The National Register. — London, England, 1816-04-28 00:00:00

• \ th e i r assertions; but it is , thmficia eh them to explain the motive. of their condtict. •• On'e dr them (namely lirtire), who was the first confider , in this affair, will declare, that, Aver. tised of the retreat : of Las/ Witte in Paris by an anon) Moue letter, in which he Limier received compliments, he believed, according to the declarations of the amid letter, that hr was the only person who could save him. M first his pride was flat tered ; sensibility was excited ; and, last bf all, his understanding was exalted by discovering in the escape of Lavelette something romantic, and even miraculous, which powerfolly attack his imagination, and impressed his heart. 'the other (Mitchinson) did not feel the same decided warmth of fancy. It wa s, i n hi., mind, a sentiment of lintuanity which exerted itself in the cause of Eavalette : he only yielded to the desire of saving an unfortunate man. 'the third (Sir Robt. Thomas Wilson) cirri% es the fictive. of his conduct from higher considerations. fle imagines that the honour of his own go vernment would have been destroyed, if a sentence of the royal collet of Paris was executed. He dues not concern him self with the rights of sovereignty, or the unquestionable au thority of the judicial power in France over a French subject. Ali! truly these arc comm o n rides. The capitulation of however, is his law. It has been violated, and lie conceives it to be his duty to clear his government of the opprobrium which that violation casts upon it. .Thus the couviet was to be saved for the honour of justice and that of England. you shall soon sec how much truth there iS in all this : bat, before we discuss his intentions, we must e stablish fa c t s . The convict had escaped front prism', but it was necessary to escape from Parts. lie could ma here be concealed from an active police—a police which never sleeps—which has a hundred eras to see, and a hundred hands to apprehend— which always succeeds in seizing the object whom it pursues. It was necessary, therefore, that Eavalette should leave Paris, and even France. You are already acquainted with the plan and the details of his escape. He effected his escape in the uniform of an Fatalist' Officer, and accompanied by English of hirers as far as Compiegne, one of whom conducted him as far as Mons. Thus Bruce, who received the first confidence, goes to com municate it to Hutchinson, Own to Wilson. The plan was ar ranged between them, und each of them engages to act his part in co-operating for its accomplishment. Bruce is to pro cure the measure of Lavalette; Hutchinson orders the clothes ; Wilson is to secure two passports tinder feigned names. One of them engages post horses, another lends his carriage, and the third his lodgings to receive the convict on the oialit pre• aims to his departure : and they all assemble on Sunday the 7th of January for the final accomplishment of their object. The pretext of their meeting was an arrangement for a hunt ing -party; but, at nine o'clock at night, an 11111‘110%%11 idled announces Lavelette, who is introduced, passes the night in the lodging, and sets out with them on the following morning. I shall not trouble you with an account of the journey. I shall not descant on the measures they took before setting out, or the boldness and grandeur of enterprise which they disclosed. I shall lay betlire you the precautions they took against acci dents—the led-horses for the purposes of flight, the arms for the purposes of defence--in a word, all those cirministaiwes which invest an expedition with adventure and honour. I will lead your attention to one point : I mean the asyl given to the culprit before his departure front Paris; and that given upon the road, in a house at Compiegne. This is called, in the language of the laws, a mete. The sitnple tart of concealing a condeinued criminal is in itself a crime. The opposition of the accused Wilson, his protests against our procedure, his per petual invocation as an Englishman of the judicial forms of his own nation, are all connected with pretensions which cannot be listened to in matters of criminal justice. Criminality gives the right of punishment ; it bestows jurisdiction, for it Mina at public order; and there is not a nation on the earth, there is not a social body, which does not in the highest degree possess the right, and lie under the obligation, to punish those who in fringe it. Every man should know, when planting his foot upon a foreign soil, that his first duty is to observe its laws. Does he not enjoy their protection—do they not watch over his safety—and can lie invoke their aid