The Sun.
London, England, 1867-01-08 00:00:00

REVOLT AT A FRENCH PENITENTIARY

FOURTEEN BOYS ROASTED ALIVE.

(From a CorreTondent of the Morning Herald.)
DRAGUIGNAU, Jan. 2.
At the court of assizes of Draguignau, chief town
of the department of the Var, has begun, to-day, the
trial of a case without example in the criminal
annals not only of France but of the whole civilised
world.

On the 3d of October last the Penitentiary of the
Levant, the largest of the group of isles known as
the Islands of Hyeres (a reformatory where young
boys are trained to husbandry), rose in open revolt ;
and that rebellion had the most appalling conse-
quences, for no less than 14 boys were literally
roasted alive, so to say, by the ringleaders, who stood
deaf to the supplications and the agonising cries of
the victims, all the while preventing their escaping
by the only issue left to them, with a ferocity ren-
dered more revolting by the youth of the criminals.
As we have just said, the isle of the Levant is the
largest of those called Ilyeres, lying off the town of
that name which is situated at about six miles from
Toulon. The isle of the Levant measures about
4,000 acres almost entirely fit for cultivation. Till
now only 80 hectares have been cleared up ; the re-
mainder is a virgin forest of trees and Of heath as
high as arbuscles. All the produce of the most
favourite countries are to be found in that island.
It possesses the flora and the feathered tribe of Africa.
Myrtles, lentisks, parasol pines, and arbutus, which,
like the orange-tree, produce at the same time flower
and fruit, grow there in luxuriance. The vine also
grows marvellously, and the forty arpents converted
into vineyards give a delicious wine.
The whole isle belongs to the Count of Pourtales,
who, following family traditions, conceived the
philanthropic idea of establishing in it an agricul-
tural penitentiary colony, of founding there an esta-
blishment like the one created at Mettray, near
Tours, by M. de Metz. M. de Pourtales asked for
DO assistance, did not apply for charity, public or
private. That foundation dates from 1860. Since
that time the colony, wisely administered, has given
splendid results. Every boy, although costing only
twopence a day to the State, was receiving on the
average £l2 on leaving the establishment. The
disposition and the temper of the prisoners were
excellent. The colony had 250 boys at one time,
and 230 were living there when the revolt occurred.
And it i 3 a remarkable fact that the day after the
revolt the bulk of the prisoners tracked on the heath
the ringleaders, and arrested them themselves.
Moreover, when the revolt was raging, many of
them had spontaneously formed a guard to protect
the residence of the director of the colony.
The director is M. Fauveau, who has been a long
time at the head of the central prison at Clairvaux,
near Arcissur-Aube. He undertook and fulfils his
mission at the penitentiary of the isle of Levant as
an apostolate, and he is in daily communication
with the boys, towards whom he shows as much
"mansuetude as firmness.

As to the question of reformatories for young
people, the State in France seems to have come
to the conclusion that- they were not progressing
in the task, difficult and ungrateful, but engaging
and noble, of restoring to honesty young minds
often suffering from the involuntary fault of a
fatal birth. It is not with the traditions of a cold
administration that children are impressed and re-
trieved ; only a missionary burning with the sacred
fire can touch their hearts. That circumstance
explains why the French Government has now but
four penitentiary colonies— St. Hilaire, in the de-
partment of the Sarthe ; St. Bernard, in the depart-
ment of the Nord, near Loo; Gaillon, in the depart-
ment of the Eure ; and St. Antoine, near Ajaccio,
•in Corsica.

Things went so badly in the last colony that the
Government were resolved to suppress it, and to
send to the Penitentiary of the isle of the Levant
the 65 boys it was composed of. It was on the 28th
of September that those 65 Corsicans were landed
in the Levant. In less than six days from their
arrival they contrived to raise up a rebellion in the
colony, which had been till then a model of discip-
line. It seems that incendiarism was in the traditions
of the Corsican colony of St. Antoine ; moreover,
in that colony the prisoners did not work, they wan-
dered about and 'robbed the neighbouring houses.
In the paternal colony of M. de Pourtales they com-
plained that they had too little to eat and too much
work to go through. They refused to work, they
disbanded, and by means of fine promises and ter-
rible menaces, they succeeded in winning over a
good number of the oldest boys of the Levant Peni-
tentiary. The refractory band asked for meat at
every meal, fur tobacco and coffee, and for six hours
of play a day.
The rebellion was soon concocted, and on Tues-
day, Oct. 2, it was ushered in by seditious songs.
It burst out in the evening after bedtime. The
ringleaders got up from their beds, put down the
lights, broke the windows, demolisged the partitions,
and expelled the guardians. In view of preventing
more devastation, one of the latter suggested to the
prisoners to go down into the yard; they went
down, vociferating and making awful noises. Then
they formed a band, and went towards the house of
M. Fauveau, which is situated not far from the
penitentiary, and called the Castle. According to
Lhe act of accusation, they intended to pillage that
house, and, perhaps, to commit criaie.s more terrible.
But they were prevented from doing so by the im-
provised guard protecting M. Fauveau's house, as
we have already said.

Sixteen accused are before the Court. The first
of the ringleaders is named Copdurier. It is he
who proposed to liberate the boys who were under-
going disciplinary imprisonment. His proposal was
eagerly adopted, and the rebels, armed with axes,
marched to the doors of the cells where the prisoners
were confined. They broke open nine cells, and,
of course, their occupants enlarged the nutaber of
the revolted.

Then they went down to the cellars, the hogs-