PRINCE KRAPOTKIN'S FATE.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume IV, Issue 1036, 31 August 1883, Page 4

PRINCE KRAPOTKIN'S FATE.

51 The Paris corespondent of the Times sends an extract from a letter from *‘an Englishman interested in Prince Krapptkin’s fate,” who writes : —“The release of a few political prisoners has revived .the hopes of a general amnesty. The friends, however, of Prince Krapotkin, in whose favor there is the strongest cdse, are not very sanguine. To them it is evident that he is imprisoned ‘solely from motives of international policy; and an amnesty effecting his release must come from St Petersburg rather than from the Elysee. For thflpresent, therefore, their first anxiety is to save his life, which is seriously Menaced and should be spared. At Claifvaiux the' strictest discipline prevails. He is obliged to content himself with the altogether inappropriate prison diet, and no sort of exception can be made in his favor. The climate is also especially unsuitable for his particular complaint. The prison is situated in a valley, in which wet mists prevail, and a cold, moist atmosphere is one of the,most common predisposing causes of scurvy. The sanitary condition of tfaeroom occupied by Prince Krapotkin, in conjunction with the narchist journalist, Emile Gantier, is further calculated to aggravate his condition. A closet, provided-for the use of, eignteen prisoners, is only separated from Krapotkin’s bed by a door, so that sewage gas constantly invades his prison. A.t first he attempted to combat this evil by leaving his window open at night, but the fogs rendered this practice dangerous, the atmosphere being so moist that) it * naade the bedclothes damp. This and other, grievances, which it would, take too long to enumerate, have brbughV about a serious relapse. At Lyons the accommodation and climate were better, and Krapotkin could obtains.from without the prison some extra .articles of diet. He was therefore able; to work; but since the month ojf hlarph, when he was removed to QairvaUx, his ill-health has rendered intellectual labor impossible. Science, therefore,, has lost his valuable services for ifcb fast three rfionths, and in the rameof science, as well as of humanity, his removal to a hospital, a maison dc‘ tf santi^ is. urged upon the Governnibht” •