The Sun.
London, England, 1847-10-12 00:00:00

,RIT of the PUBLIC JOURNALS.
Iracm THE MORNING PAPERS OF THIS DAT.

TIM-ES.—The Paris papers, which we have just
received, bring us the report of the trial and the sen-
tence of the now notorious Beauvallon. We need
not remind our readers that this man escaped a
capital conviction on the charge of murder, and that
on the recent trial of his accomplice for the perjury
by which such impunity had been secured, he ren-
dered himself again amenable to the law by returning
with abutdant interest the false swearing which had
been so serviceable to himself. Nearly two months
have elapsed sine this occurrence, and it having been
ascertained in the interval, by the preliminary inquiry
which in France supersedes the forms of our grand
juries, that a sufficient case existed fir the prosecu-
tion, the prisoner on Friday last was brought to the
bar of the Court of Assize to plead to the charge
against him. We must beg of our readers to observe the
methods by which, in France, a person moving in
distinguished literary society, and professing to cor-
rect and inform public opinion, endeavours to exempt
himself from an. inculpation, alleging that he had
been swearing and suborning false oaths in order
to shield himself frori the penalties of murder. We
will not trouble ourselves to pronounce an opinion as
to the truth or falsehood of the circumstances on
which the defence is based—we simply pray our
readers to remark—what on either supposition may
Ist most plainly inferred—the ideas which must be
generally current in a society before which such pleas
as these are confidently urged by one very competent
to select those which promised best for his reputation
and his release. The original charge against Beau-
vallon was to the effect that he had laid a plot for in-
volving a troublesome rival in a duel, that he had taken
a tress:herons and deliberate advantage of his inex-
perienced adversary in every particular, and that he
had at last coolly and circumspectly shot him through
thkbrain with a pistol, of which he knew the exact
capabilities, and which he had brought hot to the
field from that very morning's practice. On this
charge he was acquitted by the evidence of his
second, D'Ecquevilley, who swore that Beauvallon
bad never seen the pistols before. For this evidence
D'Ecquevilley was tried as a perjurer in August last,
and after endeavouring to clear himself by chal-
lenging VA witnesses against him, and asserting that
his family was ranked among the noblesse of Franche
Comte in the 17th century, was righteously con-
signed to infamy for the remainder of his life. This
judgment, therefore, decided that the guilty fore-
knowledge of the weapons had been duly proved. But,
as Beauvallon on this occasion swore to the contrary
on behalf of his friend, even as his friend on
the former occasion had so sworn on behalf of him,
he himself now became liable to a similar charge, and
the same evidence which convicted the second is
consequently brought forward to convict his principal
upon the self- same count. In due succession, there-
fore, the several witnesses appeared to prove that
Beauvallon had risen early in the morning to practise
at the target, that he had called to inform persons of
his intentions, that he had deliberately gone through
the exercise in the garden of his second while his
doomed victim was shivering in the snow, and that
the instrument was actually found black and smoking
from the discharge by the surgeon in attendance. To
all this Beauvallon replies simply by a contradiction,
which carries, of course, the usual weight of such
affirmations from the mouths of such culprits. His
grand defence rests upon the demolition of the evi-
dence tendered: by M. Meynard, which was
mainly instrumental in bringing the affair again
before the public, and which originated these two trials
of the second and his principal. The attack which is
to destroy M. Meynard's credit and restore Beau-
vallon's character is conducted as follows :—Beau-
vallon alleges that Meynard's entire testimony is the
invention of falsehood and the suggestion of spite,
arising from the fact that the latter had been defeated
by himself in a competition for the good graces of a
certain lady. In corroboration of this assertion, and
as witnesses to his own character, he adduces the only
matter which beyond his own reiterations, he has
hitherto employed in the shape of proof throughout
the trial. He produces in court, with apparent re-
luctance, the private letters said to be addressed by
this very lady to himself, immediately after that flight
to Spain by which he had eluded the fine im-
posed on him by law for the support of his
victim's widow. We trust that these effusions,
which will be found in another column, may be care-
fully perused. So singularly do they insinuate facts
in favour of Beauvallon—his compulsory participa-
tion in the duel—his distraction even after so blame-
less and ineviffible a homicide—and, as if by pro
phecy, the persecution to which malice and envy
would subsequently expose him—that a suspicion as
to the pen from which they really proceeded could
not possibly be repressed. " Was not this letter
written for your own defence ? " asked the President
of the delinquent, observing that it had neither
post-mark nor other proof of authenticity. The pri-
