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

THE FRENCH PRISONERS IN CAYENNE. i
amwbtrb 721xttton

TO THE EDITOR OF THE TIMES.

Sir,—lt is one of the brightest features of this age
the English press, and more especially the Times, should
have become a high tribunal, before which the most
powerful and despotic Government in the world has to
appear, there to meet the accusations of a batch of poor
prisoners perishing in the swamps of South America.
I take such a tribunal to be far superior to any court-
martial, mixed commission, or Star•chamber. I therefore
request you will allow me in your columns a few words
in reply to the result of the inquiries made by your
Paris correspendent in official quarters.
The facts stated in the letter the Times has so fairly
inserted and so remarkably commented upon have taken
place in a very remote country, whither no man is likely
to go for the express purpose of verifying them. The
French Government is perfectly aware of the fact, and
this is the reason why it screens so confidently behind a
bold denial of some of the statements held forth the
moral responsibility it has incurred, I have little doubt
that the King of Naples, although in a much less favour-
able condition, is as ready to affirm that there is nothing
but falsehood in the accusations levelled at him. For-
tunately, the question is one of common sense. Is it
conceivable that 38 men, living at the mercy of their
enemies in a place so far distant, with no prospect of
material assistance, should be mad enough to sign a
letter falsely stating as practised upon them such cruel-
ties as these—the chains with a cannon-ball attached,
the floggings at the stake, the blows and brutal outrages?
Is it credible that,, while their most obvious
interest is to soothe the feelings of those on whom they
so entirely depend, they should as much as run pro risk
of inflaming to frenzy by signed calumnies the anger of
their gaolers? The very fact of so many persons having,
under such circumstances, appended their name's to a
letter expressly intended for publicity is a decisive proof
that their denunciations are not only true, but have
been forced out from them by the agony of despair.
Besides, it should be borne in mind that, concerning
the above-mentioned cruelties, there is not the slightest
discrepancy to be found in the various reports sent at
different periods by different prisoners.
Your correspondent has been told in official quarters
that in August, 1855, those assembled on the Ile du
Diable bad their residence changed to the continent, and
were then subjected to military discipline. Well, long
before—that is, in October, 1854—a letter had been
written and made public, with the signature of the author
appended to it, in which it was positively said :—" The
proscribed in French Guiana are subjected to forced
labour (travaux forces) side by side with the most vile,
criminals. The regulations of the galleys are applied
to them in all their rigour. They wear the old clothes
of the deceased convicts, with the letters T.F ,' and
the very word 'galley-slave ' is written in capitals on
the upper leather of their shoes. Their food is that al-
lowed to galley-slaves. For the first months of their
sojourn they have exclusively lived on metuel ' and
&mac,' which were the diet of the blacks before the
abolition of slavery. If one of them venture to remon-
strate against the boundless insolence of their subal-
tern tyrants, woe to him 1 He is immediately put to
the rack. Starvation being added to sorrow, and the in-
fluence of a deadly climate to ill-treatment, 35 bodies out
of 200 have been, in a few months, cast as prOy to
sharks ; for in the Isle of St. Joseph the prisoners have
no other cemetery than the sea."

It must be remarked that at the time these statements
were made public no voice rose to contradict them.
When your correspondent asserts that three of the
persons mentioned are liberated galley-slaves, and four
of them repris de justice, he happens to confirm, in the
most striking manner, one of the facts that have been
denounced—namely, that in French Guiana the political
prisoners live ride by side with ordinary criminals. Is
it true that the seven whose names your correspondent
gives are rea'ly liberated galley-slaves or repris de jug-
t,ce? I cannot tell, as I know nothing of them. tut
supposing this to be true, how can this " assi.4 in an
estimate of the characters of the men from whom the
ranks of the Republican party are recruited ?" Were
not men transported in consequence of the coup d'ctat
who belonged to various parties ? Was not the coup
d'etat resisted by persons sharing in the Legitimist or
the Orleanist opinions? Among the victims who were
then struck in the dark, pele-mde, and transported,
"some by judgment of drum-head court-martial, some
without trial at all," were there not men belonging to
no party whatever ? Ii it not obvious that
this very pele-made was one of the most ocli,ius
consequences of the 2,1 of December ? The
French Government, or such as speak in its name,
will do well net to call to mind that Lahr, who died

on the scaffold for having treacherously murdered Gen.
Brea, in those unhappy days of June, was not on'y an
avowed Bonapartist, but even a Bonapartist recruiter !
To sum up all, from the inquiries made by your cor-
respondent in official quarters, it follows :
1. That those deported to iyentie were sentenced by
either courts-martial or mixed commissions, which a
country like England cannot possibly consider as amount-
ing to a lawful judgment.
2. That out of, the 38 who signed the letter as many
ss 31 were punished for no offence against the laws, the

others being only seven.
3. That, supposing the seven to be what they are re-
presented,
which may be questioned till more ample in-
formation ba got, the consequence is that ill Frer.c`i
Guiana the political prisoners are confounded with libe-
rated galley-slaves and rcpris de justice, and subjected to
tie same punishment.
4. That M. Peret, ex-mayor of Beziers, was trans-
ported to Guiana as a matter of favour ! For what
crime? This is prudently passed over in silence.
5. That his death by drowning occurred, as stated by
myself, in an attempt to escape, which shows that those
unfmtunate people aro ready to incur a most terrzb!e
death in their anxiety to fly from a life still more terlible.
6. That in the course of 'Tune two political prisoners
out of 181 were carried off, although the last surVivors
may naturally be considered very robust, having been
able to stand till now the murderous influence of a cli-
mate known to be peztilential.
One word more. Is it true that the system of secret
transportation is still going on—that not long ago a
workman in Paris disappeared on a sudden, without his
family being aware of what had become of him, and that,
upon inquiries, it was found the man had been sent to
Cayenne ? It would be very gratifying to all right-
thinking men to learn that nothing of the kind has oc-
curred in this nineteenth century. Whatever may be
the answer, I shall always congratulate myself on
having afforded to the English press an opportunity to
express sentiments of humanity and justice,_co highly
creditable to it.—l remain, &c., Louts BLANC.
Aug 29.

CICERTIACCHIO'S MURDER: AUSTRIA'S
DEFENCE AND 11ER DEFENDER.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUF.

