The Sun.
London, England, 1864-03-21 00:00:00

Extraordinary Trial,

A cause celebre is now being tried et Aix, All
the principal journals have sent special reporters,
and MM. rules Favre and Lacl3and are retained for
the defence.

In July last, a man named Maurice Roux, a
coachman in the service of M. Armand, a gentle-
man of large preperty, residing at Montpellier, was
found iu the cellar of his master's house, lying on
his face, with e wound on the back of his head, a
rope tightly drawn round his neck, his hands tied
behind his hack, end apparently in a dying state.
It was in the evening that he was taus found. The
man had been missing all eleaaa and M. Armand had
several times spoken angrily of his absence fawn
his duties. A maid-servant in the house, who had
heard her master inquiring for Mautjce Roux, told
him that she thought she heard Maurice groaning
in the cellar. M. Armaad said the girl must be
dreaming, but nevertheless accompanied her down
the cellar stairs, and there found Maurice in the
position described. M. Armand at once ran to
fetch medical men, and a commissary of police.
According to the report of the medical men, Mau-
rice was nearly strangled, and in a most dangerous
condition. He could not speak a word, but was
able to understand what was said to him. The com-
missary of police produced a child's alphabet of
ivory letters and asked the man to spell the name
of the person who had attempted to murder him.
He spelt the name of " Armand"—his master. A
long examination ensued by means of the alphabet,
in the course of which the men explained that,
while he was sawing wood iu the cellar his
master came behind him, and saying, " Is Cs/Trona
drai a appeler ma maison une baraque"—(l will
teach you to call my house a barrack)—he struck
him a tremendous blow on the head with a log of
wood, which felled him to the ground ; then he
twisted a rope tightly round his neck and tied his
hands behind him. This happened at 8 o'clock in
the morning. When Maurice Roux recovered he
repeated by word of mouth everything that he had
indicated by the alphabet, persisted in his story after
being warned by the Judge of Instruction of his
terrible responsibility to God and man if he made a
false accusation, and took the sacrament upon it in
the presence of the judge. M. Armand was arrested
upon this testimony, and at the end of last year he
was brought up at the bar of the assize court of
Montpelier to take his trial on a capital charge. But
woen judge and jury were assembled, and the Pro-
cureur Imperial ready with his speech for the pro-
secution ; when M. Jules Favre, specially brought
down from Paris, had taken his seat in front of the
dock in which the prisoner was placed; and, when
the court was crammed to suffocation with the prin-
cipal inhabitants of the department, burning with
cariosity to hear the case, the news came that Mau-
rice Roux, on his way to the court to give evidence,
had been waylaid and beaten within an inch of his
life, so that it was impossible for him to appear.
The trial was necessarily postponed. The general
opinion in Montpelier was that M. Armand, who
is a very wealthy man, had suborned a bravo
to murder Maurice Roux in order to prevent him
from appearing against him. Maurice Roux, how-
ever, revived after some days' medical treatment.
Meanwhile, M. Armand's counsel applied to the
Court of Cessation for a change of venue, on the
ground that there was so much prejudice against
the prisoner in Montpellier that he could not have
a fair trial there. The Court granted the applica-
tion, and ordered that the trial should take place at
Aix. It is a singular circumstance, and one that
gives rise to many conjectures, and when the list of
witnesses was called at the opening of the trial
Maurice Roux did not answer, and it was stated in
court that when he arrived at Aix by the railway he
was taken very ill. The pubic prosecutor said,
however, that he was expected to attend the next
day. The extraordinary defence set np is that
Maurice Roux's story is a pure invention, that he
inflicted injuries upon himself, put the rope round
his own neck, and tied his own hands behind him,
upon the calculation that by accusing his master,
who has the reratation of being a violent man, and
is said to have struck his servants before, he would
get a large sum of money out of him. This theory
is supported by D. Tardien, the most eminent pro-
fessor of medical jurisprudence in Paris, and by
Dr. Jacques, a leading surgeon of Montpellier.
Nevertheless, the public prosecutor made a crushing
speech against the prisoner, and pressed urgently
for a conviction. The improbabilities on either side
are very great, and the result of the trial is awaited
with extraordinary interest.

