New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1883-01-27

was responsible to Lyons tribunal for any
thing which he had written in Switzerland or
SPOKEN in England. The prosecutors persisted
in reading report Of one of his speeches pub
lished in the Rfr0fe, Socialist sheet, which, as
he sarcastically remnd ed them, was suffered to
cross the frontier lie denied that he had ever
advocated the use of explosive substances for
criminal purposes but maintained that circum-
stances were conceivable in which the people
would be justified in using every means in their
power to throw off the yoke Of an oppressive
government "France applauded Vera Lassu-
litchw he exclaimed, to the horror OF the
judges, who Indignantly protested that French
magistrates had never been guilty OF such an
enormity as the approval OF assassination. Il
said that France applauded," was the contemp
tu0us reioinder; "as for the magistrates, IL Is
their duty to respect the verdict of jury, ana
by n jury Vera was acquitted" This was
masterly retort which sieDced the judges
They had denied him in Republican France the
privilege of Jury trial which self-confessed
assassin had enjoyed in autocratic Russia In
this way he foiled the clumsy fencing OF the
prosecutors, denying that he had ever advo-
Gated revolutionary violence In France, ex-
planning his flying visits to st. Ehenne ana
Thonon proving that there was nothing incrim-
mating IN his correspondence, and forcing the
magistrates to admit that they had arralgned
him simply because he was suspected OF being
member of the Internstionale.
This il the technical offence for which Prince
Krapotkine and the fifty workingmen tried with
him have been punished with imprisonment for
various terms. Not life was lost in the recent
l;.to fhr, la in ha Franco. n
cendiary placards were posted on the walls OF
towns, magistrates and juries received threat
ening letters, and few dynamite explosions
were 80 well timed that nobody was injured by
them. There were no traces OF organization
in these plots, yet they were assumed from the
outset to be the Vaccinations OF secret socie-
ties Prince Krapotkine and Others, who
frankly avowed themselves to he anarchists.
were accordingly arrested on suspicion of hav-
Ing been concerned in the explosion at the Thea
tire Bellecour at Lyons, and in other outrages'
This charge was dropped at the trial, and the
prosecutors contented themselves in the main
with drawing from the prisoners admissions OF
belief in anarchical ideas. There was no evil
dence that the Internationale was in existence
anywhere on the continent. Yet they were
con victed under q statute of the Empire which
made membership in that society crime pun
isbable i'm France. In the judgment OF the
court which condemned them the fact that they
professed to be anarchists implied the existence
of secret societies similar to the lnteInationale.
and accordingly they could be punished for
their connection with them. Prince krapot-
kne's most incendiary expression in the CORE
spondence produced in court was this: "The
way to the barrcades is long and hard" His
only speech had been made at public meeting
at which there was little excitement. The dyn-
amite outrages at Montceau and Lyons were
not traced to him. He was condemned to I'VE
years. imprisonment because he had certain
abstract opinions respecting political govern
inent which his judges assumed to DO rs dan
gerous and as revolutionary as the principles OF
the mysterious Internationalc.
Now whenever a man is imprisoned. not for
what he has said or done, but for what he has
thought, the cause which he represents acquires
dignity and authority. Prince Krapctline. So
cialist, Nihilist, Collectivist, Anarchist, what
ever he may be, ought not to be punished In
France because he has plotted in Russia, edited
a newspaper in Switzerland, made speeches at
a Socialist Congress in London, and is vaguely
suspected of being a member of a secret soci-
ETY.. Neither he nor his associates in misfortune
should be imprisoned for what they think; but
for what they have done in violation Of the laws
of France. Let them suffer for what they think,
and their thoughts will become infectious.
Public curiosity will DO piqued. Frenchmen
will say ".What are these Anarchist ideas, for
which victims of tyranny in other lands and
our own workngmen are imprisoned y Hav-
ing learned what these are, they will want to
discuss them, and if they are not allowed to do
SO in public, they will form secret societies.
The French authorities have done what they
could to dignity anarchical ideas and to multi
ply dangerous agencies of social discomfort.