The Express.
London, England, 1866-12-15 00:00:00

EXPRESS FROM PARIS.

The Moniteur of this morning 11.; :--" The late
revival of the Cretan insurrection is due to the
insufficient number of Ottoman cruisers. The
foreign agitators who have created fresh distur-
bances in the island have been able to disembark
freely with ammunition and provisions. It now ap-
pears, however, that the aspect of affairs will
undergo a change since the Ottoman cruisers have
been reinforced by a certain number of small
steam gunboats."
Viscount Treillard has been appoint.3cl French
minister to Columbia.
General Ladmirault has been nominated to the
dignity of senator.

ITALY AND ROME.
FLORENCE, Dic. 15.

The ratifications of the convention of the 7th
of December relative to the Pontifical Debt were
exchanged here yesterday.

THE YELLOW FEVERTASMANIAN. ON BOARD THE
SOUTHAMPTON, Dzc. 15.

Of the four cases of yellow fever on board the
Tasmanian, which were not expected to survive,
one died during the night. The other three are
reported better.

AMERICA.
(BT ATLANTIC TELEGRAPH.)
NEW YORK, Dec. 13, Evasreci.
- .

Gold, 1381. Sterling exchange on London,
wog. 5-20 United States Bonds, 107 i ; Illinois,
117 i ; Erie, 72.
Cotton, midland upland, 34k.
NEW YORK, DEC. 14, Ei ri.ilG.
_ . -

Gold, 138. Exchange on London, 109 i. 5-20
United States Bonds, 107 i. Illinois, 117} ; Erie,
711. Cotton : Middling Upland, 34ii,

TRIALS FOR MURDER IN FRANCE,
(711011 0171 OW COILIMPOIDINT.)

