The New York Herald Newspaper, June 6, 1874, Page 3

i ( ROCHEFORT. Hiis Lecture at the Acad- emy of Music. —_—___ An Enthusiastic Audience Greets the Noted Exile. PARIS IN 1870-1. Scenes During the Siege at the Barricades. LA MERE MICHEL. ’ Rochefort’s Marriage in Prison. i. Devotion and Heroism Shuwn by Two Children. THE PERIOD OF EXILE Notes on “the King of the Canni- bal Islands.” ‘The lecture delivered last night at the Academy of Music by the well known republican leader, Henri Kochefort, gave the American public an oppor- tunity of becoming acquainted with that strangely gifted man. Owing, no doubt, to the fact that the lecture was delivered in a@ foreign language the @ttendance was not so large as might have been Wished, but those who remained away lost a treat “they are never likely to have an opportunity of en- Joying, on this side of the Atlantic at least. Never in his most successful days, when warmed ‘by the sympathetic applause of admiring thousands, did the French tribune deliver more telling hits against his political opponents than in the remarkable paper of which we place before your readers a translation. For those who had known M. Rochefort only by report as a violent and aggressive orator the delivery of the lecturer must have been a surprise, He wasgreeted, when jhe rose to speak, with deafening applause, again and again repeated; but at last the enthusiasm of the audience settled down, and the lecturer pro- ceeded to read, in a quiet, unimpassioned voice, the story of his experiences during the siege of Paris, in exile on the barren peninsula; but Perhaps the moss telling and crushing part of his Criticism on the political condition of France was dis admirable comparison of the constitutional Bafeguards and educational advantages enjoyed ‘by tne Sandwich Islanders, a people we are accus- ‘tomed to regard as savages, and yet who possess government incomparably freer and more respon- Bible to the popular will than does the great French mation. Nothing was more remarkabie than the absence of passion with which M. Rochefort put forward his ideas, and only when recounting the ‘nsults offered to the mother of his children—and which accelerated, if they did not cause, her d@eath—was there any sign of emotion. Grave as ‘was the orator, the aspect of the house was still more severe. There were present jew ladies—one only appearing on the platform—and these were mostly in the boxes. The audience listened with Fapt attention, and so profound was the silence, Which was only broken on one occasion py an {nterruption from some OVER-ENTHUSIASTIC ADMIRER, ‘which created a good deal of excitement. The re- mark of this person was not clearly understood by the audience, and as it was at first thought to be Of an offensive character there seemea a chance that the interrupter would be summarily ejected, In a few words he explained his position as that ofa man who had fought on the barricades. M. Rochefort saluted him and at the same time ex- pressed his wish to be allowed to proceed without futerruption. Although sedate and attentive the gudience was full of suppressed enthu- siasm, and when the speaker made his telling points they were acknowledged ‘with @ warmth that left no doubt as to their hearty sympathy with his utterances. The contrast Grawn between the reign of constitutional liberty at Honolulu and the government of bayonets at Paris, and the admirable attack on the pretended sickness of Jules Favre, which was characterized as “an attack .of capitulation,” were, perhaps, most relished by the audience, which was a re- markably intelligent one. It was, however, fairly representative of the demucratic Repub- lic. It was curious to notice the appearance ‘of the proscenium boxes, filled—not as we accus- tomed to see them, with richly-dressed ladies, but | crowded with the determined faces of democratic Tepublicans. Indeed, there was much in this inci- dent to recall some of the ol7 pictures of the old French Republic. The platiorm was well filled ‘with men prominent in revolutionary affairs, and for the nonce all party feeling seemed to have been forgotten, and the various sections united in the common work of heiping the suffering republicans exiled m New Caledonia. Messrs. M. Fleures, Du- rand, Pelletier and Debaschi represented the Union Républicaine, and MM. M, E. Badowreau, J. Ollivier and the brothers May. Mr. Miguel de Aldama, the representative of the Cuban Republic, ‘occupied one of the proscenium boxes, M. Rochefort, accompanied by some friends, ap- peared on the platform some minutes after eight, and the proceedings were at once opened by an address from Mr. John Swinton, one of the leaders Of the American socialists. MR, SWINTON SAID:— LADIES AND GENTLEMEN :—I have been asked by Henri Roche/fort to briefly indicate in the English language the order and bearing of his discourse here to-night, for the benefit of those who are un- famihar with the language in which be will speak. Before doing this I should like to make a few re- marks about Rochefort himself at this his first presentation before an American au- dience, And I may say that I will use lan- guage about him which I would not us in his presence if he understood the language in ‘which | speak, for in such case his modesty might enter protest, Rochefort’s career in France has been extraordinary, brilliant and fruitful, Perhaps the well-worn metaphor of a meteor might be more aptly applied to him than to any of his French contemporaries, i! it were not that 1 be- Neved him to be a star, durable and potential, illuminating the horizon which sweeps from France to the Infinite, and from to-day to eternity. (Applause). It is but a ew years since the young tan Rochefort made his appearance in a Paris Paper. As s00n as he did so it was evident that here was not only a light of exceptional brilli- ancy and terrifo wit, but a man of ideas nd force of conviction, a republican and radical, ® relentless enemy of the dominant despotism and fm audacious and defiant champion of liberty. (Great applause.) Itis not only that ‘ne was the wittiest of writers in the wittiest of cities, but behind his wit was a heroic spirit, and behind his personality was the genius of france, He quickly became the most /amous writer in Paris, his pro- auctions eagerly sougnt by the whole people, his words in everybody's mouth; in a moment, as it ‘were, he became the popular idol, tne idol of the keen, quick-witted, true-hearted, bold-nanded re- publican party of Paris, aud of the masses of the French working people. Time soon gave him new opportunities. He emancipated himself from the Figaro and started the Lanterne, and first pub- lished it in Paris; it was there suppressed, and he then started it in Marseilles, but it was also sup. Dressed in byue EEE LLL LLnL LLnL NEW YORK HERALD, SATURDAY, JUNE 6, 1874.