The Press. — London, England, 1858-04-17 00:00:00

THE PRESS, APRIL 17, 1858. briefly—bring Pierri on the scene in Paris. You have heard that Pierri purchased two of the revolvers. What had become of him from that time until about the Bth of January lam unable accurately to inform you. Bernard, however, whom we last parted with at Brussels on the night of the departure of Orsiui for Paris, appears to have been there on Christmas•day, and on a portion of the 2.60 of December ; and there he saw Zeguerus, the young man who had been hired to accompany Orsini to Paris, who told him that he had taken the horse and the balls safely to that capital. Pierri, whom we last noticed purchasing two revolvers of Mr. Hollis, of Birmingham, having procured a third revolver from Mr. Hollis, jun., then made his way to Brussels, and presented himself at the Cafe Suisse, either on the 7th or Bth of January—l believe upon tile Bth. It happened that, although Orsini had taken away with him five of the grenades, the half of the sixth, which was one of the larger grenades, had been left behind at the Café Suisse, and on the 7th of January Pierri, accompanied by M. and Madame Mechenheim, both of whom had known him well some years before, presented himself at Giorgi's, and with a note from M. Bernard demanded the half grenade, or " gas instrument," as it was called, which he had left bellied. Giorgi without hesitation delivered the missing half grenade to Pierri, who appears immediately afterwards to have quitted Brussels. He arrived in Paris the next day, and took up his residence at the hotel of Madame Brion, the Hotel de France et de Champagne, in the Rue Montmartre. He there occupied room No. 50, and there he continued to reside until the day of the attempt upon the life of the Emperor. I have now brought Orsini to Paris with the grenades and revolvers, dwelling in the Rue Monthabor, and I have brought Pierri to Paris with a third revolver, residing at the Hotel de France et de Champagne, in the Rue Montmartre. Gomez also, with respect to whom something more may appear in the evidence, seems to have gone to Paris about that time, and to have betaken himself to the same hotel of Madame Brion in the Rue Montmartre, where he remained for two or three days as the servant of Pierri. He then, about the 11th or 12th of January, quitted the hotel where Pierri was residing, and went to the Hotel de Saxe•Cobourg, in the Rue St. Honore, to make way for a fourth person who appeared upon the scene, Carlo Rudio. Rudio at that moment was in a state of the deepest distress, " verging on absolute destitution." He could not, therefore, travel without means, and it was important to show how those means were obtained : On the 26th of November—which perhaps you may remember was the very day on which the passport in the name of Allsop was vise by one of the consuls, and two days only before Orsini quitted England for Brussels -Orsini presented himself at the Bank of England, and, producing 4351. in gold, demanded bank-notes to that amount. He received in exchange twenty 20/. notes, three 101. notes, and one 51. note. He, whom I may call the chief of these associates, was possessed, therefore, of those notes—the numbers of which I need not tell you are known—on the 2tith of November. Two days after wards he quitted England never to return; and on the 2nd of January,—the very day when Bernard put himself in communication with Rudio and commenced the treaty which resulted in Rudio's proceeding to Paris,—when money had become necessary for that, among other pur poses, the prisoner at the bar presented himself at the office of Messrs. Spielman, the well-known money changers in the City, and changed one of those 201. notes, signing his name upon the back of it, which had been received by Orsini on the 26th of November from the Bank of England. At a later date—on the 7th of January I believe—Bernard presented another of those 201. notes at the office of Messrs. Spielman, and a third of those notes was taken, as we shall shortly hear, from the person of Pierri, another of the confederates, when he was arrested on the night of the atlenlat. You therefore, be sides the evidence touching the grenades, the fulminate of mercury, and the revolvers, have the receipt by Orsini, the chief, of these bank-notes to a large amount, two of which are traced during the progress of this conspiracy to Ber nard, the prisoner at the bar, by him changed and the money converted to his use, a third of them is found on the very person of Pierri, when he was arrested on the night of the altentat, and such of them as remained were found on the person of Orsini himself when he was seized at a later hour of the same night. Bernard being thus possessed of means, on the 2nd of January proceeded to Rudio's lodgings in Bate man's-buildings, Soho, and having inquired into and supplied Rudio's wants, succeeded in persuading him to leave London for Paris, where he was to put him self into immediate communication with Orsini. Rudio left London with a false passport in the name of Da Silva on the nightof the Bth of January, arrived in Paris on the 10th or 11th, presented himself at the Hotel de France, in the Rue Montmartre, where he put np fcr the night, and arterwards slept in the same room with Pierri. The learned Attorney- General then detailed the attempt of the 14th, and concluded his address. Several French witnesses were then called to prove the fact and the result of the attempt on the 14th of January. Mr. Taylor