The Sun.
London, England, 1864-05-09 00:00:00

given as much as £50,000 from his privy purse.
The Government have estimated that an outlay of
more than one million sterling will have to he voted
by the State in order to provide for the permanent
establishment of the emigrants.
Some interest will naturally be m ested as to
the eauses which have led the Circass n people to
abandon their hearths and property and to take
refuge, wrier fearful difficulties and dangers, on a
foreign territory. On this subject it is rather diffi-
cult, as I have already said, to arrive at the accu-
rate truth. The privations, the hardships, and the
loss of life which have attended the first stages of
the emigration have not weakened the determina-
tion of those left behind to brave the same dangers,
rather than rennin on their native soil. There is
ample ground for inference, therefore—and the Cir-
cassians so represent it—that the Russian rule in
the Caucasus is of a nature which cannot be en-
dured. The sacrifice of independence alone would
surely not have induced 300,000 people to fly in a
body from their country; and supposing their na-
tional feelings impelled them to do it, it is probable
that the movement would have been effected in
such a manner as not to expose them to the cruel
fate which they have met. It is generally believed

that the Russiena have been anxious to drive them
out of the country, and to colonise the territory

with the Cossack element. On the other hand the
Russian account is that they have endeavoured in
every way to conciliate these tribes and to induce
them to remain in their homes. Be this as it may,
their failure in this attempt—supposing they were
in earnest about it—does not argue favourably as
to the means which have been adopted to enforce
their rule upon the bulk of these populations ; and
there remains this startling fact, unprecedented in
the annals of modern times—of a vast and warlike
population, under the influence of those symptoms
which are generated by tyranny and oppression,
flying in a body to a strange land rather than re-
main in the power of their conquerors.

A French Poisoning Case.
tThe Count de la Pommerais is to be tried on Mon
day next at Paris on the charge of having poisoned
a widow named Madame Pauw. The idietment
preferred against him, from which the whole of the
following is taken, begins by recording that at the
beginning of November last there lived in a small
lodging on the second floor in the Rue Bonaparte, a
woman of the age of 42, who ever since 1858 had
been the widow of a painter named Pauw. She was
left without fortune and with three children, the
eldest of whom was only eight years old. She
courageously struggled against the difficulties of
the situation in which she found herself, and
her family. La Pommerais had known Madame
Pauw for several years; he attended her hus-
band in 1858, and after his death he very soon be-
came the lover of the widow. Their relations on
the footing of lover and mistress continued to the
middle of 1861, but in the month of August in that
year M. la Pommerais married Mdlle. Dubizy, and
for more than two years afterwards he never saw
Mme. Pauw. He even refused to go to see her
children when they were ill. One day, however, in
the month of June last, Madame Panw to her great
surprise, found him once more in her lodgings, and
by way of explanation of his sudden return, he
said he had hit upon a plan for providing for her
children in the future. He told her that she must
not tell any one of the means, and having thus re-
established relations with Madame Pauw, he pro-
posed that she should insure her life for a sum of
550,000 f., that he would pay the premiums, and that
she should assign the policies to him. But it being
obvious that in this way neither Madame Pauw
nor her children would get any benefit, La Pomme-
rais added that he could manage to get for her an
almost immediate income by this arrangement. He
suggested that a little while after the policy was
effected she should pretend to be seriously ill, and
make the insurance office believe that she was on
the point of death ; then he would go to the com-
pany and propose to them to cancel the policy,
on the terms of paying her a life annuity of
6,000 f., to run from January 1, 1864. He
would share this annuity with her, and
in this way she would be better off than she
had ever before bsen in her life. Madame Pauw
had not the courage to reject this strange proposal.
She shut her eyes to the dishonesty of the specula-
tion. She was incapable of suspecting the real de-
signs of La Pommerais, dominated as she was by her
passion for him—a passion now revived, and
stronger than ever. She blindly consented to let
him arrange the matter as he desired. But La
Pommerais took care not to come into direct con-
tact with the insurance companies. A broker
named Desmidt,through whom he bad only recently
become initiated in all the various combinations of
life insurance, was instructed to tell the companies
that a rich Frenchman, the Count de la Pom-
merais, wishing to provide for the children he
had had by Madame Pauw, desired to insure her
life, which was an excellent one, for their bene-
fit. On this representation six French com-
panies—La Ge7;erale, La National, La Paten:elle,
L'Union, La Phenix, L'lmperial—and two Anglo-
Frenchi'companies, L'lnternational and the Gres-
ham—agreed to issue policies on Madame Pauw's
life for the total sum of 550,000 f. The eight policies
were signed between the Bth and 21st of July, and
the annual premiums agreed tobe paid amounted to
18,8401'. Madame Pauvr was utterly naable to nay
the first premiums. These were paid, through De-
smith, by La Pommerais ; and thenceforth his
only thought was how to get the benefit of the in-
surances which he nad effected. He began by get-
ting all the policies transferred to himself by Ma-
dame Pauw's endorsement, in which she was made
to admit that she had received from him sums of
money equal to the amounts mentioned in the re-
spective policies ; and separate decds, drawn up by
an agent named Louis, repeated the same story.
Doubting afterwards whether he was sufficiently
secure against all possible claims on the part of
Madame Pauw's next of kin, ho consulted an avotie,
named Levens, without telling him what had been
done, stated a fictitious case, and got him to draw
up a deed such as he required. This deed served
him as a copy, and on the 31st of August he got
the widow Pauw to sign another deed similar in
form. But to be more secure still, he got her to
sign a will, in which she repeated that eight policies
were his property, and moreover bequeathed to
him all that she could by law leave, and she even
went so far as to say that she gave him the interest
of the part reserved for her children, without his
being called upon to give security. She was never-
theless a fond mother, and this fact proves how com-
pletely Pommerais had obtained an influence over
her, and how blindly she did whatever he required.
The time now came for La Pommerais so to act
that all the pains he had taken might not be
futile and unproductive. The death of kladame
Pauw was the only event which could relieve him
from the payment of annual premiums (the
next of which was due in January) quite beyond
his means, and at the same time put him in pos-
session of the £550,000f. He had long pre-
pared himself with the necessary poison. As far
back as the month of June, when he renewed his re-
lations with Madame Pauw, he bought a gramme of
digitalis, and a week later he bought two grammes.
lie perfectly well knew that this poison leaves no
trace behind, but it was important for him to be
able to explain in a more or less plausible manner
the vomiting, which digitalis never fails to cause.
With this object he reminded Madame Pauw, as
soon as he got the will from her, that in order to
got her policies bought up by the insurance offices
upon advantageous terms, it was necessary that she
should simulate an illness. She at once followed
his counsels, and one day in September, a window
frame having fallen down with a great noise upon
her staircase, she took the opportunity of saying
she had had a violent fall, and after that time com-
plained frequently of a
went further, and consulted several physicians, who
gave her prescriptions which
in the stomach. She
which she took care never
to follow,;but handed over at once to La Pommerais.
The month of November came without Madame
Pauw, although she continually talked of her illnes 3
end her pain ie the stomich, ever ceasing to busy
er;elf with her ordinary occupation. La P DM"
eiereis then thought that the preliminary stages
had gone long enough, and that the time had come