The Press.
London, England, 1858-04-17 00:00:00

THE PRESS, APRIL 17, 1858.

briefly—bring Pierri on the scene in Paris. You have
heard that Pierri purchased two of the revolvers. What
had become of him from that time until about the Bth of
January lam unable accurately to inform you. Bernard,
however, whom we last parted with at Brussels on the
night of the departure of Orsiui for Paris, appears to have
been there on Christmas•day, and on a portion of the 2.60
of December ; and there he saw Zeguerus, the young man
who had been hired to accompany Orsini to Paris, who told
him that he had taken the horse and the balls safely to
that capital. Pierri, whom we last noticed purchasing two
revolvers of Mr. Hollis, of Birmingham, having procured
a third revolver from Mr. Hollis, jun., then made his way to
Brussels, and presented himself at the Cafe Suisse, either
on the 7th or Bth of January—l believe upon tile Bth. It
happened that, although Orsini had taken away with him
five of the grenades, the half of the sixth, which was one
of the larger grenades, had been left behind at the Café
Suisse, and on the 7th of January Pierri, accompanied by
M. and Madame Mechenheim, both of whom had known
him well some years before, presented himself at Giorgi's,
and with a note from M. Bernard demanded the half
grenade, or " gas instrument," as it was called, which he
had left bellied. Giorgi without hesitation delivered the
missing half grenade to Pierri, who appears immediately
afterwards to have quitted Brussels. He arrived in Paris
the next day, and took up his residence at the hotel of
Madame Brion, the Hotel de France et de Champagne, in
the Rue Montmartre. He there occupied room No. 50,
and there he continued to reside until the day of the attempt
upon the life of the Emperor. I have now brought Orsini
to Paris with the grenades and revolvers, dwelling in the
Rue Monthabor, and I have brought Pierri to Paris with a
third revolver, residing at the Hotel de France et de
Champagne, in the Rue Montmartre. Gomez also, with
respect to whom something more may appear in the
evidence, seems to have gone to Paris about that time, and
to have betaken himself to the same hotel of Madame
Brion in the Rue Montmartre, where he remained for two
or three days as the servant of Pierri. He then, about the
11th or 12th of January, quitted the hotel where Pierri
was residing, and went to the Hotel de Saxe•Cobourg, in
the Rue St. Honore, to make way for a fourth person who
appeared upon the scene, Carlo Rudio.
Rudio at that moment was in a state of the deepest
distress, " verging on absolute destitution." He
could not, therefore, travel without means, and it was
important to show how those means were obtained :
On the 26th of November—which perhaps you may
remember was the very day on which the passport in the
name of Allsop was vise by one of the consuls, and two
days only before Orsini quitted England for Brussels-
-Orsini presented himself at the Bank of England, and,
producing 4351. in gold, demanded bank-notes to that
amount. He received in exchange twenty 20/. notes, three
101. notes, and one 51. note. He, whom I may call the
chief of these associates, was possessed, therefore, of
those notes—the numbers of which I need not tell you
are known—on the 2tith of November. Two days after
wards he quitted England never to return; and on the
2nd of January,—the very day when Bernard put himself
in communication with Rudio and commenced the treaty
which resulted in Rudio's proceeding to Paris,—when
money had become necessary for that, among other pur-
poses, the prisoner at the bar presented himself at the
office of Messrs. Spielman, the well-known money-
changers in the City, and changed one of those 201. notes,
signing his name upon the back of it, which had been
received by Orsini on the 26th of November from the
Bank of England. At a later date—on the 7th of January
I believe—Bernard presented another of those 201. notes
at the office of Messrs. Spielman, and a third of those
notes was taken, as we shall shortly hear, from the person
of Pierri, another of the confederates, when he was
arrested on the night of the atlenlat. You therefore, be-
sides the evidence touching the grenades, the fulminate of
mercury, and the revolvers, have the receipt by Orsini, the
chief, of these bank-notes to a large amount, two of which
are traced during the progress of this conspiracy to Ber-
nard, the prisoner at the bar, by him changed and the
money converted to his use, a third of them is found on
the very person of Pierri, when he was arrested on the
night of the altentat, and such of them as remained were
found on the person of Orsini himself when he was seized
at a later hour of the same night.
Bernard being thus possessed of means, on the 2nd
of January proceeded to Rudio's lodgings in Bate-
man's-buildings, Soho, and having inquired into and
supplied Rudio's wants, succeeded in persuading him
to leave London for Paris, where he was to put him-
self into immediate communication with Orsini.
Rudio left London with a false passport in the name of
Da Silva on the nightof the Bth of January, arrived in
Paris on the 10th or 11th, presented himself at the
Hotel de France, in the Rue Montmartre, where he
put np fcr the night, and arterwards slept in the
same room with Pierri. The learned Attorney-
General then detailed the attempt of the 14th, and
concluded his address.

