The southern press., 1851-08-26

jAnothex experienced exeeutfouer at Dion, swh,
came, PIN oRed him TO ladder within the walls
and ho.was that evening dSexpitated
| Now4the oeene shove described took place Il
presencb and withiD touch Of three thoupant
persons. of all ages and both sexes The .Inel
had all been trained to arms, aad there wes,
soldiers and gens davmss on the ground VIII,
were under orders and in the employ of the 90
venment. For nearly an hour they were scn
spectators of this struggle, and mol a hand roa,
raised 10 assist the officers of the law against a
most hardened and twice guilty homicide MOI
man would step forth to put an end to a mos
worthless human life, forfeited to the law, and
brought to the scatfJld differentiation and sen,
tence Volumes could not do more to estab
lish the humanity of the French people than the
conduct Of these villagers. There is not q
question that no village in the Upited States, O,
IN England, would have behaved as we'll The
executloner would have been assisted by sutfi-
Gent 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
humanit of the French PIE ople still more recent
The event described took place after the discus
sion OF the doctrine Of capital punishment by
Victor Hugo in the preceding case. It il re-
lated by an old editor Of the Bien du Peupx to
the Euenement of which Charles Hugo was the
editor He says: a few days ago, on the 18th
July, on one of the squares Of the city of Nevers,
ca large town in the centre of France) the scat
fold was erected for IN obscure criminal un.
known to the inhabitants of our city, for a vile
offender, an atrocious offender, whose crime GER
tainIy merited death, ii ever man should by
law receive such chastisement
He states thlt the old guillotne was pre-
pared fifteen days before by Il 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 em-
poy 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 guilIotine. That they knew the law gave
the prosecutor the power to prosecute any one
of them, but that they were ready to submit to
the prison and damages and that they were
tiio law WtiiCH pfOFiutu lOT Ill cx-
ecuiiOner, had not declared that the carpenter
should be his aid The prosecutor insisted
the carpenters were not to be shaken, thev and
their hands preferred loss of work and the Jail
and pecuniary loss The prosecutor issued the
following writ of requsition 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 2sd Geormini, year A, requires Mr.. x,
master carpenter at Nevers, to do the work ne
cessary for the execution of the above rected
Judgment at the ordinary period--consequentl
to prepare the scaffold on the square of the
Champ de Fore of said city, during the night of
Monday the l4th 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
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, aud at midnight
a bargain was struck with him at the office of
the prosecutor to fix the scafod for $40, and
next morning at 6 o'clock the criminal was exc
cuted.
EvENEMENT oath July
1t 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-organize society
w. NJ. C..
L.