The Sun.
London, England, 1841-12-20 00:00:00

MORNING SUN

FRANCE.
(PROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)
PARIS, DEC. 16.—The sentence of the Court of Peers
is not yet pronounced on the individuals under trial b&
fore that Star-Chamber tribunal, although the evidence
and pleadings have all been gone through. It will pro-
bably not be known for the-next four-and-twenty hours,
bur its tenour is pretty confidently anticipated. The pro-
secution against one of the most insignificant of the pri
soners, a man named Prioul, has been abandoned, and he
therefore will be set at liberty, but the rest will all be
found more or less guilty, and condemned to various pe-
nalties. In his reply the Procureur-General spoke
out rather more openly about Dupoty, and those of the
prisoners who are accused of having formed a complot.
He admitted that the evidence might not perhaps go so
far as to show that they had all conspired in common,
but he maintained that they had conspired by fractions—se-
parately, that is to say ; and " what could they have
conspired for," he asked, "if not for this attempt ?" He
then reminded the Court of Peers that they had, on no
better grounds, adjudged in 1834 the persons implicated
in the Lyons disturbances, to be guilty of conspiracy ;
and lie encouraged them to follow up their practice by a
similar verdict on this occasion ; adding, that after all
they were not so much a Court as a Jury, not tied down
by the letter of the law, but free to act as their con-
sciences and opinions dictated to them. Such is the
state of law in France at the present moment ! The
practice of the Court of Peers, and-the doctrines of the
French Crown lawyers at the present thy, are exactly
what existed in England in the times of Charles 11. ;.
and the manners of the Judges are equally brutal and
illegal. Truly the French Government is the " Best
of Republics !" Every body sees clearly that the con-
demnation of M. Dupoty is desired not only as an admir-
able precedent for future proceedings against the Press,
but also as a set-off against the continued defeats to
which the Government has been lately exposed in pro-
secutions before Juries both in the capital and the pro-
vinces. Thus, though the law officers of the Crown have
obtained one verdict against the Editor of the National

in Paris, and though I. Ledru Rollin has been found

guilty cf sedition by a packed jury at Angers, yet the
Government has sustained signal defeats at Arras and at
Evreux (where the Journal de l'Eure has just been ac-
quitted), and at Pan, when all the "conspirators" of

'Toulouse—one ins'g,iiiicant person except,al—have been
freed from the accusations brought against them.
In the capital, too, the Government has lost
all the leading prosecutions of the year, so that
something to put on the other side of the ledger
is absolutely indispensable, and this piece of dirty work
the Peers are required to perform. The fact is, that
they are already so " double damned" in public opinion,
that any iniquities they can now commit will add but little
. .

to the contempt in which they are held; and therefore this
verdict will produce much less sensation than if it had
not been anticipated. As to Quenisset, Dufaur, and
some of the men whose guilt of the attempt at assassina-
tion is evident, nobody can dispute the justice of their
being punished : but the law of the case turns entirely
on M. Dupoty, and public attention is directed to him
almost exclusively. It has been well observed by a
Legitimist Paper, that if the mere receipt of a letter
by the Editor of a Journal is enough to con-
vict him of complicity in the opinions and actions
of the persons writing it, though he might not know
him even by sight or name—(and this is the case of M.
Dupoty with the letter sent to him as Editor of the
Journal du People by Launois), the narrow slit of an
editor's box will become as dangerous an instrument of
tyranny as the brazen jaws of the Lion of St. Mark at
Venice.

