Year: 1874

| Bazsine's A'soaps from Prison.


The govanment Of Maxshal MacMahon has
PAzaine, the traitor of Metz, from his prison
in the Isle of Sainte Marguerite This man
had been the creature of the Empire; he had
served well tho Cesar who ruled over the
destinies Of France for twenty years, and as
reward had been promoted over the heads Of
better soldiers till the baton of Marshal Of
France was at last placed in the knapsack Of
the conscript Bazaine. A mere soldier Of
fortune. his aim during all his career was
directed solely to his personal advancement.
His allegiance was given where lay his in
terest not where honor commanded it
and whom the man who had conferred
wealth and titles on this adventurer was over
thrown the veil of pretence that he was q SOL
der was thrown aside and he became the in
famous tool of the enemy of his country in
the hope of retrieving his fortune and the for


tune of his master. He had almost faded
from the public mind His escape, however.
will bring him for short moment before the
public. 1t appears that he owed his escape
in great part to tho devotion Of his wife
but the story as told in our dispatches
has little too much the air of
romance to deserve much credit. His
wife, Mexican Lady, is represented as seiz-
ing the oars and rowing her lord to the vessel
that carried him to Italy. When it is remem-
bered that the lady scarcely ever saw boat,
except in the Bois de Boulogne, the value of
this little romance can be judged
at its proper value. The matter
Of most importance is that Bazaine
seems to have made good his escape, and
whether he did it by his wife's aid or by the
aid of military traitors like himself, it matters
little. It is well to recall at this time the cir
cumstances which reduced this once Marshal to
the level Of a telon- In all history we have few
instances where the treason of a general pro-
duced such terrible fruits as that of Bazaine
army and the stronghold which covered the
heart Of France to the enemies Of his country.
That act rendered the national defence hope
less, and to it directly, even more than to
Sedan, may be traced all the suferings and
disasters that eliminated with the fall of
Empire, was the traitor who struck his coun-
try in the back and laid her helpless at the
foot of the invader.


When the war was over he was tried; every
latitude was allowed for defence but the evi-
dence was so overwhelming that the Court
pronounced him guilty, sentencing him to
military degradation and death. The sentence
seemed just one. If the evidence justified
the finding of the Court and few who took
the trouble to read the evidence will question
it, the sentence should have been carried out
in all its rigor. The plea of numerous SER
vices and many wounds was simply an appeal
to an unhealthy sentimentality quite out of
place in matters touching the we'll being and
safety of nations When the man who had
grown gray in harness and had achieved
honors that fully rewarded his services
was taken out and publicly stripped of
all his honors there were some men
weak enough to cry out that the moral pun
ishment was sufficient and that the life of the
miserable traitor should be spared for his fam
ily's sake. Few among these sentimentalists
stopped to count the thousands of gallant men
this traitorous General had sent to an un-
timely grave-sacrifced to oover up his infamy
and treason. Sortie after sortie was made
from Metz with no apparent motive. Men
were slaughtered by the hundreds in order to
keep up the pretence that the army he COM
manded was endeavoring to break through the
lines of the besieging forces, when in reality
they were doing Bismarck's work, eating up
the provisions of the garrison of Metz, and 30
rendering inevitable its surrender. Notwith-
standing these proven facts Marshal Mac
Mahon allowed himself to be 80 far
influenced by the appeals OF Ba-
zaine's friends as to commute the
death sentence into imprisonment for twenty
years. That was an act of weakness which in
its effect was crime. The majesty of law
was broken down, and that Justice who had
shot to death Rossel, that first denounced
this traitor Marshal, showed that in truth she
was but vindictve assassin. From feelings
of commiseration MacMahon saved the life
of q traitor, and now, regardless of the conse-
quence to his benefactor the traitor abuses
the clemency shown him and escapes Under
ordinary circumstances q prisoner has the
right to escape, but this was not an
ordinary case. In sparing the life of
his old comrade MacMahon became
morally responsible to France for the
carrying out of the substituted punishment
Bazaine, on his part, was bound by every
principle of honor to do nothing which would
expose the man who had braved the public
opinion of France by saving o condemned
traitor from the merited punishment of his
crimes. But the man who betrays his country
is not likely to be over-scrupulous about
betraying his friends, and, thinking only of
himself, Bazaine has left MacMahon to meet