in one case, and brave their authority in another ? f;onil sense alone renounces such an error. As to the forms of inquiry, as to the mode in which the criminal tribunal is regulated which applies the laws, it is clear that they depend upon the right of sovereign jurisdiction. Every state has its justice, and also its mode of administering it, It is said, that a Frenchman accused of having committed a crime in England is entitled to have one-ballot' his jury men French. This is a privilege, doubtless. Here, however, you will have no need of this privilege, it will be useless to volt : justice does not enquire whether you are natives or fiweign ers; it views you only as accused; sod it will know no other distinctions hut those which proofs shall establish between in nocence and guilt. I proceed to the examination of these proofs, but T must first touch upon the head of accusation. Bruce, Hutchinson, and Wilson, arc charged with being ac complices in concealsag Lay:llene, knowiu( that he was con demned to die. The consequence is, that they facilitated and consummated his escape. And here I must anticipate a dispute 'shout words. It will be said, that the escape was the act of is aning from prison ; that outside the gates it was consunimared ; and that thus it is false to charge the accused with having faci litated and consummated a thing already dons. But we must look to the sense in which they are inculpated. It must be trite, that the escape was facilitated iu this sense -- that the recapture of the convict was rendered impossible. In vain did the police make its searches at Paris, when the cons it t was no longer there; in sails, also, did it search for hint in France, when he had passed the frontier ; and thus the escape was con summated. But the fact which constitutes the crime which stands at the tread of the accusation is the concealment. It does not signify sr !tether it aided or did not aid the escape : it is, indeed, ur so little importance, that even if the convict hail not been ulti mately able to save himself, had lie been re-taken iii the very place which served as his asylum, the man who hail procured it for him would have been not the less guilty. In one word. concealment is a distinct offilice from that of escape ; and to establish this point of crillllnisi law enanswera bly, it is sufficient to compare the enactments of the law on the two sithjects. In the offence of escape, all who co-operated in it are punish ed : there is nu distinctiou, except in the penalties ; for lie who is pia, ••I as the keeper is more guilty than him who is not ; be yond this the quality of the person is no farther regard' d ; and thoneh ;labile opinion may revolt at it, and humanity 1111141 a tear, a sun is not at liberty, legally speaking, to aid his hither, aor a wife her husband, in breaking from prison ; and if. Madame Lavalette has not been brought to trial, it was because, notwith standing her ostentatious declarations, justice remained doubt lid, and thoi. t lit that it still perceived the influence of the ma rital authority in the act by which a wife assisted her husband. Why, then, this severity of litho-4,1e? The reason doubtless is, that the prison is a sacred and ins iolable place ; that into..- <vaned there belong nu wore to society, but to justict , which TI NATIONAL 'detains them till they answer for their crimes. In the effect ideonecalment. neither does the law punish without distivetion; it foltows the dictates of n Mire, Mid pious exceptions are lain down for the lathe', the anu s the SpOUSC, the brother, and other relatives in the same tiegree. Here clemency stops, and jos. lice commences. Hence all who conceal a convict, with whom they are not connected by ties of blood, are culpable. Bruce, Iltitchinsom, and Wilson will, therefore, be malty if they have concealed Lavalette. What then happened on this business? There have been the concealment and escape of Lavalette. Justice snakes her inquiries ; at first, those oulv are fonud who are implicated in the escape from prison ; anti when it is about to terminate its enq ' a ray of uneapected light is thrown on the mystery• of the concealment ; other men mid other projects are'disco vered. Those engaged in the escape from prison meant nothing but to save Lavalette: those engaged in his concealment, by saving Lavalette, wished, or at least appear to have wished, to excite to sedition or to revolt ; and to excite any kind of disor der, provided only it was disorder. But the plan was foolish. Doubtless it was; still, however, we must examine it. We discord was to be thrown amongst us; and the correspondence teaches us, that some foreigners were seriously employed on the