A most amusing instance of French political law has
just been witnessed near Grenoble. Last summer, dur-
ing the troubles excited by M. Humann's illegal orderS
foe the taking of the census, search was made in the
small town of Vizille in the Isere for a depot of arms
said to be kept there. Two brothers of the name
of Avril were possessors of the house. No arms
whatever were fount!, except an old fowling-piece ;
but there was discovered the draft of a letter without sig-
nature, date, or address, the purport of which seemed
to be connected with some political meeting, but for what
object, or when, or where, or with whom, it was to take
place, no mention was make. This was quite enough to
found a prosecution on : the paper was sworn to be in
the writing of one of the brothers, Avril, who was ac-
cordingly brought to trial last week before the Correc-
tional tribunal of the district. No witness whatever was
called by the law- officers of the Crown, nor any evidence
whatever offered, except the putting in of the draft of
the letter mentioned above. Of course as the King's
Procurator had done the tribunal the honour of giving it
cognizance of a political case, the Judges could not be
so unpolite as not to gratify him with a condemnation ;
and therefore without any further ado they adjudged M.
Avril, to be guilty, of what P—of a conspiracy !—one
man guilty of conspii iny with himself! and they actually
sentenced him to a mouth's imprisonment, with costs.
It should be died that he had previously been detained
in prison, under accusation of the crime, for four months.
A case parallel to this cannot perhaps be quoted in the
present century ; and we should have refused to believe
it had
,we not read it in the official Government paper,
the Moniteur. Certainly the French Charter must be a
most glorious one to have produced fruits like this !
The French squadron must by this time have sailed
from Toulon; seven ships of the line have been detached
for troops to Algiers, and the destination of the rest is
still as uncertain as when we wrote last. If this squa-
dron is ultimately destined far the Levant, it is only in-
fended as a sop to. be thrown to the opposition at the
opening of the Chambers. The fact is that the absence
of any French division of importance in the Levant,
coupled with the order for reducing the army, while
England has still ten or twelve sail of the line in the Me-
diterranean, might very well afford ground for opposition
to the address, and, therefore, the ordering of four
or five sail of the line on a cruise without any specific
object, may be alleged by Ministers, in the absence of
any better argument, as a reply to the taunts of their
adversaries. The reduction of the army is really an
important measure, and there is reason to believe
that it will carried into effect. The cause of this
is plain : the Government is horridly hampered
for money, it dares not lay on another sol of taxes, so
universal and so profound is the discontent that pre+ails;
and it has been forced on the King and the Cabinet by
the obstinacy of two of the Ministers. M. llumann, the
Finance Minister, knows the state of the treasury ; he
knows the real amount of the deficit (nine hundred millions
of francs before the recent loan of 150 millions was con-
tracted for); he knows that this deficit is) early on the
increase; that the expenses of the war in Africa, and the
maintenance of the French in half-a-dozen towns
of that country, has cost France one hundred millions
in hard cash for this last year alone, and that next
year it will amount to as much if not more, Abd-el-Bader
being as able to continue the war as ever ; that the for-
tifications of Paris will sink twice as much money as
the estimates arc limited to ; and that under all circum-
stances a fresh loan would not be very easy to raise.
For all these causes he has insisted on a diminution of
the war budget, and it has been accordingly ordered to
be cut down for 1843 by 30 millions of francs. M.
Guizot, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, knows that he
was able to conjure the storms raised against France, by
that Charlatan Thiers, only by dint of pacific promises,
and that after being a year in office, he cannot, in com-
mon decency, continue to countenance the French army
being kept on a war footing. Both these Ministers,
therefore, pressed the matter strongly on Marshal Soult
and the King, and at length, in September last, suc-
ceeded in extorting the Royal signature. 'We say ex-
torting, for they had nearly resigned, the King being
afraid of doing anything to discontent the army, in whose
hands he and his children entirely are ; but the order for
the reduction was issued only the other day. Ministers
fancied that earlier in the autumn it would have produced
a rise in the funds, and so no doubt it would. They
were afraid, therefore, of' having to negotiate the new
loan at rather too high a price, and the ordonnance was
consequently kept in the portfolio of the Y. mister of War
to be used at a fitting occasion. As we have said before,
it will only come into operation in 1843, and Louis
Philippa may be taken off by a bullet before that time!
M. de Lamartine will certainly be put up as a candi-
date for the Presidency of the Chamber of Deputies,and
we think with no small likelihoid of success. Se the
contest will be bt twetn him and M. Sauzet ; he will
‘
unite the suffrages not only of" the Opposition party, but
all those of Count Mole's party also, as well as those of
(
some personal friends amongst the usual supporters of
Ministers. We confess that we expect to see him in the
chair. He will not do anything to oppose the King, but
he will not agree over well with either Guizot or Vine_
main. Count Mole is still very active about something,
probably about getting into office—he_ is such a
(excuse the pun) that he cannot leave
burrowing
under the ground upon which Ministers off
stand, no
matter what may be the opinions of the men
who, for the time being, held office. He has, always,
it should be observed, a better chance than any other
man in France of coming into office, being, the leing's
principal favourite and toady; whilst Count Montalivet,
who is grand lick-spittle to the palace, and another of
antesthe King's antes damnees is always ready to coalesce
with him in any Cabinet he miy form. Mole for Fo
reign Affairs, Montalivet for the Interior,—give Louis
I'hilippe these two, with any thing like a majority
in the
Deputies, and he is ready to go the whole hog.
Every thing at the Tuileries is uncommonly economic
and dull this year. Louis Philippe is breaking, and does
not like large parties ; the Queen, too, is getting more
and more fond of her fireside ; and it is very doubtful
whether any large fetes will be given. The Duke and
Duchess d'Orleans have commenced a series of concerts,
but they can get nobody to go to them. About a hun-
dred and fifty '()vests are the most they can muster ; the
singing acid fiddling is all over by eleven o'clock, the
lights put out, and the guests are getting into their
fiacres to go home. 'Paris is, in-general, dull this winter.
The French all regret Lord Grenville very much ; he
kept open house, as an English AmbaSsadorfought to do.
Lord, Cowl sy
they complain of as being un bon-
ho nme, ratlee• eull, and inclined to be stingy. llow-
ever he is not yet installed in his official residence ; when
he is once settled in the Faubourg St. Vonore, noes cerrons!
Thi

