An expiatory sacrifice, as it is termed, was made on
Tuesday, at the Place de Grilve, to the manes of four young subaltern officers, named BORRIES, RAOUX, GOUBIN, POMMIER, who were guillo- tined in 1822, on a conviction of hightreason. The sacrifice was made by persons belonging to the clubs of "Friends of the Peo- ple," and "Friends of Truth," which have been recently revived, and to the latter of which the four young men belonged. The procession seems to have caused great and unnecessary alarm in the public mind at Paris. The whole number of the clubbists did not exceed fifteen hundred, and there was not the slightest disor- der nor appearance of it. The Times of this morning has a remark on this expiatory sacrifice which is so singular in its logic that it merits quotation- " The crime with which they were charged was that of conspiring to assassinate the Royal Family, or to overturn the Government; and of this crime they were either guilty or not guilty. If the evidence was in- sufficient to establish their treasonable purpose, and they were really in- nocent a the imputed offence, then the Jury was culpable for giving a verdict against them, and the Judge for passing sentence of death ; but what in this case becomes of their patriotic merit, and how are they worthy to be classed with the martyrs of liberty, whose glorious fall illus- trates the late revolution ? If they did not conspire to overthrow the Bourbon Government, they have no claim to be considered as patriots,— they were not, as they have been called, 'the advanced guard' of the Parisian youth who at last expelled them. If, on the other hand, these officers were condemned to death on evidence sufficient to show that they really conspired to overthrow the Government, then, again, as breakers of tire law, which the majority of Frenchmen observed for eight years since their death, they have no right to be associated with those who, in the late revolution, defended the laws and the Charter against the Royal conspirators of the Tuileries." The moral of this is, that if a tyrannic and vindictive Government put an innocent man to death, it is improper to do honour to his memory, because he was unjustly condemned : if, on the other hand, the same Government put a man to death because he had attempted its overthrow, he is unworthy of being remembered, because he was not successful. The only patriotic claim to men- tion is victory. It was most absurd to bewail the victims of JEFFERIES, because they had committed no crime ; and RUSSELL and SYDNEY are undeserving of honours, because they perished in the attempt to vindicate the liberties of their country.
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