The Express.
London, England, 1864-08-09 00:00:00

EXPRESS FROM PARIS.

(nom ova owN CONRIMPONDINT.)
PARIS, MONDAY Evzaiyo.

After the examination of M. Carnot, which I
mentioned yesterday, the remaining 11 accused were
questioned by the President, and they admitted
generally that they had been members of electoral
committees of different kinds which were composed
of less than 20 members. The last of the accused
who was examined was M. Dory, a highly esteemed
and very able barrister of Marseilles, who ex-
pressed his profound surprise at having the honour
of sitting by the side of his co-accused, " as I have
no idea," said he, " why or of what I am accused."
" It is true," he continued, "my papers were seized
and ransacked, and I bud them scattered about
amongst the papers in the indictment, but which
particular one has brought me here I cannot con-
ceive. I was president of a committee at Mar-
seilles, but I beg it may be well understood that
Marseilles is quite independent of Paris, and
neither asks nor receives advice from that quarter.
If I had been accused of stealing the towers of
Notre Dame I could not have been more surprised
than I was when I found myself included in this
procie." _ _ _

This ended the examinations, and then, after a
quarter of an hour's rest, M. Mather, acting for
the Procurenr-Imperial (Attorney-General), rose to
state the case against the delinquents. He said—
The question at issue was, whether an electoral
committee, organised and acting as he would sub-
sequently explain, was or was not au illegal associa-
tion. The political side of the question was not
within the competence of that court ; but it was
well to explain that the Legislative Body had
affirmed, in a discussion raised in the house by M.
Gamier Paghs last May, the conduct of the govern-
ment, and declare I by the month of the President
of the Conseil d'Etat, that the action of the
government had been "laudable, patient, and
calculated to inspire confidence." He then
proceeded to define the law touching associations,
which law, he said, b►d been plainly violated by
the accused who bad acted in all the elections, as
proved by their own correspondence, as the direct-
ing agents of a vast committee, which sought to
control and regulate both the caudidateehips and
everything else connected with the elections.
Coming to the material point of the committee not
exceeding twenty persons, K Mather contended
that all those who contributed pecuniarily to the
committee, who sent in their adhesion and appro-
bation along with their money, mast be regarded
as members, associated in a political propagandism,
and in the action of the electoral committee.
Thus there never were less than from 25 to 30
members of the Paris committee, without
taking into account the affiliated groups
in the provinces, especially in Marseilles, Schele-
atadt, and Epival. M. Mather denied that this
so-called electoral committee was dissolved after
the elections. Ha contended that it was not yet
dissolved, and that, so far from being an electoral
committee in the true sense of the term, it was, as
he bad proved by the correspondence, an association
organised to control all the elections of France,
and thus in every sense an unlawful association.
He concluded by requiring the court to pronounce
such a condemnation as would to tore the principle
of authority, and would remind all that to the law
all owe obedience, because it is the law, especially