—-TRIPLE SHEET. sna ne mimself was imprisonea py we fame power. Napoleon sald Paris could not hold himself and Rochefort; one of them must get out. And it was true. His Imperial Majesty, as things happened, went out first. (Laughter and ap- Plause.) Rochefort stood firm throughout. He had never once changed his ground. He had been the most consistent of POPULAR POLITICAL LEADERS, and had confronted the enemy at every turn with the fag of republicanism in one hand and the quill of democracy im the other, (Chcers.) The spectacle was more than grandiose. But I need not speak of his genius, of his inspiration, his courage or his power to those who know his career, (Applause.) In describing Rochefurt as a wit I beg you do not misapprehend the meaning of that thing in French or the part of this peculiar talent as it is played in French affairs, We are apt in this country to conceive of a wit as a joker, as @ sort of Artemus Ward or Mark Twain, or even as the end man in a@negro minstre! company. Be assured this is not Rochefort. Wit and satire was to him the most powerful and effective Wi or-- —a weapurt before whom despotism was most helpless, a weapon whose flash was most lively to the spirit of republican liberty, and he used it as it had heen used by Voltaire—to destroy those malevoient forces which have proved so disastrous for French humanity. Let those who imagine, if any such there be, that Rochefort is a mere corsair, look at his tife and his triumphs. Let those who think he is a brainiess adventurer, as one idiotic newspaper has haa the audacity to suggest, tell me how he achieved his glittering fame, how he |. Won his wonderful popularity, how he compassda his power—a power which railed Paris and STRUCK DOWN THE FRONT OF THE IMPERIAL DESPOT, Let those who look on him a @ mere revointion- Organic politics. Let those who look on him as an impracticable vistonary tell me why the repub- ican voters of Paris elected him twice to the assembly, once, under the Empire and again under the‘ Republic. Tell me, why the astutest republican leaders in France asked him to become @ member of the Govern- ment of National Defence. Tell me why, during the siege, he was appointed Chief of Barricades, (Appiause.) Rochefort has more than political sense. am convinced alter mtimate conversations with | him. He was probably a revolutionist during the Empire; government and = Rochefort’s genius will be found equal to that of Ca- your. (Applause.) Buta few words more, in reference to one point about which Rochefort has been the worst misunderstood and the worst ma- ligned man of the nineteenth century. I do not pro- constructive ing the Commune has been as grossly misunder- stood as the Commune itself. He upheld the Com- mune because it appeared to him to embody the true republican principle—(apptause)—because the world must be regenerated; because it gave hope of realization of those great organic re- forms which the creative intellect of France, foreshadowed since the time of Henry IV.; be- cause it proposed political justice and communal order—(applause)—emancipation from that pe- culiar MEPHISTOPHELISM, THAT DIABOLISM of modern France. (Laughter and cheers.) His enemies accuse him—and, gentlemen, I would as soon let Caligula represent the history of Chris- tanity as let any reactiontst represent the history Of that sublime epoch of the Commune—they ac- cuse him, I say, o! being, during the revolutionary government, the leader and instigator of a mob of thieves, incendiaries, murderers and assassins. “Thieves?” Aye, though they stole nothing and never laid even a finger on the dreds of millions of gold that were under their hands in the vaults of the Bank of France. (Applause.) “incendiaries?” Aye, though it would not require the fingers were evenj accused of burning. “Murderers?” Aye, though there was not a single execution in Paris by order of the Commune during its: brief existence, as Henn Rochefort can show. (Ap- plause.) thing are indescribable, simply because tt is only | tim. 1t was, fellow citizens, a sad thing that dur- | ing the supreme moment of the tragedy of Paris, | when for five days they had been slaughtering Men, women and children by the 10,000; when holo- causts of victims, chained together, were massacred | by the mitrailleuse; when the maddened soidiery of McMahon were wreaking on the people of Paris the vengeance which they had failed to take on Bismarck’s invaders—it is a sad thing, I say, that under such circumstances a few ecclesiastics were shot by the unauthorized orders of the sufferers, 8 General Lamonte had previously been shot, remembered, agaiust all such acts Rochefort never failed to enter his protest. One word in regard tothe theme of Rochefort’s discourse, which he wished me to announce. The main points will | be four or five. He will begin by referring to | his interview with the present King of the Sand- wich Isiands during his voyage as a refugee to this | country. The vessel stopped there and ne had an interview with the present King. Mr. Rochefort Will state that he observed:things in Hawali and | the adjacent islands, tne society, government and ordinary affairs, and he will contrast THE CIVILIZATION OF SAVAGERY WITH THE SAV- AGERY OF CIVILIZATION, (Applause.) Second, he will refer to the part that he himself took under the provisional government of September, where, with Favre and several others, that short-lived and KALEIDOSCOPIC CONCERN WAS CREATED. He will goon and state what has never been re- vealed—the facts in reference to the surrender of Paris, the visit of Jules Favre to Versailles, his in- terview there with Bismarck, the scheme tor the surrender of the city and the results of that scheme, and certain extraordinary and heretofore unknown facts to which he is privy, In the third place he will dwell upon some abstract and philosophical speculations in regard to those who speak about the French being unable to keep a republic when they have got. it—that they can establish nothing, and that sort of thing, Rochefort says, “Give the French a republic and you will see whether they wili keep } it or not.” In the next place he will state that he has been accused by certain American newspapers of exaggeration in the statements he recently made in his published let- ter. They say its awiul, blood curdling state- ments were phantasies of his Lanterne brain, that he hag colored the incidents, &c., Rochefort will | Say, on the contrary, “I have heretofore been afraid to tell the truth. To-night, those things being denied, I will give you facts infinitely more terrible than those which I have stated,” facta of which he is cognizant, and tne material of which not M. Thiers nor MacMahon will traduce. In the next place he will speak of the people of Magnificent conduct of the women of Paris—so superb, so courageous. For that purpose he will draw a portrait—I wish Victor Hugo were here to see it—a portrait of Mademoiselle Louise Michel, ‘who was the grand heroine of that most amazing struggle for buman nature, and now a prisoner in New Caledonia—present in the Courts of Justice, at the palace, at the barricades, wherever a gun or a piece of lint or a woman’s heart was wanted, She was a teacher, a lady by train ing and education, some thirty years old. In the last place he will speak about the Repubiic. It is impossible to overthrow the Republic in France, as M, Rochefort will suow. The Repubiic 1s in the heart of France, and the heart of France must be cut out besore the Republic can be annihilated, (Applause.) Those wretched corsairs and reac- | tionista cannot kill it. (Repeated cheers.) Aud now, gentlemen, in the superb language of France, in @ 6tyle at once pure and sparkling, with a power and pungency of his own, I introduce M, Henri Rochefort ana his discourse, M. ROCHEFORT’S LECTURE, When of late, after our happy escape, the Steamer on board of which we were going back to Europe made @ call at the Sandwich Islands, the King of that country, most probably anxious to by the imperial power, | become acapajated with French revolutjonists, ist, a8 @ revolution incarnate, listen to his ideas of | He has the genius of statesmansnip, as I | but give France a true republican | Pose to go over any ground that he is to cover, so | I will simply mention that Rochetort’s course dur- | hun. | Or one hand to number the buildings that they , These diabolical falsehoods about this | the murderer who was allowed to describe his vic. | But it certainly was not wonderfui, and, let it be | Paris during the siege, referring especially to the | | sent one of mis aides-de-camp to beg the favor of spending the evening with ua, SANDWICH ISLAND ROYALTY. My friend Ulivier Pain and I accepted the queer invitation, well thinking that we were going to enjoy ourselves prodigiously at the ex- pense of this Canak King, who, undoubtedly, would stapefy our republicanism by his Oriental despotism, his ignorance and his funny theories on divine right. Fancy how great was our aston- ishment, and, I must say, our humiliation, when | we heard from those very roya) lips, that the sav- ages who, eighty years ago murdered with arrows Captain Cook, enjoy to-day a Parliament elected by universal suffrage and renewable @very two years, in order that the representatives of the nation may be constantly in close accord with public opinion; that those savages were compelled to gratuitous and obligatory in- | Struction; that fathers whose children were wholly uneducated in reading and writing were | punished with prison and fine; that royaity was | elective, and not hereditary, and did not leave to | the Sovereign any otner power than that of coun- tersigning and promulgating the laws voted by | the pativnal Parliament; that the municipal councillors weré nominated by the citizens, and, finally, that in the Whole country {here were about twenty public scuools against one church, Thus the guarantees and liberties we claim {rom ali our governments, which they al- | ways promise to grant us, but never give and , sometimes ¢ompel us to ti are the very liber- ties and guarantees enjoyed without any dis- cussion or control by the negroes of the Pacific Islands. We call them cannibals, while autocracy | devours ourselves, We send them missionaries, while | itis they who ought to send us political leaders, + The King of the Sandwich Islands “had hardly spoken to me for a quarter of an hour on his gov- ernmental views when I believed it was my duty | to interrupt him. “Sir,” said I, “your confidence to me cannot have any bad results for Your Maj- esty; but beware of ever going to Versailles ana | giving expression to such opinions, for you would be sure to be immediately ARRESTED AND SENTENCED TO EXILE in a fortress by all the courts martial, which are the finest ornament of our present government,’? Never, in effect, was there situation susceptible of comparison with ours, When we claim for France | the rights consecrated among ali the peopies of | the universe, and which are ‘or the soul of a nation | what food is for the stomach of a man, then they call ns levellers, and we are accused of | aiming at pulling down everything. Pulling down what? We, who have nothing! To our anxieties, solicitations and propagandas they | object only this word, as hollow as it is long—con- | | servative! Let them grant us, once for ali, as to | the natives of the Sandwich Islands, the liberty 0 | Writing, of talking, of electing our municipal counseliors, of dying without a priest and of en- Joying existence without a king, and you will see | | whether or not we shall preserve it. But, at the | present time, of what can we be conservatives, since we are refused everything? Alter the | Fevolution 0/1570, just when the capital was on | | the point of being invested, the people, eternally | | accused of being ignorant by the very ones who | systematically refuse to them the possibility of | | learning—the people were the true conserva- | \ tives, for they would Keep intact France, which so | | many others, reputed invorn conservatives, were | Teady to deliver to her foreign enemy. Who knows it, who was enavied to know it, better than | I, when, on the 4th of September, I was taken out of my prison by the people, | who brought me to the Hotel de Ville, where ; Iconsented to become a member of the govern- | ment on tie condition alone that this government should defend Paris? The famous truce of parties— | | of which the Versailiist monarchists believe them- selves the real inventors—had I not inaugurated it long before them, when I proposed for our power the denomination, which was unanimously agreed, of GOVERNMENT OF THE NATIONAL DEFENCE? Iwas ready to make every sacrifice. 