The Sun.
London, England, 1856-08-28 00:00:00

OUR WIFE.

Books of Sheridaiaay of Pizarro, as arranged for representation
the Royal-Plitt s Theatre by Charles Kean. with Historical
Notes, are now.
-street. ady, and ma be had at the stage door of the
theatre In Oxford Price y
Is.

THEATRE ROYAL, FIAYMAREET.
'Under the Management of Mr. Bucket One.

THIS EVENING,
SECOND LOVE.
Followed by
The Spanish Dancers.

After which,
PRESENTED AT COURT.

To conalade with
THE SPANISH SERJEANT.

ROYAL THEKTRE ADELPHI.
Tropriator and Manager, Mr. B. Webster.
Directress, Madame Celeste.
THIS EVENING.
IRELAND AS IT 13.
- Followed by
DOMESTIC ECONOMY.

After which
THE IRISH TUTOR.
To oonclude with
OUR GAL.

ROYAL OLYMPIC THEATRE.
Lessee and Manager, Mr. Alfre4 Wigan.

THIS EVENING
THE GREEN-EYED MONSTER.

After which.
MEDB A.
To conclude with
SHOCKING EVENTS.

ithttrs ROYAL AMPHITHEATRE.
Lessee and Manager. Mr. Wm. Cooke.
Stakspeare's Richard the Third illustrated.
THIS EVENING,
The highly successitil production, Shakspeare's RICHARD THE
THIRD, with equestrian effects unprecedented, Imposing tableau of
Death of White Surrey," Rattle of Bosworth Field, &c.
After which,
The ACTS'of HORSEMANSHIP in the CIRCLE.
To conclude with a round of varied entertainments.
Boa-office bpen from Eleven till Four. Stage Manager, Mr. W.
West. Equestrian Director. Mr. W. Cooke, jun.

AlGji WATER AT LONDON BRIDGE.
THIS DAT—Morn. 26 min. aft. 12—Evening 54 min. aft. 12
To-Sfoßnow—Morn.2o ruin. aft. I—Evening 41 min. aft. 1

TEIE. WEATHER—SUN OFFICE, AUGUST 28.
THERMOMETER, IN THE SHADE.
T 5 —highest since noon yesterday.
58 —lowest this morning and during the night.
69 —this day at noon.
BAROMETER, 29'87.
WIND, S.W.—Light, with cloudy weather.

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v ,
ikrl)

LONDON, THURSDAY, AUGUST 21, 1856.

" Physician, heal thyself 1" Well may Bostss
reply to Lows NAPOLEON, the tu quoque argu-
ment. Well may he express astonishment at any
remonstrance from such a qtarter. The most

atrocious cruelties of which he has been guilty
are paralleled by the pitiless treatment of the
French political victims at the appropriately-

named " Island of Despair." The dungeons o

Naples, the cells of Monte-Sarchio, are by no

means worse than the pestilential swamps o

French Guiana. The paralysing inertion, and
strict confinement in Neapolitan gaols, are even
more tolerable than compulsory labour for eight
hours under a tropical sun, amidst decaying vege-
tation, that renders every passing breeze as deadly
as if laden with the poisonous exhalations of the
fabled 17pas tree. And yet we rail at BoMBA
while we leave the more powerful potentate
without venturing on the slightest remonstrance

against a system which excites almost equally the
disgust and the indignation of the community.
It may be said that England also has had, and
still has, its exiles—that the treatment of our
own convicts is just as severe as that sanctioned ,
by the French Government. The answer, how-
ever, is easy. Our convicts, with rare excep-
tions, have been duly sentenced for infamous and
degrading offences, for which, even within the
memory of living men, they would have suffered
an ignominious death on the scaffold. They are
of the same class as the galley slaves of France
—and however severe their treatment it is
but the legitimate punishment of their crimes.
Besides they are located under a genial sky.
There is but little danger of a secondary
being indirectly exchanged for capital punish-
ment. They may, in the course of nature, live
to an advanced age, with ample opportunities for
repenting of their past offences.

The condition of the French Exiles, at Cayenne,
is strikingly different in every respect. Their
offences, however formidable to the " powers that
be," had nothing mean or dishonourable. Had
they succeeded they would have been the domi-

nant party, the tables would have been com
pletely turned, and victims and oppressors might

have chanied situations ; that is to say, if the pre-
sent sufferers had not too much generosity to so
grievously maltreat those whose destinies were,
by the fortunes of war, placed at their disposal.
The sufferers, too, were not endeavouring to over.
throw an established Government. They were
rnerdy seeking to maintain the existing state of
affailt:". t:7) resist the coup d'etat that changed the
Republi, into an Empire, and clothed the Presi-
dent of the day with the Imperial Purple. They
were, in fact, standing up on behalf of "law and
order," and, although unsuccessful, could not,
under the most strained interpretation of existing
affairs, be regarded as criminals.
What, too, was the nature of their trials ?
What opportunities of defence were allowed
Some were condemned by drum-head Court-
martials, but even the semblance of a trial was
refused to the inajority, and educated men—
" artists, tradesmen, workmen, barristers, phy-
sicians, farmers, journalists, and scholars," have
been not merely exiled from their native land,
but have been reduced to slavery of the worst de
scription, and exposed to all the brutalities of
heartless taskmasters under circumstances more
intolerable than those under which the negroes of
the Southern States of America are labouring.
This is, indeed, frightful,; and when
dered that every citizen of a free state is suppcsei
to have the right of being heard in his own de-
fence before his condemnation, the harsh and
cruel treatment of these truly unfortunate persons
becomes more repugnant to the feelings of every
right-minded fr 10.
Some time;sino,France spoke with pride of gal
abolition of :capital punishment for political