The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1825-11-18 00:00:00

LITERARY GLEANINGS.

No. I,Xf.

ON INSTINCT.

There are certain actions, and trains of actions, occa-
,..lle to be met with among mankind, but more fre-
"—gfe and more strikingly among otber animals, wi
lyceum te' the employment of definite means to obtain able-,
40, without the intervention of that chain of thought
constitutes reason ; and which have, hence, been
whichibed to
listinct
instinctp. rinciple, that has been distinguished
Au
ascr a
he the owe
of
' the different species of birds, in constructing their
rots, not only adhere to a peculiar plan, but whenever
ors can obtain them, a peculiar kind of materials. Yet,
it iho: materials cannot be procured, the accommo-
isti,g 'rawer of the instinctive principle directs them
others, and suggests the best substitutes. Thus,
redbreast uniformly prefers oak-leaves as a lining
the
her nest, whenever she can acquire them ; but, if
dtefor
be not to be bath, she supplies their place by, moss
sodiliate. so, where the bird of any kind, about to lay her
P•
isof small size, and the eggs are more than commonly
el
„onerous, the nest is always made proportionably warm,
that the nestlings may all equally partake of the vivifying
beg. Thus the wren, which lays from ten to eighteen
„Fs, constructs her little edifice with the greatest care, and
of the warmest materials ; while the plover and the eagle,
whine eggs are so few that the body of the mother may
easily cover them, build with little solicitude, and some-
times content themselves with the naked cleft of a rock.
A.,d thus, too, in very cold winters in Lapland, the fond
wster.fowl will occasionally strip the down off its breast,
to line its nest and protect its progeny.
wheai a warp, in attempting to transport a dead com-
ion from the nest, finds the load too heavy, he cuts off
tubes], snd carries it out in two portions.
Such is the accommodating power of the instinctive prin-
ciple in animals, when directed to a particular purpose.
Nor are the examples of it fewer or less striking in the ve-
getable world.
It is obvious that the influence of instinct runs equally
through the whole range of vegetable as well as of animal
life ; and consequently its powers or principles, whatever
they consist in, are essentially different from those of per-
cepiion sod sensation. Instinct is the common property of
organised life in all its forms; but lift itself is not neees-
wily connected either with reason or sensation: and it is
of no small consequence that we attend to this curious and
extraordinary fact, the proofs of which are abundantly in
our possession. Mr. Jon sr II eNTia has sufficiently shown
orhiond to be alive, though a fluid, and to have all the
"tame propertiesof life, as irritability, contractility, anti
g power of maintaining its natural scale of heat, whatever
be the temperature of the surrounding atmosphere. It is,
weed, perpetually evincing its attachment to life, by a
doe and discretionary exercise of these properties, with a
view of preserving life, and consequently by a clear maul-
ftetation of an instinctive faculty. It resists equally every
excess of cold or of heat that may be injurious to it ; and
hence sometimes raises the thermometer, and sometimes
depresses it, so as to maintain a healthy equilibrium. It
contracts itself, like the muscular fibre, upon the applica-
tion of an appropriate stimulus, sad conveys the principle
of life, and powerfully assists in applying that stimulus, to
puts in which the vital action is languid, or has altogether
awl. There is no part of the living system that displays
in amore eminent degree the faculty of self-preservation,
alf-production, of attachment to life, or of resistance
to wbatcver is injurious, than the blood ; and yet every
one trust perceive that this faculty is pure monist instinct,
equally destitute of feeling or intelligence.
I have said, however, that the same principle appears to
exist in the fluids or plants; and Mr. KNIOUT appears to
have established this by facts, which are equally surprising
and satisfactory ; for he has shown that the sap of potatoe
and of mint leaves, and that of the team and shoots of
the vine, when plunged into a moist and warm soil, are
disposed, like the blood, to give rise to vascular or organic
forms, and to produce bulbs or roots, more or less perfect ;
and give evident proofs of an effort to preserve and extend
life, and consequently of an instinctive power,--of that
power which consists in every instance, accordantly with
the definition of instinct already given,---in a simple opera-
es of the principle of organised life, by the exercise of
certain natural powers directed to the present or future
gaol o the individual.
Is I:ke manner, the bones, the cartilages, the cellular
steribrane, and even the cuticle, are alive; but, in a state
of health, they are as destitute of sensation, as well as of
intelitgence, as the blood ; and, whether in a state of health
aof disease, are always destitute of the latter ; though, by
'variety of morbid actions, the former is often produced
is all of them. So, in the new-laid egg, we have an equal
proof an instinctive principle,—of the same faculty of self-
presetration, of the same attachment to life, and resistance
tt delruction. For, like the blood of a healthy individual,
the sew-laid egg, whose vessels are merely in a nascent
sere, and which can scarcely be regarded otherwise than
u a fluid, is capable of equally counteracting cold, heat,
and putrefaction; and does forcibly counteract them for a
considerable period longer than egg that has been frozen,
or in any other way deprived of its vital and instinctive
tower.

