Year: 1871

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and the press furnishes excellent material for
texts and sermons every day If the Christian
ministry and Church members knew how to
appreciate and improve them as they ought.


In the increase Of youthful criminals in our
midst the churches should see large field of
labor before them, and in the strength of God
they should go up and possess it and cultivate
it for the Lord Jesus Christ. There is no
work in which Christian men and women can
engage that will yield. half so abundantly as
child culture. And here, in spite of all the
benevolent and missionary institutions estab-
lshed for their special benefit, there
are still over thirty thousand chill
dren utterly neglected and shut off from all
religious instruction; and this, too, in the
Christian city Of New York. A few more
thousands Of dollars spent annually might
accomplish this object; but the men and the
means are lacking, and these 10000 Ishmael-
ties are allowed to grow up in our midst, with
their hand against every man and every mans
hand against them. Who will try to save
these young sinners this fall and winter And
who will lead the way in giving the Gospel
more fully and freely to the masses in their
homes and haunts, as they cannot get it or
will not have it In our churches?


There are other spheres of labor and duty that
we might mention in which the Church of God
in this city might pro6tably engage during the
coming months, but we have indicated enough
for the present. Let our ministers and
churches and missionary societies take hold
of these in earnest, and other fields large and
extensive will open up before them.


The Sentenced Leaders Of the Commune.


The court martial of Versailles has at last
pronounced sentence upon those leaders of the
Paris insurrection who were captured after
the final collapse of the Commune. The vari-
ous penalties to which they have been doomed
are as severe as might have been ex-
pected from the temper of the victors
and the military character of the judges.
Yet it cannot be said that the sentences are
Lullier, a crack-brained naval officer, the
doom might have been more merciful. For
France is country Of revolutionary changes,
where the vanquished Of to-day may be the
victors of tomorrow and those who give no
mercy may expect none. The hardest case of
them all seems to have been Ferre, who was
delegate to the Prefecture of Police and the
only superior officer present at the Prison La
Roquette when the massacre of the hostages
took place. Yet the charge of having taken
part in the murder of the Archbishop
and the other hostages could not be
brought home to him. But the most
damning piece of evidence against
Ferre was an order, signed by him ordering
the burning of the Ministry of Finance. He
was sentenced to death. Lullier, who is like
wise doomed to suffer the extreme penalty Of
the law. was General of the National Guard,
and formerly naval officer. He was noted
for his eccentricities under the Commune,
which, under any circumstances, would
have suficed to procure him the entree
to lunatic asylum. Asst was the only
man who gloried in the Communc, and
behaved something like hero during the
trial. He took, perhaps, the most prominent
part in the Paris insurrectiOn, but as he was
arrested before the collapse he could neither
directly nor indirectly be charged with the
firing of Paris and the murder of the hostages.
His crime was purely political. Paschal
Grousset, the ex-delegate for Foreign Affairs,
was, next to Asst, the most promi-
nent and intellectual member of the
Commune, and he now shares the fate Of Asst.
Jourde, the financial man Of the Commune,
who found six hundred thousand francs day
for the wants of the insurrection, and spent
altogether about seven and half million
dollars, which he obtained from the Bank Of
France, was sentenced to simple deportation.
Courbet, the painter, who was instrumental
in the destruction of the Column Vend6me,
escaped with comparatively light sentence.