 representations for six years ; " Antony" also for
six years, after 350 representations. "Le Jeunesse de
Louis XIV.", not played though received by the French
Theatre. To-day the censure stops the " Mohicans of
Paris," which was to have been played on Saturday. It wil
probably, on some pretext or another, forbid "Olympia of
Cleves" and " Balsamo," which plays I am writing now.
I do not complain any more for the "Mohicans" than for
my other dramas. I would observe to your Majesty that
durjng the three years of the Restoration of Charles X.,
during the 18 years' reign of Louis Philippe, 1 never had a
piece either suspended or arrested, and I add, for your Ma-
jesty alone, tiot it appears to me unjust to make a single
dramatic author iOse more than half a million when so many
men, who do not deserve the name, are encouraged and
supported. I appeal them for the first, and probably for the
last time, to the prince whose hand I had the honour to
press at Areneberg, at 11am, and at the Elysee, and who
finding me a devoted proselyte when he was on the road to
exile and the road to prison has never found me a solicitor
when on that of empire. A. DUMAS.
" This letter," adds the _Europe," was handed to the
Emperor by Marshal Vaillant, who, as a Minister
of State, has the theatres under his supervision.
You need rot be told that it produced the effect de-
sired by the writer, for the " Mohicans" has been
played, hut with the suppression of three tableaux
of the original manuscript."

, Ointment.—Old
LA DYERTISEMENT.I—Hohoway a age
and youth are alike euecumbing to thend destructive diarrheea,
which has rarely been so prevalent a so fatal as it is at
present. In all cases of dysentery and diarrhoea in which
Holloway's ointment has been well rubbed upon the abdo-
men two or three times a (lay decided relief has been at once
obtained; and a perseverance in the same safe treatment,
aided by the application of warm bran poultices, has estab-
lished a cure. A milk diet and farinaceous food should be
adhered to throughout the attack. Solid substances, fruits
alinautrinicitl ni of this rodressive and cool-
and vegetables, should be studiously shunned until the
symptoms have been dissi-
Fmtaogt rt 3 ;di dubit syn rteehnsn
ets
ditga:ndt