1 had said from the first day to General Trochu:—“Promise to defend Paris energetically and on my side I promise to sustain you to the last—even against | @ popular rising.”? Well, will you know in what | Manner has been fulfilled the promise in which 1 candidly confided tor a while? Tne montu | of Septemver had notelapsed yet when M. Jules ; Favre openca secret negotiations with M. de Bis. | marck at Ferritres, Secretly, is the proper word, | because | have to tell you a fact which SOUNDS LIKE FABLE. My colleagues of the National Defence concocted | to deceive me not only as to the purpose of M. Juies Favre’s journey, but even as to that journey itsel!. Not seemg him in she evening at the usual council of tue government I inquired about the iotive of bis absence. They answered that he was sick, but that he would come the next moruing to attend the council. The next morning I remarked | again the abseuce of our Minister for Foreign Affairs and asked the same question, wuicn provoked the same answer from my colleagues, I ought to coniess that I ieli so completciy | the dupe of that cunning trick that I sent my ser- vant to the Ministry in order to get news from the sick Minister. It was only on the evening of that _ day, when I heard M. Jules Favre himseil deliver- | ing @ narrative of his trip to Ferriéres, that I learned the thing which was the subject of every | conversation in Paris, but which 1, a member of | the government, was the only one ignorant | of—viz., that M. Jules Favre’s alleged sickness was | stmply an ASTOUNDING CAPITULATION. Tnus they were preparing to deliver up Paris, | not consulting me, not even informing me of their intention, and when. disgusted with the boasting proclamation of which the authors did not believe a wordyI retired trom a government of defence whose members defended only their portiolios, they brought the accusation of treachery against me, whom they had constantly betrayed. | It 18 this double dealing, those beliicose | proclamations, continually belied by the facts; those broken promises, those deceived hopes, which drove Paris to a new revolution. The reac- | tionists attempt to justify the most arbitrary measures with that phrase which has no sense— “THE FRENCH ARE UNGOVERNABLE.”’ Hl They are ungovernable only because they have fad to contend successively with Louis XVIIL, Charles X., Louis Philippe and Napoicon LIL, ana because the sound politicians of Versailies pretend to impose upon them, to-day, Henri V., the | Comte de Paris, Napoicon IV., or MacMahon, to | govern them. But it always was the destiny of | republicans (and so it will be till the day of aefint- | tive triumph) to be calumniated. Whatever we , may do, bad faith is watching us in order to adul- | terate our best intentions. After the Commune | | the whole of the detective Catholicism urged that | 1 should be burned alive as an atheist, because my father had been buried, throngh my orders, alter his own will, without any priestof any religion; for, you see, that horrible civil war was also a | religious war. ROCHEFORT AS A CONVERT. One year alter those same Catholics announced, With @ great nolse, my conversion to their creed, because 1 married the companion of my youth, , simpiy in order to comply with her dying desire, | which was to receive the nuptial benediction. | She was at the end of her life; the least contra- riety might have i} KILLED HER ON THE SPOT. Then I could not refuse any longer to her that sat- isiaction, no more than I would have refused her @ cashmere had her fancy been turned towards that object. Those who maliciously called me a i convert to Catholicism wouid have called me an assassin had I acted otherwise. They know, with. ; out doubt, the reason why I did consent to that | sacrifice ; but it is part of their system to throw upon | the most sincere republicans, with the purpose of dividing the party, suspicions of irresolation and of levity. The obscene Figaro had indeed dared to relate, with various amplifications, that ny companions in confinement had wanted to re- bel on account of particular favors which I enjoyed. Ihave never enjoyed any favor, and if I have any- thing to reproach myself with it is that I cannot show myself more worthy of the devotion which my comrades !n misfortune and prison have never | ceased to manitest towards me. They saw me | suffer in the midst of them the same miseries | as themselves, and if I had only listened to their entreaties I should have been free long ago. Two blots to eacane were organized. one at the Castle | | both their liberty. | bravely against the Versailles army. | ended, she could have gone without being recog- | of nothing but the. triumph | was facetiously called | with of Ré, the other during the voyage, on the very deck of the irigate La Virginie, to the end that I might regain my liberty. They thought I should be more useful to the cause in Europe than in Amer, ica, and they were resolved as all hazards to de- liver me from tbe hands of my jailerg, But the Ay 3) ioe execution of the enterprise woula have been very truth thoroughly in proportion to its bold. ness, and ] wasin duty bound obliged to decline running a risk where so many brave people would have been compromised by their attachment to me. reserving to myself to take up this project when my life alone should be in question. Louis Veuillot, who made bimself the doctor of souls, as the Zouave Jacob is the doctor of bodies—L. Veuillot, after having covered me with dirt, crowned me ironically with flowers concerning my marriage His mud T accept, because it honors me, As for his fowers, Iam obligea to return them to him, as Ido not merit them. I ask your pardon for put- ting myself thus be/ore you; but itis a continua- tion of the invention—that of which I have just made the exposé—which has compassed the official history of the last events, You can then argue from the particnlar tothe general, and judge ot the degree of impudence that human cowardice can reach when it believes itseif out of danger. THE HERALD story. 