:e question of the line to be selected for the
Paris and Strasburg ad has given rise to much con-
troversy among the towns likely to be affected by it. The
two line; hitherto talked of are that by Nancy and that
by Dion. The former is stroi gly supported by tie
local interests, but the latter is recommended by Govern-
ment as being the best ruited for a main line fnm which
not only the Strasburgtras road but that of Lyons may also
branch off. Chamber of Commerce of Havre,
ha%ing been consulted by that of Strasburg on this point,
has expressed a strong opinion in favour of the line by
Dijon. Meanwhile the municipalities of various places,
more or less important along either line, continue to
come forward with votes of money, land, &c., for pro-
moting the undertaking,
We were in error in stating in our report of the
Music Hall, Store-street, in The Sun of Wednesday,
that 31. Mainzer had or a class in Brighton num-
bering. 800. M. Mainzer has three classes in Brighton,
compr i
isin, n all nearly three thousand pupas.

SPIRIT of the PUBLIC JOUItNALS.

FROM TUE EVENING PAP .RS OF SATURDAY.
GLOBE.—The Tories of South Devon have
been entertained by their Representatives, Lord
Courtenay and Sir J. Y. Buller. The Times,
I whence we obtain our information, describes the
gathering in the inflated phraseology generally
employed in recording, events of the kind. The
company, large—the viands, excellent—and the
cheers, tremendous! The tout ensemble was, in
fact, perfectly enchanting. It was " a most
important political demonstration"—such as
" had not been witnessed for a long time in
the county." As a banquet given to cele-
brate a great political triumph, by a party
which has recently obtained ascendancy in
the country, the constituencies of which have
recently transferred the Government to its hands,
we naturally looked for two things. We ex-
pected that there would have been a fair portion
of professions of constitutional attachment to the
Crown, and of cordial congratulation to the
Queen and her illustrious Consort, on the recent
birth of an heir to the throne of her ancestors.
We looked also for a clear exposition of the
measures which, in the present embarrassed
state of the trading and commercial interests,
and the consequent deep distress of large num-
bers of the population in the manufacturing
districts, the representatives who addressed
their constituents on such an occasion would
be prepared to propose or support, with a view
to their relief. In both these expectations we
have been disappointed. The loyalty was cold,
even for Conservative temperatu re. The whole
of this part of the day's proceedings is aptly,
though somewhat ambiguously, disposed of by
the reporter in two lines. " The usual loyal and
constitutional toasts were proposed and received
with due enthusiasm." Whether the scene which
the recent Exeter Hospital feast exhibited was
repeated, but the description suppressed, as unfit
for the public eye ; whether the health of her
Majesty was received with marked dislike or
with cold respect, rendered more invidious by the
" continued and uproarous cheering" with which
Conservatives deem it consistent with due deco-
rum to express theirrelati ve feelings ofattachment
toward the two illustrious ladies whom they thus
usually bring into invidious positions at their
feasts, we have no means of knowing. Either
may be implied in the phrase, that the "usual
toasts were proposed and received with due
enthusiasm." The public know what Conserva-
tives over their cups have deemed due to the pre-
sent Sovereign. There is nothing in the report
of the Devon meeting from which to infer that
they have improved in their sentiments; al-
though, under their changed circumstances, they
may have become rather mole prudent in their
modes of giving utterance and publicity to them.
If the loyalty of the Devon Tories was cold, their
political orations were equally meagre. Sir R.
Peel could have desired nothing more vague than
the speeches delivered at this " great political
demonstration."