happiness of France, that they were ut wink upon it, and that they would derive great joy from their success! It is true, however, that they are in need of assistance, and that we shalt take good care to give them none. How, then, were they to make us happy in spite of ourselves? How, gentlemen? Why, as was done in 1793. The correspondents did nut know any better means apparently, because there are no other. Thus an appeal was to be made to the friends of liberty. who were to pot themselves in motion thew were to be movements in the provinces; and, above all, a good means of agitation would be the persecution of the Protestants, real or pretended! Oh ! excellent! This is an idea which catches like wildfire, which sprrads like cortagion ainumg the people in general, (and mark this ) which engenders a spirit of mortal hatred and contempt for the new dy. nasty. It is clear that, if the people were so totally misled, the revolution would be complete ; and it is for this very reason that revolution is impossible. Edward Wilsom at London, judged better of the state of France than his brother did at Paris. He began to distrust his predictions, and wait for farts. He remarks, that if the French nation generally tem strongly 4/hit:diked to the Bourbons, proofs of this would be daily maxi/V.4M. And he adds this observation :—lt xn happens, that there is ao military force iu the precinct's, and yet the provinces are tranquil. 011 this subject he becomes inflamed, and says, that if it is wished t , , overturn the existing order of things, the fire mast be constantly kept, and constantly visible, like a beacon of alarm in France (lad infiweign count eh a. May God avert this from us, and from foreign countries also We have all of us seen the sinister planet, portantou4 of storms, the storm is passed, and new signs announce to us that the earth is pacified. Yes, we are at peace among ourselves, and we will be so with others. The nations are at peace, with the single exception of some turbulent men, to uhoin pence is will', as our old Montaigne has observed. Vent• well, let them re main in vs ar, its theatre shall not be extended; but let them not imagine in their foolish thoughts that they will agitate France, if their beacon ef alarm is perceived, we shall only hasten to extinguish it, as we run to put out a tire. I shall now confine myself to the terms of the indictment: and shall investigate whether the prisouers were accomplices in the concealment of Lavalette. Art. 218 of the penal code declares guilty those who have concealed, or caused to he concealed. Such are the terms of the law. The nature of the fact is such, that there is a moral eon s iction, that those who concerted to get Lavalette nut of France, also came to an understanding as to the mode of accomplish ment, the moment the escape from prison took place; he. who wills the end, wills the means. It is also equally certain, that Lavalette, issuing from an unknown retreat, bad need oi some place of depot, where he might be at the disposal of time who meant to carry him off. You have not heard it said tt.at there, was on their part any communication with the first asylum where Lavalette was secreted; this was not neeesfairy ; it was sufficieni that they . provided ter him an inimedirite asylum ; and, by his passing the night there, that asylum, became the place of concealment. What now happened? For the accused Hutchinson the fart is material. Lavalette passed in his appartments in the rue Helder the night between the 7th and the Bth of January last. Hutchinson knew well that Lavalette wrs condemned, and it was indeed his condemnation that excited the interest which he kit in his fortunes. Thus, with respect to him, all the conditions of the law arc fainted' or rather all the prohibitions of the law arc %Mimed, and the aceuatil standsiconvicted of the crime charged. The prisoner Bruce is not in a situation that admits of greater doubt. It was to him that the first disclosure was made. He was the HUH who inspired a predilection into the condemned ; fur lie who declared liimsvlt . su zealously in the affair of Mar shal Ney, would naturally be expected to sympathize with the situation of Lavalette. Reliance was placed on him, therefore, before trial was made. You see how he prided himself on the action, how he claimed the first share in the inheritance of glary. If any one is guilty, he is the man. Nothing further could be required to establish the crime of whir II he is guilty. He concealed likewise the condemned. The hour and the place of meeting were agreed upon a ith the rust. Iu conse quence, he is found with Hutchinson on the evening of Sun day ; he there receives Lavalette. It