1 had, besides, foreseen that they would tax with exaggeration the story sent by me to the NEw YORK HERALD of the sufferings and the tor- tures inflicted on our companions in exile. I be- Meved in declaring immediately all the tacts that I collected and made known to the indignation of tee free people of America, I have ip my hands the trre{utable proois, What makes the difference between rep4blicans and monarcbisis is that the first want the truth, as the second only live by lying. I have not written a word of which the exactitude cannot easily be established by numerous and unimpeachable witnesses. I have told but the truth, and the only reproach that can be brought against mo is that I did not tell the | whole truth, because the list of the miseries of the prisoners—both male and female prisoners of the Commune—is 80 cruelly long that there is no paper large enough to publish the list. The 20,000 pris- oners who passed through the prisons of Versailles | all knew two children of nine years of age—nine | years, do you hear?—who, though Irigntfully muti- | lated in the hazards of the fight, were arrested and transferred to the depot. One of them, a little | apprentice, had both his arms carried away by the bursting of shells. The other had one leg carried | away at the beginning of the thigh, As soon as they were capable of bearing the voyage they were taken from the ambulance, these poor beings, all bloody, to mix them up with the other prisoners. And then—terrible spectacle, which would have touched the Sepoys of India—these two wounded | litule ones illustrated in action the well known fable of the blind and the paralytic. At every meal the child without a leg crouched down beside his friend without arms and made him eat. He took nis clothes off every evening and dressed him in the morning. his iegs left did all the errands for his disabled comrade. These two children, whom the French law, inflexible as it may be, could not reach on | account of their age, no one on earth had the right to retain as prisoners. The duty of the mil- | itary administration was to return them to rheir families, which belonged to the doctor, and not to the Council of War. Well, it was only alter six months that, ceding vo the general indignation, the Chief of Mflitary Justice consented to give When I say both Iam wrong. The child without arms alone saw open before him the gates of the prison ‘Des Uhautiers.” Poor little fellow gave his companions a lesson in charity and gratitude. “1 will not go out,’ sald he to Colonel Gailliard, “if the comrade who kas helped me to live during the past five Months is not given his liberty at the same time, Belore such @ generous resolution militaryism ought to yieid aud both went out, one dragging the other after him, The moment of their departure, however, was marked by an incident as painful as all the remainder. Never during his long captivity had the little printer, with both arms amputated, received from outside either help or visit. “You are then an orphan?’ said a prisoner to him, who afterward related the fact to me as he was crossing the threshold. “No,” replied the child; “I havea father and + Mother, but I sent them word not to venture near the prison. because I heard ii they came and asked for me they would be arrested also.” THE HEROINE OF THE BARRICADES, T made the voyage from France to New Caledo- nia on board the war frigate La Virginie, in a cage | situated in front of the one occupied by Louise Michel, the celebrated heroine of the barricades, exiled at the same time as myself. Louise Michel is one of those women without fear and without reproach, whose religious taith made Joan of arc, and whose republican beltefs, Théroigne de Mirecourt. After having fired the first shot at the outposts like the wost intrepid soldier during the first and second siege she remained to the last hour in Paris, battling The fight nized or disturbed, but the energy of her re- sistance had made her name the government which trembled before women after having been palsed in presence of the Prussians, AN order was given to huut her up, ahd as some friends forced her to conceal herself, what do you think was done by Marshal MacMa- hon, Dake of Magenta, Commander-in-Chief of the Versailles troops ? He felt noscruple at sending to arrest Louise Michei’s old mother and retaining her as a hostage, warning her that she would be mercilessly shot within twenty-iour hours if her dauguter did not give herself up. Louise Micnel did what might be expected of her great heart. dhe went and put herself into the hands of the | soldiers with this single reproach on her lips, “Here 1 am. Shoot me down!" ever hereafter to reproach the Commune with the killing of the nostages, All France knows how \ she bore herself before the Counci! of War. She | openly braved the cowards who were judging her. | “I defy you to condemn me to death,” she said; “because 1 willload you with shame in showing you how a woman can die." aways thought, sure enough, that exile in a strong fortress was death with less noise. Every month she writes tothe members of the sinister Com- mission of Pardons to put under their nostrils the odor of the blood they have shed. It is well that a woman thus _ periodically troubles the peace of these frightful men who go to discuss at the bar of the Assembly the number of carcases that will be found the following day at the foot of the deathbed boards at Satory. This | excellent and brave Louise Michel, whose inalter- able sweetness Makes such a touching contrast to her energy every day, deceived the watchfulness of the guards, who walked, revolver in hand, before her cage on board La Virginie, and passed me almost daily letters im which ber faith in the republic rose to a serenity devoid of doubt, In the hold of the ship, with twenty-two of her companions, all exiled like her- self, she passed four long months, never taking om her clothes in her hanimock, she thought of the cause of which she has made her religion and ner unique love. Clothed, almost in the middleof the icebergs of the Pole, with a mean Indian robe that the government had granted her, and which the corbveilie de noces Monsieur MacMahon ; insufficiently fed salt meat and preserved vegetables, separated forever trom her motner, whom she adored, she still found the courage to breathe upon her frozen fingers sufficient warmth to of enable her to write to the Commission of Pardons. | This appeal, in passing before my cell, she passed to me, and I have preciously guarded it. lnow ask the permission to cite it to you. SOUVENIR TO CITIZEN ROCHEFORT. Copy Of the letter sent irom Virginia, in the Roads of St. Catharine, to tne Commission of Par- aons:— MBSSIEURS—You did weil to prescribe that one could correspond ireely with you by means of sealed letters. My thongnts will reach you thus trom everywhere. ney will follow you every- where. There is too much blood between us ior all the oceans to ever wash out, and your jacality§ brings me back to it low. ever, in Caledoma cag will be & good opportunity to of me; ut | In return, the one who had | But this | redoubtable to | Buti forbid you | These brave run- | fig Jou naa oanisnea us all, the colony woula nave Mm flourishing to-day, and you would not be murderers. Now tes wash your hands in the Goodby, face of history. Messieurs, LOUISE MICHEL, She added this postscript, which makes allusion to the names of the two ships-of war who were ‘aware of our intentio1 “P, 8.