The Complete Work of Charles Darwin Online

RECORD: Darwin, C. R. et al. 1871. [Memorial on behalf of] M. Elisee Reclus. Pall Mall Gazette (26 December): 7.

This is the second of two memorials (petitions) signed by leading British authorities on behalf of the French geographer and anarchist Élisée Reclus (1830-1905). He had travelled widely in north, central and south America between 1852-1885. He served in the National Guard during the siege of Paris in 1870-1871, supporting the Commune. He was consequently sentenced to transportation. The British memorials were an appeal against this harsh punishment. This memorial is addressed to the president of France, Adolphe Thiers (1797-1877). As usual for such high-profile memorials, it, or reports of it, were widely reprinted in the periodical press. Reclus' sentence was subsequently commuted to banishment in 1872. He settled in Switzerland where he published his 20-volume Nouvelle Géographie universelle (1876-1894).

See Darwin to Hermanus Hartogh Heijs van Zouteveen 21 February 1871, Correspondence vol. 19, where Darwin writes, a month after signing this memorial, "If M. Reclus is trustworthy the case is extremely curious, & I think it wd be worth while to enquire in Paris whether he is to be trusted."

A. R. Wallace recounted a visit from Reclus around 1900: "It was in the early part of my residence at Parkstone that I received a visit from the great French Geographer, Elisée Reclus, who had, I think, come to England to receive the gold medal of the Royal Geographical Society. He was a rather small and very delicate-looking man, highly intellectual, but very quiet in speech and manner. I really did not know that it was he with whose name I had been familiar for twenty years as the greatest of geographers, thinking it must have been his father or elder brother; and I was surprised when, on asking him, he said that it was himself. However, we did not talk of geography during the afternoon we spent together, but of Anarchism, of which he was one of the most convinced advocates, and I was very anxious to ascertain his exact views, which I found were really not very different from my own." My Life (1905) vol. 2, pp. 207-8. In John van Wyhe ed., Wallace Online: S729.2

[page] 7

M. ELISEE RECLUS.

The following memorial is intended to be presented to M. Thiers on behalf of the above-named gentleman:—

To the President of the French Republic: As foreigners, yet owing a debt of gratitude to France and to her people, some of us for long years of pleasant sojourn, some for equally pleasant journeys, some for life-long friendships, and all for treasures of thought and delight derived from her ample stores of literature, science, and art, we venture to apply to you, sir on behalf of a writer of whom we believe France to have reason to be proud, now lying under a heavy sentence. It is not for us here to express any opinion bearing on the internal politics of France. But we dare to think that the life of a man like Monsieur Élisée Reclus—whose already widely acknowledged services to literature and science did but promise, from the ripeness of his vigorous manhood, services more signal still for the future—belongs not only to the country which has given him birth, but to the world, and that in reducing such a man to silence, or sending him a prisoner beyond the pale of civilization, France will be but crippling herself, and diminishing her influence over the world. Leniency, indeed, always becomes a victor; but how much more so when the victor is France, and among the vanquished is one of the young celebrities of French literature and science. Surely, sir, your own name is too illustrious, your place too eminent in the commonwealth of letters, to allow Monsieur Élisée Reclus' deportation to cast a blot on the literary renown of your great country. With fervent wishes for the prosperity of France, we are, &c.

A correspondent states that the memorial has received among other signatures those of Lords Amberley and Hobart, Sir John Lubbock, Sir John Rose, Mr. Charles Darwin, Mr. Thomas Hughes, M.P., Professor Fawcett, M.P., Mr. W. D. Christie (late her Majesty's Minister in Brazil, who specially testifies to the great value of M. Élisée Reclus's writings on that country), Professors F. D. Maurice, Brewer, &c. Additional adhesions may for the next few days. be addressed to Mr. J. M. Ludlow, M.A., 3, Old-square, Lincoln's-inn; or to Mr. Eugene Oswald, 39, Gloucester-crescent, Regent's Park, N.W.

Citation: John van Wyhe, ed. 2002-. The Complete Work of Charles Darwin Online. (http://darwin-online.org.uk/)