Mns, SOMERVILLE, the eminent astronomer, is
at Genoa, on a visit. Although more than fourscore years
old, she is said to be engaged upon a work of literary im-
portance; and such is the fine tone of her constitution that
she read the smallest print and thread a needle without
spectacles.
MALTA AND ALEXANDRIA TELEGRAPH.—M,nsrs.
Glass, Elliott, and Co, have received a telegram from Alex-
andria, dated 9.30 a.m., 19th March, informing them that
the telegraph line between Malta and Alexandria is again
open to the public for the transmission of messages. Uni-
versal satisfaction prevails in Egypt at the restoration of
telegraphic communication with Europe.
FATAL OCCURRENCES ON THE RlVER.—Shottly
before the start for the University boat-race on
Saturday morning, when the river was crowded with craft
of all descriptions, an accident, attended with a fatal result,
occurred just below Hammersmith-bridge. Three youths
were rowing a wherry, when, through their unskilful ma-
nagement, they ran foul of a heavy barge, and the wherry
immediately filled and went down. Two of the youths were
saved, but the third, a very fins boy, named Benjamin
Wheeler, between 12 and 13 years of age, the son of re•
spectable parents residing in Chester-street, Lambeth, was
carried away with the tido and sank. About the same time
a boatman, named Enoch Smith, belonging to Kingston-on-
Thames, was in the act of stepping from a coble on to the
gunwale of a west country barge lying off Battersea, when
his foot slipping he fell into the water. An oar was thrown
to him to keep himself up, to which he held for a minute
or two, and then let go. as it paralysed, immediately sank,
and was carried away by the tide.
THE ODIOUSNESS OF DIRECT TAXES.—As for
direct taxes, they may be more logical, but they
have one drawback—the taxpayer cannot be shorn without
aware of the liberties taken with his golden or
eilve'rn
.fleece. An old woman might sip her tea through
life,
and nt more know that her little caddy helped to keep
engine at work, than M. Jourdain knew
the great state
vs been talking prose. But ask Mrs.
that he had aim..
-, .
xpence through the agency of a
Partingtoa for one
tacks, and an inkhorn, and she
man with a big book, spat. Britain's cause. Direct
will appreciate her sacrifices
Ada of thousands hold the
taxes are always odious. Hundt,
of. the window-duty
superstitious belief, that the invente:
impious tamper-
was struck blind as a punishment for
income tax is
ing with the light of heaven. And that the
not regarded with any particular favour, it L.eed,e but a
glance at Punch to pron.—ambers' s Journal, Nsew and
Improved Series.

WHO ORIGINATED THE PENNY POSTAGE P—One
Murray first "set up" the penny rate in London for
the collection and delivery of messages and parcels. He
was an upholsterer, and commenced his private speculation
in 1681. In 1683 Murray resigned his interest in the ven-
ture to Wm. Dockura, a merchant of Loudon; but in a
trial at the King's Bench Bar, in the reign of Charles 11.,
the right to circulate correspondence was adjudged to belong
to the Duke of York, as part of the General Post; and in
consequence it was then annexed to the Crown, and the
revenues arising therefrom were made subject to the pay-
ment of pensions to favoutities at Court, and other "dis-
tinguished personages." Dockura was compensated for his
loss, and made general, controller, but for subsequent mal-
versatiun of the funds he was eventually dismissed the
public service.— 2 he giecer.
AN ODD DAY TO CHOOSE. -- Lord's Cricket
Ground will be opened earlier than usual this year, the
proprietor announcing Good Friday as commencing the
season, several matches having been arranged to be played
on that day. General practice will also commence,
THE WOODEN SPOON !—A list of the votes of
those members of the Government who are in the
House of Commons is produced at the Whitebait Dinner,
and he who is lowest on the list is probably regarded, by
his Cambridge friends at least, as the wooden spoon. Dur-
ing the administration of Sir Robert Peel, when the Mi•
nisterial party was starting for Greenwich, one of them, in
passing through Hungerford-market, bought a child's
penny mug and a wooden spoon. After dinner, when the
list of votes had been read out, the penny mug, on which
was painted either " James" or " For a good boy," was
presented, with all due solemnity, to Sir James Graham,
and the wooden. spoon to Sir William Follett. This is pro-
bably the origin of the statement quoted by our correspon-
dent.--Notes and Queries.

METROPOLITAN FREE HOSPITAL, DEVONSHIRE
SQUARE, CITY,—The aggregate number of patients relieved
during the week ending March 19 was—Medical, 1,072 ;
surgical, 647 ; tot&, 1,719, of which 515 were new cases.