The National Register. — London, England, 1815-11-19 00:00:00

. - .. " . . I. • .' il. 1 ~. . - .. .I.* *, 4 . • • • , .. 1 . .., i, . . . .'• ..‘ 1 . •.. ." .- . ' ' . 4 1 r. • •• . . .. . dk ' , ..... I , . - 14 .THE TI .... e . .. • •.,...,.. NAL - --11Eclis . . ... ..•• ....„....:_, .. . ..%._ _. ___ .. _ ._.. • • . r Iting, Constitution, Atm tabs. .4., .~.: PUBLISIIFD AT No. 11, NEWCASTLE-STREET; 7' 4 kk . 1 T. No. 419. PRICE gfcl, .~._ SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 1/315. - PO D QUIS ITN N. TRIAL OF NEY AND CONDUCT OF lIIS JUDGES. The greatest surprise has been excited by the conduct of '-the Military (.;ommissiOn appointed to try Marshal Ney. Their declaration of incompetence has been considered as a subterfuge, to relieve them from the difficult situation in .whielt-they were placed, and to throw the burthen upon the- King ; and -the branch of the Legislature most iuti matelysonnected with him. This, to a certain extent, is undoubtedly the fact. Disposed to favour the escape of ..the traitor, and yet afraid of bringing down just vengeance epos their vwn heads, if they• did rot fulfil their duty, they eagerly seized the opportilnity which the protest of the accused afforded them to avoid the two evils which ' , they could not otherwise fail of incurring—the resentrneUt 'of the Court if they acquitted, and the vengeance of the army if they condemned the criminal. Another motive may also have directed their conduct,—conscience. We know that few will attribute much influence on the part of that power over the minds of French revoln tionary Marshals : bat there are moments and circum stances which call forth virtues from the most aban doned men. Placed as judges over an, aecomplice, whose guilt every. examination only proved thetn tolave shared, how could they dare to decide on his offence and to pro nounce his doom ? Their sentence would have beep one of self. condemnation. If they executed strict justice, and thus endeavoured to secure the favour of the Government, they could not repel the conviction that their conduct would be generally eonsidered as still worse than that of the owardly wretches who turn evidence. Their only way of escaping from these difficulties was a frank ac knowledgment of their guilt as a reason for not proceed ing lith the trial. ,This, private accounts .state them to have done : and that it was in tenderness to their feelings that the Duke of Richelieu did not reveal to the Chamber of Peers all the grounds on which they, had founded the expression of their own incompetence. We shall now enter into the historical particulars of the whole of this interest ing case. The Paris Papers of Friday sennight arrived on Mon day; they are nearly filled with a report of proceedings on the first day of the trial of Marshal Ney. The French Criminal Courts frequently begin their proceedings by reading interrogatories of the prisoner and depositions of others, relative to the offences charged. Ney had under gone three interrogatories, and the reading of t '‘with I 01. 1 - IL Nu. CCCCXII. . • h • ~~__~.;~ _; -il the other written documents, occupied the first and second day, It appears by the evidence, that Ney affected to be igncirant on the 7th of March of, the landing of Buona parte, though the official account had appeared in the Itfoniteur. Qn the nth he received instructions from the Minister at War ; and before he proceeded to his desti nation, he waited on the King. In the interrogatory he underwent, soon after his arrest, in the presence of the Prefect of Police, he confessed that he used to the King expressions, that Buenaparte, should be be taken, would deserve to be conducted in in iron cage to Parts; and, after some equivocations, he also acknowledged that he had kisstd the King's hand.. On the same occasion he maintained, as was stated in the defence published about two months ago by his lawyer, that he was totally igno r rant of the conspiracy, and that, after assuming the corn- mend of the troops, he remained for several days faitll 7 NI to the King. The evidence partly corroborated this statement. His subsequent conduct, however, destroyed any claim he might have, from this circumstance, to indul gence; as a proclamation was published in his nannyisoon after he joined the standard of the Usurper, beginning with these words—" The cause of the Bourbons is lost for ever." —Ney states in his defence, that this proclamation sse.; written by Buonaparte, and had appeared, in Switzerland, before he had seen it himself—that it was a customary manieuvre of the Ex-Emperor to forge letters and other documents bearing the name of his Generals, and to pub lish them without asking their consent. He also pretendz s that it was the conduct of his troops that hurried him along to defection, and that he deserted the royal cause merely to prevent a civil war—that Buonaparte had trans mitted to him the strongest assurances that Anstria was his Ally, and that England favoured his designs. How ever, it is proved that the Marshal, if he evinced any re luctance at first to betray his duty, manifested the most ar dent zeal as soon as he took a decision, and even caressed, with a kind of frantic joy, the very drummers and fifers of his army, the moment they expressed themselves upequi vocally in favour of the rebel cause. Wednesday, Paris papers arrived to the 13th instant, the contents of which are of considerable importance s -- They inform us of the very extraordinary event of the. Council of War appointed to tl•y Marshal Nei - , having declared its incapacity. The Marshal appeared in per son before the Court on Friday last, and prctcsied against the eligibility of a. Court Martial to decide ou the charges preferred against h:ni, m 's as not a u► ~~