- Sensation and perception, so far as we are capable of wit-
less*, can only exist in appropriate organs, as the nerves,
or modifications of nerves, which are the only known seat
of the one; and the brain, or some modification of the
111 it. 'Mich is the only known seat of the other; and
hem, whsrever these organs, or either of them, be dis-
coverable, it is consistent with right reason to infer that
the faculty also exists to which they respectively give rise.
Eat, on the contrary, when neither of these organs exist,
as in plants, and a multitude of the lowest tribes of animals,
✓P bare the same reason for inferring, that though life is
levant, and indeed in many instances, peculiarly tenacious
ml vigorous, there is neither intelligence nor sensation ; and
that the whole of their vital functions and operations are
Performed by the common law of instinct, which, acting in
different ways in iliKrent organs and beings of different
!immures, appertains to living matter of every kind, which
is equally independent of nerves and brain, of sensation
and perception; which requires no tuition or discipline,
admits neither of intensity or dulness ; but is perfect and
mature from the first, and uniform in its mode of action
from infancy to old age.
In plants, we meet with examples equally marvellous.
sills, the stalk of the convolvulus twines from the east to
the weft, the face being towards the south ; the kidney-
bean panes the same co. urse ; while the honee-suckle and
the 40. L, take a perfectly reverse direction ; the same sun,
the sew soil, the same atmosphere, operating on all of
them at the mine time. The instinctive power is obvious,
in la also the absence of both sensation and reason. But
who will rcvett to us the cause of this difference ?
In the following instances the cause is-obvious: it pro-
f els from the peculiar structure and powers of the dif-
I, reit animal, ro which they relate : and it would, per-
hlN• be as obviotts to us in the preceding, were we as in-
l'"'otiv acquainted with the nature of plants as of ani-
NI,. The I.ietierel, the lield-manse, and the very curious
ird ca :m1 the nut-hat( 1 , lice equally on hazle-nuts, as
i• 'resit delicious food ; but each of them opetes the
reel in a very 'Efferent: manner. The squirrel, after
off the small end, splits the shell in two with his
fore-te th, as a mgrs does with his knife. The Phi-
l'" nibhke a hole with his teeth, as regularly u if drilled
Iva a wimble, and yet so small that it is wonderful how
he kernel can he extracted through it ; while the elite
40i A picks an irregular hole with his bill; but, as tbis art-
' has
.110 paws with which to hold the nut while lie
Perces it, like an adroit workman he fixes it in some cleft of
'tree or in some crevice, which answers the purpose of a
when, standing over it, he readily perforates the
tart, shell, and, while at work, makes a rapping noise,
'at cosy be heard at a considerable distance.
l et take,
as an example, the very common instance of
rwml Of
Young ducks brought up under a hen, and, con-
lo all the instincts and feelings of a foster-mother,
thP,^R soddenly into the water, while she herself
taw piteously on the brink of the pond, not daring to
v" "d, expecting every moment to see them drowned.
1 !hat kind of experience or observation,—by what train
i:tvlnacought or reasoning, has the scarcely fledged brood
able to discern that a web-foot fits them for swim-
41bd that a Enured foot would render them imps-
A knowledge that mankind have only acquired by