also gave evidence as to the construction of the grenades by order of Allsop ; and the evidence of the police-officers who arrested Ber nard closed the first day's proceedings. On Tuesday the court reassembled at ten a.m., and the examination of witnesses for the prosecution was proceeded with. Sergeant Roger, of the detec tive force, gave evidence, to the effect that he had searched the prisoner's bedroom, and discovered in it a letter from Mr. Allsop. He had also attended Wyld's debating-room in ;Aiceeter-square 379 . Mr. JAMES : B As a spy? Lord Chief Justice CAsunzt.i: As directed. Mr. JAMES urged that he was entitled to put the gum Lion. It had been admitted in former trials and in diffe• rent times to the present. The ATTORNEY-GENERAL submitted that Mr. James had no right to apply an op probious epithet to the witness, and that the proper course was to ascertain what his instruc- tions were. Mr. JAMES contended he had a right to put the question. The same question was put by Mr. Erskine in Hardy's trial to the following effect : " Then, in plain terms, you went as a spy 7 That question was not objected to. The Lou) CHIEF JuirricE : Then there was no demur ; now it is objected to. Mr. JAMES submitted that the question went to the credit of the witness. He might deeliue to answer it if he pleased. The Judges ruled that the question was irregular, and that it ought not to be put, on the ground that the witness was called upon to draw an inference from facts within his knowledge. The matter was subject for observation when the learned counsel came to address the jury. Mr. Parker, in the employ of Messrs. Huggins, wholesale druggists in Aldersgate.street, deposed to having sold Bernard, in November, Slbs. of absolute alcohol, and 101bs. of nitric acid, which he took away with him. On the 15th December Bernard called again, and purchased Olbs. more of absolute alcohol, 101bs. of nitric acid, and IW. of quicksilver. Fulminating powder, said this witness, is made of these materials, "and in about the same proportions of the different ingredients." _ _ Mr. Nicholson, - a partner in the firm of Simpson and co., manufacturing chemists, corroborated the latter portion of the last witnes3's evidence. The combination of materials for fulminating powderf was never, so far as his (witness's) experience went, used for photographic purposes. Other witnesses testified to the presence of pure fulminating mercury in the shell seized on Pierri, and to the explosive nature of the shells. Eliza Cheney, housekeeper to Orsini, deposed to the extreme intimacy of the prisoner with Orsini. When the latter had left his house in Grafton street and gone to rails, Bernard called regularly, and opened, read, and replied to Orsini's letters. Joseph Giorgi, of the Café Suisse, Brussels, gave important evidence : In the beginning of December Bernard asked me if f knew anything about the gasworks at Brussels, and whether I knew any one who was connected with the ad• ministration of those works. I told him I knew a AL liraemacher, who was bookkeeper at the works. The pri soner then told me that he wished to become acquainted with him, in order to show him his new invention in gas. Oct the following day he told me that he had some samples or specimens of gas, and he brought me live instruments like the shell now produced. They were not all the same size. The shells were in halves. He only brought me the halves. I saw the holes for the nipples, but there were no nipples fixed to them at this time. When the prisoner had produced these things, he asked me if I would be good enough to convey them to Brussels for him, as I was going to start fur that city in two or three days, and he sail that an Englishman would come and ask for them in his name, and he added that the Englishman was at that time at Liege. I agreed to do what he re— quested, and conv'yed the articles he had shown me to Brussels. I arrived there on the 7th of December, and took the shells to the Cafe Suisse. The witness then detailed how Bernard, arriving in Brussels two or three days afterwards, introduced Orsini to him, and how he (witness) at Bernard's request hired Zeguerus to take the shells and Orsini'a horse to Paris. Julien Fournarier, a waiter at the Cafr Suisse, deposed to the appearance of the shell halves : There were ten halves, and they appeared to be of three kinds. Two of them had small holes in them. There were so many as twenty or twenty-five of these holes in some of them. Five of the halves were about the size of the one now produced, and I think there was a screw in every one of them. I only saw those things in the smoking room one day. Cross-examined—l took only two or three of them into my hand. They were of different sizes. Some were larger than others. I only examined them two or three times. I cannot swear positively that there were so many as twenty holes in any one of the balls. Re-examined—l never examined the balls very closely. Some of them may have had as many as twenty holes in them. At this stage the court adjourned tilt Wednesday, when the examination of witnesses was proceeded, with. Louis Rhigenzi, proprietor of the Cafe Suisse % eor roborated the statements of Giorgi with respect to the events at Brussels. His recollection, however, was rather confused upon the exact shape of the halves of the "oval balls" taken out of Giorgi's carpet-bag. He would not swear that the ball pro duced was like any he had seen with Giorgi. Ac cording to his recollection, the nipple