FRANCE. 



289 



The Anarchists. In consequence of the out- 

 rage of Vaillant in the Chamber a bill was passed 

 curtailing the rights of assembly and the press. 

 Under the new law many hundreds of warrants 

 were executed on Jan. 1, and a vast quantity of 

 anarchistic literature was seized. The forms of 

 the journal " Pere Peinard " and a quantity of 

 manuscript were seized. Vaillant's trial was 



in the cry of human suffering. The jury found 

 him guilty of an attempt to commit murder and 

 to destroy a public building, and he was con- 

 demned to death and executed. Paul Reclus, 

 an eminent surgeon, from whom Vaillant had 

 obtained pecuniary assistance, fled from France 

 to avoid arrest. The first prosecution under the 

 law against anarchist publications was that of 



DEFILE OP THE ARDECHE, IN THE CEVENNES. 



fixed for Jan. 5. His counsel, Ajalbert, himself 

 an anarchist, retired because he had not suffi- 

 cient time to prepare his case, which was sub- 

 sequently postponed. At his trial he read an 

 apology, describing himself as one of the class 

 among the exploited that do not accept slavery, 

 but think and perceive social injustices, and 

 throw themselves into the fray, becoming thus 

 exponents of the claims of the people. Labori, 

 his advocate, pleaded that his crime was not one 

 at common law, nor political, but a social crime, 

 and that the warning of his bomb was the menace 

 VOL. xxxiv. 19 A 



J. L. Breton, a nephew of the painter Jules 

 Breton, a socialist, who wrote an article charg- 

 ing President Carnot with the guilt of murder 

 if he did not pardon Vaillant, and was con- 

 demned to two years' imprisonment and a fine 

 of 1,000 francs. 



On Feb. 12, a week after Vaillant was guil- 

 lotined, one Henry, twenty-one years old, son of 

 a colonel of the Commune, an artist woodworker 

 and a frequent contributor to anarchistic sheets, 

 a bachelor of science, and the nephew of a mar- 

 quis, threw a bomb during a musical perform- 



