The Express.
London, England, 1864-02-27 00:00:00

EXPRESS FROM PARIS.

THE TRIAL OF THE CONSPIRATORS.
(mom OUR OWN CORRISPOIDINT.)
PARIS, FRIDAY Eviornro.

At the opening of the assize court to-day Greco
protested against what he called the calumnious
statements of Imperatori. It was false, he said,
that be had taken advantage of Imperatori's
drunkenness to make him write the letter to Maz-
zini. All three of his accomplice' had joined him
quite spontaneously. It is true that when they got
to Paris Imperatori seemed to hesitate a little, and
he had told him so, but Imperatorireplied, "Depend
upon it when the moment of action oomes I shall
be as firm as anybody." Imperatori had never in
words appeared to hesitate ; it was only from his
manner that he doubted him. He had never pre-
vented him from going to the Swiss legation.

M. Procureur General Cordouen then made his
speech for the prosecution. He began by saying
that the universal horror inspired by Orsini's
crime in 1858 had led to the hope that such
pitiless deeds, which to satiate one political ven-
geance shrunk not from the slaughter of any
number of victims against whom no enmity was
entertained, would not be repeated. But now they
saw the same weapons, the same men (Italians),
the same means of action, and the same prompter.
The reason was that there was a perpetual
conflict between the spirit of order and the
spirit of the revolution. Italy was the prin-
cipal centre of anarchical ideas, while ideas
of order, glory, and social peace reposed
upon one ;head glorious above all others. The
sovereign who was the representative of
these ideas had been reproached in another
place with being too powerful and pre-
ponderant. Might Heaven long preserve this pre-
ponderance and this force, for it was only used to
protect oppressed nationalities, and to propagate
ideas of truth, justice, and true democracy. But
factions in Italy saw in the sovereign of France the
main obstacle to their ambitious projects. These
factions were represented by two men equally
fatal to the prosperity of Italy—Garibaldi and
Mazzini. The one, however, did not shrink from
exposing his life like the humblest volunteer ; but
the other did nothing but direct secret societies,
and meditate and contrive plots and crimes.
Secure iu London he abused English hospitality ;
when one plot failed he organised another;
and, to use his own language in a letter
which he wrote to Tibaldi, he is "always
ready to begin again." The present plot was
imagined at a period as far back as the gathering
of the Garibaldi volunteers at Aspromoute. At
that time the Turin correspondent of the Jourital
41es Debuts wrote: "The Mazzinist party is pre-
paring a grand coal)." Greeo was mixed up in all
the agitation in Italy, and was one of the most
trusted, active, and intelligent agents of Mazzini.
In 180, Mazzini resolved to send him to Paris.
Going through the various facts stated in the in-
dictment, and commenting as he went along, the
Procureur-General alleged, but admitted there was
no evidence of the fact, that Trabucoo, at
the time of the quarrel between Cialdini
and Garibaldi, bad offered to throw bombs into the
parliament of Turin. When the conspirators left
Lugano for Paris, minute instructions how to pro-
ceed were given them by Cattaneo, a friend of
Mazzini's. They were told by what frontier they
were to enter, what precautions they were to take
about passports and the examination of luggage,
by what train they were to go to Paris, and by
what railway, after the accomplishment of the
crime, they were .o escape to London. Once on
board the English steamer at Boulogne, Cattaneo's
letter said expressively, bon s"ir—meauing that they
would then be safe from the French police.
All these instructions had been followed to the
letter. Anticipating the attempt which would be
made by the prisoners' counsel to obtain the benefit
of extenuating circumstances, M. Cordouen called
upon the jury to be firm. Greco, knowing that his
case was hopeless, tried to invest himself with the
drapery of heroism and sincerity : but this theatri-
cal attitude ought not serve him. As to Imperatori
and Scaglioni admitting that they hesitated at the
last moment, their hesitation was to be attributed
to craven fear and not to repentance. Admitting
that Imperatori, as he said, had contemplated get-
ting money from the Swiss legation to go home
witb, it still remained true that he would have left
his accomplices with the knowledge that they were
about toexecute the joint criminal design. The moral
sense of all these men was annihilated, and it
would be weakness to show mercy to any of them.
Coming to Mazzini's participation in the plot, M.
Cordouen charged him without hesitation with
being the concoctor of it. He read the letters
from Mazzini set out in the indictment. The ad-
dress
at which Greco was to write to him in Lon-
don was, "Mr. Flower, Thurloe-square." He (51.
Cordouen) did not like to mention names, but he I
must avow the painful astonishment with which, I
on referring to the Loudon Directory, he found
that was the address of the very same member of
parliament whose house had been indicated as the'
one at which money was to be procured at the
time of Tibaldi's plot. Interpreting one of Maz-
zini's letters, he said the words, " If our friend
comes from the country," alluded to the Emperor,
and " our friend of the Brewery," meant the
1 member of parliament in Thurlw-square. " James"
was also another name for this member of parlia-
ment. The draft in Greco's favour, seized at the
post-office after his arrest, was sent from London
by Mr. Nathan, an intimate friend of Mazzini's,
and a brother of Madame Roselly, whose
address is mentioned in the indictment. They
were both children of Sarah Nathan, a per-
son notoriously mixed up with Mazzini. As
to Martini's letter to the Times, denying his
participation in this plot, although that letter had
been very generally accepted as true, not only in
England, but on the Continent, it would be found
on elate examination that the denial was after all
only apparent. Mazzini said he had never given
any bombs, &c., to Greco. That was literally true ;
and Greco had said yesterday, laughing, that it
was not Married in person but a friend of his who
gave him the bombs. He said he had never sent
money to Greco in Paris, and that was also true ;
but the letter did not deny that he had given him
1,300 fr. at Lugano. The laudatory tone in which
Mazziui spoke of Greco was very remarkable, and