The southern press. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1850-1852, 1852-02-07


votes But despotism has no true principle o
government to fear.
The popular support of universal suffrage wa
not enough as long as il was not backed by ter
ror and, accordingly, these seizures and depor
tatioEs have been made, not only to remove from
France persons obnoxious to the government
but to strike terror into The whole community
No class of society has been spared The ban
ished or deported representatives include no
only the leaders of secret societies but men Xix,
Agricol Perdiguier, justly endeared to the work
ing classes TO which they belong; the army is
outraged by the expulsion Of Generals Changa
ner and Lanoriciere the bar by that of NJ
Baze; the press by that of Mr. Girardin; lier
ture and society by that OF Mr. dc Remusat, Nj
Victor Hugo, NJ. Qunet, and NJ. Theirs. A
government which proscribes its opponents
while ii represents them as powerless minori
ty, can have little confidence in the justice or So
curity Of its cause. We have reason to believe
that it was seriously proposed by General ST
Arnaud and another Of the ministers, to trans
port Gen, Changarnier and Colonel Cha-ras, to
Cayenne, though the government was saved from
the inlaa y of such proceeding by the resist
ance of M. de Morny So much ostensbe sue
cess might at least have pleaded for a little less
oppression.
To most of those thus abruptly torn from
their homes, their professions and their country,
exile is total ruin. Ii has even been limited that
representations OF property, and upon the largest
scale, are held IN terrorem over tie heads of
those who may be supposed to be most bottle
to the present state Of things, though they no
longer inhabt the territory Of France. The un.
fortunate wretches now on the point Of sailing
for Cayenne will be landed on swampy island
~. ,.r l.
wide from the mainland of French Guiana.
situated only four degrees north Of the equator,
and utterly devoid even of the resources of
manual industry. The population of Cayenne
does not exceed 2 900 whites and 900 negroes,
and the colony is totally unprepared for the re-
ceptons Of large immigration Of men who have
figured in the political and social life of France.
To call it penal settlement would be an out
rage on the former governme 1t of France, for
none Of them would have dared to found penal
settlement in climate VIGOROUSLY destructive
to European life. II is bagne for liberal
opinions transported within the tropics, and
filled with journalists and politicians, not by the
courts of justice, but by the authority of the
police.
All that we have heard before with dread and
disgust Of the military colonies of Russia, of
Siberian exile, Of the prisons of Naples, or the
carcere duro of the Spielberg, sinks into noting
compared with the wholesale confinement of
such class OF men in such part of the globe
as Snamari or Cayenne. The measure taken
by General Cavaignac in June, 1913, was severe
and extra legal, when be sent thousands of
prisoners taken on the barricades to the hulks
of Cherbourg and Brest but it is absurd to
compare the fate of men taken in arms against
the legal government of their country with
that of men whose only crime is that tn
would have defended the legal insti utions of
their country against military and absoutist
conspiracy if they had possessed the means of
doing So The punishment of 1913 may have
been harsh, but that of 1852, with no proyoca-
ton, is inhuman
The generals and statesmen, prescribed by
authority and expelled from France, will be re
ceived in this country with the respect due to
their personal emlnence, their political opinions.
ard their innocence; for it is vain to deny that
England now affords the only secure refuye to
men who have represented their country in her
embassies in her parliaments, and in her armies
Belgium and Switzerland are already intimdated
by their powerful neighbors, and the mainten-
ance Of their neutrality and indendence renders
it inexpedent for them to rid themselves as
much as possible of foreign refugees But if
we are told, as we believe Lord Palmerston was
told some weeks ago, that the Presence Of these
refugees upon our shores is source of danger
to foreign States, we would ask by whose act
it Is that these persons are here When the
French government banshes by decree 80 or 90
persons of political or literary eminence, where
are they expected to 90 ?--to what port are they
consigned what country is mentioned in their
passports and their feuiUe de cute 1t is GER
tain that we should have but few emigrants to
this country, where everything is strange and
everything dear, if they were not virtually sent
here by the very powers which afterwards accuse
us Of harboring their enemies.
As long as Frenchmen be their opinions what
they may, live in France, they are bound to obey
the existing laws, and they may be punished for
breaking them. But when government sends
its adversaries across tie frontier to adjoining
territories, whore it ceases to have any control
over their persons or their actions. and where il
knows that the law takes no cognzance of what
are regarded elsewhere as political offences, that
government is declared by its own act from re-
monstrance These fresh lists Of French pro-
scription consist Of men virtually sent here by
order of the French government; and if their
presence in this free country causes any annoy
ance to NJ. Lonis Napoleon, he must be content
10 remember that they are now in the position
which he emp yed to direct his own conspira
cies and expeditions against the constitutional
monarchy of France.