—You might have feared, perhaps, in send- ing us on the Sybille that this name would have brought you misfortune, You have chosen another presage. Virgitia was fatal to the decemvirate.”” Thrown to-day upon the sands of the peninsula Ducos, under the burning winds and mosquitoes of New Caledonia, she finds means stil! to renew courage and to prevept weakness, Whatever may be the opinions of those who listen to me, it is impossible not to bow before that force and tnat goodness of soul which make of a young woman the expression even of @ sacrifice. The abnegation of those who are called the servants of Jesus Christ is often spoken of, Compare it, if you dare, with the devotedness of the servants of liberty. Besides, it should be known and pro- claimed aloud that if our sex loses its prestige the grand examples during the foreign war, as during tne civil war, came from | the women. At my entry into the govern- ment of the 4th of September, when peculiarly preoccupied by the defence of Paris, I enceavored to encourage the peopie to resistance and to re- attach to our cause General Trochu, this insup- portable speechmaker, who, alter having promised to die at his post, finally went down in the capitalation, in the reaction and nearly in the police—at this time, I say, when the Bazaines, the Ducrots and the Vinoys were preparing the drama of their treasons, there was not a day but some deputation of | Parisian women came and asked me, who sent it to the most dangerous positions either to assist the fighters or to fight themseives. Later, when the situation, already so sombre, became more sombre yet, and when succeeding the Prussians’ balls which burst on our houses, came French bombs, the women stupefiea the cohquerors by their temerity, their indifference to danger and what the great Victor Hugo calls “this sinister facility of dying,” when chained together three by three, sometimes five by five they were directed by hundreds upon Versailles through the vociferations o1 a rabble drunk with blood. Young girls of eighteen were seen to reply to the howlings of this multitude by smniles, and the history of the martyrdom of the | women of Paris, from the beginning of the war to | the present time, would fill volumes, Nothing was spared to them in misery, in hunger, in cold, in insult, When after saving for a quarter of a year to devote a little money to | imprisoned brothers, or their husbands; when after a journey of fiiteen mules, which they achieved on foot, followed sometimes by little children whom they | harassed, dusty, but happy in bringing a little comiort to the wretched sufferers herded together j and over again? That they were met with a which no one would even take the trouble | to try to explain, and it was announced to them then that their visits were sus pended and that they must consider themselves fortunate tobe allowed to retrace their steps to Paris. Besides, how many have succuinbed to | prisoner did not come to tell us with tears in his | eyes, “I have just heara that my wite 1s dead.” My turn came as did the others. One day, at the castle jot Ré, 1 got @ letter informing me that | the mother of my children was at the last | extremity. At tbe time of my arrest she had lived for four months at Versailles, in the bosowm of her family, and was absolutely ignorant of every- thing that had been goingon in Paris. She was | none the less subjected to @ scandalous arrest in | the streets of Versailles, and dragged belore the | then Prefect of Police, General Valentine, who, | coward, like a Bonapartist officer, as he was, | heaped upon her for two hours avuse ; and threats in the presence of his stay, | who much enjoyed the scene, At last, | released from this drunkard she returned home, | took to her bed and never again ruse trom it. I | appeal to eternal justice, was there not here arbi- | trary arrest complicated by murder? And I, | scarcely recovering irom a tedious illness, wes | plangeil to the inmost recesses of a little cell under the blow of a sentence of death, while they mur- dered my wife, who had been left de:enceless, Have I not to-day, that I am free, every right to revenge on her assassin ? PERSECUTION OF THE FAMILIES OF THB EXILES, The uneasiness caused tn the minds of our coa- querors by the determination of our women tor the past three years has not yet subsided, and they have found a means to get rid of the wives of the men they have already transported. Very | Many ships have been chartered for the purpose , of bringing to New Caledonia familics seek- ing their pater/amilias, Those wives and | children are promised at the authorized agencies | organized for the purgose, and by the representa- tives of the government, immunity from personal harm, work at pleasure and a speedy fortune. Seventy victims caught at this delusion, and after aterrible voyage on the steamer Fénélon they | landed on Caledonian soil, but found neither means of living, clothes nor work. It has been told to many transported to ; the Peninsula of Ducos, “Your wives and , children will soon be here, You can have them when you meet them, but the govern- ment will not be responsible for their means of living, either to clothe them, feed them or to | support them in any way.” The exiles reply, “We | are dying, many of us, of hunger. We have no , chance to work, a8 tools or money to buy the same are debarred us. How then do you imagine we can support our families 7" “Well, that’s your business and not ours,” says the government; “all we know is that your wives and families, although not under sentence, must undergo the same penalties as the convicts themselves.” And indeed the relatives who came oftheir own fre» will from France are in the hands of galley slave keepers. Women whom | circumstances drive to manual labor need a special | permit before they do so. Yet this is trequently | refused them, and when granted it is good only 1oraday. They are prohibited, under penalty of | imprisonment, to