RELEASE OF BLANQUI.

Temuka Leader, Issue 178, 24 September 1879, Page 3

RELEASE OF BLANQUI.

Blanqui, the Communist, has been released from the prison of Clairvaux and has become the star in Paris. But the astronomers of the Press have been unable to find him out. All the scientific means of the reporting world have so far proved unsuccessful, and the only persons who have seem the revolutionary revenant are a few bright particular lights of his own way of shining. Foremost among them is the luminary of the "Lantcrne,"' who appears to be his only confidental friend worth noticing ; but even this privileged individual has but very little remarkable to tell us. According to the reporter of the "Lantcrne," Blanqui is not thoroughly aware of his present social and political position j so manv laws have been passed and so many changes have taken place since lie last breathed free air, that this ignorance may perhaps be excused. However, his "Lanterne" friend .-«t once enlightened hirn on the point. Said Blanqui, u lt is true I have been pardoned, and am free ; but oai I speak at, a public meeting ?" To which the "Lanterne" reporter replied, "No law prevents you from doing so, but supposing there were you can still have recourse

to private meetings, which are easily organised with a little precaution." Blanqui could not at first understand this distinction without a difference, hut his li.:Jit of the ' Lantern " somi nia-ij it ch ar to him, and told him how easily ihething was managed, i'hc conv- rsation between the couple then turned on other subjects, among them that of the position of old Revolutionists in the present state of affairs. Blanqui, like many of his colleagues of bygone times, evident! v sees that young Revolutionists have taken their place, and that they themselves have had their day. The Jules Favres and Louis Blancs of 1848 have been ousted by the Gambettas and Cleraengeansoflß79. However, Blanqui admits "of one or two exceptions-, for instance Victoria Hugo. This is how he spoke-of the poet and himself—- " Victoria Hugo, although older than I am, has preserved himself better but he is a man of genius, and then he has not grown rusty, like myself. Thinking is.not .enough to preserve us; we must aft and write. Now, we may think in in prison,-but we cannot always write, much less act. I Was always afraid they would seize my manusciipt, so 1 wrote little or nothing, and have become rusty." Further on in the tete-a-tete, the "aged insurrectionist expressed his opinion of the present Parliament. " The Chamber," said "is running the Republic for the benefit of the orleanists," on which the "Lanterne" reporter replied, " But the Orleanists are only a very small staff." Blanqui rejoined "Yes that may be ; but a staff, big or small, is everything." Blanqui is determined to go to Bordeaux and to speak to his electors ; dclines to receive interviewers because he believes they all belong to the Secret Police.