The Statesman.
London, England, 1809-06-23 00:00:00

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I.

,CIIPLOYAUSN7' OF !eland PIM
JU NE/.S.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE STATESMAN.

Sig—ln reading your Paper of the 7th instant,
I was greatly pleased by yusr remarks on the Plan
retently adopted by Bonaparte, of employing his I
Austrian prisoners in agricultural and usanufactur.
lag labours, instead of immuring them in prisons ;
and your wish thlst some useful employment
might be found for the **mercies French prisoners
that are languishing in coninetneet in this comentry,'
has induced me to send you a few remarks on a
subject, which to every friend of humanity must
be deeply interesting. But laying aside the eon.
itineration of humanity, it would sorely, in point
of mere policy, be desirable to avail ourselves of
the useful labours of so industrious and ingenious
a, body or men as the French prisoners are known
to he.... The c.uployment of these men iunitt•rent
parts of this Wold, where we Imre many
important works in constant progress, tech as
roads, canals, docks, bridges, and other .public
buildings, could nut be dilicult, nor if thcy were
properly distributed could it be attended with the
smallest danger ur inconvenience. What sit:lenity,
for instance, could arise in employing a portion
of these men in the grand canal and military roads
furmitti in -Scotland ? It ha. been the opinion of
many persons, that as mere labourech ticymight
oxen be employed in our Duck-yards—but as we
are confessedly not inCoftlevvieaCed by. a de.
Leieney of that species of labour, I admit
that it would be injudicious fro:u any negolire
to hazard an experiment itt which there
_ _ _

could be the stighiesit risk of dangerous copse.
quences. But the employment of prisoners ou

;aids, bridges, canals,- di;ck I, and public build.
ingr, is totally tolobjectionable in that respect.—
In the inclusere and breaking rap of waste land,
their labour would be eminently serviceable.
Let me, however, nut be miiunilerstood, as pro.
posing to compel these who, by the fortune of
war, have fallen 'lnto our hands, to labour. I
simply urge the propriety and humanity of at
once softening the rigour of their fate,
and availing ourselves, Ouring the absence
of our brave sailors sod soldiers, of such
a portion of human labour as may be volun.
leerily offered to be performed by the great num.
her of able men, who su painfully to themselves,
and so useless!, to as, are lingering out a valoable
portion of Yuman existence nn confilieulent. From
the indignation that has been idlyaad ignorantly
expressed against Boaaparte, for a step, minds,
I venture to say, from undoubted information,
has filled the hearts of the Austrian prisoners with'
gratitude, and by which he has acquired popula.
city in France—nay, and even in Germany, it is
generally, hut, I Assert, most erreaeussly step.
posed, or rather inferred, that the labour of the
Austrian prisoners is France is compulsory; that
they are ea to work its gangs, jest liken drove
of usgro slaves by a Wert India Overseer, with his
loeg whip. A m *minas and absurd misrepresents-
tioe Mao wureended Oolostry ham never gone
forth to thew o rhalie ellset7of eonlinement in Eng.
laud, semi *oder neer alleviation which the gene.
rat humanity of this island affords, is enivenally
known ; bet those who tetvc never seen and felt,.
as I hates kr a tons and Wipes asonkhr the
insurers of a ta OHM, elm have no idea
of the incalculably greeter hodships sad mime*,
of imprisonmeot in Frittree. Ceti it then he
supposed that the Austrian ;trimmers in Francs
do not embrace with eagerness, the peretietion
tossizemited embrace, to employ themselves
in agriculture or manefactores there a man
so lust to the fierily evert of his own feelings tied
nature, as to prefer the ledolenee of a loathsome
jail to the enjitment of a certtin and compare";
tively valuable portion of liberty, on the midi.
boo of merely exercising kis industry X.—lt is re-
ally as ab‘ord to suppose this possible, as it is
nvonstreass to propagate Reports so pssfoutukd of
the hardihip mid cruelty of this really humane,
po stir, Awl %rise.. immune Of BONAPARTZ-•••-•..
who, whatever reatcrimes he may hewn to an.
slyer (orris, in this instastee, most unjustly and
ignoramus mxnsed. Let the prisoners who are,
Valantarl4 disposed to ilPply themselves to la-
bour enjoy the wages of their industry, as I ant
informed, Irvin the soiree I have already mew
tinned, they are permitted •to do in France,
where tbe farmers and the manufacturers pay
theta or, they do other la= is proper.
tioq to their Will and., rip Having
been coostramtd to visit sprivaionaily almost
every depdt for prisoners of Iran 1. this island,
and every one or the prison ships—l may, with.
out presumption, say, that I am perfectly able
to state the several dispositions of the prisoners
or war with respect to the subject of this letter ;
and I venture to assert, that if a permission,
similar to the "cruel and oppressive slavery"
basely alleged to have been laposed by 'Bonaparte

on the Austrian prisemers, were offered to the
French, Dutch, and Danes, i unfilled as prisoners of
mar in this country, every prison and every l risen
ship would be instantly emptied of its iniserabie
captives, whose joy and gratitude would bc !twin&
less. The allusion which you wade trs the aathori:_ed
prohibition of vending certain articles fabricated
by the prisoners, is strictly correct. Orders arc
Axed at the entrances of the depots for prisoners
Of war, prohibitinx the purchase of certain ar-
ticles fabricated by these poor victims of :oar :
and thus the great and almost only solace of their
captivity, by which they might clothe and lewd
themselves, m clot of. There is in this despicable
prohibition, which was originally imposed at the,
entreaty of the manufacturers of those artieles,l
with which the labour of the French prisoners in-
terfered—prilicipally the article of straw hats—a
selfishness that indelibly disgraces a country more
celebrated for its general humanity than any hu-
man society that ever (misted. There is in it so
snitch even of malignity, that it might almost be
eitabled to support a comparison with the cruel
destruction of the spider, which being found to
be the companion and solace of Baron 'Franck,
'sway by & Aefinament in cruelty, crushed by his
4
4 mini ible jailer. It was only esterday that I
' returned from visiting the terrific depot fur