Poverty Bay Herald. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. GISBORNE, TUESDAY, JUNE 26, 1884. THE LATE PRESIDENT CARNOT.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXI, Issue 7012, 26 June 1894, Page 2

Poverty Bay Herald. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. GISBORNE, TUESDAY, JUNE 26, 1884. THE LATE PRESIDENT CARNOT.

The intelligence that the President of the French Republic had been assassin- , ated at Lyons will have been read with i feelings of regret throughout the colony, ' for although we m New Zealand are , separated by thousands of miles of ocean 1 from the scene where the ghastly deed ' was committed, and though M. Oarnot ' did not belong to the same nation as ■ ourselves, there is a feeling of sympathy 1 foe all m distress, which more or less _j

Carnot being a Frenchman would lessen both the interest felt and the sympathy expressed for him, but we doubt if even Frenchmen themselves could view with feelings of greater abhorrence the dastardly act of the assassin, who has robbed France of a statesman and friend, and Europe of one of the master minds m the Continent. Of the thirty-eight millions of people who acknowledged him as head of the Republic, very few will be found who will not mourn the fate of their chief. The French nation are extremely sensitive, and though m ordinary matters the view they take is perhaps frivolous, they will be genuinely moved to grief by the calamity which has overtaken them. To lose a friend by the hands of Death is at all times painful m the extreme, and the separation from those we love wrings the heart strings, and plungos us into agonising grief. And with a nation, to loße. even by natural means, the honored chief who had so long presided over its destiny, and who, he it said, had always succeeded m maintaining friendly though dignified relations with the European Powers, would inflict a cause of mourning. How much more, then, will the acuteness of the blow be felt, when the surroundings are fully understood. It may safely be said that the French nation, though extremely volatile, will deeply sorrow over the loss they have sustained. In this they will be joined, though to a lesser extent, by Englishmen, who, although not having the tie of nationality influencing them, have always a well grounded and thorough contempt for cowardly actions. -And those who have read the somewhat meagre particulars supplied through the medium of the cable, can have no doubt as to the disgraceful suddenness of the attack made on M. Carnot. The assassin, watching him emerging from the Palais de Comerce, springs upon him unawares, buries the keen-edged dagger to the hilt m his breast, and extinguishes the life principle by his well directed blow. Is it possible that the perpetrator of this fearful crime, could have been moulded on the same pattern as his victim ? Could he have been possessed of even the minutest speck of human sympathy, to thus at one fell net deprive a fellow human being of that which all of us most prize ? Surely, for the credit of humanity m general the murderer was not of the same nature, but must have belonged to a distinct and separate order ! And what punishment should be meted out to him ? Tho guillotine would do its swift and certain work of justice, with far too much mercy for such a wretch. The political significance of the deed is most marked, for there can be very little doubt that M. Carnot has been the victim of either Nihilist or Anarchist vengeance. And should this be the case, one success has been achieved— and though Signor Orispi was the other day so fortunate as to escape assassination — those who would destroy the present social system, and reduce Europe to a state of sanguinary and chaotic disorder, have removed one eminent man from his exalted position. Should our surmise prove correct that Anarchists are responsible for the assassination of M. Carnot, the fact would demonstrate that all forms of Governments, whether monarchical or republican, are equally obnoxious to members of Anarchist Societies. Had the vengeance of these misguided wretches fallen upon one of the Imperial heads of Europe, we might have been less 1 surprised, as between the nobility and the masses of toilers there has never been any community of interest, and war has always been waged between them. But m France, where the people rule supreme, where the government is " of the people, and for the people " — it is a somewhat startling event that has transpired. We do not think that M. Carnot, as an--individual, was the object of the assassin — but that he was selected as being the representative of law, order, and good government. The immediate effect of the murder should be to cause a national uprising of the nation against Anarchists, and should result m effective measures m repressing them. The lives of the respectable classes must be to a great extent protected against Anarchists, and the only effective method of dealing with the evil, would be to outlaw all persons w"ho either by writing orspeech enunciated views calculated to render life insecure, or openly proclaimed opinions which were subversive of law, order, and good government. Society must be protected against the evil doings of the dregs of the people, and as the Anarchists pursue a polity of violence and bloodshed, the retaliatory vengeance upon them would be thoroughly justifiable.