Sir,—S. Angeloni has requested me to translate the
following letter. Will yon kindly insert it in your co-
lumns ? J. MERITON WHITE.
28, Ashley-place, Aug. 29.
Sir,—Ali article, furnished to the Gazetta Officiale di
Milano by M. Enrico Montazio, the London correi'peu-
dent, concerning the fate of di Ciceruacchio, having been
quited by the English press, permit me to refute the
statements male by the above-mentioned gentleman.
After a sneering allusion to the article in the Times
on Garibaldi's letter, the correspondent alleges that
Ciceruacehio and his children were not shot by the Aus-
trians, but that they " were drowned while endeavour-
ing to cross a stream in their flight from Rome. He who
assures me of this fact, says the correspondent, " is an
ottimo galantuomo—a certain Guiseppe Angeloni—who,
alter the fall of Rome, came to London, married an
Englishwoman, and now earns an honest livelihood as
an hotel-keeper, which employment would be more pro-
fitable if his extreme good-nature did not make him the
dupe of so many emigrants, who, abusing his kindness,
feed themselves at his expense.
I, sir, am the humble individual with whose family af-
fairs M. Montazio thinks fit to trouble the public. I feel
obliged by the respectful terms in which he mentions me,
and am sorry to be obliged to repay them byasserting that
his statements concerning the information given by me
to him about Ciceruacchio are utterly false. I remem-
ber, about two months since, when dining at my table
d'hote, M. Montazio questioned me concerning my poor
friend. I replied that I supposed he was dead, my in-
variable supposition about all of our friends of whose
fate we are ignorant, and whom we know to be obnoxi-
ous to one or other of the Italian Governmcnts., Had I
been in possession of any particulars, a table dhote was
not the place in which I should have revealed them, nor
was M. Montazio the man I would have chosen as my
confidant. But in this instance I was totally in the
dark. When I parted from my friend in Rome, he ac.
companied Garibaldi in his retreat, and I embarked for
England in a steamer off Civita Vecchia, the sth July,
1849. From that moment until General Garibaldi's
letter appeared in the papers, I have waited anxiously
for [tidings, fearing the worst. Hence the " stream,'"
the "crossings," and the "death by drowning," exist
only in the inventive brain of the London correspondent
of the Gazette Ojiciale di Milano. Perhaps if I had
been in the habit of receiving Austrian money for com-
munications fabricated for au Austrian official journal,
I might have been in possession of Austrian secrets, and
long since have given over hoping against hope that
some future day might give me back my friend again.
As it is, I am but a poor innkeeper ; but so far from
complaining of the "male fede di molti emigrati," I am
glad to see at my table those of my brothers exiled for
the holy cause in which the noble Ciceruacchio and his
sons, together with such myriads of our countrymen,
have lived and died.
I have written a letter to 'this effect to the Gazette,
though well aware that it has no chance of insertion. I
ask you, sir, to give publicity to my statement. It is
duo to General Garibaldi, who affirms, on the word and
researches ',of Colonel tSacchi, that those seven brave
ones fell by Austrian bullets—that false assertions
should not prevent the inquiries of honest men into this
matter. And for myself, I should grieve that my
brothers in exile, and my brothers in my nativeland,
should deem me a traitor to the common cause.— am,
sir, with respect, yours,

G. ANGELONI
32, Warwick•square, August 29,1856.

- -
SOUTHAMPTON; Aug. 29.—Two steamships, the Cadiz
and Jacquard, have arrived here within the last few
days to go into the graving dock for repairs. These
steamers belong to the Franco-American Steam Com
pany, having its seat of operations at Havre, and are em-
ployed in the New York and Brazil trades. The other
steamers of the comp y— the Arago, Vigo, Bar-
celona, Franc Comtois, and Ligonnais, are, it is said,
shortly to follow, to undergo repairs in the Southampton
graving-docks.

SUN OFFICE, Six o'Clock.

SPAIN.

The only Madrid journal which appeared on
the 25th, that day being Monday, was the Gazette,
and. it contains a letter from the Minister of
Public Works to the Minister of the Interior,
expressing the Queen's thanks for sundry
works in agriculture, presented by the French
government to the Spanish commissioner in the
late agricultural show at Paris. A letter says,
that two Royal princesses, Dona Josefa and Dona
Isabella, had not been invited to the marriage
of their sister, Dona Amalia, with Prince
Adalbert of Bavaria, 'on account of their mar-
riages having been beneath their dignity,
though, it is said, " excellent in every other re-
spect." The same letter says that M. de los Santos
Alvarez had been dismissed from the post of
minister jin Mexico, but that it was not known
for what reason. Another letter from a ministe-
rial source says ;—" The important measures
adopted by the Government, which give a clear
idea of .its policy, are generally approved of Loth •
at Madrid and in the provinces, not only by
moderados and conservatives, but even by mode-
rate progressists. With respect to the dissolu-
tion of the national guard, all admit that that
force could not be entrusted without danger
with the protection of liberty. All formal
resistance to the existing state of things is impos-
sible, and none of our political parties seem at all
disposed to attempt any."
The Infanta Amalia, consort of Prince Adalbert
of Bavaria, is the fourth and youngest daughter of
the Infante Don Francisco de Paulo, brother of the
late Kink Ferdinand VII. The three sisters of
this princess' married, one, the Count Gurowski,
Polish emigrant, who has long resided at Brussels;
another, M. Guelby, a rich merchant of Havana ;
and the third, the Duke de Sessa, son of a grandee
of Spain. The Infanta Amalia is the first princes
of this house who has contracted a royal alliance. 4

COMMODORE ELLIOT'S CRUISE THE GULP
OF TARTARY.

