The Marseillaise for February 18 quotes an article from The 
Daily News* in which the English paper gives information to the 
French press concerning the election of O’Donovan Rossa. Since 
this information is somewhat confused and since partial explana- 
tions only serve to throw a false light on the things which they are 
claiming to elucidate, I should be grateful if you would kindly 
publish my comments on the article in question. 

Firstly, The Daily News states that O’Donovan was sentenced by 
a jury, but it omits to add that in Ireland the juries are composed 
of minions more or less directly nominated by the government. 

Then, in speaking with righteous horror of the treason-FELony, 
the false liberals of The Daily News omit to say that this new 
category in the English Penal Code was expressly invented to 
identify the Irish patriots with the vilest of criminals. 

Let us take then the case of O'Donovan Rossa. He was one of the 
editors of The Irish Pe eople. Like most of the Fenians he was 
sentenced for having written so-called seditious articles. Conse- 
quently the Marseillaise was not wrong in drawing an analogy 
between Rochefort and Rossa.** 

Why does The Daily News, which aims at keeping France 
informed about the Fenian prisoners, remain silent about the 
appalling treatment of them? I trust that you will allow me to make 
up for this prudent silence. 

Some time ago O’Donovan was put in a dark cell with his hands 
chained behind his back. His handcuffs were not removed night 

* La Marseillaise, No. 60, February 18, 1870.— Ed. 

or day so that he was forced to crouch on the ground to lick his 
food, gruel made with water. Mr. Pigott, editor of The Irishman, 
learnt about these facts from Rossa who described them to him in 
the presence of the prison governor and another witness, and 
published the information in his newspaper,* encouraging 
Mr. Moore, one of the Irish members of the House or Commons, to 
request a parliamentary enquiry into what goes on in the prisons.” 
The government strongly opposed this request. Thus, Moore’s 
motion was rejected by 171 votes to 36—a worthy supplement to 
the voting which crushed the right to suffrage.‘ 

And this took place during the ministry of the sanctimonious 
Gladstone. As you can see the great Liberal leader knows how to 
mock humanity and justice. There are also Judases who do not 
wear glasses. 

Here is another case which also does England credit. O’Leary, a 
Fenian prisoner aged between sixty and seventy, was put on bread 
and water for three weeks because—the reader of the Marseillaise 
would never guess why—because Leary called himself a “pagan” 
and refused to say he was Protestant, Presbyterian, Catholic or 
Quaker. He was given the choice of one of these religions or bread 
and water. Of these five evils, O’Leary, or “pagan O’Leary”’ as he is 
called, chose the one that he considered the least—bread and 
water." 

A few days ago after examining the body of a Fenian who died 
at Spike Island Prison the coroner‘ expressed his very strong 
disapproval of the manner in which the deceased man had been 
treated! 

Last Saturday a young Irishman called Gunner Hood left prison 
after four years in it. At the age of 19 he had joined the English 
army and served England in Canada. He was taken before a 
military tribunal in 1866 for having written seditious articles and 
sentenced to two years’ hard labour. When the sentence was 
pronounced Hood took his cap and threw it into the air shouting, 

Prisoners”, The Irishman, No. 1, July 3, 1869.— Ed. 

Treatment”, The Irishman, No. 34, February 19, 1870.— Ed. 

“Long live the Irish republic!” This impassioned cry cost him 
dear. He was sentenced to an extra two years in prison and fifty 
strokes for good measure. This was carried out in the most 
atrocious manner. Hood was attached to a plough and two 
strapping blacksmiths were armed with cat-o-nine-rais. There is no 
equivalent term in French for the English xnour. Only the Russians 
and the English know what is meant by this. Like draws to like. 

Mr. Carey, a journalist, is kept at present in the part of the 
prison intended for the insane, the silence and the other forms of 
torture to which he has been subjected having turned him into a 
mass of living flesh deprived of all reason. 

The Fenian, Colonel Burke, a man who has distinguished 
himself not only by his military service in the American army but 
also as a writer and painter, has also been reduced to a pitiful state 
in which he can no longer recognise his closest relatives. I could 
add many more names to this list of Irish martyrs. Suffice it to say 
that since 1866, when there was a raid on The Imsh Peoples 
offices,” 20 Fenians have died or gone mad in the prisons of 
humanitarian England. 

II 
London, March 5**! 

During the meeting of the House of Commons on March 3 Mr. 
Stacpoole questioned Mr. Gladstone on the treatment of Fenian 
prisoners. He said, among other things, that Dr. Lyons of Dublin 
had recently stated that 

“the discipline, diet, personal restrictions and the other punishments were 
bound to cause permanent damage to the prisoners’ health”’.# 

After having expressed complete satisfaction with the way in 
which prisoners were treated, Mr. Gladstone crowned his little 
speech With this brilliantly witty remark: 

“As to the health of O’Donovan Rossa, I am glad to be able to say that during 
her last visit to her husband Mrs. O’Donovan Rossa congratulated him on looking 
better.”” 

Whereupon a burst of Homeric laughter broke out from all 
sides of that noble assembly. Her last visit! Note that Mrs. 
O’Donovan Rossa had not only been separated from her husband 
for several years, but that she had travelled all over America 
earning money to feed her children by giving public lectures on 
English literature. 

And bear in mind also that this same Mr. Gladstone, whose quips 
are so pointed, is the almost sacred author of Prayers, the 
Propagation of the Gospel, The Functions of Laymen in the Church and 
the recently published homily Ecce homo. | 

Is the profound satisfaction of the head jailer shared by his 
prisoners? Read the following extracts from a letter written by 

* W. Stacpoole, Speech in the House of Commons on March 3, 1870, The 
Times, No. 26689, March 4, 1870.— Ed. 

bW. E. Gladstone, Speech in the House of Commons on March 3, 1870, The 
Times, No. 26689, March 4, 1870.— Ed. 

O’Donovan Rossa, which by some miracle was: slipped out of the 
prison and arrived at its destination after an incredible delay: