Some Communists and Henri Rochefort have escaped from New Caledonia.
The wildest stories as to the method of their escape are current in Paris, the most popular being that they swam through a mile of sharks, but we prefer the prosaic account telegraphed from Sydney. A vessel visited Noumea with goods, and a small band of men got on board as "stowaways," who were not, of course, seen by the captain until out of French waters, when of course he was under no obligation to return. The stories about the complicity of the Government, or of the Governor, or of the French Consul at Sydney may be true or false, but are none of them in the least necessary to explain the escape. Rochefort's friends were sure to find an agent in Sydney, and as political prisoners in New Caledonia are not ironed, all the rest was easy. The dread of Rochefort's pen, expressed alike by Government and the Bonapartists, is a curious testimony to the old saying, that nothing in France can survive ridicule. Rochefort has not a soldier behind him, no party, nothing but a pen, and his escape from the antipodes is nevertheless a European event.
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