The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1871-12-30 00:00:00

CONDEMNATION OF THE PRISONER.

A French curreepondent of The Tiater, writing from
Boulogne, Dec. 2:3, has sent the following brief par-
ticulars of the remit of the trial :

A brief summary of the prisoner's personal examination,
with a knowledge of the verdict, is simply In:i.e.:ay. A
ilimcnlty in connecting Letuettre with the various acts of
Incendlarism charged to him was apparent from the outset,
and determined the prosecution to confine themselves to
the robberies and murders of which he was accused. The
prisoner's defence to these was au original one. lie
invented two confederates ,eormaired with whom, from
his own statements, he was guileless), who had assisted
him ?—no, who had actually perpetrated the offence with
which he was charged, and generously handed over to Ms
safe keeping the pr, -reeds of the crimes. This naturally ac•
counted for the discovery in his house, carefully buried, of
the stolen property. •• It was Bridle, chits Minique, and
Malfoy, ckiad Croisate," Who were the heads of the firm of
which he was but a humble member. Malloy rubbed Dognine
of WO francs; at leant, " thiche told hits so "—though 31st-
toy, a sailor, was at that time 3,0 el leagues Iron France.
Lemettre ''was not aware f that. Briche rolinial the care's
house at 11.30 p.m., though ho nos proved to be at that very
hour at midnight meat Tile ,Itscrepancies in the pile tler's
statements and the facts elhninated were carer idly point al out
I,; the peas d'instrinCon, who did not fail to remark npon the
unusual generosity of MM. Bridle and Molly in taking
all the risk, and giving the prtioner all the plunder."
Throughout the trial the very mention of Rriche's name was
the signal for 'laughter.' Tide trilling Wunder, however.
was merged in the other aud overwhelming evidenee
brought to hear upon the prisoner's guilt. As each
succieding question, pointed and searching, was put
by the President, a reply palpable contradictory or
terribly criminating, followed. Now it is his landlord,
who lias come to the Christmas fire, and has left his
carriage at hie tenant's house till midnight. whim he will
reiturn to fetch it, and whoni he tells to is, aqc however
llh;Lly" at the door, and be will awake. The landlord come,
with three friends, and "they all knock and kick for ten
minutes with all their might," hut "lie was asleep and did
not hear them." Be was engaged tu strangling Cu4ny.
Again, he confesses to • " participation " in the murder of
Foucaid, who was peculiarly outraged, but denies any
Okay in a precisely similar attack upon Prevost.
In a word, his guilt in every single instance was proved
to the eatisfaction both of judge and jury—the former of
whorl, complimented him upon his alitlity—aud the world
will shortly be rid of him. To-night Saturday), at eleven
o'clock, • verdict of Guilty was unanimously returned.
Joseph Lemettre was condemned ill death, and will be
shortly executed at Marquise. The prisoner heard his sen-
tence announced without exhibiting any motion.

The Timex has a looter on the above remarkable
ease, in whieh they my:—

_
A more horrible sevnlsti,n of the depth of ograilat ion of
Clucli humanity is capable could hail!; be lilli i. It
le bmge to that ideas of nsoe.s, happily ran., in which the
criminal hi,10,4 to he destitute of any sii+ceptibillty to orili-
eary human teclitie, and to possess no other metive than a
paltry greed, and no Alter tutellistual faculty thee a de-
prllVcti r111031,i :.11,1 a supreme stiltishnt Si. reat crimes
a, sweet i ceunnittell Illitier primortlimately great Moen-
fives. MI ilitt•ll4, passion of hatred, piatousy, or revelge,
or go,or absorbing speculation, will suddenly surprise
.1 nian into a deed it violence or gradually everntaster
him. but a commicuotia lesson of this ease is that human
mitime seems chiefly ouitable of the vilest crimes w here the
COIIIIII.OICSt wolln, according to the trite saying,
abstain front them as mere liltinders. l'erhaps he had 11116de
i;3316 seemed tionsiderable to the mind of is steely
yessatit, hut nom: tut a 11,2 d ailed intelligeece would have
thought them o orth pinsiiiiig through murder, brutality,
and arson. The same type of criminal may he octll SILO lees
hideous form in the man Anthony, recently condemned to
penal servitude for setting tire to Louden nearly every night
for months In order to gain Italia crown or live shUliumi.
There is nut much reason to think that in inch cams, er in
stick an outrage as that of Tratimimans Om criminal has
any direct satisfactien ilk indulging his brutal ferocity.
Ills depravity CollOirtB is los meatmeity to discern any-
thing horrilide or unnatural alma his crimes. The
slaughter of a fiw human beings u. ems to Ms bestial
cunning the nearest way to guin the few pounds or
the little luxuries on which he has set his heart, and it occa-
sion* Iffin no horror or set mile, lilt. pet haps, for this reason
that such a ruffian am Leneettre could KO lOW escape detec-
tion Judging by themselves, people di too for for twitives,
and it does not occur to Lemettren daily associates that a
man who Sorrilli to live just like themselves, and who Kr
pralli to have nothing to gala by such crimes, should be
systematically gathering his little hoard out of the blued
of his neighbours and the ashes of their homes. At all
events, in such cases as these the expediency of capital
punishment is rendered evident. In the ease of crimes
committed under the impulse of intense or long accumulated
passion, it is pessible that no punishment can exert at the
fatal crisis it sufficiently deterrent inflitence. But to these
degraded intelligences the spectacle of the gallows
supplies the only idea which can attach to murder or mur-
derous crimes any feeling of horror. 'They can only be in-
flummed by physical Impression correlionding in its terror
ti i the Intensity of the crime. Such natures, moreover, are
Tory generally cowardly, and are therefore peculiarly
ceptible to such physteal influences. A recent report from
one of the prison authorities of Australia quotes a remark-
able private letter from a eon-let, confessing the ellect
which the emelt of capital punishment had exerted in
keeping him under discipline. It is idle to argue about
habitual criminals, and worse than bile to legislate about
them, as if they were amensible to reation, in the ordinary
souse of the word. A certain number of human twinge are
born with utterly degraded intelligences and feelings, mat
It is the greatest mercy to such unhappy creatures, as well
as to the community iu general, to supply by the tenor of
physical example the dinCrrrilt force their nature nestle.