The Sun.
London, England, 1841-12-27 00:00:00

THE QUENISSET AFFAIR.

We published in Saturday's columns the judgment
given on Thursday by the Court of Peers, but the im-
portance attached to the sentence, and the controversy as
to its legality as applied to the case of Dupoty, render it
necessary to publish here the preamble of the decree, of
which the following is a faithful abstract :
After reciting summarily the act of accusation, and
that the witnesses had been examined and confronted
with the prisoners, and then reciting textually the requi-
sitory of the Procureur-General, and reciting that all
the prisoners and their Counsel had been heard in their
defence, and that the Court had deliberated upon the
proceedings in seven successive sittings from the 16th to
the 22d inst., both inclusive, it goes on to pronounce
concerning the attentat that—
" Considering that it resulted from the previous exa-
minations and the trial, that on 13th of September last
there was committed an attempt against the lives of their
Royal Highnesses the Dukes of Orleans, Nemours, and
Aurnale, members of the Royal family; considering that
Quenisset, alias Papart, had been convicted of making
the above-mentioned attempt; considering that Colom-
bier, Brazier (alias Just), Petit (alias Auguste), Jarrasse
(alias Jean Marie), Dufour, Boggio (alias Martin), Mal-
let, and Boucheron are convicted of having been accom-
plices in the said attempt, either by exciting it with me-
naces or culpable machinations or artifices, by giving in-
structions for its committal, by knowingly and wilfully
procuring arms or other means for its execution, or by
knowingly aiding and abetting the person who made the
attempt in the acts which prepared and facilitated or
consummated it; considering that there does not result
from the trial sufficient proofs against Launois, that he
participated in the said attempt either as principal or ac-
complice :

"In so far as concerns the conspiracy, considering
that it results from the previous examinations and the
trial that a plot was formed for destroying the Govern-
ment, and exciting the citizens or inhabitants to arm
themselves against the Royal authority, or against each
other ;—considering that the plot was conceived and
agreed upon in secret associations, the members of which
were bound by mutual oaths to take up arms upon the
orders of their chiefs, with the intention of changing the
Government ;—considering that according to the terms
of Article 69 of the penal code there is complicity of
crime or offence on the part of all those who by intimi-
dations or artifices excited their committal, or gave in-
structions to that effect, or who aided and assisted
the principal in his attempt in the acts which
prepared, facilitated, or consummated it ;—consider-
ing that Article 1 of the law of the 17th of May,
1819, has ranked among the ordinary acts which
constitute complicity, every excitement followed by crime
or offence by written or printed papers, sold or distri-
buted, put to sale or exposed in public places or meet-
ings, whether there be or not any personal connection
between the author of the excitement and those who
commit the crime; that this provision forms part of the
penal code according to the terms of article 26 of the
law of May 17, 1819, which, in abolishing articles
102, 217, 367, 368, 369, 370, 371, 372, 374,375, 377,
of the code, orders that they shall be replaced by
the provisions of the said law;—considering that the
law of the Bth of October has not exacted any-
thing relative to excitement to crime, followed by
results, committed by one of the means of publica-
tion provided for by article 1 of the law of May 17,
1819 ; that if the law of the 9th of September, 1835,
has characterised as attempts against the safety of
the State the publications containing excitement to
the crimes provided for by articles 86 and 87 of the
penal code, and has classed them amongst the attempts
which may be brought under the jurisdiction of the Court
of Peers, even when the excitement has not been attended
with results, this provision has simply brought within the
competence of the Court this kind of attempt, and has
not modified the application of the general principle, in
virtue of which every Court of justice which has taken
cognizance of a crime is competent to try the accomplices
in that crime ;—considering that the crimes of attentat and
plot of which the Court has taken cognizance by its deci-
sions of the 18th Nov. last, presents the character of con-
nexity provided for by article 227 of, the criminal code ;
considering that Quenisset, alias Papart, Colombier, Bra-
zier, alias Juste, Petit, alias Auguste, Jarrasse, Dufour,
Boggio, Mallet, and Boucheron, already convicted of
the attentat, and Launois, alias Chasseur, Dupoty, Ba-
zin, alias Napoleon, are convicted of having been con-
cerned in the above plot, in knowingly aiding and assist-
ing the authors of the crime in the facts which prepared,
facilitated, or consummated it, or with having excited it
by machinations or criminal artifice, either by writings,
printed papers, sold or distributed, or exposed in public
places, and especially Dupoty, by the publication of an
article inserted in the number of the Journal du Peuple
of the 12th of September last, beginning with the words,
" M. le Marechal Gerard," and ending with the words,
" This is what we wish to recal to their minds," the
said excitement having been followed by results :
"As regards Prioul, Martin, Fougeray, Boozer, and
Considere, considering that there do not result froM the
trial sufficient proofs against them to show that they
are guilty, either as authors or accomplices of the crimes
above named ;

" Declares Prioul, Martin, Fougeray, Bouzer, and Con-
sidere acquitted of the charge brought against them, and
orders that they shall be immediately set at liberty, if
not detained for any other cause.
" Declares Quensisset, alias Papart, guilty of the
crime of attempting the lives of their Royal Highnesses
the Dukes d'Orleans, de Nemours, and d'Aumale, mem-
bers of the Royal Family.