absent themselves more than twelve hours, and the least violation of those very arbitrary rules subjects them to being pub- | | licly posted in the most insulting manner. ‘The ' adage ' MAXIMO PUERO DEBETUR REVERENTIA has there the queerest kind of meaning. Lovely children of thirteen, fourteen and fifteen years ' of age, who exilea themselves to be near their | fathers, are called the most oOpprobrious names. Women of the best families and spotless reputation suffer the same insults. A gallant exile named Gardy, who earnestly desired to have the charge ' of our cuisine—that is of Olver Pain, Paschai Grousset and myseli—and whose pleasure tt was to | tell us go, received news irom home that his ! wife and chud bad left there to join bim at ' the peninsula of Ducos, At the arrival | steamer Fenelon he wrote to the district Gov- ernor, asking nim if his wiie had arrived. Here ts the answer, which we all saw posted on the | walls:—The party by the name of Gardy 1s hereby informed that no jemale consignment for him is on the Fenelon.” it was just the same as \ir a yoke of oxen or @ bale of cotton were in the question. Im the same man- ner, by principle and by the most annoying | measures, all industry and trade were put a stop | ‘to, And yet the administration of M. MacMahon, not content with starving the prisoners, went so | | far as to defame them. In the recent debate at Versailles on the question of deportation the Min- ister of Marine got up and, with mingled mndigna. tion and grief, said :—“It is useless to attempt to do anything for the transported prisoners. Compas- sion is lost upon them, ag they refuse to work for @ living.” THE PRISONERS’ WORK. Yet in March, 1872, 400 prisoners worked on embankments on the peninsula, and twice that number at the Isle of Vines, for the ridiculous sum of @ franc @ day. Ali this work suddenly stoppedon the arriva: of a secret de- spatch, received by M. De la Richerie on Augusi 12, you lack the oonrage. However, if in piace of COldiy assaesating, SLX outbe altar tha stern “Mousieur,” it reads, “the ¢xnense of the tevorta- their | their sons, their fathers | led in their company, they arrived at Versailles, | in the sewers, co you know what happened over | disappointment from some inexplicable order, | | their punishment! No single day paased that some | of the | @ copy of which despatch I am enabled to give. | tion oF prisoners during 1872-73, according to your report of last March, amounts to 600,000 You most not think that such agum can again be de voted to such @ purpose. A convict has not the rights of a workman. In granting wages to the prisoners you revive the scandal of the national workshops of 1843.7 Such are the good faith of the government and the value of the attacks made on us. and with ike sincerity they pretend to encourage agri- culture in this colony. A few days before our escape, and the better to conceal our designs, my comrade, Olivier Sain, wrote to the military Gov- ernor of the peninsula & request for a piece of land. The request was coucnedin the prescribed terms, and the plot of ground in question seemed to be at our disposal, as the law ordered such a@ request to be immediately complied with. However that may be, a notice, without any explanation, was put up the next day, refusing the request. Considering the situa- tion at that time, and on the eve of our departure from New Caledonia, yon may imagine our mirth and laughter when we heard of this tast folly of the government, Yet it showed that the autnorities, far from encouraging praiseworthy efforts, let no opportunity pass to prove that military power is the enemy of progress. You see, not alone did my letter to the NEW YORK HERALD exaggerate nothing, but it lessened | many things. I have made during the last three years a kind of voyage through the horrible, and, far from heightening the colors, there are ques- tions that I have voluntarily ignored in order that Ishould not be accused of creating terror wantonly in the minds of my hearers. There is one, howe ever, that has attracted such attention from great minds and large hearts, and that we have studied closely enough in New Caledonia to be able to throw an unexpected hight upaa it. This question is the one which Victor Hugo has so pow- erfully dealt with in his romance, “Les Misérables,’? that Eugene Sue has developed in the “Mysteries of Paris,” and that many others nave discussed Without being able to solve; this is the quea- tion of the bagnes in consequence of a bicody violation of the law abolishing the punish ment of death for political offences. Colonel Rossel, Gaston Cremieux and many others were shot, The same contempt for the penal code was the cause of men of letters and journalists, judged and condemned for press offences, to be sent to the galleys. Humbert, formerly editor of the Marselitaise, breaks stones on the road. Henri Brissac, who was editor of the Vengeur, is in & double chain, coupled with the chief of the Mar- seilles poisoners, the most dangerous man in the galleys. Lullier, a heutenant of the navy, and for @ moment a general of the Commune, has been in & dark cell for three months, with trons on his hands and feet, after having passed the whole time of the voyage in the bottom of the hold of the frigate Var, which transported him to the Island of Nu. | No matter how unfortnate they are, the political prisoners of Peninsula Ducos and the Isle of Pines, | enjoy the liberty of movement in a prescribed space, and outside the insufficiency of the jood and the badness of the climate, their sufferings are | principally mental. Those of the prisoners of the Jommune, Which the chances of the courts-martial sent to forced labor, as being convicted of crimes | under the common law, are subjected, under the | stroke of the scourge, to physical tortures, which | often made us shudder down there. The Isle Nu, | situated opposite to and about eight miles from | Peninsula Ducos, has been described to the palic by our philanthropists as a succession of terrestrial paradises. The galley slaves, it was said, would leave Toulon, that city of humilia- | tlon and opprobrium, where the eyes of thetr countrymen followed them with fear and | disgust, to go beneath the blue sky of the Pacific | and cultivate the flelds ima sort of half liberty, ; The contemplation of nature, the absence of temptation, would assist them to become Tre- | formed. After a snort time they would have the privilege of cetting married, and to get as a wed- ding presenta