The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1870-04-02 00:00:00

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SATURDAY, APRIL 2, 1870.

THE PRINCE ACQUITTED.

The very remarkable trial which fir some time
pat has created so lunch sensation has tent hut-
ted in a meet u satisfactory manner. Prince
Pierre Boeaparte, nephew of the lint Napo!enn
and cousin to tee present Emperor, has been it,--
quitted of the "voluntary homicide" of M.
Yvan Salmon, otherwise Victor Noir, and of at-
tempting the voluntary homicide of M. de Fon-
iu What the Freud, cad voluntary hind-
chic we should call murder, but our neighbours
make a legal distinction between the two, though
there is morally but little if any difference.
Frifill whatever point of view we take a retro-
spect of the trial, it has been a very important
one. The relationship of the accused to the
present ruler of France gave to it an unwonted
national interest; the fatal quarrel arose out of
political controversy. and it was felt to be ine-
vitable that political considerations would enter
into the examination, however they might be
repudiated ; and all the eircumstatices preceding
the alleged homicide had their bearing on the
insane passion for duelling that hits lately seized
on the journalists of France.

There is no reason to believe that the relation-
ship of the acem:ffil is the cause of his being
acquitted. That it may have had its effect 011
the minds of the jury is probable enough, but
they seem to have arrived at their conclusion
without being biassed by this fact. Whether
they really did so is known only to themselves.
Nor call the Emperor or the Imperial govern-
ment be accused of any direct or indirect efforts
to divert the ordinary course of justice. When
Napoleon the Third was informed of the alleged
homicide, immediately after it had taken place,
he expressed his deep sorrow, but added that
justice must take his course, and that no ineni•
ber of his family was abovo the law. It is said
indeed that Prince Pierre was no favourite with
his imperial cousin, and that the former had
never been presented at Court. We can well
understand, however, why the Emperor should
have taken a deep interest in the trial and why
he should have given orders to be kept con-
stantly informed by telegraph as to its progress.
And if we look back at the lengthy proceedings
of the trial it is very difficult to come to the
conclusion that it has been an unfair one.
Certainly a more open and public trial could not
have taken place. With half a dozen judges,
with advocates on either side, with the friends
the deceased in court, in presence of a crowd of
journalists, and with thirty-six jurymen, there
was at least the appearance of an elaborate at-
tempt to arrive at the troth. And we must re-
member that the trial was not only an ordinary
legal trial by the highest tribunal, but it was
emphatically a press trial. The accused is a
journalist by practice, if not by profession ; the
deceased was a journalist, and so is the gentle-
man whose death the Prince was also charged
with compassing; several of the witnesses in
the cause are journalists, and numbers of papers
in and out of France had their recognised
places in the court It is only fair therefore to
conclude that nothing could go out of the ordi-
nary course without being marked; that any
unfair leaning towards trie accused would be
watched and reported; while the feeling of the
press generally appears to hare:been against the
accused. And certainly the truth was not kept
in the background, as it sometimes is in England
by antiquated legal formalities, and by techni-
cahties of jurisprudence. Never, perhaps, was
there a trial in which more feeling tees openly
displayed on both sides. The President cate-
chised and examined the accused with an appar-
ently foregone conclusion that he was guilty.
The prisoner aria tae witnesses indulged in vin-
dictive outpourings in court. "We did not ex-
pect to find an assassin," said one witness, al-
luding to the accused. The Bonapartes are
not assassins," exclaimed the Prince, '• you
know well enough the assassins are against
them." Another witness complained of being
insulted by the Prince in court, whereupon lie
rejoined, "you this moment laughed in my
face," and then 31. de Fonvielle shouted out to
the Prince from the farther end of the court,
"you basely assassinated Victor Noir." Now
and then such violent altercations checked the
proceedings, but on the whole a latitude was
allowed to the accused, witnesses, unit counsel,
which is in striking contrast to the formality of
an English trial. All this may or may not fad-
litate arriving at the truth, but it at all events
shows that the trial was not conducted in such
a way as to carefully lead up to a foregone con-
clusion, and that, in a word, it was a fair French
trial.

But still, looking at the trial from an English
point of view, the verdict seems strangely out
of harmony with the indictment and the evi
deuce. Omitting previous charges, the Prince
was accused of the voluntary homicide of Victor
Noir—of mortally wounding him with a pistol
shot, and of firing at De Eunvielle with intent
—as we should say—to murder him. That the
Prince did shoot Victor Noir dead is admitted on
all hands, even by the accused himself. But
there is a doubt as to the circumstances jumble.
iliately preceding the act, and the jury, so far
give the accused the benefit of the tioubt that
they acquit him on all counts. But surely the
Piinee ass nevertheless guilty of allot he was
canirged with—voluntary homicide. It was un-
doubted homicide, and it certainly was volun-
tary as we understand the word. As the verdict
stands, it does not speak highly for French mo-
rality. Duelling is virtually recognised us an
institution, and the striking of a blow on the
supposition that Noir tlid this) is regarded as
sutucient provocation for shooting a man dead,
as one would shoot a wad dog. We do not say
that the jury have literally declared this much,
but this is the fair interpretation to put upon
their verdict. It will at all events have this
effect on French sootily. The whole affair from
first to last is deepiy to be regretted. The free-
dom of the press is in itself a great and glorious
thing, but the French seem scarcely fitted for it
yet. They too miih use it to gratify personal
vindictiveness, and the quarrels thus engendered
are too frequently settled—if a duel can settle
anything but the victim—by a sudden recourse
to arms, if the French Government does not
feel itself poaerful enough to curb the newly-
acquired liberty of the press, it might, at least,
make an effort to repress the hideous passion for
dueliing, which is now so marked u feature in
the French character.