The Express.
London, England, 1863-08-28 00:00:00

EXPRESS FROM PARIS.

(FROM OUR cows

mar.)

PARIS, THURSDAY Evianto.

I have lately mentioned as one of the most 1112-
portant symptoms of the irrepressible tendency of
public opinion in favour of liberty, the indisposition
of the judges to support the government in political
cases. In the early days of the empire to prosecute
was to condemn. The judges were but servile
echoes of the public prosecutor, and (with but few
honourable exceptions) did whatever they were
ordered to do. It is well known that in the famous
case of the Orleans confiscation, which occasioned ;
serious scruples of conscience in the Court of Cu-
Bastion, M. Troplong, who was commissioned to get
the thing carried through quand mime, said to his
brother judges :—" Now, look here, gentlemen, it
is idle to waste time in discussing nice legal distinc-
tions the trite and the only practical question is
whether you intend to remain a Court of
Caseation or to be dissolved 1 That question
you have just half an hour to consider ; at
the end of that time I have no doubt you
will all adhere to the judgment which I have here
ready drawn up." The judges of the supreme court,
understanding that the fearful bread and cheese
question was paramount, and, perhaps, comforting
their consciences by the consideration that the ruin
of themselves and their families would not have
saved the Orleans property, succumbed to a cis
major, It was au awful fall, and for many years
France was resigned to the fact that the indepen-
dence of the judicial bench had been undermined.
But now a great and happy change is taking place.
The judges, few of whom were corrupt, although
during a certain time the majority yielded to ter-
ror, are now taking courage. The traditions of
French courts of law, which are really excellent,
and the good opinion of the enlightened bar with
which the judges are in daily contact, are more dear
in their eyes than the favour of a government
which no longer dares to resort to violent measures
against them. They feel, I venture to say, that the
empire must either persevere iu, and improve upon,
its recent liberal tendencies, or be upset. They
show now almost daily a belief that the legislation
of 1852 is not destined to govern the riling genera-
tion. In spite of texts most artfully framed for the
purpose of suppressing anything like liberty, the
French judges now show that commendable
"astuteness " which Blackstone speaks of, to twist
harsh texts from their rigorous meaning, and give
them an interpretation consistent with sound sense
and sound usage. In former letters I have shortly
referred to several cases illustrative of this position.
Others have occurred, and some remarkable ones very
recently, which, in the hurry of daily correspondence,
have escaped my notice. But I have now before
me a judgment of a Marseilles court in the case of
the acquittal of the Semaphore, from which I pro-
pose to make extracts. Mr. Kinglake himself
never wrote anything more bitterly ironical upon
the men of December than some of the subjoined
passages, in which the Marseilles judges condemn
the hitherto received opinions about the crime of
issuing "false news." The legislation of 1852
against liberty was not serious. It was a juggle.
It shrunk hypocritically from declaring that the
government was despotic, but endeavoured with
extreme ingenuity to secure for the government
absolute power under the forms of law. For in-
stance, the law against " false news" was in-
tended to make it a mortal offence for a journal
to circulate any political rumour whatever,
without authorisation, and for a long while the
courts servilely interpreted the law in accordance
with the intentions of its authors. Ministers put
out feelers in the mini-official journals and then
instructed their organs to eat their words ; but
any independent papers who stated anything im-
portant which they could not judicially prove
were liable to be prosecuted for false news and
pretty sure to be convicted. But now the judg-
ment of the Marseilles court, in the case of the
Semaphore, is a solemn judicial protest against
the prevailing government doctrine on this subject.
The legislator of 1852, knowing that his prin-
ciples would not bear the light, enacted that
press prosecutions should not be reported,
and therefore we know nothing of the
facts of the trial of the Semaphore beyond
what can be collected from the text of the
judgment of acquittal. It appears that the Sema-
phore had spoken of an autograph letter from
Napoleon 111. to the Czar, and had mentioned ru-
mours that the French fleet was ordered to the
Black Sea. For this " false news" it had received
a warning, and then the prosecution came to do
double duty in respect of the same offence. The
court gives the following, among other reasons, for
its judgment of acquittal

Considering that the ►rticle incriminated speaks only
of vague rumours circulating in drawing-rooms, in theatres,
and at the Bourse, where they were represented as on das,
and that the corespondent of the journal confesses that he
is not in a position to verify the rumours which, moreover,
are so inconsistent and unimportant that the court cannot
find in them the semblance of "false news ;" that the like
observation holds good of an alleged dismission In a council
of ministers which the author of the article merely alludes
to by the way, saying carefully, as the same tame, that he
does not know what passed at St. Cloud ;
Considering that the decree on the press has given no de-
finition of " false news ;"
Considering that to constitute the offence of false news in
a judicial sense the journal must hays published or repro-
duced ; some definite, precise, and certain announcement
which he presents to his readers as a thing existing beyond
all doubt, as, for instance, the taking of a city, a victory
or a defeat, the departure of an army or a squadron—pal-
pable beta which are in their nature absolute, certain, and
independent of all di/erasion ;
Considering that the good faith of an honourable citizen
cannot be held to be dependent upon the daily fluctuations
of politic in ministerial offices ;
Considering that although it may not be strictly true
that clerks were working night and day to send to Vichy
maps of ► supposed theatre of war for the Emperor's pa-
rasa, yet it is well known that such maps exist in the
office of the Minister of War, and the statement that dupli-
cates of maps, which the Emperor coo always consult when
he thinks fit, having been sent to him, is not, under the
circumstances, a thing worthy of being characterised as false
news
_ .

Considering that it would be impossible to edit a journal
If articles written in good faith, and containing nothing den-
prons to the public peace, were liable to be iocriminated
for the reproduction of current rumoun ;

Tlis court acquits.
The public prosecutor has appealed from the
above important judgment.
M. Xavier George Fleury, the murderer of Ma-
dame Petit, the btanchisscisse in the Passage Cher-
bourg, is a sub•lieutenaot iu the 4th Voßigours of
the Imperial Guard. He was made an officer on
October 1, 1861. At the time of the murder he

was quartered in the barracks of the Rue de la
Pepinibre, within five minutes' walk of the resi-
dence of his victim.