FRENCH TRIALS FOR TREASON. [From the Times.]

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume VI, Issue 492, 20 April 1850, Page 4

FRENCH TRIALS FOR TREASON. [From the Times.]

Few English ieadeis will have been at the pains of wading through the voluminous reporti of ihe slate trials now taking place at Versailles for the affair of the 13th of June. The great flies, as usual, have broken through the spiders-w eb, and only a few miserable gnats are struggling in the meshes of the law. Had we seen any of the notabilities of Red Republicanism put upon trial for their lives, a certain kind of dramatic interest might have attached itself to the investigation ; but who cares for the acts or the fate of the accuses Guinard, Bocb, Moubet, &c. ? One might have entertained serious doubts as to the propriety of, publicly ripping up old sores, and printing frpm day to day, for the edification of the excitable population of Paris, a detailed account of the disturbances in June. The most cursory glance, however, at the reports of the trials will show that anything like danger is evaded by the force of sheer ridicule. It is Sheridan's Puff, if we remember right, who proposes to place housebreaking in so truly ludicrous a point of view that burglars will be fairly laughed out of their profession. The state trials at Versailles will be attended with somewhat of a similar effect. Now we find the Court, the bar, the witnesses, and the accused discussing the incidents of revolution in a cheerful hob-nobbing spirit ; now the just ; susceptibilities of the prisoners are aroused — not because the crime with which they are charged is brought borne to them — not because they are convicted of levying civil war, and using weapons against the lives of their fellow citizens, but because a witness speaks disparagingly of the spirit in which they carried on the war. The conflict between Lieutenant Petit, of the Gendarmerie Mobile, and M. Thouret, a barrister, is perhaps the gem of this extraordinary collection ofjudicial " incidents." The gallant officer, in giving his evidence, related to the Court that on the 13th of June he was in command of the advance guard of General Changarnier, and in this capacity was charged with the duty of clearing a certain portion of the public way. He ordered his men to present bayonets and advance. It wts then that certain individuals threw themselves down on their knees, and baring their breasts, shouted out' " Fire upon us !" The witness went on to say that when, notwithstanding tbfese antics, he pressed on with his men, not wishing to lose the advantage of the attitude of attack, a cry arose, "To arms ! They are murdering our brothers." " Now, Mr. President, I beg to assure you," continued the witness, " that the only wounds they receive.! were from behind, and inflicted by our boots." It is needless to relate the effect this testimony produced upon whdt our Irish friends would call the sensitive "traver&ers." In an eloquent Address M. Guinard informed the Court that at the .spot, and on the day in question, Lieutenant Petit had iuflicted a sword cut upon the cartilaginous portion of the nose of au unarmed man — one of his fellow -prisoners — who must infallibly have been killed, but that he providentially wore spectacles. M. Thouret, the barrister, rose after him to take up the point. In very energetic language this learned gentleman declared that an officer capable of such conduct was ud worthy to wear the French uniform. The audience and the prisoners testified their assent to this proposition by loud and continued applause. The irritable soldier immediately turned round to the bench on which, the, accused was sitting, and applied to them a term which could not be repeated here without the use of more asterisks than we care to employ. The prisoners loudly expressed their determination to retire from the bar, for they had, come there "to be judged, and not insulted ;" and order was with great difficulty restored. A day or two after Lieutenant Petit challenged M. Thouret, and they met in the Forest of Bondy with swords. The combatants attacked each other with great fury, and after a time were forced to rest from sheer exhaustion. A se-

cond time they engaged, §nd after .a;long con* test, in which no blood was drawn, the«cond# disarmed them, and they shoak hands.'. General Changarnier promptly rewarded this double display of courage, for we find by our latest correspondence that Lieutenant Petit was iqvited tp dinner by his General im&edi* ately after the duel, and promoted to the rank of captain. , This, however, is but one of many, initances of an equally ludicrous character , which run through the reports. If a witness charge a prisoner with having shown the white, feather, the audience instantly take part with tbfi insulted hero — if a prisoner call * wilneit " liar," the trial is dropped until the question of honour has been first thoroughly settled* " We are here," said Peviile, one* of , the tofused, on Tuesday last, " prisoners, nailed to this bench by the public force. We are hero to be judged, to be condemned, butnot^as I think, to be insulted. The ancients had insuiters who followed the car of conqueror?, but they had none for the conquered." The President assures the accused that he will b* very chary of their honour ; but M. DeviJle, still dissatisfied, informs the Court that had the witness made a particular statement which had been attributed to him, he should then and there have received summary punishment for his offence. As soon as this "incident* had subsided, we find a witness deposing to the fact of the presence of a certain battalion of infantry in a certain place at a certain time, whereupon one of the accused, M. Daniel Lamazieres, makes another touching appeal to M. Berenger; — "Yesterday, Mr. President, you declared that you would never suffer a witness to be insulted by the prisoners. Here now is a witness who insults the prisoners, and the President is silent." Js it possible, in a solemn judicial investigation, to push the force of ridicule much further ? The next " incident" was that the sitting of the Court was suspended for a few minutes. The prisoners were to be temporarily removed from the bar, and their removal was effected quietly enough, until it came" to the turn of Chipron, who sat the last in order, and was therefore the last to go out. Chipron, it seems, hesitated, and the gendarmes advanced, as though for the purpose of accelerating his proceedings. " Gendarme, touch me not,'* said Chipron. "Come then, pass on," replied the gendarme. ♦• I forbid you 'o touch me," persisted Chipron. " Pass o», then," repeated the gendarme. Chipron, at length, made up his mind to step out, but as soon as he was gone the officers of the court and the counsel for the defence began a little " row* on their own accounts. M. Jaime, Commis-sary-General of the Department, informed M. Malapert, an advocate, that he would not endure the slightest insult to the uniform of the sergens-de-ville. M. Malapert instantly left the court, but this '• incident," too, passed off without consequences. Meauwhile in another part of the hall the Commandant of the Gendarmerie Mobile and M. Michel de Bourges were engaged in adding to the general tranquillity. M. Michel, in a contemptuous tone, styled the Commandant "gendarme ;" whereupon a Captain of the force broke in with, " Comment ! vous appelez noire cafitaine gendarme ?" These " incidents," we are told, gave rise to the most "animated conversations." We need not dwell upon what followed, nor upon other " incidents" of the like nature. It would he easy enough to cull from the reports of these strnnge State trials a variety of instances as brilliant as those we have already quoted did not our necessary limits prescribe discretion. It is difficult to see even in France, where judicial investigations are carried on in a very different spirit from the solemnity which pervades our own courts, that proceedings of this nature should not cover all parties concerned with ridicule. The ludicrous nature of the proceedings must completely do away with any good that could be expected from the punishment that may ultimately be inflicted on the prisoners. We cannot in the face of squabbles that would have done credit to the Irish bar in the days described by Sir Jonah Barrington, seriously enter on the question of the policy or impolicy of these trials. As they stand at present, any remarks upon them fall under the category rather of dramatic than of political criticism ; and so we leave them to. our readers with the assurance that if they will search the files of the French journals for the last ten days, they will find a rich fund of entertainment under the head of " State Trials at Versailles."