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

Trti.c ritn,

I% NE.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE TIMES.

Sir,—elt 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 moEt
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 con mision, or Star-chamber. I therefore
request you will allow me in your columns a few words
in reply to the result of the inquities 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 qaestion is on. 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 whose they
so entirely depend, they should as much as run the 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 names 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 had 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 rnetuel' and
' couac,' 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-
leen tyrants, woe to him ! 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 prey 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 bide by side with ordinary criminals. Is
it true that the seven whose names your correspondent
gives are really liberated galley-slaves or repris de jus-
tice? I cannot tell, as I know nothing of them. But
supposing this to be true, how can this "assist 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'etat
who belonged to various parties ? Was not the coup
d'ctat resisted by persons sharing in the Legitimist or
the Orleanist opinions ? Among the victims who were
then struck in the dark, pele-mete, and transported,
"some by judgment of drum-head court-martial, some
without trial at all," were there .not men belonging to
no party whatever ? Is it not obvious that
this very pele-mele was one of the most odious
consequences of the 2,1 of December ? The
French Government, or such as speak in its name,
will do well not to c.dl to mind that Lahr, who died
on the scaffold for having treacherously murdered Gen.
Brea, in those unhappy days (.1 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 querters, it follows:-
1. That those deported to Cayenne were sentenced by
either courts-martial or mixed c)mmissions, 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
as 31 were punished for no offense against the laws, the
others being only seven.
3. That, supposing the seven to be what they are se-
preaented, which may be questioned till more ample in-
formation be gat, the consequence is that iu French
Guiana the political prisoners are confounded with libe-
rated galley-slaves and repris do justice, and subjected to
the same punishment.
4. That NI. Peret, ex-mayor of Beziers, was trans-
ported to Guiana is a matter of favour ! For what
crime? Tais 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
unfortunate people are ready to incur a most terrib:e
death in their anxiety to fly from a life still more terrible.

6. Tbat in the course of June two political prisoners
out of 181 were carried off) although the last survivors
may naturally be considerci very robust, having been
able to stand till now the murderous influence of a cli-
-I)3We known to be pestilential.

One word more. 13 it true that the system of secret
transportation is still going on—that not long agl 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, so highly
creditable to it.—l remain, &c., Louts BLANC.
Aug. 29.

CICERUACCHIO'S MURDER: AUSTRIA'S
DEFENCE AND II ER DEFENDER.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUET.

Sir,—S. Angeloni has requested me to translate the
following letter. Will you kindly insert it in your co-
lumns! J. MERITON winrE.

28, Ashley-place, Aug. 29.
Sir,—An article, furnished to the Gazetta Officials di
Milano by M. Enrico Montazio, the London correspon-
dent, concernin2 the fate of di Ciceruacchio, having been
quoted by the English press, permit me to rJuto the
statements mate by the above-mentioned gentleman.
After a sneering allusion to the article in the Timrs
on Garibaldi's letter, the coi.:cF-pondent alleges that
Ciceruacchio 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. lie who
assures me of this fact, says the correspondent, " is an
°tam° galantuonto —a certain Guiseppe Angeloni—who,
after 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,
feel 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 thetn 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 ara ignorant, and whom we know to be obnoxi-
ous to one or other Of the Italian Governments. Had I
been in possession of any par'dculars, a table d'hots was
not the place in which I should have revealed th.m, 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 Gazetta Officials di Milano. Perhaps if I had
been in the habit of receiving Austrian money for com-
munications fabricated for an 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 " mala fcde di molti entigrati," 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 Gazettes,
though well aware that it has no chance of insertion. I
ask you, sir, to give publicity to my statement-. It is
due to General Garibaldi, who affirms, on the word and
researches :of Colonel iSacehi, 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 native land,
should deem me a traitor to the common cause.—l 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 company—viz., the Arago, Vigo, Bar-
celona, Franc Comtois, and Ligonnais, are, it is said,
shortly to follow, to undergo repairs in the Southampton
grAving-clocks.