Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1879-09-26
our Foreign Correspondence.
Letter From Paris.
.rrry OF COMMUNISTS OF 1871

RETURN OF tIMMl NlSlS Or INs
PARIS, Sept. Sd, 1872.
| To the Editor Of the Free Press and Times:
! Much prudence was shown hy the French
/ government in selecting, as the place of de
barkation for the first batch of amnrstied
/ communists who have been brought hack 10
/ France from New Caledonia a harbor 50
/ uuiet as Port Nendres. To have landed the
liberated exiles at Marseilles was ont of the
question. Red Republicanism OF the most
advanced kind is yet rife in the city and the
excitable population might have caused con
siderable embarrassment To the authorities
by demonstrations of joy at the return OF
these political prodigal sons to their father
land; while Toulon, albeit a strongly gar
rlsoned town. labors under similar disad-
vantage with Marseiles in being the centre
of a hot headed district, whose inhabitants
have been by turns furiously Republican and
furiously Royalists. Port Nendres, on the
other hand, is an emlnently safe place, hay
ing less than two thousand inhabitants; be
ing accessible for the heaviest frigatcs, and,
within "A short distance of Narbonne of which
town a large number Of the four hundred
pardoncd prisoners are natives. So in the
blue waters of the ancient Portus Ncneris,
did dthetranspOrt Var east anchor on Monday
morning. The news of her coming rapidly
spread, and, so soon as the huge vessel enter
ed the harbor, she was surrounded by
fiotila of boats The Var was Immediately
boarded by the authorities of the port and
the custom house officers, and it is stated
that much kindness was shown by the usual
" stern ''douaniers'' towards the ex-con-
yicts, who were allowed to keep sundry little
articles on which customs duties might have
been demanded. None of the friends of the
communists, political or otherwise, were suf-
fered on board the Var; but, in the course
of the afternoon, four hundred and ten
banished Frenchmcn once more set foot on
the beHe e tonne terre de France" Some
cries Of "Nivc Ia Rcpublique" were raised
as the poor people who have suffered 50
much were landed but the communists did
not respond to the cry. Their first care was
to eat the provisions which had been collect
ed for them by sympathizing friends; the
next was to hurry away TO the railway sta
tion. Many proceeded 10 Paris but the
destination of the majority was Narbonnc.
A well-fed, prosperous Paris artisan,
gazing upon some gaunt, wayworn, phan-
tOm-looking exile newly landed from the
Var may say, as the women OF Ravenna
used to murmur as they watched the awful
form of Dante Alighieri stalking by, There
goes the man who has seen hell" The
commune of 1871 was, it is undeniable,
a guilty and disastrous frenzy. The murder
of the hostages, the destruction of the public
buildings. were tremendous crimes, which
posterity will Justly regard with horror and
indignation but, if bygoncs are ever allow
ed to he bygoncs, the only sentiment with
which the unfortunate men who have just
been restored TO their native land should be
regarded must he feeling of Commiseration.
They may he professed anarchists. incor-
rigiblr conspirators, nay, desperately wicked
men among them; but the bulk Of their
number are most sincerely TO he pitied. Some
of them possibly were not guiltless of acts Of
incendarism or freebooting. The criminal
itv of the others did not 20 beyond implic;l-
ton to Il greater or smaller extent in revolu-
tionary outbreak. Their lot, if they escaped
defamation at the hands Of such generals as
the Marquis de Gallifct, was TO be driven in
tlroves, like cattle, tethercd together by ropes,
and urged on 10y the hut-cnds Of musllets |
along dusty-road, and under a burning sun, /
from Paris to Versailles. There they were
thrust by hundreds together into the great |
of the Orangery. Hunger, thirst, |
fatigue, and mental excitement reduced many .
Of their number to the condition of wild !
beasts, and the story of the ''Fosse aux /
Lions" at the Orangery, could it ever he |
narrated, might equal in intensity |
Of horror the record of the Black Hole al .
Calcutta. Then, for such of of the convicted .
Communists who escaped the fusillades OF .
the plain of Satory, came the dreary journey |
in vans TO the ports of cmbarkatlon. the I
weeks of slow agony passed in the cascmates 1
If Mont St Michel or Fort Lamalguc, the /
months of wretchcd monotony and /
discomfort in the cages placed tween
lecks of the convict ships which
bore them to Noumoa. Thoy may
not have been quite so savagely treated in /
heir captivity as the most irrcconci!able
killed Communists would have us believe; .
lut it is unqucstionabe that they were at
me period subjected TO vigorous discipline
md that the very circumstance of their de
cntion entailed on them an amount OF
physical and mental anguish which may
'airly he accepted as retribution for the
'rimcs or the follies of which they may have
lcen guilty. Other transports full of par
loned Communists are shortly expected in
France. Among the amnestied prisoners. it
S said that there are many who made them
elves conspicuous by their eXcesses in Paris
Turing the evil days of May 1871.
The immediate consequences Of this sud-
len accession Of democrats Ia the pOpula-
ion of the French capital cannot he regard
u without some amount OF anxiety; but II
: to be hoped that the mass of the returning
Xiles have learned little wisdom through
heir dire misfortune. Surely the State will
lot suffer these most unhappy men TO starve,
nd they must be- assisted until they can
btain work. Society in France stems to be
disposed TO extend 10 them the full benefits
# an act of Oblivion if they will only do
heir best to make themselves and their
rrors forgotten. Yours, RENE.
Lake 81. Sacrament,