piece of ground, the product of | which would supply all their wants and those of their families. These men were to cease to be convicts im order to become proprietors, It is now fourteen years since transportation began to flourish, and we have received letters trom Penin- sula Ducos which have edified us regarding the position of the convicts of the Isle Nau. A young doctor of the navy, serving some time at the hos- pital of the penitentiary, repeated to me this fune- ral cry, made use of by an ola dying galley slave :— | “Oh, Doctor, why have we been sent bere? [ was so happy at Toulon, Toulon, indeed, for its con- victs Was a humilation, but it was at the same time a control, Sentenced by the law, they suf- fered in accordance with the BW under the eye of the whole of agreat town, Where the severity of the regulations could not degenerate at caprice. Who to-day would take the part ol @ convict dving under the tasn 6,500 leagues from France? What goes on at the Bagne of the island of the horrible | name cannot be told. | A Minister, questioned on this subject not long ago, replied an’ was applauded by ail the humane | partof the assembly, that corporal punishment | had for some years been abolished at the Bagne, | Twice, a week, on Wednesday and Friday, | the flogging 18 applied at the Isle Nu, | and from the seabeach we could hear from afar the rolling of the drums which an- nounced the executions of which death was often the end. However guilty amen may be, if he is not sentenced to capital punishment, no one has aright to kill him. Well. this right the Gov- ernor of New Caledonta invests himseif with, Alt that he has though? of to cover up his responsi- bility is to delegate to be present at the punis! ment a doctor, who follows with his eyes’ the contortions of the punished, and stops: the flogging when -he believes the lie to be endangered. The man ts then carried to hospital, and as soon as he ts set on his feet again they give him a receipt in full, with the rest of the blows which his condition had prevented him receiving. A convict named Caignoi—we were at the netzhporing isle of Ducos when this fact transpired—threw himself into the sea one dark nignt and a at vo cross by swimmin, the two leagues whlch separated’ the islani Nu from the mainland. Retaken alter two days of enforced tasting, he was taken back to the Bagne and sentenced for the attempt at escape to fifty blows of the stick, But the doctor, no doubt, had something else to think of during the operation, for the convict Caignol! died on the spot at the forty-fifth stroke, What Ihave just related is frightful, bur has nothing incredible about it. What follews Savors of the domain of dreams. We several times met on the mainland con- victs detached, either to excavate wells or to herd cattle, and several among us remarked that for the most part their fingers were wanting on Uheir hands inree among them, like the three Calenders or the ‘Thousand and One Nigiits,” who. were each blind of the right eye, were questioned about this extraordinary appearance, this is what one of the wretches satd in reply:—‘‘There ig on this isle of Nua chamber of torture. When the administration suspects any project of evasion or any conspiracy against itself a certain number of men are called into the torture room on / whom a gardian places the thumb screws, which they squeeze until the accused avows. Often the men reiuse to avow or Know nothing. Then they are squeezed so tight to get something from them that the bones are crushed and the fingers fall oi.’ He showed them his leit hand, to which was wanting the first finger and the thumb, and his right foot, from which the toe had been amp: | tated, This is how corporal punishment ts abol- ished tn the State Prison, This ig how they seck to rehabilitate the criminal by contemplation of nature, and this is how I exaggerated the stories of the Caledonian hells, At first sight such. audacious actions, such infamous tuings, such cr are great enough to make the mos* ener- getic despair of the future of the country where they can be committed with impunity, Let ua not, however, be discouraged. These atrocities are the Swan's song Oi the reaction, MARCH OF THR REPUBLIC. The monarcinsts evidently play their last card, and throw their last sticks in the wheels of the Republic. They know tneir theories to be so pro- foundly ridiculous that they no longer dare to ex- 8 Cy pose “them. To place on the throne @ king who im the perrons of ws sons and grand can remain there 800 years, to refnse to generations which will succeed each other the right to replace this im- movable monarch, this 18 an idea which vas be- come in oar day so fantastically unlikely that the | Most enthusiastic legitimists do not dare to place them ‘orward 1a awe Of its consequences. What | shail we do with this Kg if ne become tnsane, ‘ like Charles VI? What will his dynasty become iu he be steriie like Henry VP The , only government who can itn future be protected from revolutions 6 precisely | the one which ts called the revolutionary goveru- | ment--cthat is to say, the ee All tne ta tions, all the ques. ali the machinations of oid parties will oily render its necessity more evident. I have recently crossed this immense American prairie revealed by your great novella Fenimore Cooper. | They ‘told to me recently that sometimes herds of usfaloes, aston- |ished to see their «== domains —_ invaded by man and crossed the locomotive, Would meet in force, aud would attack @ coups da fete tue railway trains. Strong as they were, their heads and their horns would be broken against tne obstucie, Hardly at times, by force of obeti- ‘nacy and fury, did they succeed tor an im stant in stopping tie engine; but pee quickly gertwe up steam, it would star again, stronger and more irresistible, leavin, | stretched on the rails the stuptd beings which go! | lu its way. Iu listening to tiese stories | imagined to mysell the Republic, It also wished to cross, for the purpose of makiog it habitable and ferti the desert of ignorance aud of oppression. It als y ts With beasts, bruush ot scoundrelish, whictr 1 Uitfeavor fo stap tts ven though they break their heads, It happens sometimes that she hesi« tates anc 18 undecided in het march by these mak | tiplted assaalis; but she soon regains courage, and, breaking the crowd of her dispersed en {| mies, sie coutinaes majestically her way tows the goal, pointed to im advance. whicn is | trinmpl of Fugit OF Intelligence aNd Of HLOKLTs