" Declares Colombier, brazier, alias Just Petit, alias
Auguste, Jarrasse, Dufour, Boggio, Mallet, and Bou-
cheron, guilty of complicity in the said crime, provided
for by articles 86, 88, 59, and 60, of the Penal Code.
" Declares Quenisset, Colombier, Brazier, Petit, Jar-
rasse, Dufour, Boggio, Mallet, Boucheron, Launois,
Dupoty, and Bazin, guilty of the crime of plotting
against the safety of the State, which crime is provided
for by articles 87, 89, 91, 59, and 60, of the Penal Code,
and article 1 of the law of May 17, 1819.
" Considarinc, that the penalties are to be apportioned
according to the nature and gravity of the participation
of each of . the criminals, and considering articles 7, 12,
17, 20, 28, 29, 36, and 47, of the Penal Code :
" Condemns Quenisset, Colombier, and Brazier to
death ; Petit, Jarrasse, and Dufour to transportation
Boggio and Mallet each to fifteen years' confinement,
with labour ; Boucheron and Launois each to ten years'
confinement, with labour ; Dupoty and Bazin each to
five years' impriSonthent, with labour,
" Orders, conformably to Article 47 of the Penal
Code, that the said Boggio, Mallet, Boucheron, Launois,
Dupoty, and Bezin shall be, after the expiration of their
sentences, subject to the surveillance of
the police for life.
" Condemns Quenisset, Colombier, Brazier, Petit, Jar-
rasse, Dufaur, Boggio, Mallet, Boucheron, Launois, Du-
poty, and Basin. jointly and severally, to the expenses of
the trial, which shall be fixed according to law, as well
for the part to be borne by the condemned persons as
for that which is to be borne by the State.
" Orders that the present judgment shall, by the direc-
tions of the Procureur-General, be printed, published,
and stuck up wherever it may be necessary, and that it
shall be read and notified to the accused by the Chief
Registrar of the Court."
[Here follow the signatures of the Peers.]
OPINIONS OF THE PRESS ON THE VERDICT.

(From the Presse, Mol6 organ.)
If the condemnation against Dupoty has only been
caused by motives exclusively denied from the facts
of the cause, and the profound conviction of his guilt,
we have only to record it with respect ; but if, on the
contrary, it has been the result of considerations ra-
ther political than judicial, by reasons of State de-
duced either from the excesses of the Radical press
or the danger to which our institutions are exposed
by the organisation of secret societies, or by the ne-
cessity of striking a blow which shall have a deep effect
upon the public mind, then, however great may be the
respect commanded by the eminent names of M. Pasquier
the Duke de Broglie, Count Mole, M.M. Barthe,
Mehilhou, and Persil, Count Portalis, Count de Bas-
tard, Baron de Zangiacomi, Baron Seguier, &c. ; what-
ever grief we may feel at separating ourselves on this
occasion from the Chamber of Peers, which has
always found us the first to defend it against unjust
attacks, we will not betray the great principles
which we have constantly professed. We will even, against
the Peers, have the courage of our own convictions, and
persist, as we have hitherto done, in, asserting that if
there be a sacred and immutable truth on earth, it is that
politics should never interfere with the decisions of jus-
tiee. Society has other means of defending itself ; when
it thinks it has not, it is lost.

(From the Constitutionnel, Thiers' organ.)
" We will for the present restrict ourselves to one ob-
servation. The Chamber of Peers formed into a Court
of Justice is a political tribunal, inasmuch as reasons of
State must have a powerful influence upon its decisions.
We do not offer any opinion on this character, we merely
notice it. In a political point of view, and as regarded
reasons of State, the trial which has just terminated
promised immense results. The disclosures made by
Quenisset, and those subsequently made, it is said,
by Colombier and Dufour, were necessarily calcu-
lated to put an end to those conspiracies of bus ettiwe
which, for some years past, have disturbed the public
peace and menaced the life of Royal personages. The.
press, which, notwithstanding the ill that is said of it, is,
after all, a powerful lever for the Government, and the
great majority of which sincerely desires the mainte-
nance of order and of the existing institutions—the press,
we say, would naturally have dilated on the happy con-
sequences of these disclosures, and have laboured to dis-
courage for ever all attempts to follow the example of the'
conspirators of the Rue Traversiere. Instead of leaving
to the press this useful and patriotic task, the Peers have,.
by the condemnation of M. Dupoty, and the
questions
to which it gives rise, opened a new and sad arena for
discussion, which will be profitable to none. On the
occasion of a trial, which might have put an end to plots,
a new era has been inaugurated, full
of menace of the
rights which were rendered sacred by the Revolution of
July. We are profoundly afflicted at such a course.
(From the Courner Francais, Thiers' organ.)
The Court of Peers has pronouced its judgment. It
is such as public report said it would be, but which we
were unwilling to believe. The complicity imp uted to
M. Dupoty can only be a moral complieley__at
connec-
tion between the doctrines emitted by the Journal du
Peuple and the events of the lath of September. If
the judgment had been based upon such such motivpa wp
could not protest against it with sufficient energy, for it
would be the destruction of all the guarantees which
society has thrown around human judgment. This is a
secret, however, in the conscience of the Judges ; we
will not endeavour to probe it. But the Ministry
which brought M. Dupoty before the court of Peers,
and which excited the Court to condemn him, thought
much less of the punishment of a pretended conspirator
than of intimidating the entire press, by showing that
upon the first pretext the writer, the most devoted
might constitutional order, ght be torn from his family
and his pursuits, and implicated in an accusation of phit
against the State. But the press will resist this attempt,
the most violent and bold that was ever made, as it had
resisted so many other trials. It will fulfil its mission