Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1879-03-09
AMNEsTIED COMMUNISTS.

AMNEsTIED COMMUNISTS.
The PdrdOned Communists of Nely Cnze-
donsa-Dis2'atch Of Transports from
Frunce--Ihe Leading Communists ,yho
are Enpected Back.
London Daily News.
Although the amnesty is not voted, yet a
couple of sailing transports have already left
France for New Caledonia, in order to bring
back the communists who are about to be
pardoned. They are the Navarin and the
Var, and three others will sail within a
month from now. All these ships are the
same which took out the convicts in
1S72-'73, and they are each of them fitted
up so as to carry $50 passengers, besides
the crews. AS at present arranged, the first
departure from Noumea will take place on
the 9Th of June, the transport being timed
to arrive at Alden on the 9Th of August, at
Port Said on the 18th, and at Toulon on the
28th. All the repatriated exiles are to be
landed at Toulon, and it is understood that
once they have set foot on French soil thew
will be allowed to go where they please. A
publlc subscription is being raised to supply
the wants of the neediest of them, and the
municipal council of Paris is going to make
grant Of $4,000 for the same purpose.
This is almost necessary, for very
few OF the exiles have found
their sojourn in New CALEDONIA a
paying business. The late national
assembly having voted, in an unwise fit of
sentimentalism, that labor should not be
made compulsory for political convicts, most
OF them have been living in unremunerative
1dleness. They received a daily dole of ra-
tons, they had ill-made huts to live in, and
they spent most of their time in incoming
about with their hands in their pockets wait
ing for news from France which might hap
plly bring them tidings that the ong-expect-
ed amnesty was at hand.
Probably the passengers from New Gale
donna will travel home more comfortably
than when they undertook their voyage out
M. Henri Rochefort, though his assertions
about official misdoings must be often taken
cum 9r0no, has written an account which is
in the main true about the hardships which
the first deportes had to endure on the con-
vict-ships. They were penned by the
half-dozen in strong wooden cages
where there was just room for them
to squat, budding one another.
Twice day bucket half full of soup was
passed into each cage, and the men, not be-
ing allowed to have tins, helped themselves
with wooden spoons. Their drink was water,
which they swilled out of an iron Jug, the
ration being limited to quart day per
man, even when they were passing through
tropical ATTITUDES, where thirst RACES. There
was not enough light in the cages for the
prisoners to read, SO they were fain to sit or
rock about in sullen idleness, except during
the half hour every d. when they were sum
moned to the upper deck, in patches of fifty,
to wash and take exercise under a guarl of
marines with loaded rifles. It naturally told
heavily on the female convicts, of whom there
were many-two or three being women of edu-
cation, like Louise Michel, the schoolmis-
tress. 1t is said that on the voyage home the
cages will be dispensed with, and the priso-
ners will have three substantial meals day,
with coffee and ration of wine. They will
be treated as captives, however, until they
have touched French sol, (which means that
IN case of characterization they will be sub
jected to heavy penalties.
The number of men to be repatriated
from New Caledonia amounts to about 5000:
but there will be many more who will return
from exile in England, Belgium, Switzerland
and America. English speaking readers
are probably familiar with the names
of the leading communists who
will now have the doors of
France reopened to them. They are M.
Ellsee Reclus (the distinguished geographer,
whose transportation was committed to ten
years of exile on the petition of the late Earl
Stanhope and many other Englishmen), and
NJ. Arthur Ranc, London correspondent of
NJ. Gambetta's journal, the Republique
F'fdncolse. After these long interuall0 in
point of merit, come NM. Henri Rochefort,
of Lanterne celebrity ; Paschal Grousset,
and Oliver Pain, who managed the foreign
affairs of the Commune Claseret, the gener-
al who had thoughts at one time of leading
the Fenians, and who has been sketched in
'Iothair - Megy, who acquired celebrity by
shooting policeman during the Empire :,
Felix Pirt, once most charming writer
of plays and literary essays in times
long ago, before he dabbled in
politics Pilotel, the artist, whose
caricatures have been appearing for the last
five years in some London comic papers:
Jules Wales, the journalist, etc. One would
be glad to add that all these proscripts had
borne themselves with dignity during their
exile, but this is not possible. Perhaps the
least said on the subject the better. A recent
lampoon leveled at M. Grevy by Jules
Wales suggests the fear that this imprudent
writer has not been much chastened by his
experience; but it must also Inspire one with
the hope that the new presidents clemency
will induce him aud Others to turn over a
new leaf with all dispatch. The commune
of 1871 is not thing to crow about.