STANDARD.—An evening organ of the Op-
position has returned to the charge upon the
Irish appointments. As this accuser has made
some remarks of the Standard the pretext fbr
its renewal of the war, and charged us with but
partially meeting the case, we shall, as briefly as
we may, dispose of all the heads of accusation.
First, let us explain that we do not mean to
defend the Irish Government from the imputa-
tion of having preferred Conservatives to office;
if the Irish Government had failed to make such
a preference, it would stand in need of a defence ;
it wants none for doing what was merely its duty
to the Constitution of the country, and to good
faith between man and man. The members of
the Government have been placed in their pre-
sent elevated station by the Conservative people
of the United Kingdom, represented by the
great Conservative majorities in the two Houses
of Parliament, because they, the Members
of the Government, are believed to main-
tain Conservative principles ; and, in ordei
that they may as far as possible (without
injury to the public service), promote the
influence of such principles—and it is ob-
vious that one of the most effectual modes
of promoting the influence of any principles
is to encourage them by patronage. We,
therefore, are so far from denying that
the Administration, either in Great Britain
or in Ireland, has preferred Conservatives in ap-
pointments to office, that we boast, on behalf of
Ministers, that they have made this preference
universally when they could do so without harsh-
ness or injustice; and it is a matter of exultation,
that so strong is the Conservative party in quali-
fications of every kind, that Ministers have been
able to make this preference universally without
incurring the reproach of a single unworthy or
inefficient appointment. All the men who have
been placed in office arc admitted by the most un-
scrupulous objectors to be men of fair character,
of competent ability, and objectionable upon
no other ground than an agreement in political
sentiment with the Ministers who have appointed
them, and with the great party who have recom-
mended these Ministers themselves to the fa-
vour of the Sovereign. The accusers of the Con-
servative leaders, who, while these noblemen and
gentlemen stood in opposition, tried to injure
them by the prediction that in office they would
desert both their professed principles and their
friends, naturally enough wish that the predic-
tion may be verified ; but it is a little too much
to make the non-fulfilment of a slanderous
prediction matter of accusation. We come
now, however, to the several articles of im-
peachment brought forward against the Irish
Government. They are as follow :—First, Mr.
Blackburne, the Irish Attorney-General's ap-
pointment of his two nephews, the one to be his
secretary, the other to be his professional junior.
Secondly, the appointment of Mr. Brewster, to
be consulting Counsel to the Chief Secretary fbr
Ireland. Thirdly, the appointment of Mr. Lefroy
to be Baron of the Irish Exchequer. To these
appointments are added, in these lists of wrongs
and grievances, the change of the physician
and apothecary to the Lord Lieutenant's house-
hold, and the reduction in the number of stipen-
diary Magistrates. The alleged oppression of
the Tipperary attorney, who was not allowed to
make his office of solicitor at the Sessions a sine-
cure, is no longer insisted on. Now the bare
enumeration of such a list of grievances, even
were all admitted in the exaggerated shape in
which they have been represented, must demon-
strate upon what trumpery grounds the whole
accusation rests.