By the arrival of the steamers -Hellespont and Erin
from 6hangai, we (the Friend.3ff 491ef1ittYnre placed in
possession of some interesting ififftrnatiAtiri Tegarding the
recent cruise of ex-commodore Elliclt's`squadron in the
Gulf of Tartary.
This squadron, consisting of the Sibylle, Pique, and
Barracouta, left Hakodali, Japan, on the 4th May, and
on the 10th reached Cape Lemanon, in about 43 deg.
north lat. There the Sibylle and Pique remained, the
Barracouta steaming onwards along the coast to
the northward. On the evening of the 11th, in lat
49.1.50 deg. N., long. 140.19 E , a fine and capacious
bay was discovered, with many sheltered creeks capable
of affording secure anchorage for ships of the largest
tonnage. The entrance to this bay is very narrow, and
when seen from a distance appears blocked up by an
island in the centre; Indeed a ves-el might pass and
repass, and no one would dream of the beautiful anchorag
so close at hand. Soon after anchoring a few natives
(Ghiliacks) came off to sell fish, which they were glad to
barter for buttons.

Some of thesenatives had buttons with Russian insigniti
on them, leading the Barracouta to infer that Russian i
had been there riot long before. Consequently, early
next morning, Mr. Freeman, master of the Barracouta,
proceeded on shore, and crossing over a field of ice, cam
all at once on a number of Russian log-houses strongly
built and ensconced in the shade of some forest trees.
These houses bore evident marks of recent occupation--

piles of freshly cleft firewood lying here and there is
various directions. There were some empty casks, too,
in a stare-house, marked with the English broad arrow,
" Portsmouth, 1852," the contents, &c. In front of the
principal house was a flag-staff, with a compass card of
April, 1855. In the rear, and a little to the left of the
houses, was a strong platform battery for 8 guns. At some
c'istance to the right a similar platform for 10 guns,
whist in the anchorage, between the two, with her broad-
side to the entrance, lay the remains of alarge frigate 200
feet long, anchored in fathoms, burnt down to the ice
in which she was embedded. Theframework of this vessel
was stouter than that of either the Pique or Sibylle, and
Conjecture assigns her to have been the Pallas.' Her figure
head, a double eagle, found on the ice, was taken posses-
sion of by the Barracouta, and much of her rigging,
spars, ,!sc., was found stowed away in different places, it
being evident that her destruction had been an act com-
mitted but a short time before. Numerous graves—dis.
tinguisbed by the Greek Cross—were found on the hill,
and dated at various periods from as far back as 1853.
The Ghiliacks, by signs, led the Barracouta to believe
that the Russians had vacated the place seven weeks be-
fore only. - •
Having made this extraordinary discovery, the Barra
couta returned to Cape Lemanon to inform the Commo
More, who, with the Pique and Sibylle, then proceeded.
to a further examination of ,the bay, the hills about

which were thickly mudded with birch and pine trees,
affording fine shelter from the cold blasts of the north
and east.

Leaving her comrades in Barracouta. Bay, •as it was
at once termed, the -Barracouta proceeded north, to
Castrie's Bay, looking into all the' bays and inlets on the
coast en route, a labour which could be performed effectu-
ally,_ the weather being clear, although there was some
danger fron.dri fting ice. Finding-nothing Mord of Rus-
!labs either at De Castries Bay or on the road to it, the
Barracouta returned to:the bay, named after her, which
she reached en the 214 May, and, took in wood and
water. Leaving Barracouta ',Bay again she reached
liakodadi on the 29th; the Sibylle and Hornet arrived
there a day or two after her.