The southern press., 1851-08-27

another experienced executioner at Dion, who
oame, pinioned him 10 a ladder within the walls,
and he was that evening decapitated.
Now the scene above described took place in
presence and within touch of three thousand
persons, OF all ages and both sexes. The men
had all been trained to arms, aad there were
soldiers and gems dGrmes on the ground who
were under orders and in the employ Of the go
vernment. For nearly an hour they were silent
spectators of this struggle, and not hand rDas
raised to assist the officers of the law against
most hardened and twice guilty homicide Not
man would step forth to put an end to a most
worthless human life, forfeited to the law, and
brought TO the scaffold after conviction and sem
tence. Volumes could not do more to estab-
ish the humanity of the French people than the
conduct of these villagers. There is not a
question that no village in the United States, or
ia England, would have behaved as well. The
executioner would have been assisted by sufii
clent force to carry the law into effect, and men
would have taken credit for coming forward on
purpose and voluntarily.
Here is another very significant proof of the
humanity of the French people still more recent.
The event described took place after the discus
sion of the doctrine of capital punishment by
tICLOT lluRo III PiCCcuiiS SaoC. ~ 10 IC-
lated by an old editor of the Bien du Peuple to
the Epenement, of which Charles Hugo was the
editor. lie says: few days ago, on the 18th
July on one of the squares of the city of Nevers,
"a large town in the centre of France) the scat.
fold was erected for an obscure criminal un.
known to the inhabitants of our city, for vile
offender, an atrocious offender, whose crime GER
tainy merited death, If ever a man should by
law receiv such q chastisement.
He states that the old guilotine was pre-
pared fifteen days before by stranger in the
town. That the whole town was alive with
painful excitement, about the execution, and
that Victor Hugo's speech was the text of all
conversations There was consequently the
utmost difficulty in having the scaffold erected.
The evening before the execution, the public
prosecutor caused all the master carpenters of
Nevers to assemble at his Office to demand the
service Of one of them to arrange the scaffold on
the square They unanimously refused-They
said there was not man nor boy in their en-
ploy who would touch the job, as they had all
positively declared that for themselves, they
preferred to have their shops shut and their
business ruined rather than to touch plank Of
the guillotine. That they knew the law gave
the prosecutor the power to prosecute any one
Of them, but that they were ready to submit to
tne priSOH anu uituiaScSJ auu uiitb tHcy were
surprised that the law which provided for an ex-
should be his aid. The prosecutor insisted
the carpenters were not to be shaken, they and
their hands preferred loss Of work and the jail
and pecuniary loss. The prosecutor issued the
following writ of requisition which will be
curious to the reader.
"The prosecutor of the republic for the baili-
wick of Nevers.
In view of the Judgment of the assize court
of Nevers, oath May, 1851, which condemns
Louis Martinez to death, and in view of the law
of the 22d Geormini, year A, requires MIR. X.
master carpenter at Neyers, to do the work ne
cessary for the execution of the above recited
! judgment, at the ordinary period-consequent
to prepare the scaffold on the square of the
Champ de Foire of said city, during the night OF
Monday the I4th to Tuesday the 18th instant
so that the execution can take place in the morn
ing at 6 o'clock.
Done at the bar of Nevers l4th July, 1851.
The public prosecutor, A. MErAIRE.'
1t was ten O'Clock at night when this writ was
served. The carpenters thought of sending a
distance of several miles to the shops of the
Centre railroad, but finally two of them went to
the stranger who had fixed the guillotine in a
neighboring township. The prosecutor also
sent for an old decayed carpenter who lived on
charity in the outskirts and offered him large
sum to do the job; though destitute, he was
! firm, and positively refused. The two carpen-
ters returned with the stranger, and at midnight
bargain was struck with him at the Office Of
the prosecutor to fix the scaffold for $40, and
next morning at 6 o'clock the criminal was exc.
cuted.
EvENEMENT, Oath July.
II is needless to prolong this article. There
is enough in these two passages Of French his.
tory alone, to demonstrate the untruth of what
is so frequently reported about the cruelty OF
Frenchmen. The French, on the contrary, are
the most humane people in the world, not ex-
cepting our own, and it is their mission, by
means of democratic institutions, not only TO
reform government, but to re.organze society.