The Sun.
London, England, 1841-11-27 00:00:00

FRANCE.

TRIAL OF A MEMBER OF THE CHAMBER OF DEPUTIES,
FOR A LIBEL UPON THE GOVERNMENT, IN A SPEECH

ADDRESS ED TO MS CONSTITUENTS.
The trial of M. Ledru Rollin for delivering, and of M.
Hureau, responsible editor of the Courrier de la Sarthe,
for publishing with his assent, a speech to the electors of
Le Mans, on the 23d July last, came on before the Court
of Assizes for the Maine-et Loire, held at Angers on
Tuesday. The Court was crowded at an early hour,
and among the audience were M. Giraud, oue of the De-
puties for the Department, the Prefect, and many ladies.
The Judges took their seats at half-past 9 o'clock.
,After the ceremony of drawing and swearing the Jury
was gone through, the President proceeded to put the
usual interrogatories to the accused. M. Ledru Rollin re-
plied that his name was Alexandre Auguste Rollin, aged
34, advocate at the Court of Cessation and the Coun-
cil of State ; and M. Hureau that his name was
Barthelemy, his age 24, and that he was editor of the
Courrier de la Sarthe. In answer to a question from the
President, M. Ledru R6llin admitted that he did deliver
the incriminated speech, in the presence of about 200
persons, in a house which he believed belonged to M.
Barre, but whether the doors were open to all who might
please to enter, lie could not tell, as he only entered the
town on the day before, and was not acquainted with any
of the preceding arrangements. The speech, he de-
clared, was delivered impromptu, and after it was pro-
nouncedle was informed that it had been taken down, and
several electors requested his consent that it should be pub-
lished, which he gave; because he did not feel himself
at liberty to refuse. The President then questioned M.
Hureau, who stated that he had caused the speech to be
inserted in his journal without receiving orders from
any one. The Procureur-General addressed the Court
for the prosecution. He maintained that the speed' was
an excitation to hatred and contempt against the Go-
vermnent, as it represented it as the sole cause, of
the miseries of the people, whereas the ,Govern-
ment was by all the means within its power en-
deavouring to lessen them. But, said the Proctireur-Gene-
ral, it was with regard to the conduct of the Government
towards Africa that a great offence was committed, by
representing that it was to be shortly abandoned in
servile submission to the demands of Foreign Powers.
He then came to what he considered the most im-
portant part of the accusation, the question which
more or less affected the elective franchise, tending to
change not the Ministry, but the Elective Government
itself, that is, the King and the Chambers. This part of
the speech was, he said, full of excitement to revolt, and
was a most unconstitutional attack upon the existing in-
titutions. The Learned Gentleman, after commenting
strong. upon the conduct of M. Ledru Rollin, concluded
the Jury to put an end, by the verdict
by calling Lt.,,
they were about to to excitement of this kind.
M. Ledru Rollin then addressen• iaa;
that his intention was to excite the people to revolt, and
contended that he had not in his speech exceeded this
limits of constitutional discussion. There were, he said, in
Erance twelve millions of persons in a state of misery,and it
was not a crime to inquireinto the means of relieving them.
He recommended what appeared to him the proper course,
viz., radical reform, but he declared to God that he intended
only pacific reform. M. Odillon Barrot, as the friend
and counsel of M. Ledrii Rollin, declared that although
the language of his client in the speech for which he was
now uncial' prosecution was ' warmer, perhaps, than it
might have been, it was strictly legal, and it was evident
that, so far from having excited the people to revolt against
the existing institutions, he had desired no reform in which
the Chamber of Deputies should not co-operate. It had been
charged against his client, added M. Barrot, that he had
called the laws of September impious and parricidal, but M.
Ledru Rollin explained what he meant by-Saying that
the Deputies who had the most contributed to the pass-
ing of those laws owed everything to the press, and
had, therefore, attacked their own parent--and was
not this the fact ? In conclusion, and after having in-
sisted on the right of his client to deliver his opinions
as to the state of society, and to say what he thought
were the means of remedy, M. Odilon Barrot cautioned
the Jury against permitting the Ministry to attack
a Deputy, when the Electoral College had performed
its mandate, for a speech delivered to the electors whilst
they were exercising their privileges; for if such a
power were given to a Government, who could say that
a Deputy might not be prosecuted even whilst the elect-
ors were performing their functions?-31. Arago fol-
lowed M. Odilon Barrot. He began by stating that he
had felt it his duty to quit his various and urgent
avocations, in order to render a service to an esteemed,
colleague and the cause of liberty. The Hon. Gentle-
man, alluding to the charge against M. Ledru Rollin,
that he had drawn a frightful and exciting picture of the
misery of the people, said he had unfortunately but too
much ground for his statement, and it was but natural
that, impressed as he was with a deep sense of that mi-
sery, he should have a strong desire to see it removed,
and enter upon the discassion of the question of ra-
dical reform and the organisation of labour, for which
he was now accused as of a heinous crime. As a
proof that M. Ledru Rollin had not altogether over-
charged his picture, M. Arago observed that of 100,000
persons of the general population born in France, only
50,000 were alive at the end of 20 years and a half,
whilst in the working-classes of 100,000 bora only 50,000
were alive at the end of two years. This, ho thought,
was a conclusive proof of the extent of misery in the
working-classes.—M. Berryer, as counsel for M. Hu-
reau, said he had come to the defence of M. :Hureau, be-
cause he was charged with having published a speech,
containing a profession of faith in favour of electoral re-
form. Under the Restoration, said M. Berryer, such dis-
cussions were never made the ground of prosecution, and
it was an attack upon public liberty to assail them now.
" Do not," said M. Berryer, " prevent men who may en-
tertain different opinions from your own from stating
them to the electors. For my own part, after having
combated the new establishment in the Chamber of
1830, I did not despair of the country, and profited by
the right given to me by the new Constitution to seek
to propagate my doctrines. Would you, gentlemen, de
voted as you may be to the Monarchy oflB3o, renounce,
if a Republic were to triumph, the rights which Republican
institutions might give to you, of seeking to effect the
restoration of the Government to which you were at-
tached ?" The Procureur-General replied, and was in his
turn replied to by M. Marie for M. Ledru Rollin. The
argument of M. Marie was chiefly that his client had not
recommended or desired revolt, and was only anxious
for reform •by constitutional means. The Jury retired,
and, after a deliberation of about an hour. returned
with a verdict acquitting M. Ledru Rollin on the charge
of having committed the offence charged against him
by delivering the speech in question to the electors,
but declaring him guilty of the offence by authorising
the publication of the speech. M. Hureau was declared
guilty of
thet the the
e Presidentpublication.o ui
n about r t retireduthalf
an
to delibe-
rate
hour,
when
t n eTotitu'lerncet:d d it as follows :—M.
andpLedru Rollin to be imprisoned three months, and to pay
lhen on sentence,
pronounced
r . i
a fine of 3,000 francs ; and M. Hureau to be imprisoned
two months, and to pay a fine of 2,000 francs ; the pub-
lication of the speech for which they were condemned, to
be suppressed.