long and repeated contemplation, and which has never
been fully explained to this hour. Habit, imitation, and
instruction, would all concur in teaching them to flee from
the water, as a source of inevitable destruction : and yet,
in opposition to all these influences and premonitions, we
see them rush into it, and hat mlessly : we see them obey-
ing an irresistible impulse, which directs them to what is
fitting, and which is stampt in the interior of their little
frames, and an impulse equally remote from the laws of
mind and of mechanism.
Iu like manner, by what process of imitation, educa-
tion, or reasoning, does the nut-tvecvil, whose little
larve, or maggot, is familiar to all of us, from its being
found so frequently in the kernel of the hazel-tree, seek
out exclusively, and with the nicest knowledge of the
plant, the green hazel in the month of August. while its
nut-shell is yet soft and easily penetrable ? What past
experience or course of argument instructs her that this is
the fruit best adapted, or perhaps only adapted, to the di-
gestive powers of its future progeny ? With a finished
knowledge of her art, as soon as she is sufficiently pregnant
to deposit her eggs, she singles out a nut, pierces it with
her proboscis, and then, turning round with an accurate
adjustment, drops an egg into the minute perforation ; hav-
ing accomplished which, she passes on, pierces another
nut, drops another egg, and so continues until she has ex-
hausted her entire stock. The young nut, not essentially
injured, continues to grow. The egg is soon hatched ; the
young larve, or maggot, finds its food already ripened and
in waiting for it ; and, about the time of its full growth,
falls, with the mature nut, to the ground, and at length
creeps out by gnawing a circular hole in its side. It then
burrows under the surface of the ground, where it conti-
nues dormant for eight months ; at the termination of
which time it casts its skin, commences a chrysalis of the
general shape and appearance of the beetle kind, and, in
the beginning of August, throws off the chrysalid in-
vestment, creeps to the surface of the ground, finds itself
accommodated with wings, becomes an inhabitant of the
air, and instantly pursues the very same train of actions
to provide for a new progeny which had been pursued by
the parent-insect of the year before.
The instances are innumerable: let us, however, confine
ourselves to one more. The sphex, or ichneumon wasp,
in its perfect state, feeds on the nectary of flowers • but,
as soon as she is fitted to deposit her eggs, she becomes
actuated by an appetite of another kind. She first bores a
small cylindrical hole in a sandy soil, into which, by ac•
curately turning round and adjusting herself like the nut.
weevil, she also drops an egg. She next seeks out a small
green caterpillar inhabiting the leaves of the cabbage-
plant, which she punctures with her sting, vet to slightly
and delicately as not to kill it ; she then rolls it up into a
circle, and places it in the sandy nest, immediately over the
egg. She continues the same labour till she has counted
twelve, and deposited twelve caterpillars, one over ano-
ther ; and thus repeats the process of ovation and supply,
till she has exhausted herself of her entire stock of eggs.
She immediately closes the hole, and dies ; intrusting her
eggs to the fostering heat of the sun. The egg in each
separate cell or aperture is soon hatched, and the young
larve finds, in the superincumbent green caterpillar, its
food duly prepared and in waiting for it, and incapable,
from its enfeebled state, of resisting its attack ; though
preserved from putrefaction by the little life that yet re-
mains to it. It feeds progressively on the twelve caterpil-
lars, and, by the time it has exhausted them, becomes
fitted for, and is converted into a chrysalis. In the proper
season it awakes from its dormancy, works its way to the
surface of the earth, throws off its chrysalid clothing, em-
ploys its fresh wings with dexterity, rises into the new
element of the atmosphere, feeds on the honey of plants
instead of on maggots; and at length pursues the very same
train of actions to provide itself with a progeny, which
was pursued by the parent-insect that gave it a being.
-- •

(To be concluded in our next)

YELLOW FEVER IN THE WEST INDIES.