soner's advocate adroitly demurred to such a ques-
tion, which the reader will perhaps answer for
himself after perusing half a dozen lines. " Believe
me," says the writer, "it is not necessary to have
done people harm to be detested by them ; it is
sufficient to be superior to them in every respect.
Do you believe, for example, that you will ever be
forgiven your success in the world, your position
at the head of a widely-circulated journal, your book
so much applauded, and those honourable decorations
which you have obtained at the age of twenty-four ?
Listen tell you that in less than three months
you will pass—you, so good, so upright—you, soft-
ness incarnate—for a bully, with a hard heart and a
pitiless hand." But, the true force of the whole
allegation will not be felt till the reader arrives at the
intimation that this lady, who administers consola-
tion, who deprecates treachery, who cheers the spirit
and confirms the piety of the exile, who so rejoices
at the intelligence that he is improving his "fine
qualities " by the example of a Spanish Ministry,
and his mind by the libraries of the Escurial,
whose confidential devotion is exposed, and whose
aeoond-hand praises are repeated in order that the
latent virtue of her beloved correspondent may be
made known to the world—is the wife of another
man ! That high sense of honour which murderers
and adulterers never lose in France precludes, of
course, the disclosure of the lady's name, and M.
Beauvallon throws himself with confidence on the
delicacy of his countrymen in relying upon the un-
AORed letters of an anonymous adulteress for esta-
blishing his unsullied innocence and clearing his
clouded fame. We hope so bright an appreciation of
himself, and so just a calculation of his audience as
is shown by his selection of such a mouthpiece to
proclaim his merits, will not be lost in this
country. That they were not made without a
little encouragement may be gathered from the
following fact. M. Granier de Cassagnac, whose
name figures with most equivocal credit in this
nefarious murder, who is the brother-in-law of the
assassin, and the owner of the famous pistols whirl}
were lent for the deed—who, at the late trial, endea-
voured to intimidate the witnesses by challenging a
dangerous deponent in the witness-room, and whose
conduct: was rebuked in open court by the Pre-
sident, has so far retained the favour and confidence
of his former gossips in high office that he has re-
cently been dispatched on a Government mission to
Rome, there to represent in some sort the French
nation, and advance French interests at that pivot
of Christian politics.
With such countenance to his
friends and party,
how hard it was of the Court of
Assize to sentence M. Beauvallon to eight years'
imprisonment !
HERALD.—The defenders of the " Peel system
of currency," who are now falling into a wretched
minority, are very fond of speaking of their oppo-
nents as " the Birmingham sect ;" meaning thereby
to delude people into the notion, that, excepting a
few followers of Messrs. Spooner and Attweod, the
whole commercial community are well satisfied with
the present beautiful system Yet, every now and
then some broad and undeniable fact comes to light,
which utterly destroys this illusion ; and then, all
that these papers can do, is to try to evade such a
fact by a convenient silence. Thus, we expect, will
theyt deal with the following admirable resolutions,
nalltna°u*lss adopted, last week, by the Chamber of
Commerce
I,That
tk city of Edinburgh :
but Without Chamber has observed with regret,
hareassment,6aise the great inconvenience, ems
of this c loss, to which the commercial com-
munityoperation of certaittNias been exposed through the
recently enacted for regu-
lating and controllinrjiZhr: business of banking in
Great Britain and Ireland.
"2. 'That the effect of this legislative interference
has been to prevent the conversion the proper time
into the con-
of the requisite proportion of ea
which can
venient and necessary form of a currency
pass from hand to hand, by Ewing t
pasts, on
an article of commerce which may he '; gold
foreign countries in the course of trade, atioariteed to
time when a free and unrestricted currency is
most
very
required at home—the result of which, under any
circumstances, necessarily is to impede every branch
of commercial and manufacturing industry ; and
when the export is large, to cause embarrassments of
the most alarming description.
" 3. That, in the opinion of this chamber, no satis-
factory reason has been adduced to show that the
banker or money-merchant should be more severely
checked and hampered in his transactions than the
merchant whose dealings are only in money's worth;
or that the free and unfettered action of the one is
not as indispensable to the healthy state of an in-
creasing commerce as the other.
" 4. That Parliament having given its sanction to
the formation of so many railways, and at the same
time having afforded every facility for the free im-
portation of articles of food, has acted with manifest
s inconsistency in interfering with and shackling the
zonnetary system ; for ' with the right hand Govern-
the greatest possible encouragement to
i 074 ' railways, and does everything in its power
r 4 °NIA tab, while with the left it fetters

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