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

Extraordinary Trial,

A cause celebre is now being tried at Air, All
the principal journals have sent special reporters,
and MM, Jules Fevre and Lachand are retained £pr
the defence.
Ia July last, a man named Maurice Rout, 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 n wound en the back of his head, a

rope tightly drawn round his neck, his bands tied
bq:hind his back, and apparently in a dying state.
It was in the evening that he was thus found. The
man had been missing all day, and M. Armand had
saveral times spoken angrily of his abtence fzom
his duties. A maid-servant in the house, who had
heard her master inquiring for Maurice 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 prorluced 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 mon explained that,
while he was sawing wood in the cellar his
master came behind him, and saying, " Je t'appron-
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 Rout 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 j udge. 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
when judge and jury were assembled, and the Pro-
cureur Imperial ready with his speech for the PO'
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
curiosity 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 hia

life, so that it was impossible for him to appear.
Tho 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 appiitd 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 th© opening o the trial
Maurice Roux did not answer, and it was stated in
ceurt.t hat 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 up 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 owl hands behind hlm,
upon the calculation that by accusing his master,
who has the reputation of being a violent man, and
is said to have struck his servants before, he should
get a large sum of money out of him. This theory

fessor of medical jurisprudence in Paris, and by
Dr. Jacquet, 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.

MRS. 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.--ALsers.
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 RIVER.-Shortly
before the start for the Univerei y boat-race on
Saturday morning, when the river was crowded with craft
of all descriptions, en accident, attenaed 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 fine boy, named Benjamin
Wheeler, between 12 and 13 years of age, the son of re-
spectable parents residing in Chesrer-street, Lambeth, was
carried away with the tide and sank. About the same time
a boatman, named Enouh 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 eank,
and was carried away by the tide.

TilE ODIOUSNESS OF DIRECT FAXES.—As for
direct taxes, they may be inure logic il, but they
have one drawback—the taxpayer cannot be shorn without
being aware of the liberties taken with his golden or
silvern fleece. An old woman might sip her tea through
life, and no more know that her little caddy helped to keep
the great state engine at work, than M. Jourdain knew
that he had always been talking prose. But ask Mrs.
Partington for one sixpence through the agency of a
man with a big book, spectacles, and an inkhorn, and she
will appreciate her sacrifices in Britain's cause. Direct
taxes are always odious. Hundreds of thousands hold the
superstitious belief, that the inventor of the window duty
was struck blind as a punishment for his impious tamper-
ing with the light of heaven. And that the income tax is
not regarded with any particular favour, it needs but a
glance at Punch to prove,—Chambers's Journal, New and
Improved Series.

WHO ORIGINATED TIIE PENNY POSTAGE P—One
Murray first ".set up" the penny rate in London for
the collection and delivery of messages and parcels. Ho
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 London; 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 favourities at Court, and other "dis-
tinguished personages." Dockura was compensated for his
loss, and made general controller, but for subsequent mal-
versation of the funds he was eventually dismissed the
public service.—The grocer.
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.
irlIE WOODEN SPOON !—A list of the votes of
those members of the Gorernuient who are in the
House of Commons is produced at the Whitebait Dinner,
and ha 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 Hrtngerford-market, bought a child's
penny mug and a wooden epoon. After dinner, when the
list of votes had been read out, the penny mur, 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 FEEE HOSPITAL, DEVONSHIRE-
SQUARE, CITY.—The aggregate number of patients relieved
during the week ending March 19 was—Mtdical, 1,072 ;
surgical, 617 ; total, 1,719, of which 545 were new eases,

SECOND EDITION.

SUN OFFICE, HALF-PAST 4 O'CLOCK.

LREITTER'S TELEGRAM.]
THE BOMBARDMENT OP FREDERICA.

KOLDING, MARCH 21.

The batteries before Frederica ware finished and
armed during the night between the 19th and 20;h.

inst.

The Danes made a sortie during the night, which
was repulsed. On that occasion Lieulenant von
Schaper, three Guards, and one soldier of the line
were killed.

The bombardment of the town was commenced at
5.30 a.m. yesterday. A canonade was also kept up
against the Danish encampment.
The shots told very well, and the town was Ed
on fire in several places.

Several of the enemy's guns were dismounted.
Their fire was moderate and incffec!ual, One
Austrian was wounded. The bombardment con-
tinues.

The Crown Prince, Prince Albrecht, and the
Prince of Hohenzollern were on the field.