The following details of the fatal sickness which pre-
vailed on board his Majesty's frigate Scylla, in the roads of
Carthagena, will be read with painful interest: they are
extracted from a private letter:—
" The progress of the sickness has been lamentable, particularly
in the death of seine officers of great merit, who had won the
• golden opinions' of all men. amongst whom I deeply regret to
have to number Captain Russell tone of the Bedford family), corn.
mending the ship, who was highly esteemed by all who knew him,
and adored by his officers and men, to whom he was a father and a
friend. Indeed, his devotion to them, with his strong sense of
duty, seem greatly to have accelerated, if not caused his death. No
remonstrance or entreaty could induce him to quit the ship—he re-
mained, amidst death and horrors, constantly visiting the berths of
his sick officers and men, hourly administering to their co:nforts,
and satisfying himself with his own eyes that they wanted fur no.
thing in the least conducive to their recovery. In fact, he was suf-
fering under fatigue. anxiety, Ltd sleepless nights, before attacked
by the fatal disease (which was a long time in catching him), and
the consequence was, that on the second day of his illness he had
the black vomit, and expired on the morning of the third, day.
So rapid and so powerful was the progress of this poisonous disease
in his system, that no medicine, nu protisaional skill, could for a
moment master it ; he had throughout the a'txious attendance of
Dr. Byrne, who, by his treatment of this terrible fever on board the
Scylla. has added much to his already high professional reputation,
as well as to his character as a man, regardless of danger or self in.
terest, when duty and humanity call for his services.
" The first Lieutenant Elkins is also dead. It appears he was
greatly beloved, and to the last he exhibited extraordinary self-pos.
session and composure. When he saw he had the black vomit, he
said calmly—. So, the black vomit, that don't look so well, but
we shall see.' He then spoke quite collected on indifferent subjects.
On the following day he was attacked with a severe hiccup—' So,'
said he, the black vomit yesterday, the hiccup to-day; I believe
it is time to see what I have to do!—place my writing desk on that
table.' He then rose, opened his desk, sat down calmly and firmly,
wrote a letter to his wife, had it witnessed, retired to his berth, and
lo two hours was co more.

" The death of Elkins caused great and general lamentation in
the ship, and I have It also from an eye-witness, that when the
lowering of the flags announced the death of Captain Russell, lan-
guage could not describe the burst of grief from all on board, and
from the convalescents on chore, who had been all the moming
watching, with intense anxiety, for news respecting their beloved
Commander—a dry eye could not be seen—tears rolled silently
down the cheeks of those just recovering front the grave, whilst
others retired to their quarters wringing their hands in agony.
Such a tribute from rough hardy seamen is, perhaps, the most glo-
rious that could be paid to the memory of a departed officer.
" Among the medical gentlemen in attendance the disease has
been more than usually fatal. In my last I mentioned that the
first who died was the burgeon of the Scylla (Quin). At that
time the British ship of war Jasper arrived from England, and
Surgeon Brown was removed from her to the Scylla ; he died.
Doctor M'Cann (an Irishman, recently arrived in the Venezuela,
from New York, intending to join the Colombian service), then
volunteered his services ; he died. Thus three medical men out
of five have fallen victims to the disease. Dr. Aline! (a young
gentleman from Washington City, who volunteered his services
on the death of M'Csnn), and Dr. Byrne, remain so far free from
fever, and as it now assumes a !Miser form, there is every hope
that they will continue so. Indeed, the escape of Dr. Byrne,
under all the circumstances, appears extraordinary as well as
most providential. From the moment Surgeon Quin, who was
the first attacked, sunk under the fever, twenty.hve days since,
Dr. Byrne's attendance—l may with truth say, his labour—has
been Incessant. For, having extensive practice in the city, he has
had to pass frequently a considerable distance, under a burning
sun, to the ship, there to remain for hours, not only prescribing
out administering medicines, &c. to the sick, sometimes sleeping
on board amidst the pestilence, as his assistants sunk so rapidly
that unless he remained nothing eflectaally could be done for
numbers calling for his aid. Latterly he remains below with the
ship altogether.
Some days previous to his death, Captain Russell moved
the Scylla down the Bay about three miles, opposite to Bocco
Grand, where she could have the full benefit of the sea-breeze,
and the Intendente and General Montilla having liberally offered
a military post at that place for the accommodation of the cones-
!emcees, they were landed; and there, on the beach, Dr. Byrne
pitched a tent, where he sleeps and has a hospitable table for the
convalescent officers and others, dividing his valuable time between
the recovering men on shore and the sick on board. A letter from
him, written yesterday, announced that In the three preceding days
there were only five new cases, sad that, with the exception of one,
the fever seemed to assume a much milder form; that one man who
was ill fourteen days with black vomit severely watt recovering, and
that the pcoipect altogether seemed to he more consoling. Though
the deaths on board the Sylla are truly lamentable, they are, in
amount, considerably below the number recovered. The account
stands thus:—
" Captain Russell. Lieutenant Elkine, Surgeons Quin
and Brown, Dr. M' o Midshipmen ( Miller, and another
whose name I forget), the 'n's Clerk (Barnes), and fifteen
men dead.