holes in the articles he saw at Brussels were at that part of the instrument " where the large hole for the screw ap pears to be in this one." Zeguerus deposed to his having accompanied Orsini, and carried the balls from Brussels to Paris tch from Allahabad, Monday, 9.5 A further deeps L im, from G. F. Edmonstone to H. Anderson, Bom bay, adds : It was reported in the afternoon of yesterday, after the fall of Kaiserbagh, that the enemy were streaming out of the city in vast numbers iat the direction of Sandal Camp. Up to the present moment there are rebels in the city, but we have no reliable information. Brigadier Campbell, who was well placed on the left of the Alutobagh position, s t a rted in pursuit at two a.tn. this morning, with a very strong brigade of cavalry and two troops of horse artillery. Brigadier General Sir Hope Grant advanced towards g o etapore, with the view of interrupting fugitives who slay be turned off by Brigadier Campbell's movements. Be has with him one thousand sabres, and two troops of horse artillery. He will be followed to•morrow by an infantry brigade and a heavy battery. He is directed to halt at Seetapore for instructions. This is a direct 'veil to Rohilcund. Her Majesty's 75th Regiment has been ordered to leave Cawnpote to•morrow en mule for Meerut. The rest of India, and especially Central India, would appear to be still very unsettled, and to demand a continual supply of British troops to maintain tran quillity in the reconquered provinces. TRIAL OF SIMON BERNARD. Tin trial of M. Bernard, under Special Commis sion, took place on Monday, at the Central Criminal Court, before the Lord Chief Justice, the Lord Chief Baron, Mr. Justice Erle, Mr. Justice Crowder, and the Recorder. Several noblemen and gentlemen, including Prince Tcherkosky, Secretary to the Sar dinian Legation, and M. Gautier, of the French Embassy, occupied seats on the bench. The prisoner having declined to plead to the indictment, a plea of " Not Guilty " was entered. The jury were sworn, and the Attorney-General rose and opened the case for the prosecution. Sir Rumor KELLY, who confined himself to a strict statement of facts, prefaced his address by a brief allusion to the fatal results of the attempt of the 14th of January, by which eight persons were killed and 156 wounded, and said that the persons whom he charged with complicity in this murder were six Allsop, Bernard, Orsini, Pierri, Rudio, and Gomez. Of these the first four designed and projected the murder in this country. On the 16th of October last Allsop proceeded to Birmingham, and applied to Mr. Taylor, a manufacturer there, to sake for him six oval hand-grenades, of which he gave a most minute description. Certain written communications passed between Allsop and Taylor with respect to the construction of these instruments, which were completed between the 16th of October and the 23rd of the November following. These grenades were intended to operate by means of fulmi nating mercury, which is composed of tree ingredients —absolute alcohol, nitric acid, and mercury. Bernard sometime during the month of November purchased of a warehouseman named Parker a quantity of ab solute alcohol and of pure nitric acid. Between the 26th and 28th of November Orsini, then residing in Grafton-street, Kentish-town, left London for Brus sels with a passport in the name of Allsop. On the 3rd of December Bernard proceeded to the Cafe Suisse, in Tichborne-street, Haymarket, kept by a man named Giorgi, and, producing two halves of these grenades, then empty and unfitted with nipples or caps, and representing them to be a new gas in vention, asked Giorgi if he could take them over to Brussels to the Cafe Suisse, where an English gentle man would call for them. Giorgi consented, and the next day took over to Brussels five of these halves. A few days afterwards Bernard himself went over to the Cafe Suisse in Brussels, and there met Orsini, whom he introduced to Giorgi as Allsop. For some days Bernard and Orsini were together in Brussels. Bernard at length applied to Giorgi to find a person who would take Orsini's horse to Paris. Giorgi re commended Zeguerus, a waiter at the Cafe Suisse, and on the night o f the 11th Zeguerus, with the bombs in halves, and packed in a carpet bag, started with Orsini for Paris, where they arrived the following morning. About the same time that the grenades were being manufactured in Birmingham, Pierri, accompanied by Orsini (on the 29th of October), bought of Mr. Hollis, a firearms manufacturer at Birmingham, two revolvers, which Bernard on the 2nd of January took to King, the clerk at the South- Eastern Railway Company's oi; ce in Regent street, to be transmitted to Paris to a M. Outrequin, to whom also Bernard wrote, introducing Orsini as a young Englishman by the name of Allsop, and pre. Paring Outrequin for Allsop to call upon him, and suggesting that if he wished to have the revolvers, Outrequin was to 1 ‘ give them to him directly," and to say nothing about the price, which " will be ar ranged between hi m an d me. " Ors i n i , as All sop, did call, saw the revolvers, and took them We have now, therefore, Orsini in Paris, having travelled there under a false passport as Thomas Allsop, the English. man, and having previously met with Bernard in Brussels, and received from him those grenades which Bernard had Possessed himself of, and which he had sent to Brussels, as 1 ha " deta iled to M. I must aow—and I will do so - - w••.. ••-••• ••• ~--••• ••- • V