Several French witnesses were then called to prove
the fact and the result of the attempt on the 14th of
January. Mr. Taylor also gave evidence as to the
construction of the grenades by order of Allsop ; and
the evidence of the police-officers who arrested Ber-
nard closed the first day's proceedings.
On Tuesday the court reassembled at ten a.m.,
and the examination of witnesses for the prosecution
was proceeded with. Sergeant Roger, of the detec-
tive force, gave evidence, to the effect that he had
searched the prisoner's bedroom, and discovered in
it a letter from Mr. Allsop. He had also attended
Wyld's debating-room in ;Aiceeter-square

379.

Mr. JAMES :B
As a spy?
Lord Chief Justice CAsunzt.i: As directed.
Mr. JAMES urged that he was entitled to put the gum
Lion. It had been admitted in former trials and in diffe•
rent times to the present.
The ATTORNEY-GENERAL submitted that Mr. James had
no right to apply an op probious epithet to the witness, and
that the proper course was to ascertain what his instruc-
tions were.
Mr. JAMES contended he had a right to put the question.
The same question was put by Mr. Erskine in Hardy's
trial to the following effect : " Then, in plain terms, you
went as a spy 7 That question was not objected to.
The Lou) CHIEF JuirricE : Then there was no demur ;
now it is objected to.
Mr. JAMES submitted that the question went to the
credit of the witness. He might deeliue to answer it if he
pleased.

The Judges ruled that the question was irregular,
and that it ought not to be put, on the ground that
the witness was called upon to draw an inference
from facts within his knowledge. The matter was
subject for observation when the learned counsel
came to address the jury.
Mr. Parker, in the employ of Messrs. Huggins,
wholesale druggists in Aldersgate.street, deposed to
having sold Bernard, in November, Slbs. of absolute
alcohol, and 101bs. of nitric acid, which he took
away with him. On the 15th December Bernard
called again, and purchased Olbs. more of absolute
alcohol, 101bs. of nitric acid, and IW. of quicksilver.
Fulminating powder, said this witness, is made of
these materials, "and in about the same proportions
of the different ingredients."
_ _

Mr. Nicholson, -a
partner in the firm of Simpson
and co., manufacturing chemists, corroborated the
latter portion of the last witnes3's evidence. The
combination of materials for fulminating powderf
was never, so far as his (witness's) experience went,
used for photographic purposes. Other witnesses
testified to the presence of pure fulminating mercury
in the shell seized on Pierri, and to the explosive
nature of the shells.

Eliza Cheney, housekeeper to Orsini, deposed to
the extreme intimacy of the prisoner with Orsini.
When the latter had left his house in Grafton street
and gone to rails, Bernard called regularly, and
opened, read, and replied to Orsini's letters.
Joseph Giorgi, of the Café Suisse, Brussels, gave
important evidence :

In the beginning of December Bernard asked me if f
knew anything about the gasworks at Brussels, and
whether I knew any one who was connected with the ad•
ministration of those works. I told him I knew a AL
liraemacher, who was bookkeeper at the works. The pri-
soner then told me that he wished to become acquainted
with him, in order to show him his new invention in gas.
Oct the following day he told me that he had some samples
or specimens of gas, and he brought me live instruments
like the shell now produced. They were not all the same
size. The shells were in halves. He only brought me
the halves. I saw the holes for the nipples, but there
were no nipples fixed to them at this time. When the
prisoner had produced these things, he asked me if I
would be good enough to convey them to Brussels for
him, as I was going to start fur that city in two or three
days, and he sail that an Englishman would come and ask
for them in his name, and he added that the Englishman
was at that time at Liege. I agreed to do what he re—
quested, and conv'yed the articles he had shown me to
Brussels. I arrived there on the 7th of December, and
took the shells to the Cafe Suisse.

The witness then detailed how Bernard, arriving in
Brussels two or three days afterwards, introduced
Orsini to him, and how he (witness) at Bernard's
request hired Zeguerus to take the shells and Orsini'a
horse to Paris.

Julien Fournarier, a waiter at the Cafr Suisse,
deposed to the appearance of the shell halves :

There were ten halves, and they appeared to be of three
kinds. Two of them had small holes in them. There
were so many as twenty or twenty-five of these holes in
some of them. Five of the halves were about the size of
the one now produced, and I think there was a screw in
every one of them. I only saw those things in the smoking-
room one day.
Cross-examined—l took only two or three of them into
my hand. They were of different sizes. Some were
larger than others. I only examined them two or three
times. I cannot swear positively that there were so many
as twenty holes in any one of the balls.
Re-examined—l never examined the balls very closely.
Some of them may have had as many as twenty holes in
them.

At this stage the court adjourned tilt Wednesday,
when the examination of witnesses was proceeded,
with.

Louis Rhigenzi, proprietor of the Cafe Suisse% eor-
roborated the statements of Giorgi with respect to
the events at Brussels. His recollection, however,
was rather confused upon the exact shape of the
halves of the "oval balls" taken out of Giorgi's
carpet-bag. He would not swear that the ball pro-
duced was like any he had seen with Giorgi. Ac-
cording to his recollection, the nipple holes in the
articles he saw at Brussels were at that part of the
instrument " where the large hole for the screw ap-
pears to be in this one."
Zeguerus deposed to his having accompanied
Orsini, and carried the balls from Brussels to Paris