The dislike of capitalists must extend far in Paris. Three
Socialists were tried there on Monday for using incendiary language at a public meeting on June 3rd. They were accused of telling the audience that capitalists must be shot, and that Rothschild more especially must be plundered and sent to Mazas (the political prison), " or the wall." The accused denied the accuracy of the reports proved by the Commissary, but they were identical with the printed report issued on the following day, and the prisoners themselves hardly denied their opinions.
Suseni acknowledged that he had advocated resort to fire- arms ; Jules Lafargae advocated the plunder of the Roths- childs in open court, and threatened when in power to send them for execution ; and Jules Guesde, in his defence, described the Administration, the public institutions, and the Army as "schools of murder." His whole theory, indeed, was that the rich murdered the poor,—the oddity being that he holds that shocking, while the murder of the rich by the poor is not. The jury, after a debate of twenty minutes, acquitted all the prisoners, and the audience applauded the verdict. It should be noted that Jules Guesde disclaimed all hatred of the Rothschilds. The financiers could not plunder workmen, for they had nothing; but he would disinterestedly avenge the plunder of the bourgeoisie. We forget the precise sum annually paid by the French Rothschilds for the benefit of the poor of Paris; but apart from other charities, it exceeds k2,000 a year.
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