6 JUNE 1874, Page 2

Henri Rochefort is doing his very best to kill all

the sym- pathy which his genius inspires in those who dislike his cause. He has, it is said, announced publicly in New York that he approves not only of the burnings ordered in Paris, which, no doubt, had the enemy been a foreign one, might have been excused as desperate military measures, but of the murders of the Archbishop and priests, as vengeance upon hostages in reprisal for executions. In other words, if Ger- ' mans, say, attack France, he would think it right to execute all German ladies in France. That is what the doctrine amounts to, and judged by any standatd whatever, it is a defiance of all law- whatever, except force,—a mere atrocity in words. Who kills hostages now, even when taken in pledge, which the Archbishop was not?