" Captain Bombard (of the Life Guards', and Aide.de.Camp to
General Sir John Kean), Actinic Lieutenant Dixon, the Ounner,
the Boatswain, and upwards of fifty men convalescent."

We hope that an experiment, tried at the late Assizes
for the county of Berke, will become general throughout
the United Kingdom, and also at the Quarter Sessions—
we mean the distinguishing in the cab ndars the prisoners
who cannot read nor write, from those who can.

THE BRITISH PRESS.

COURT OF ASSIZES, PARIS.

TRIAL FOR POISONING.
Denis Plessis, a cooper, 29 years of age, war: accused of having,
from hatred and jealouvy, endeavoured to poison a yellow-workman
named Bachelet, who was employed with him in the service of the
widow Berthe. Bachelet was the junior of the two, but had never-
thelevs been chosen to till the post of foreman, to the prejudice of
the Accused.

On the 15th July last, Bachelet and Plessis sat down to table
after having worked the whole day together ; whilst eating the soup
that 31adame Berthe had served hint with, B.tchelet tasted in it
a moat detestable flavour; he however continued to eat it, on the
assurance of Madame Berthe that there was nothing the matter
with it except that the egg-shells might htve got into it. He, how.
ever, felt seriously indisposed, but was relieved by the skill of Dr.
Perronneau. It became suspected that thesoup contained arsenic, and
it was remembered that, on July li preceding, Plessis had noticed,
whilst working in the cellar of M. Guillet, a druggist, two barrels,
which were broken, full of that poison, and that he had taken a
small quantity of it. Traces of a white powder were found in his
pocket, and even in the loft he slept in, which, upon being analysed,
proved to be arsenic. Plessis was not, however, immediately ar-
rested, and the prosecution he at present suffers is merely owing to
the imprudence he was guilty of in going to a Commissary of the
Police, and laying a complaint of defamation before him concern.
ing the bad reports that were spread by Mad. Bertha and Dr.
Perronneau, concerning him.
This trial was to have been brought on in October. but the ab.
Knee of witnesses prevented it. It occupied the Court the whole
of to-day, under the Presidence of M. the Counsel Haranguier de
Quincerot, whose late family misfortune (the loss of his father at
91 years of age) has not prevented his attendance on this trying oc-
casion.

