FKAN< K. 



ulation, and states that continual efforts 

 must be made to contend as?aiutt those two 

 chief obstacles idleness and drunkenness. 

 With this oiij.-ct it has been considered neces- 

 sary to proscribe the sale, not only of spirits, 

 but nls > of wine, in the canteens of the convict 

 districi-i. After entering at some length into 

 i'--tins \s Inch arose in relation to the 

 provision of remunerative employment for tho 

 convicts or tho alternative enforcement of task- 

 work or "hard lubor," the report concludes as 

 follows : " Finally, two facts result clearly 

 from the careful studies of actualities, viz. : 

 1. That the Peninsula Ducos is an unsuitable 

 and badly-chosen locality for the purpose; and, 

 J. That the right of idleness cannot bo con- 

 ceded to the convicts. The evil effects of such 

 a privilege have already been amply manifust- 

 c<l; no snrh right can be deduced from the 

 law of 1850, the authors of which never con- 



hited the withdrawal of the convicts from 



peration of that primordial and higher 

 I:i\v, whereby, from the Creation, all mankind 

 are condemned to labor and to die." 



In December a report was distributed in 

 P:irK drawn up by the late M. Perrot, on the 

 operations of what is called the Eastern Army 

 during the war, in which Garibaldi is very 

 roughly handled. The report says: "If Gari- 

 baldi had been a French general we should 

 have been compelled to raise formally the 

 question as to whether he should not have 

 been tried by court-martial for his conduct in 

 having deliberately, and without fighting" 

 these last five words are in italics in the re- 

 port "abandoned positions which he had 

 been ordered to defend, and having thereby 

 occasioned the loss of a French army, and 

 brought about a military disaster without a 

 parallel save those of Sedan and Metz." In 

 other words, the report lays down that when 

 the French army, after Villersexel, was driven 

 into Switzerland, it was Garibaldi's fault. This 

 accusation has caused great sensation. 



In March, Henri Rochefort, Paschal Grous- 

 set, tho Minister of Foreign Affairs under the 

 Commune, and some other Communists, escaped 

 from New Caledonia, to which they had been 

 banished. They left the island in n small boat, 

 and after three days passed in the southern 

 seas were picked up by an English sailing-ves- 

 sel, bound for the capital of New South Wales. 

 The Governor of New Caledonia, who was ab- 

 sent on a tour of inspection at the time, com- 

 menced a rigorous inquiry into the circum- 

 stances; and the French Minister of Marine, 

 on the first report of the escape, ordered a 

 general officer to proceed to New Caledonia, 

 invested with tho necessary powers to take the 

 measures that might be required in so serious 

 a case. Before his return to Europe, Roche- 

 fort paid a visit to the United States, where 

 he gave a course of lectures. 



A considerable sensation was produced in 

 France by the escape of Marshal Bazaine from 



-land of Sainte -Marguerite, near Cannes, 



where he was to paw tho twenty year* of M- 



( Ill-ion into which President MacMahon had 

 commuted the sentence of death pronounced 

 against the marshal by tho court-martial. 1 1 U 

 \\ ii.-, who had boon permitted to join, with her 

 children, tho fate of the marshal, but wan not 

 subjected to prison regime, and at liberty to 

 walk about the island, bad, in union with her 

 brother, prepared the means of escape, for 

 which the aid of Lieutenant-Colonel V ilk-tic. 

 the ex-Captain Doineau, and several warders, 

 was secured. Their case came, on September 

 8th and 9th, before the Correctional Tribunal of 

 Grasso, which sentenced Villette and two ward- 

 ers to six months', Doineau to two months', 

 and another warder to one month's imprison- 

 ment. Subsequently, Marshal Bazaine gave to 

 a reporter of the Figaro the fullest details of 

 his escape. A few days before, Marshal Ba- 

 zaine, in a very interesting letter to the New 

 York Herald, dated Ligge, September 6th, had, 

 for the first time, presented to the world his 

 defense against the charges which had been 

 brought against him. The letter is an important 

 contribution to the history of the great Franco- 

 German War, and severely reflects upon the 

 members of the court-martial which found him 

 guilty, especially upon its president, the Duke 

 d' Aumale, as well as upon President MacMahon, 

 who, Bazaine insists, was liable to every charge 

 which had been preferred against him. 



On the recommendation of the Minister of 

 Commerce, a commission was appointed early 

 in the year to examine the moans of extending 

 the French export-trade. At the first sitting 

 of the commission, which was held in May, 

 the Minister of Commerce delivered a speech, 

 replying at length to the various criticisms, par- 

 ticularly those made by the English newspa- 

 pers, upon the appointment of the commission. 

 The minister refuted the idea that France did 

 not produce articles which could form a staple 

 of a great export-trade, and, in answer to the 

 arguments of English journals, made numerous 

 comparisons between France and England. He 

 said facts replied triumphantly in favor of 

 France, the exports of which, in 1873, reached 

 a value of four milliards of francs against six 

 and a half milliards exported by England. All 

 branches of French manufacture participated 

 in the export- trade. With regard to the iron- 

 goods trade, the minister said that French com- 

 petition with England was becoming possible, 

 and that France began to hold a good position 

 in foreign markets. Respecting exportation to 

 the East, the minister observed that French 

 manufacturers could sell their produce in Eng- 

 lish colonies as elsewhere. Without doubt, 

 the new taxes burdened labor, but they were 

 inevitable, and did not disastrously affect pro- 

 duction. Government had avoided augment- 

 ing the customs duties. Labor was still in a 

 favored position in France, thanks to all the 

 elements of wealth concentrated in the coun- 

 try. The working-population was daily ac- 

 quiring greater aptitude, strikes were beoom- 



