Sunday dispatch. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1845-1854, 1852-04-18
CLEBEENCYs
Am appeal to the President Of France.


We translate the following article from lie
Steele It is from the pen of one of the most
brilliant writers for the daily press in Paris, and
is couched in the most eloquent language. 1t
necessarily, however, loses in the translation,
on account of the impossibility of translating
poetical idiom into foreign tongue:
"Day by day the Ministerial press announces
that the revolution is conquered resistance has
fallen, the spirit of peace has returned, and
France has submitted and Is happy IN her sub
mission, is unanimous in halhng the newly
established power
France is unanimous, cay you, and there
you suspend 5ouv phrase, as if the sense were
complete, but you ought TO add that with all
this unauimity the Government continues Its
career of severity, and there is even danger
where there is necessity fos rigor.
Every week a fresh convoy OF prisoners ar
rives Brest, and there await IN sullen anguish
| the hour of transportation.
We do not intend to Judge a second time,
those who have been judged already. We pre-
tend not now TO tell how far they have been
guilty. God alone knows the exact course they
| have taken, and how far they have criminated
themselves in the troublous times in which we
live
A day passes away and the telegraph has
| spoken. A vessel appears and the prisoners
!
go to work out the penalty Of their crimes in a
| distant land but do we think how their crimes,
be they great or small, recon upon the heads
of the innocent Who are those who stand
witnessing the departure of the condemned.
There are mothers and sisters, wives who are
widows before their time, compelled to wear
the mourning of a living affection.
The vessel has gone. Through the immen'
sity of the wide ocean it puTsues its tracktess
path towards the land that lies beneath the set
ting sun, laden with groans and tears; float
ing hell, bearing its victims to a living death
and when sunk beneath the horizon 1t Is nc
longer visible, it leaves as many tears as drops
of water, in its foaming track The victims
have disappeared forever, but think of those
women on the strand, raising lhelr claspec
hands to heaven as they bid last adieu to ths
departed loved ones dead TO them forever, anC
as each year the spring tide revolves these Tor
sskep ones will Draw the veil over their eye
that they may not witness that sun Whlcl
smiles genally upon them, but casts his ray
with destructive heat on the heads OF tnos
thew love- Have we feeling OF pity IN 0u
hearts, let us call it up and think of the mlser
the penalty inflicted upon one has caused t.
many, and vet, perhaps, we should thank 90
that it is So Strange complication OF huma
. DESTINY which thus entangles the innocent
mysterious solidarity in the punishment Q
y the condemned. God has so wiled It, no don't
in order to work out the redemption OF N
condemned through the merit of the lnnocen
All well! You, whoever you may be, In tn
T confidence Of him who holds the execntlv
c powerin his hands, who can speak to him wit
q an open heart, without fear of being yourss
suspected and condemned, speak you to him
tell him that pity is a national virtue, that it
v French, that it is always welcome as the kr
it tones of parents voice to peDltent chill
Tell him that pity is a political virtue histoi
> has so recorded it. Mercy is so estimable th
in the constitutions OF all countries its exeIci
has been reserved as the prerogative al
}, crowning glory of the chief magistrate, Tt
n him that nearly all new powers date their COZ
i mencement from the day of general amnes
.s to all political prisoners, as Il, IN some so
# this amnesty was that in which the true
E, vestiture Of power consists. Tell him that
rieor is necessary for the safety of nation, t
lg arithmetic of the amount Of severity strlc'
E, necessary is uncertain, and as we must err