The Sun. — 1861-05-25 (London, England)

MIRES TV PRISON.  A letter in a contemporary says :—I hear truly heartrending accounts of the sufferings of Mires in Mazas prison, where he still is—for the statement circulated by a lithographed correspondence of his having been removed to an hospital turns out to be untrue. He applied for this favour, but was refused. Long solitary confinement has seriously affected the mind as well as injured the health of the great financier. His black hair has turned very grey, and is falling off. The restrictions upon interviews with his family, of which his wife complained in a letter which was made public, still continue. The cell in which he is confined is so fetid that when his friends do see him they can with difficulty stay more than a few minutes. The only furniture is a rush-bottomed chair, a deal table, and a small iron bedstead, which has to be turned up in the daytime to give him room to move about, so narrow is the dungeon which for three long months has been the dwelling-place of the man who was dragged from one of the most sumptuously furnished palaces in Paris to be thrust into it. All this while neither the prisoner nor anybody else knows exactly of what he is accused. At the time of his arrest it was rumoured that the charges against him were of a ♦ery serious nature, but now many say that at the worst his offence was bailab:e, and he has offered bail to any amount. However this may be, it does seem unnecessarily cruel to keep him so very long in such a horrible place. Such treatment is certainly unusual, although the Moniteur, in answer to the public murmurs on the subject, was pleased to say a month ago that Mires was dealt with just like any other prisoner in the like category. Th:s is certainly not so. Even a murderer before his trial is not treated so badly as M. Mires has been. " Equality in the eye of the law " is doubtless a good maxim, and one cannot but commend the refusal of any indulgence which might enable a wealthy prisoner to escape, or to destroy evidence against himself.. But the regulations of French prisoners are generally humane and considerate towards untried persons, and admit of their enjoying all reasonable personal comforts, having regard to their habits and station in life. Great facilities are given, to exchange a prison for an hospital, to people who are able to pay for the means necessary for assuring their safe custody, and the slightest medical recommendations are attended to in such cases. It cannot be pretended that there was any necessity for keeping Mires three months in the miserable cell above described, and such imprisonment, if not necessary, is cruel. Bullier'a Correspondence gave out lately that the Emperor himself had expressed a wish that the trial might speedily be brought on. I understand that a petition, signed, by upwards of 600 shareholders in Mires undertakings, who still have full confidence in him, was presented to his Majesty the other day. „„ Since writing the above I find it announce of A mow' Temps of this evening that the Chamber a of Correctional has sent M. Mires before the Tribe rectional Police, and that his trialTwilln come on in the early part ofJutnee. grave a nature as is a pregnant confirmation off sho charges against him are not so The Correctional was supposed three monthesooc _ f misdemeanours, Tribunal takes cognisavresas IY hitherto fully expected crhseAa,rsgeit, and not of crimes. .1t su r Vise es probablytanit haves Tribunal: That before itsh,ataiht he owould t the ee tprrinoesederetbrahuyteaityobhneepnmAoesfiisststiiibgzolaeyft Caebsoejuiuwrto. is a court which becauseth e efaothrereeocwftiitolhlne:lpo thet a rcely ever returns a verdict of not guilty. Now, thatsa the accusation against M. Mires is reduced to the proportion of a misdemeanour, it will be more than ever difficult to justify the cruelty of his long preventive imprisonment.