Denis Plash' wail examined by the PRESIDENT, and answered
with great precision and calmness. Ile confessed to having swept
away what Bachelet had vomited, but denied having drawu water
from the well In order to wash away all traces of it.
The Pamiss: xv—On the same evening you washed your
trousers, and eight days afterwards there were some grains of
arsenic found In your pocket, which had remaned there In spite of
the washing.—lf there was arsenic in my trousers, it can only be
the wife of Mendet who put it there, or perhaps Madame Berthe.
You would suppose, then, that Bachelet's wife would have
poisoned her husband ? It was dnne to ruin me, which may be
proved by the fact of their having told the persons sent to examine
into the matter, to look into my trousers.
The Juge d'lnstrucion* made the examination in person,
and that Magistrate has expressly stated the fact in his proms
verbal. When he asked what clothes you had on on the day in
question, and learning you had on a pair of grey trousers, he had
them examined, and when the tight pocket was unsewed the re.
mains of arsenic were found in the seam. It was on this discovery
that he visited your loft. Who was it that took arsenic there also?
The same persons that put it into my trousers.
If the accusation has any foundation, it was in the loft that you
ground the poison ? I have never touched, nor ground, nor carried
an arsenic into my chamber.
. lou took some at M. Online's, the druggist, a few days before ?
• Answer—Not at all ;it was the druggist's shop-boy who took a
small quantity ; it was Impossible to take any without his seeing,
as he was there to look after us.
AVIto could have come into the shop in order to poison Bachelet ?
—I cannot tell ; it was possible to slip in the back way whilst we
were washing our hands. They cantrived too to put arsenic into
my trousers.
Who are those persons ?—Madame Berthe and Madame Bache-
let, who was on very bad terms with her husband. They had been
upon bad teems for seven years ; they have even been separated.
A year ago Bachelet was at Versailles, and he asked me to fetch
hint a porter to carry off his effects. For three or four months
Bachelet's wife has returned to her husband, and dined with him
at Madame Berthe'a. She has endeavoured to poison her husband,
but not succeeding, she has done all she can to throw it upon me.
She did not, however, denounce you ; and at first there was not
even an application to justice?—lt is clear she hates me, for she has
made false declarations against me, and has persuaded Madame
Berate that I am the poisoner. Five days after the event, Dr.
Perronneau took me aside, and told me that I was suspected, and I
was going to be arrested ; and that if he might advise me, it would
be to obtain a passport for the country, and leave the house. I
answered hitn that 1 had nothing to fear, and that I should remain.
On the eve preceding the day in question, you slept with a man
named Lechene, and hearing Josephine Berthe, whose father had
died six months before, sing, you said that it was not right, and
that next day some misfortune would happen said that it was
unlucky.
You also said to Lechene, after the event. that if Bachelet died,
as exerution would be the conquence. You therefore knew he
was poisoned said that on account of something his wife had
said : on the Monday she said, that if her husband died, his body
would be opened, and that every body in the house would be
examined.

Madame Berthe, the first witness, was then called, but she only
deposed to facts already known.
Bachelet then came forward, and gave his evidence ; he sup-
ported himself in great pain by a stick, without which he could not
walk. Be stated that since he had been poisoned he bad ex-
perienced great pain and weakness in ail is limbs.
Pars [DENT—Has not your fellow workman, Plonk, sometimes
taken articles from the cellars where he was employed ?
Bachelet—l have often seen him, when he was behind me, take
bottles of wine, or spirits. I used not to like it, and I threatened to
inform Madame Berth. of him. But sooner than come to that
point I should have preferred having my share.
Ylessis.—l have never taken any bottle ; it was, on the contrary,
you who brought wine to our house, either in bottles or pails.
Madame Berthe never boys wine, but yet she always drinks, wben
at home, two bottles per day. How it can be done, I can't say.
The Pa ES IDE xx--Some bottles have been found in your box,
which are known to have been taken from M. Poulain's ?
Plessis—lt was Bachelet that gave them to me
Bachelet—lt wan that sort of bottles that he usually carried awry.
M. 111 OR ET, Counsel—Bas not the witness had some disputes
with his wife?
Batchelet—Yes, Sir, in 1818, but we have not sepanted. We
could not agree together, because she is too quick and fiery, end that
lam not. She took a room, and I went to service. After the
the death of Monsieur Berthe she was asked by Madame Berthe to
come and work in the house.

M. MOHET—Eight days before the day in question, did you not
vomit after having dined with your wife?
Bachelet—l did not vomit, I merely had a pain in the side ' • my
wife wanted me to have leeches, but I did not think it would be of
any use.
pr. Perronneau stated that he saw from the first there had been
poison administered.
The PRESIDE NT—Why did you not inform the Police of it ?
Perronneau—l was ignorant whether it was the consequence
of a crime or of suicide.
ou went further; you advised 'lnnis to take flight ?—lt was
according to the advice of Madame Berthe, who was alarmed by the
threats of Phasic who said that if any consequences resulted front
the affair, he should kill her too. I confess I acted rather thought-
lessly, but still not from my own opinion; 1 had the advice of two
other persona.
M. BAYEUX, Avocat-General—You had only to consult the law,
which enjoins you to declare the matter immediately, under a penalty
of 300 francs.

