The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1822-08-28 00:00:00

THE Blirn sII PR! SS.

LONDON.
WEDNESDAY. AUGUST 28, 1822.

The rumour grim ground that Lo►d COLCIIFS.
TER is coming into office, and will succeed Mr.
PEEL as Secretary of State for the Home Depart-
ment. His Lordship has taken the house in Spring
Gardens, lately occupied by Mr. SMITH, M.P.
which is fitting up for his teception.

The Paris Papers of Saturday report the conti-
nued proceedings before the Assize Court in the
affair of the Rochelle conspiracy. Harshness to-
wards the accused of the most gross and disgusting
nature, amounting almost to iojustice, distinguishes
the conduct of the President of the Court, and
perhaps accounts for the rudeuens and intemperate
conduct of some of the prisoners. The advocates
too display in the conduct of this rase an extraor-
dinary want of propriety. It hopperied that one of
the prisoners. in explanation of • charge that was
urged against him by the President, stated that
General Mon /cots had told him hr incurred no
danger in announcing himself a Carbonaro. for
that he (the General) hinstel( was one, and lied re-
solved upon leading en insurrection sit Nantes.
Here certainly was a serious accuoation against
Geoeral Marino's, but the ullegation, hoist Ter
improbable, was within the range of vo.sibility,
and might at all events have been made the subject
of further inquiry. if it were only for the purpose
of ascertaining the degree of credit which should
be attached to the further statements of the ac-
cused. No sooner, however, had the sentence been
uttered, than the President fiercely rebuked the
prisoner for having dared to utter such a slander
against " a General of France." The m•tt re.
pealed his assertion, and was again reproached
for falsehood. The Counsel for the accused
very naturally observed that the statement might
poroibly be true, and added, that " they had

lgooon. some Generals of twice faithful to
their honour, while others hail betrayed it."
The remark was at all mats founcled ou truth.;
and seems to have been in its nature ea-
timely innocent, but it bad the effect of eiciting
all the indignation of the virtuous President and of
the King's Advocate-General, and even, as we are
told, of the body of Advocates present ; and they
were all with one accord actually shout to apply to
the offending Counsel the penalties of the crime of
slander, for having by implication defamed General
DMIPINOIS; but they were at length, and with some
difficulty, pacified by his submission. The apparent
object of a public trial in France upon • criminal
charge, is to entrap the prisoner into some admis-
sions, which, by the ingsnnity not of the Advocates
alone, but even of the Judges, may be construed
into a confession of guilt. With this view the ac-
cused are tea iii i l red in private by different persons
et different times, and every apparent inconsistency
that may be discovered in their several statements
is carefully marshalled against them. They are
tampered with by various persons who affect a power
to discharge them, and under promises of favour
they are tempted severally to make statements which
may tend to criminate others, and all these state-
ments, thus made under threats and promises, are
urged as good evidence against the parties whom
they seem to affect.

Th.'s mental torture is continued frequently for
several months, and when at length the prisoners
are brought to • public trial, the presiding Judge
commences the proceedings with • species of cross-
exemination, [pounded upon the united depositions
of nll the parties, as they were obtained or extorted
dining the lengthened course of private inquiry.
It is contended by the French writer!, tint the
proper object of inquiry is to discover guilt, that
it may be punished, end that their modes of pro-
ceeding are well adapted for this purpose; but it is
not fair to offer to any individual the alternative of
perjury upon the one hand, or extreme punishment
upon the other; and the temptation to commit the
perjury is so great, that we cannot feel much surs
prise if human nature should yield to its influence.
One object .of the inquiry is, therefore, from this
circumstance, likely to be defeated, and yet justice
requires that if the testimony of the accused be ad-
mitted at all, it must be received to its utmost ex-
tent, without limit or reserve, as well in favour of
the party as against him. It is clear also that in
this mode of proceeding till men do not stand upon
thwalltalelevel, for as the intellect's.' powers of men
•
edifia as their nerves are capable of greater or less
firmness, so must they fare in undergoing • personal
examination. A clever and quick man, with good
memory and clear understanding, and whose mind
may chance lobe cultivated by the study of low,
must have a fir heifer chance of escape than his
neighbour, whose qualifications may chance to be
of a different chewier. In the present trial in
Paris some dexterity is shewn in the examination
and in the answers, but however amusing these in-
tellectual combats may be to the auditor.. they must
sicken the mind of every man who would anxiously
seek after truth %lilt candour and impartiality.
Ir is announced in one of the Paris Papers that a
camp consisting of 10,000 men is to be formed im-
mediately at Lyons. We cannot presume that this
measure has originated in apprehensions excited by
the Rochelle conspiracy, for this dreadful plot was
known ut less, 18 months since.
French Funds-91 f. Sc.—Bank Actioes 1,626 f. 25c.

Frankfort Papers to the 20th instant, hive era
rived. They contain a melancholy occulted of the
*late of the iAirsid of Seto, in which the barbarity
of the Twits is aggravated by increasing contagion.

An account of the King's visit to Edinburgh up
to Saturday is given in our subsequeut columns.
The Edito► of the Greenock Advertiser, in his com-
ment. upon this suliject, says—

" F,om all we can Irmo of the enjoyment experieured by
his Majesty amidst his Seol.lolll subjects, we have reason to
believe it to be of the highest order. Whatever repelling on.
ticipatlons he may have formed previous to carrying into
execution his long promised visit ; however much he may
hare mistaken the character of the people of Caledonia, mad
believed thews—

" Cold as the reeks on Tomes hoary brow"—
the dvlusiort, if ever it existed,' must Intestate totally venial).
ed. In the midst of them be has experienced their timeli-
ness and sincerity, and been the willies' of their ardent, yet
well-regulated enthusiasm and loyalty. Nothing has more
astonished him, during his vigil, than the absence of that bane
of the peace at large commonities—fhe mob. " A nation of
gentlemen," as he has emphatically termed them—he could
recognize few that were out well dressed, and none that were
not well behaved. This experience, to the paternal heart
of a benevolent Monarch—and such we believe is George
the Fourth—will Imply compensate for the fatigues, which
are inseparable from hta station, and must have been sus.
mined by him in snakier 'trig visit so his Scottish capital. To
Scotland it will be producti►e of Ike best Or eta, by giving
her a mew sad peculiar interest in the breast of the Sovereign
of the Empire, so that, in future, through good report
and evil, through weal soil woe, she will rejoice in knowing
that she powwows the affections and solicitude of her Elv—
a one who will exult is her prosperity, yet will sot, is the
day of peril, withhold his powerful assrstaoee is sbieldiag
her from calamity."
. .

An diplomatic movements excite increased in-
terrst since the death of the Minister for Foreign
Affairs. ‘Vhether the departure of Sir Wit.t.tax
A'Courr, as Ambassador to Spain, has been hast-
ened by that event, we cannot say; but iu order to
insure a quick conveyance to the Continent, the
Talbot steam packet has been of selected to
convey his Excellency and suite; and lest morning
they embarked at lialf.past six o'clock at the Cos-
tum-bouse Quay, on board that regret,

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