The daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1848-1851, 1851-03-20
I'm thu High Court OF Pathology.

1 ance from the courts Oh law FOR reasons already
adduced, in view Of clash between the feelings Of
our people and the enactments Of Congress, we are
not sorry that the filibuser should now be free
and unhoused." But another point of view, and
SO far as his name stands for distinct idea, his
case is still pending before another tribunal =
adbuc sab jadice Us est.
| Some weeks ago, in alusion to remarks made,
by Mr.. Benjamin, in connection with the Cuban
trials, traced the derivation of the word fili-
buster from our English freebooter to the French
fi6uaier. The editor Of the Natchitoches Chroni-
Gle, whose article, long mislaid, is now recovered,
indignant that no less parsonage than the editor
Of the Crescent" should sport modicum of ety.
moogy, when he himself lavishes such stores Of it,
made an ncursion into the celebrated dictionary
Of The Jesaits and most lesrnedly raped across
the head, with the eight folios of Trevoux. To
that wonderful, and in many respects, injured,
order of men, pay the Difference which great
learning and varied services demand from every
one, not warped by prejudice or blinded by sect
Still not ready to admit that all the logic of
the world has been expended in the casuistries of
Eseobar, or its learning exhausted in the Eucyco-
pedia of Messteu7s de Trevoar. There are other
authorities, on this filibuster question, as weghty
as theirs in point Of erudtion and far more concu-
sive in the forms of likelihood.
The Chronicle, making issue with the Crescent,
asserts that the French tlibustier is derived, not
from the obvious freebooter, but from the English
fyboat and rests its assertion on quotation from
Trevoux, which, restoring it in full we translate
for comment:
tlibustier, psratG, cursor, pirate, corsair,
name given to the corsairs or Adventures, who
81. Al. T. I
| which comes from the English fy-5oat, because
| the first French advemtmrers Of st. Domingo
went in their cruises ftbots, which they had
taken from the English. We also say fi5nster-
a verb-pronouncing the letter $, as meaning to run
down ships, to commit piracy, to be with fi6ustiers
To go in bust, allsr en- aibuste is also used to
signify the same thing"
These three sentences, with the exception of the
meaning attached 10 the word in its notifications
contain many of history, chronology and
philology as might comfortably have been crammed
within their compass. We will not examine them
now but leaving them for farther dissection, we
pass to adduce the authorities, which sustain
our derivation of the word.
In the first place we have quaint, old, Baily, who
says: Freebooter, pirate, sea-rover; one who
wages war at his own expense" The next author
ity is from the Spanish, thus Fsli6uster, FIJI.
baster aona5re tngtes que tubteron los ptratas de
las Antillas en- III america" Filibuster or FIJI
buster, an English name, borne by the pirates Of
| the West Indies, in America
Meidnger, in work of immense research and
soundest learning, the iiation of the languages
of the Teuto-Gothc stock, from the radical German
5eute traces this very word, thus, through various
notifications; German, trei-6euter, Swedish,
try-6ytere, Danish, fiy-bytter; English, FREE
booter, Holandish, try-5uiter,. French, as.6us-
tier, and Spanish, ,fibuster."
Court de Gebelin, in theory of original Ian
guage, goes still farther back and, from primitive
bot, implying the idea of capacity, that which con-
talns, dwelling, house, possession, gain, booty,
congenerous with the Teutonic beuts, runs out the
variations of the word through the family of lam
guages Of the Indo- Germanc stock, in its simple
and compound forms, until he settles on the French
fi6ustter, which he derives intermedately from
our English freebooter.
One quotation more and we have done with book
authorities to the origin of the word ROGUE.
fort, one of the very ablest philologsts of France
in his Psychological Dictionary of the French Ian
guage, revised, amended and edited anew BY
Champoion, has it thus =" Flibuster, pirate de
FAmerique. Ce mot ne Went pas de Ribot, cest
alteration de anglais free booter, voeur, for
BAN" Flibuster, pirate of America. This word
does not come from Rsbot.: it is an alteration OF
the English free bPoter, robber, an outlaw.
We will now cast hasty glance at the ground
taken by Trevoux in this matter and show how
untenaby In the first place, according to the ex-
tract from Trevoux on which the Chronicle relies
there were no fibustiers until the first adventur-