The PnICSIDENT—It is thus that the blameable weakness of
many physicians often prevents justice from following up the
traces of crime► that have been committed.
M. Orfila, Professor of Medicine, and/M. Bartuel, a &mist.
were the persons who analysed the arsenic found in the pockets and
chamber of Plessia. They stated that the quantity that must have
been put into the soup was sufficient to poison several people.
Dr. Marc gave evidence to the same effect.
The depositions of Bachelet's wife did not excite so much inter-
est as was expected. Newts did not renew hit charges before her.
She deposed that Plesgis had offered to watch her husband at night
when be was ill, but that she had refused to let hint, from a kind of
t.resentiment

Napoleon Lechene repeated the conversation which had passed
between him and Plash, the evening before the event in question.
The prisoner still denied the correctness oftite statement, and
endeavoured to explain that conversation.
Madame Mercier, a pork-butcher. then gave evidence to a
very important fact that had not lieftee bees noticed. I was
said she, at Madame Berate's, who is my neighbour, when
the notices were brought for the witnesses to attend the Court. 111.
Louis Bachelet said to me—" my God, neighbour, if it had been
in powder I should have been a lost man." flow ? said I ; was
you not poisoned with a powder ? Bachelet replied, that the arie-
nic, as the physicians had told Aron, was not enough broken. It
was that then, cried 1, that he was breaking just before my depar-
ture for the country ! In fact, I remember very well that on the
7th July, about five or six o'clock in the morning, whilst at my
window, which looks upon the little court opposite the loft where
Pleats slept, I saw him crushing something upon a little table.
Plessis—lt is false ; I have crushed nothing.
Madame Mercier—l don't know what you were crushing, but
it snapped under the instrument you used. I only tell the truth.
I am sorry to have to give evidence here.
Mons:T—Flow has the witness been called before the Court ?
The PRESIDENT-4 only received notice of it yesterday. The
Avocat-General immediately had the witness summoned, and I
sent to the Commissaire of the Police to take a description of the
place.
N. BAYEUX—M. Berthe, immediately after the conversation
with Madame Mercier, conducted her to the J Juke d'lnstructicm.
This Magistrate found it WaS too late for him to receive her decla-
ration, but haßtened to give me notice of it.
Madame Mercier--I did not wish to leave ety business, but
Madame Berthe told me that it was absolutely necessary that it
should be known, for that It was said it was her or Piesais who had
poisoned Baehr! t.
N. MoaET—This is very strange on the part of Nladam Berthe.
bladame Berthe—l certainly did say that ; but knowing that it
wax not myself, I meant that it must he Plessis.
Madame Mercier—M. Bachelet also told me that Plessis ac-
tutted his wife with having poisoned him. I then said I should go.
The PRESIDENT—The Gentlemen of the Jury will take nutice
that it was on the 6th of July that Pleads was in the cellar of the
druggist, where he might have got the poison. It ix on the (110111.
in g of the 7th, the following day, that be was seen to crush some-
Cling hard.
Several witnesses were called for the prisoner.
111. Duchene deposed that it was him who ',Nixed Plessis to go

• An Officer who examines into all tact., and upon whose report
the whole proceedings in a case are founded.

and complain to the Commissary of Police of the reports which Dr.
Perronneau and Madame flerthe spread abroad concerning him.
The other witnesses were called as to the prisoner's moral cha-
meter, &e.
AI. Bay EU x, A vocat-General, said that it wan with great grief
that he saw himself obliged to sustain an accusation strengthened
by such irresistable evidetce.
In this evening's audience, M. Moret will enter upon the pri-
loner's defence. The verdict will be given in the night.
P.S.—Quarter past eleven.—The Jury have found a verdict of
Guilty, by a majority of seven voices to five. The Court concurred
with the majority of the Jury,gand Plessis waa in consequence con-
clewed to death.

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