DISTURBANCE
morning
‘ie RvWh cireCatiedi. a
gtheE k
the Chartists at NN°Or
disgraceful disturbance upon the occasion of the con-
secration of the new Church, at Catton, near Norwich.
The Bishop was assailed with hootings and yells, and
during the ceremony at the Church the Chartist band
played. The congregation were much alarmed during the
whole service, in consequence of the outrageous conduct
of Chartists. Several of them were taken into custody for
their disorderly conduct, and a rescue was attempted.
Thomas Abell, Wm. Crone, and Win. Chaplain, and a
man named Votier, were given in charge by the Mayor,
who, with Mr. H. Bolinbroke, took a very active part
in keeping the peace. While the Chartists were being
conveyed to the station-house, Votier was rescued, and
two or three of the police severely wounded. One man,
Neale, was dreadfully cut in the nose ' • another man,
named Didwell, cut on the back of the head by heavy
stones thrown. Missiles were thrown in all directions
in Bridge-street, about twelve o'clock, and some windows
broken ; but, except Votier, all the prisoners were
secured. Aftenvams nine other Chartists were given
into custody for riotous conduct, and some for assault-
ing the clergymen while coining out of church. While
the Lord Bishop was consecrating, Hewett, the Chartist,
came up at the head of a band to the church, playing,
first, " God save the Queen," then they made a halt, and
played the Old Hundredth Psalm. Hewett was taken
into custody, and on Tuesday underwent an examination
before the Magistrates, charged with the disburbance.
Wednesday the examination of the Chartists was re-
sumed. Several were fined SL, and in default committed
for a month to hard labour. Hewett, after a lung in-
vestigation, was bound over to take his trial at the Ses.
sions in two sureties of 50/. each.—Derbyshire Chronicle.

SUDDEN DEATH IN A RAILWAY CARRIAGE.
--On the morning of Tuesday last. Stephen Darby, Esq.,
who lately retired from an extensive brewery establish-
ment, and who resided at Cookham, in Berkshire, left
the Paddington station by the eleven o'clock train to
proceed by one of the first-class carriages, in which he
was by himself, to Maidenhead. When the train stopped
at Slough, a gentleman got into the same carriage, and
at this time Mr. Darby appeared to be dozing. The train,
however, had scarcely started from Slough when the
gentleman discovered that his travelling companion ap-
peared to be in his last sleep. All attempts to make the
guards or conductors hear his shouts for the train to be
stopped and assistance afforded to the deceased in the
event of his having been in a fit, Were totally fruitless,
from the noise occasioned by the engine and the wheels
of the carriages. 'Upon its arrival at the Maidenhead
station, medical aid was immediately obtained, but it was
too late, life being entirely extinct. The deceased bad
been for same time previously labouring under a disease
of the heart, and to this cause his medical attendant at-
tributed his death. Mr. Darby was possessed of very
considerable property. _ _ _

JONATHAN AGAIN.--On Monday week a
young man, who (as was supposed) had died of the
yellow fever at Now Orleans, was no sooner put into
the coffin in a burial dress, than he asked, " Where are
you going with me ?" He is expected to recover.
A red cabbage plant, purchased in February last.
of Mr. Samuel Poxon, seedsman, Castle Donington, and
panted by Mr. George Townley, of Long Whatton, was
cut a few days since, when it weighed the enormous
wt Ott of twenty-nine pounds.—Nottingham Review