PARIS, FRIDAY HUM%
I never remember, even in France, any cue of
capital conviction on such unsatisfactory e • -
9,11 that just recorded by the assize court of net
against Martin Riau. I call it a capital omvieties
because, although the prisoner was not sentence'
to death, the jury, which gave him " extenuate%
circumstances," believed him guilty of four stee.
Jere by poisoning. I dismiss at once from the
argument the supposition that the jury seal
thought there were any extenuating cireumstae%
in favour of such a monster as Martin 9421
must be, if guilty of the crimes of which IN
was accused. It is the prerogative of
French jury to grant extenuating eircurastmee,
and the exercise of the prerogative whenever it k
arbitrarily used merely means that the paeneejay
jury objects to the punishment of death. get y
am by no means so sure that the country yery
which tried Riau, finding a great squire in the
pariah where the prisoner lived, thecurti, the jadv,
the public prosecutor, and all the authorities sgsa
him, did not make a compromise with their j*
ment, not to say with their consciences, and my
"guilty," because that was the verdict expected d
them by their betters, while the " eitennag
circumstances" expressed a doubt in their nig,
whether the charge was incontrovertibly pee*,
This is a shocking mode of administering jeek;
but one not uncommon in this country. Aik
unhappily, the terrible rigour of the law nem
any discussion of a judgment, the assumed Mb&
bility of la chose jugie, deprives a man unjisey
convicted of recourse to that invaluable though
not duly constituted court of appeal the tribes /1
of public opinion. The newspapers scarcely eve
venture to hint a doubt that a verdict may he
a just one ; and even barristers, knowing t
they are liable to be suspended or even disband
for any public disapproval of la chose juger, speck
among themselves with bated breath when they
criticise a verdict. And yet there are mazy
notorious cases of the condemnation of innate
men in France. The recent one of the
woman Doize, found guilty, on her own conical',
" with extenuating circumstances," of a murder at
which she was afterwards andy peg
guiltless, is fresh in every mind, was cited)",
M. Lachaud in the case of Martin Riau. That
woman was goaded into a confession of a crime she
never committed by ill-treatment in prison, and the
real murderer was afterwards fousad convicted.
The accusation against Martin Ba that is
had poisoned his brother, his two wives, and he
son, in order to inherit their property. The fat
of these alleged murders dated as far beck
as thirteen years, and the bat alai
months before the prisoner's arrest. The cel,
relevant evidence for the prosecution consisted d
certificates by medical scientific witnesses at
they found the poison called corrosive sublimate I
all four of the bodies, or rather the deoompoef
residue of the bodies exhumed. But there es
not an atom of proof that this poison was lamina
tered by the prisoner or that he ever had say
poison of that or any other description in
possession. The whole country was scoured, hat
no chemist, druggist, or grocer, could be fond
to depose that he had ever, in the long space of 11
years, sold him any. One witness did suggest tints
he often dealt in mules he might have had wail
ointment to cure the farcy ; but no one ventured
to swear that he ever once had any.
No doubt it
was a suspicions and most remarkable &cane
stance, assuming that most doubtful of all kinds d
evidence, the evidence of experts, to be true, that
corrosive sublimate should have been found in tie
four bodies of the relatives in whose death the yei•
Goner had a small pecuniary interest. But tlem
was scientific evidence the other way. A
professor of the Medical College of Bkie
bourg—a far more eminent man than the county
practitioner who persisted that he had found the
poison, questioned the correctness of the tea
There was evidence of expert against expert; belt
assuming that for the prosecution to have ben
.
the most weighty, and that there was really pa!
in the bodies, there was no evidence at all that
it
was administered by the prisoner. He es I
wealthy peasant farmer, a man of coarse, hint
manners, addicted to liquorish (gricuis) war
tion, not a model of taste or purity, but still a vet
respectable man of his class. The squire who de
flounced him, the Count de Meranvillc, upsides
.
a most heavy responsibility rests if Rau be really&
nocent, wrote to him," My dear &Mu," s feirecetha
before his arrest. The public prosecutor ma that
the prisoner had committed three murders with
impunity, and that then " God's patience 34
tired," and after the fourth public rumour derlarf
against him. This was not true. The acclllaali.
did not originate even from that uncertain aca4
.
ing board, public rumour. It originated with
Count de Meranville, the lord of the chateau;;
the ugly circumstance is that this count *la on -
terms with the prisoner because he ring
to sell him a field at his own price, and besot
the prisoner had by his influence in the coals si
diverted as many as forty votes from the &MO
an election for the council-general.
It Ise
days after this election, and about six months,
the last of the supposed murders, that lehr.
Wan was arrested on an information laid
Count de Meranville. He said himself ,
as an English peasant might have rad
years ago, that he had no chance
cause the squire and the parson were TO
him. The parents of both his wives ire end
that they lived happily with them, and they
believed the accusation, though Count de Di erao.°,
tried to argue them into the belief of
over medical men attended the brother and
two wives, and certified that their deaths t
place from natural causes. The son alleged
be poisoned was a child 18 months old,
living 1
his grandfather at the time of his death,
there was no proof that the prisoner ever
tered anything to him. clu
The Bourse has been heavy. Rentes
69.62, or 10c. lower than yesterday.

the preliminary steps
The New York Journal of Con:oerre says
..--...i
Ocean Telegraph line are being taken, and the best i
joining Florida and Cuba by cable are about to bs ,
towards building the lotaalw
on. Cubs is only 323 miles from Jamaica, lad tilt.
is only 708 miles from St. Thomas, where all theh on
vial mail steamers meet. Between St. Tomas
Jamaica are the two large islands of 1108 spa
i Zito. The distance between Jaz:olio, sod Coke. f
' 5001.thrnmilusealtaiheadit Colonthereanare monsterd Panama, ,
sttesbemtennen 1
York, England, France, Cubs, California, Central
Valparaiso, or Australasia almost daily arrisn.*
tables, not one of which would exceed
would connect St. Thomas, Colon, and Nauss \
al
tally with the United States. Thousands of
the course of a year would pass between them
Europe, which would not bear the expense of
by the Atlantis telepsph, but which could be ,
' by the transatlantic steamers which leave Eve
America almost daily.