Holmes County Republican. [volume] (Millersburg, Holmes Co., O. [Ohio]) 1870-1895, 1873-12-18
RAzAINE,s CONVICTION.

Ihe trial OF Marshal Bazalne, OF
the French army, for treason, has ter
minated, as we took the liberty Of
predicting at its start, in conviction
and sentence of death, to which is
attached a recommendation to
mercy from the entire bench of
Judges.
There is but little doubt that Ex
ecutive pardon will intervene be-
tween sentence and punishment, as
such seems to have been the inten-
tion ofshe authorities from the start,
and the public will is not likely to be
baked by the prisoners fellow Off
Ger and old companion-in arms
McMahon. But pardoned or shot,
can matter little to the accused. The
heaviest part of the sentence cannot
be lifted: and if there were any
promise of permanence in the pres
ent state of French affairs, the ju-
dicial volley of musketry would
doubtless sound pleasantly in the
ears of child of the Empire. De-
graded from his high office, stripped
of his Marshars baton, the cross of
the Legion of Honor torn from his
breast as if soiled by the contact, at
tainted of treason to his country
and his soldiers,-could death, in
the eyes of a Frenchman, add q
single feathers weight to such a
load of shame?
1t almost makes one despair of
any class of government In which
the lower ranks of French society
have hand, to witness the utter
absence ofmagnanimity from their
public acts. Little can be hoped
of popular Government where ithe
mainsprings of popular action are
selishness, envy, hatred, and revenge
where the principles of generosity
and justice, whose diffusion among
the common people alone render
the existence of a true Republic
possible, are wanting entirely or for
gotten when most needed. That
Marshal Bazine did not carry the
defense of Metz to the extreme limit,
that he did not use his utmost en-
deavor to break out of the town and
effect a junction with the other
French forces, is proposition that
hardly admits of denial. But this
course was one toward which every
teaching of his life, every principle
of his honor impelled him. With
the deposition of Napoleon and the
inception of the Provisional Govern
ment arose a state of affairs entirely
different from tt at under which Ba-
zaine had commenced the duties of
the war. 1t was no longer a simple
struggle between France and Prus-
sia; it was triangular contest be-
tween Prussia, the Empire, and the
Reign of Terror. The government
to which Bazaine had sworn fealty,
to which his oath and honor were
pledged, had been unseated by a
nondescript something which, in his
estimation, were based on no author
ity save its own act, and was not
entitled to his allegiance.
One must take, as it were, bird s.
eye view of the whole history of
France to comprehend the position
in which Marshal Bazaine stood.
He must remember the guilotIne
and the blood-flowing cutters of the
Reign Of Terror, and the cracking
of flames and crunching OF bones
that followed the Commune. He
must conceive, in SO far as tits pos
sible, the utter and inconceiveable
horror and rage which must fill the
heart of soldier and noble of the
old regime at remembering the
scenes of the First Republican,
memories of the white neck of Ma
rie Antoinette crimsoned by the
falling Ak. of wife torn from the
arms of her husband, of mother kill
ed while her babe was crying for
food, of men brave, proud, noIle,
dying for the simple fault of being
well-born and well ll-bred. There is
one face that rises as we write, veil
ing all others with the glamour of
its sad beauty a face quiet but,
rather weary under its weight of
of silken hair. They say her fair
cheek flushed a little under the spit
of the executioner, but her lips nev-
er changed from their immutable
scorn, nor her eloquent eyes from
their far-off, mournful look as the
AK came down. And this was Alike
De Rohan, a young girl, whose on
ly sin, was that France held none
purer nor more beautiful, and that
the honor of her family bore record
of a thousand years.
Contrasting such soaring scenes
as those with memories of the two
Empires-memories of military gle
ry that dazzled the world; of peace
honors that made France the arbiter-
of Europe: of home prosperity,
wealth, comfort, and ma snificence
it is wonderful that Bazaine, bred
in the conservative purple, held
himself bound only to the Empire
that to him "L'Empire c'est la
France
This, then, his crime-that he held
himself quietly in Metz, abiding the
the issue, cause of another Reign of
Terror. This is all-the charge of
treating secretly with the enemy is
purely an invention. For just such
a crime-fealty to his Emperor
they shot Ney, "the bravest man in
Europe" and met for it, what the
act merited, universal destination
destination of posterity. And for
this crime they have condemned
Bazaine, and the higher court of
public sentiment will treat the ver-
dict to a like 'repeal.--Cincinnai
Times.
ARREST OF THE BENDER FAMILY.
The Bender family, charged with
a number of murders in Kansas, were
arrested in Bivigsville. Spartanburg
county, a few days ago. The father
and mother are in cnstodv and the