is he who receives him principally, for at the appointed hour he descends to meet La sale tte ; he conducts him from the street door to the aptu talent which was Appointed fur him, and into it he leads the condemn. ed with his own hand, for in such a delicate matter lie toast do every thing himself to make sure of AIRTCP. As for the accused Wilson, he will pretend, perhaps, that he is not included In the same proof of guilt ; for iu strictness he say sav , " I happened accidentally to he with my friend Hutch inson. I went to his lodgings to enjoy my shale of a bowl of punch. and I saw M. Lavalette :ark e. The meeting aas ace i deo ta 1, and shall I be liable to punishment for has Mg merely seen Lavalette 'l•his language, if it came from the lips of a man who had no other communications from Las altite, might Li. CollllllliVe. AS matters are at present, it signifies nothing. 'there is here a compact between three men to favour the escape of Lied and, of course, to conceal his person pre. ions to his escape. It is impossible tbr Wilson, who was on the morning of the Bth at the gate oldie house in the rue de Helder, for the purpose of receiving Lavatette, to say elm he did not know his retreat, and still further to declare that be had not contri buted to supply I with one. 110 we not here speak of one and the same transaction concerted between them? To conceal Lavatette, and lead turn off, the three coadjutors, theretbre, must necessarily have concurred in a plan an anged for the whole transaction. I might ask :f the otfe•nce of concealmtnt (10 merle) dots not consist entirely in the act of affording an Asylum? if to disguise a man be nut likew i:e one of the means of concealing him, of secreting him from the pursuit of justice, if he who order ed l i measure to be taken, who furnished the uniform of an English officer, he who, to use an expression of his own, dressed him out the road (fait la tnilrt4• en route,) by cutting off some white hairs which appeared from below his coilfiere; if all these are not iadist:rirainately guilty of having disguised, concealed, and protected (mete) Lavalette % Rut on this point I shall not cuter into coutroversy ; it will be ter minated in another way. Au asylum at Paris was not enough, another was necessary on the road,--they stopped at Gan• piegne. At this time Wilson, who accompanied the traveller, who had given orders that the carriage should arrive at Com piegne at such an hour, and should stop at such a house, was not a stranger to the choice of his lodging; it was pre-engaged before their arrival, they concealed in it Lavalette. The learned counsel entered into a variety of farther argts, ' omits, which want of room prevents us from inserting, and_ concluded as follows: •' I trust that I hose sufficiently de velupeil the facts , and I shall conclude by calling your atten tion to the circumstances which aggravate them, I speak not of the intention, although the intention constitutes the etiSellec of the offence, and though in this case the intention was trnly perverse and detestable; I speak not to you of the material circumstance of the offence generally; the facts of escape and concealment are in themselves timid acts—they arc effected by , prudence and stratagem; he who dies, or who conceals himself, has no wish to brave any one, but here the final escape was conducted with arms: and both he who fled, and those who accompanied him, were determined to employ force, if ne cessary. I pass over the circumstances of the led horses, in order that the Hight might be more rapid in case of obstacles --- this was in the nature oldie transaction, in the necessity of their situation—but their pos , es►ioo of arms! and against whom were they to be used ?—against the public agents of French au thority—against those who are charged w ith its orders-- against all those indiscriminately to whom the soperintendence and rte fetter of public order have been intrusted. Here, then, the offence partook of the inithitis e (Watt attack on the state ; and in this point of siew, which it is impossible to disjoin, it acquire; all the gray ity of which it k perceptible. It has, then, called for the warmest reprobation, the strongest repression, and the utmost extent of the punishment which the law provides for similar offences." After he had ended his speech, which made a great im pression on the auditory, the sitting was suspendsil for a quarter of an hour. When it was resumed, M. ('last-au spoke in defence of Eberle, and particularly insisted on the impossi bility of his recognizing Lavalette in a disguise which was so complete than ever: nue WAS the dupe of it—even the gaol e r who gave his han d to the