The Express.
London, England, 1867-03-01 00:00:00

EXPRESS FROM PARIS.

SHOCKING MURDER OF A GIRL.
(Paoli ova OWN CORRESPONDENT.)
PARIS. THURSDAY EVENING.

Murders are now so frequent that it is impossible
to notice them all. I have read of three or four
this week the particulars of which did not strike
me as worth recording. But there is a very shock-
ing case in the Droit to-day of the murder, pre-
ceded by the violation, of a pretty and modest
country girl while she was walking home by herself
across some fields, which I mention on account of the
success with which a provincial advocate-general
struggled against the tendency of country juries to
find " extenuating circumstances " even in the
worst cases. The case in question was tried at the
Poitiers assizes, on Feb. 20. The public prose-
cutor, M. Gast, after stating the horrible facts,
about which there was no doubt, concluded his
address to the jury with the following remarkable
peroration :
And now, gentlemen, look at the case how you will,
you must be convinced that the prisoner is in no point of
view deserving of your pity. Nevertheless, the feeling
against capital punishment is so strong that my duty is
to ask my conscience, not merely whether, in this case, it
is deserved, but whether it is absolutely necessary. On
this head I submit to your judgment an argument which
seems to me peremptory and decisive. It has pleased
Providence to distribute the goods of this world in a very
unequal manner. But happiness does not consist in the
possession of riches ; it depends above all things upon a
contented mind. Where in any station of life can you
find greater or sweeter joys than those of family affection!
It is by and through these affections that the poor is the
equal of the rich, and on this ground the outcast of
fortune is often more blessed than the great ones of the
land. But the peasant and the artisan, the poor man in
short, is forced by the conditions of his existence
to suffer his wife and children to work alone in the
field@ and to go from place to place along lone and un•
frequented path., unaccompanied. When he thus neces-
sarily confides the objects of his dearest affection@ to the
public sense of right and wrong, he should be able to
reckon on the unswerving protection of the law. And of
what value is that protection against wretches like the
prisoner whose whole lives are one continual rebellion
against law and humanity For such men capital punish-
ment alone has any terrors. Ah ! uo doubt it is as
painful to you to award as it is for me to ask for such
a verdict. But the voice of duty calls on me too
loudly to allow me to yield to the tendency of
the heart of man which leans towards mercy
when he sees captive before him a disarmed
helpless criminal. All of us here, whether judges, ma-
gistrates, or jurymen, have charge of souls. We must
not, because our own children are safe from such attacks,
neglect the interests of classes below us which are confided
to our care. Every day the prisons and central houses of
correction vomit forth upon society men like the prisoner.
We must not by fatal indulgence encourage their crimes.
It must not be that in some future day the mother of an-
other victim may be in a position to reproach us with our
weakness, and call us to account for the life and honour
of her child. I beseech you to weigh these considerations
in your heart of hearts, and then judge and decide.
The jury found the prisoner, a man named Beau-
regard, guilty, and he is sentenced to be guillo-
tined in the market-place of Chatellierault, the
principal town of the commune in which the crime
was committed.

ADDRESB OF ROMAN EXILES TO GARIBALDI.--ON
the 24th ult. a deputation from the Roman exiles residing
iu Florence waited upon General Garibaldi and presented
an address to him, drawn up at very short notice, yet
nevertheless bearing two hundred signatures. The address
WAS thus worded :—" General,—The Roman exiles resid-
ing in Florence, making themselves the interpreters of the
unanimous desire of their brethren in misfortune, to you,
the first citizen of Rome—you, the chosen regenerator
of oppressed nations, offer to you a fraternal greeting—
the greeting that is continually sent to you from the
heights of the seven hills by the Roman people chafing
under the fetters of isicerdotzd tyranny. May this
greeting remind you that the exiles who are to
go and free their country impatiently await the hour
of action. The hour sounds, general, and awakens the
hope that with your assistance they will be able to rescue
their native land, and restore the head to the scattered
members, making the wished-for shout of true liberty re-
sound from the heights of the Campialoglio throughout
expectant Italy." The DiriUo says that the general re-
ceived the address with much gratification, and among the
many remarks made to the deputation expressive of his
affection for Rome, and of the necessity for proceeding in
all conconl to expel the temporal power, he observed, " I
hope Providence will enable me to aid you in your holy
mission."

Ladies have taken to ask for admissions to the
legislative sittings at Paris, and in the galleries may now be
seen many elegantly-dressed female politicians.
Price Louis-Lucien Bonaparte is at present in
Lower Navarre with the object of studying the dialects of
that ancient province. He is accompanied by the Abbe
Inchauspe, author of the " Verbs Basque Souletin," and
the Abb.:, Cann:iv°, of Beyrie, noar Bayonne.
The Politica of Madrid states that a subterra-
nean patrol has been established in that city, US a class
of thieves who have made themselves thoroughly ac-
quainted with the ramification, of the sewers an in the
habit of working their way upwards from them into
various houses and committing robberies.

In the last sitting of the Belgian Chamber of Re-
presentatives, after the formation of a committee charged
to congratulate the King on the marriage of the Count de
Flandre, his brother, the Minister of Finance presented a
bill to raise to 200,000 fr., with reversion to the widow of
one-quarter of that stun, the annual income fixed for the
Prince at 150,000 fr. by the law of March 14, 1x56.

With regard to the prevailing rates of wages for
farm labour in the United States, the Agricultural
Bureau reports that during January last the average rate
of wages for white labour was 28 dole. a month a:thout
board, and 15 dole. 50c. a month with board. The
average rate of freedmen's labour in the southern states
is 16 dole. a month without board, and 9 dole. 75e. with
board. The highest rate in any state is in California,
45 dole. In the New England states the average rate is
33 dolt. 30c., though Massachusetts pays 38 dolt. In the
middle states 30 dole. 7c. is the average, and in the
western states 24 dohs. The wages of farm labour have
increases! about 50 per cent. since 1860, and about 70 per
cent. since 1835. Excepting in California, all payments
are made in paper currency, which just now rules at
about 6 dole. 60c. to the pound.