The Express.
London, England, 1864-09-09 00:00:00

EXPRESS FROM PARIS.

MURDER BY A FATHER AND TWO SONS.

(11011 OUR OWN oosissrospurr.)

PARIS, Tetra:war Empre.

In certain cases France allows the citizen to take
the law into his own bands and cheat the tribunals
of the lesser crime to indulge them with an investi-
gation into the greater. A man here, instead of
carrying his complaint before Judge Wilde, inflicts
punishment according to the force of his passion,
and if the wrong-doer dies he takes kis trial for
murder, with the conviction that an equitable
jury will find in his favour. This system has, 1
presume, been found to work well, for no reform
is urged from any quarter. It may be that the
check is considered wholesome when a man knows that
the breaking of a certain commandment may bring
about sharp and speedy vengeance. The absence
of • divorce court may also be pleaded in favour of
not abolishing this lynch-law. But surely when
this justifiable murder is premeditated it should
not be tolerated in a land whose laws are supposed
to be strong enough to meet all requirements. For
two days the assizes of Tarn and Garotne have been
occupied with one of these cases, in which a father
and his two sons were accused of the murder of a
man called Vigid. Vigid had had criminal inter-
course with the wife of Bdtolihres, and this
man and his two sons laid a plan to
catch him en flagrant delit ; they admitted
to their confidence the son of the murdered man,
who was to watch his father's movements and warn
the three assassins when he left his house on his
guilty errand. The l34tolieres were at home one
evening when they heard a horn sound ; this born
was blown by young Vigid, to show that his father
had started fur their house. Vigid knocked and
was admitted, There was a terrible scuffle, the
business was soon over, and one of the eons called
out to his mother to come and look at the corpse.
The youngest Bdtolieres and Vigies son went and
told the authorities what had occurred. Justice
went to the spot and found the victim, horribly
bruised, lying dead, and betide the body was •
wooden shoe, which had been broken on hie skull.
The penal code was searched, and it was discovered
that Articles 296 and 304 applied. The case was
sent for trial, and at the trial the prisoners were
defended by M. Jules Fevre, and another advo-
cate less known to fame. Vigies son was charged
with complicity. The code may give a man the
right of avenging the greatest wrung which can be
done to him, but it watild be hard to find an article
allowing a man's own son to join in a deliberate
plot for his father's assassination. The son is said
to have been on bad terms with his father, and so
instead of warning him he allowed him to walk to
his doom without a word. As an accomplice, he
slew his father, because the two were at enmity,
whereas the other prisoners assassinated to
gratify their vengeance and in strict conformity
with the law of the land.

M. Jules Fevre, in concluding his address to
the jury, declared that his clieats—" sentenced to
the lightest punishment would be unhappy. They
were provoked. The aggressor came to search his
death upon the theatre of his debaucheries. Their
three hearts [those of the prisoners, I presume)
are in ray hand ; I give them to you ; they would
be broken by a condemnation," &c. Of course there
were witnesses to speak to character and a doctor
to declare that Vigid was dead.

Attention is drawn to-day to the Danish marriages,
especially the alliance in contemplation ; and the
manner in which the peace conferences held at
Vienna have slackened speed is attributed to King
Christian's family compacts. What is passing in the
north of Europe is viewed as more and more serious
and mysterious. It is asked what these connexions
will do for Denmark I England has done nothing
as yet, and Rusgia, though long allied to the family
of Holstein Gottorp, has never moved in favour
of Denmark. She seems sow inclined not to le
this power quite alone for fear of the creation of •
Scandinavian kingdom capable of meeting her at
sea on equal terms, and shutting out St. Petersburg
from Europe. It is supposed, then, that this new
alliance which she seeks at Copenhagen is one of
deep political importance. She would wed, not the