The National Register.
London, England, 1815-11-19 00:00:00

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 1/315. -

PO D QUIS ITN N.

TRIAL OF NEY AND CONDUCT OF lIIS JUDGES.

The greatest surprise has been excited by the conduct of
'-the Military (.;ommissiOn appointed to try Marshal Ney.
Their declaration of incompetence has been considered as
a subterfuge, to relieve them from the difficult situation in
.whielt-they were placed, and to throw the burthen upon
the- King; and -the branch of the Legislature most iuti-
matelysonnected with him. This, to a certain extent, is
undoubtedly the fact. Disposed to favour the escape of
..the traitor, and yet afraid of bringing down just vengeance
epos their vwn heads, if they• did rot fulfil their duty,
they eagerly seized the opportilnity which the protest of
the accused afforded them to avoid the two evils which
',they could not otherwise fail of incurring—the resentrneUt
'of the Court if they acquitted, and the vengeance of the
army if they condemned the criminal. Another motive
may also have directed their conduct,—conscience. We
know that few will attribute much influence on the
part of that power over the minds of French revoln-
tionary Marshals : bat there are moments and circum-
stances which call forth virtues from the most aban-
doned men. Placed as judges over an, aecomplice, whose
guilt every. examination only proved thetn tolave shared,
how could they dare to decide on his offence and to pro-
nounce his doom ? Their sentence would have beep one
of self. condemnation. If they executed strict justice, and
thus endeavoured to secure the favour of the Government,
they could not repel the conviction that their conduct
would be generally eonsidered as still worse than that of
the owardly wretches who turn evidence. Their only
way of escaping from these difficulties was a frank ac-
knowledgment of their guilt as a reason for not proceed-
ing lith the trial.
,This, private accounts .state them to
have done : and that it was in tenderness to their feelings
that the Duke of Richelieu did not reveal to the Chamber
of Peers all the grounds on which they, had founded the
expression of their own incompetence. We shall now enter
into the historical particulars of the whole of this interest-
ing case.

The Paris Papers of Friday sennight arrived on Mon-
day; they are nearly filled with a report of proceedings
on the first day of the trial of Marshal Ney. The French
Criminal Courts frequently begin their proceedings by
reading interrogatories of the prisoner and depositions of
others, relative to the offences charged. Ney had under-
gone three interrogatories, and the reading of t '‘with
I 01. 1-IL Nu. CCCCXII. .
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the other written documents, occupied the first and second
day, It appears by the evidence, that Ney affected to be
igncirant on the 7th of March of, the landing of Buona-
parte, though the official account had appeared in the
Itfoniteur. Qn the nth he received instructions from the
Minister at War ; and before he proceeded to his desti-
nation, he waited on the King. In the interrogatory he
underwent, soon after his arrest, in the presence of the
Prefect of Police, he confessed that he used to the King
expressions, that Buenaparte, should be be taken, would
deserve to be conducted in in iron cage to Parts; and,
after some equivocations, he also acknowledged that he
had kisstd the King's hand.. On the same occasion he
maintained, as was stated in the defence published about
two months ago by his lawyer, that he was totally ignor
rant of the conspiracy, and that, after assuming the corn-
mend of the troops, he remained for several days faitll7
NI to the King. The evidence partly corroborated this
statement. His subsequent conduct, however, destroyed
any claim he might have, from this circumstance, to indul-
gence; as a proclamation was published in his nannyisoon
after he joined the standard of the Usurper, beginning with
these words—" The cause of the Bourbons is lost for ever."
—Ney states in his defence, that this proclamation sse.;
written by Buonaparte, and had appeared, in Switzerland,
before he had seen it himself—that it was a customary
manieuvre of the Ex-Emperor to forge letters and other
documents bearing the name of his Generals, and to pub-
lish them without asking their consent. He also pretendzs
that it was the conduct of his troops that hurried him
along to defection, and that he deserted the royal cause
merely to prevent a civil war—that Buonaparte had trans-
mitted to him the strongest assurances that Anstria was
his Ally, and that England favoured his designs. How-
ever, it is proved that the Marshal, if he evinced any re-
luctance at first to betray his duty, manifested the most ar-
dent zeal as soon as he took a decision, and even caressed,
with a kind of frantic joy, the very drummers and fifers of
his army, the moment they expressed themselves upequi-
vocally in favour of the rebel cause.

Wednesday, Paris papers arrived to the 13th instant,
the contents of which are of considerable importances--
They inform us of the very extraordinary event of the.
Council of War appointed to tl•y Marshal Nei-, having
declared its incapacity. The Marshal appeared in per-
son before the Court on Friday last, and prctcsied
against the eligibility of a. Court Martial to decide ou
the charges preferred against h:ni, m 's as not a u►

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