couvict, and the gendarme at this outer gate through which lie passed. There was no reason why an extraordinary perspicacity should he expected from Eberle. The language lewd by Eberle to his comrade at the moment when the chair set ott--" it is (boll, those three is did not say a word to me"—was exclusive of all suspicion of a partieipation ; for, if he had been an accomplice, he would bare avoided any language which might have compromised ths success of the. plot. M. BLACQUE, the defender of Roquette de Kerguidec, en deavoured to dispose the jury in favour of his client, by the recital of service's which his ancestors and himself have ren dered to government. His only recompence was an annual pension of 50 francs, fur himself and every member of his family who hail, like him, escaped the massacre of the colonies. 'lle learned counsel then dwelt on the scene between Madame Lavelette dud his (divot; and observed, that the three or four minutes during which the gaoler was detained by his wife, so justly alarmed, were sufficient to secure the retreat of the convict; for it Roquette had got away from her directly, he would have found Lavalette, whoni the bsenee of the chair man kept nearly for that time at the gate of the prison. After several other observations, the learned counsel ob sers cd---1 arrive now at the lost charge against my client (at the word /net, an oh! of satisfaction was heard among the auditors who visit scenes of this sort me rely for amusement, without reflecting on the importance of the functionary who defends the accuseil)—l nu-an the charge of not taking away the handlerchiel with which Lavalette covered his face. Ro quette ;. is a man; and, as the advocate-general has (drier% cil with a boble accent, lie would not deserve the name of man who could have been unmoved at such a scene. M. 3l tent. IN, the counsel for Benoit, relied chiefly on his being the smart of Lavatette, who might have erred horn excess of devoted ditty. He paid a high tribute to Madame La valette, and mentioned as a subject of congratulation, that, in the midst of crinws and misfortunes with which our vv es were afflicted, they might repose with satisfaction on the noble devotedness of conjugal allection. He referred in favour ut 11:s client to the deposition of Madame Lavalette, who had de clared that her boldness had done every thing. He compared the conduct of his client with that of the widow Tinfoil, and complained that their situation was ditfertrit—i The President interrupted him, observing, that he must not criticise the sen tence of the chamber of accusation.)—" It is not to criticise it," said M. Manguin. "but to invoke it for the sake of my client that I speak of it." The advocate then proceeded to appeal to the maxims of morality whit h recommend to domestics chroledness and obedi ence—maxims which, said he, appear to be coutiary to the regulations of positive law. [Here again the counsel wns interrupted by the Pre‘ident and tlie advocate-general, who observed that he must not appeal to any authority in opposition to the law.) M. MAI'GVIN protested as to the parity of his intentions, and concludeal by referring to an expression of the ad % ocatc-genr. rul, that his client had done mare than his duty : he lett hiai, therefore, with full confidence to the jut y. The sitting broke up at a grouter past five, and will be con tinued to-morrow, to hear the ether Advocate, and the summing up of the President. It was remarked with interest that M. the Chief President, DEsei.t., pr er of France, was present to participate in the satis faction with which a 1111111te011s vet select auditory applaud-4 the talent and wise discretion ut the magistrate who duteted this important trial. THIRD DAY.-WEIINE4DAV, APRIL 24. M. Dorris, the Advocate of Sir ROBERT Wit.sosi and his fi iends, made a Spree!' nitwit admired and of considerable inge nuity, lint turning principally on points of Frcuch law, whirl' would afford little eats rtainment to our readers. On the fees charged against the accused, alter their frank avowals, corr.- LU stud by the fullest proof doeumentury and parole, no possi ble doubt could remain: and about hoolf-past live nt W eslooesd.iy afternoon, the Jury r 12 in number, drawn by lot, and mostly men r))))) Bilk the letW) delivered their s e ril iet into tom t. It was read by their lot email, and contained all acquittal of all the henchmen err. the tiiiukcy Earn LE, who, ;IA well as sir limit:in . IV 'Econ. 4... Banda, unit Mr. HUTCHINSON, W.IS found guiltl. The Vreaketit, M. de St:zs . , then proceeded to read Hie htikds of • . I. e vtnal code applicable to the consisted r t (SOUS. LBLKLE eras leateueed to two years' imprisonmerat.