The Sun.
London, England, 1863-12-22 00:00:00

CRIME IN FRANCE.

The Court of Assizes of the Alaine-et-Loire last week
cried a man named Maubert, aged 50, charged with having
on the 16th July last, murdered his wife by shooting her
through the body. The prisoner had been for 20 years in
the service of M. Boguais do la Boissiere, at Avrille, and
occupied a lodge at the entrance to the park of La Please,
his master's residence. On the morning of the 16th July
a report of firearms was heard in the lodge, and a few
minutes afterwards the prisoner rushed out calling for
help. M. Boguais and some of his servants hastened to
the spot, and on entering the lodge found the prisoner's
wife sitting on the floor, leaning against a low chair.
She was quite dead, having received a gunshot wound
near the left breast, but from her position she had evi-
dently been placed where she sat after the shot was fired.
The'prisOner pretended that his gun had gone off acciden-
tally when his wife was handing it to him for the purpose
of shooting a wood pigeon which had just settled in a tree
close by. This explanation was believed at first, but the
post-mortem examination stiowed that the gun must have
been fired by a person standing on a considerable higher
level than the woman, as the charge had passed downwards
into the abdomen. The prisoner was accordingly arrested,
and he then gave several other explanations of Ihe pre-
tended accident, none of which accorded with the nature
of the wound. The motive for the crime was easily
found. The prisoner had for years given nearly all his
earnings to a woman with whom he cohabited, and
had even spent on her a sum of money which he
had received for his master. Having been called on to
settle his accounts, he appears to have shot his wife for the
purpose of obtaining a little property which he would be
entitled to sell after her death. All the circumstances
seemed to indicate that he had fired at her from the stairs
which came down into the room. In court the prisoner
offered to show exactly how the accident occurred. His gun
was accordingly handed to him, and a gendarme sat down
in a low chair to represent the murdered woman. This ex-
periment, however, was most unfavourable to the prisoner,
as it clearly showed that the gun could uot, in being handed
to him, have got into the position required for inflicting the
fatal wound, and the falsehood of his story became
evident. The jury consequently, brought in a ver-
dict of guilty, but allowed the prisoner the benefit of
extenuating circumstances, and the Court sentenced him
to hard labour for life.
A horrible parricide has just been committed at Millers
(Marne), on a farmer of that place named Liclapart, by his
son, a young man aged 20. The latter was of a most de-
praved character, and had already undergone a year's im-
prisonment for theft, and eighteen months of the same
punishment for an assault on his father. Two mornings
back the son, after a dispute with his mother, whom he
struck and menaced with a knife, left home to aid his father
in some work in a garden which the latter possessed in
the wood of Itodemat. He returnsd in the after-
noon, but alone, saying that he had left his
father on the road coming home. He then seated
himself by the fire, and remained for some time silent,
smoking his pipe ; the mother at length, not seeing her hus-
band arrive, became alarmed and set out in search of him
with some neighbours—in a short time the body was dis-
covered in the wood, frightfully disfigured. The fury of
the murderer had been such that the head of the victim was
battered to pieces, and brains and teeth were found at some
yards' distance from the body. The son, who had also left
the house on the pretence of aiding in the search, disap-
peared, leaving some part of his clothes on the banks of the
Marne, in order to lead to the idea that he had committed
suicide. The police are in search of the murderer, and a
description of him has been circulated.
I

THE IRONWORKS OF SOUTH WALES.—The advance
in the price of iron has imparted a large amount of
activity to the iron trade of South Wales, and all theworks
of the district are in full employ. Many hundreds of addi-
tional hands could be employed at both the iron and
coal
works, and when the establishments which are about to
commence operations are in full work the scarcity ofEveniein_
catatot fail to be more severely felt than at preatenatie
larger
gration Continues, and after every pay-
works it has become quite an ordinary mactiteYr of
30 or 40
fore the Northern
skilled hands to lea; e, the xuajority of
dhethme success of con-
States. The reports of Jaigh wages
inducements which in-
nexions and friends gee the rest e
fiuenee the men to leave their na:sdir country. It is gene-
demand for iron, the
rally believed that the increast
coos: maces will not only
scarcity of workmen, and other ciirike
ihoo
a that another rise
keep:prices up, but there is eve_ray
the
slupply
or over-produc-
will take place. An increase i
point to be guarded agaimit, or else
tion is one particular pow
as fast as they have gone up.
prices will certainly go down
of furnaces in blast and
The following are the numb er _ out
present time, at the South Wales Works :
of blast, at the
owlais, in blast 13, out of blast 5 ;
Ebbw Vale, 2, out of
D
blast 2 ; Victoria, 2, out of blast 2 ; Sirhowy, 3, out of blast
2; Aberyachan, 4, out of blast 2 ; Beaufort, 6, out of blast
1; Varteg, 1 out of blast 1;
Pontypool, 4 ( all) in blast ;
Curnavon, 5, out of blast 2; Golynos, 1, out of blast 3;
Cyfarthfa, 11 (all) in blast; Conterd9.we, 1; out of blast, 1.
There are also several works at a complete standstill.
CURRAN.-+The Judge interrupted Curran in the
midst of his speech, when an ass began to bray under the
window, by saying, " One at a time, Mr. Curran, if you
please." Presently the judge began his charge to thejurh
and the ass began to bray 8 gain, and Mr. Curran remarked,
~ Does not your lordship hear a remarkable echo in the
court ?''