New-York tribune., 1871-11-29
THE POLICY or VENGKANCE.

THE POLICY or VENGEANCE.
Mr.. Thiers has added another to the many
blunders of his administration. He has stead
ily refused to take any steps with the Com
mission of Pardons in favor OF tho sentenced
leaders of the Commune, and yesterday Rosscl'
FerrG, and others were shot to death at tie
camp of Satory. As usual on such brutal oc'
casions, the nervousness of the soldiers con-
demned to perform so unsoldierly an act pre-
vented the yolley from doing its full work,
and tho writhing victims had to be dispatched
with revolvcrs. All these horrible details 60
10 Paris to be read by the hundred thousand
friends of these gallant cOnvicts who believe
in them, who think they have done no
harm, and who will always hate and
abhor the Government which has taken
their lives. 1t Is useless to reply
that these men were criminals; that they had
rendered themselves liable to the punishment
they received that it was not the Government
but tho law which killed them. There Still
remains this vast difference between political
and common crimes, that in the one case the
criminal classes themselves are conscious OF
their fault and there are no masses OF SYM
pathzers with them when they perish; while
in the other case there is no infallble moral
test, except that of success or failure, which
can determine the difference between victors
and vanquishcd. If the revolution OF Septem-
Der had failed, most of the gentlemen COM
posinp the Government of France would have
been as worthy of death as the men whose
blood now tingcs tho sod at Satory.
But leaving ont Of view the question OF the
right of the Government of Versailles to try
and To kill and Danish the men of the Govern
ment of Paris, in regard to which there are
two well defined opinions, there can be no
reasonable discussion as to the expediency OF
it. 1t is the crying fault of dcspotism that it
poisons the perceptions of those who live under
its control. When they revolt and cmancipatc
themselves it takes good while for them to
out -rOw the bad habits Of the despoism they
have thrown off. The present Republican gov
ernors of France seem to find it impossible to
proceed with their enemies or opponents in
any other way than the NapOlcoDic They are
like slaves who have just been made Ovcrscers.
They practice on tho backs of their
brethren the lessons of government they
have learned from their former masters.
The Communists were no better. They be-
Gan their official life by shooting Generals
Thomas and LecOmte. But all these wrongs
do not Justify each other Still less do they
prove themselves to be prudent and expe-
dent. The Empire never fully recovered
from the sullen hates and angers that came
from the massacres and banislmcnts Of 1852
No man who had relative or friend shot
down on the Boulevard Montmartre, no
family which had member wearing his life
away in the gaeys, or on the pestllent shores
of Cayenne, ever fOrgave or forgot the
cruelty and violence in which the Empire
rose. Fathers taught their sons to hate it.
Men of letters would not permit it to be for
gotten. The scvercst police measures could
not keep Kinglakc's history of the Coup
d'Etat out of France. In 1868, when NapO-
leonisln seemed imprcgnably established in
power, it received deadly wound from MIR.
T6nOt's book, which WAS cOuched in language
so cold and guarded that it could not de-
Gently be suppressed.
1t would seem to be impossible that any
one could have lived in France without no.
ticing these things. Yet Mr. Thicrs, who is a
man of singular intelligence and most extern
sive experience, goes on just as if the world
was new, and history had taught us nothing.
There was not Communist slaughtered by his
but weakened his moral authority and the
chance of perpetuity of his Government. But
especially unwisc and hOrt-sightcd has been
the policy which drags along this endless
chain Of trials and condemnation. Enough was
certainly done for punishment and example
in that pitless butchery which marked
its track with blood from the Arch of
the Star to tho cemetery of Pere-
a-Chaise. All vengeance should have
been sated by that days qualification. The
moment order was restored the thousands of
unhappy prisoners should have been turned
loose, to begin as soon as possible their ordi-
nary life and to efface as far as they could
the vcstiges Of the war and the rebellion.
The bad impression produced by the condem-
nation of Rochefort and the shooting of
Rossel will not be easy to allay. The next
news will probably be the suppression of such
radical journals as Mr.. Theirs has spared for
what they will say about this catastrophe.
Rossel was o man Of genius. Of great military
aptitudes, of decided literary culture and capa-
bilty. He gained great credit by his good
conduct at Metz and by his searching criti-
cisms of that campaign. 1t is not to be ex-
pected that his friends will be especially
temperate or reserved in their comments on
the fact that Rossel the Republican is shot
by the authorities who spare dc Faily aud
Lebuuf the Imperialists.
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The proceedings Of Grand Juries in this