The Sun.
London, England, 1846-12-08 00:00:00

REMARKABLE TRIAL AA U N
COLOGNE. li,
The Criminal Court of Cologne sat, on the .‘. 7*V ---7.7 - ;''' \r,
to try M. Oppenheim upon an indictment for ~1-13; - —l4._:-li›.A:.
box from the Baroness do Meyendorff will ..-
.'rs, 4li;* a
Hotel de Mayence, at Cologne, on her wee f. t - i.
_/,-,. s.;4l,''''.'s
~., , _ Nty 1r e-
si*Z
la-Chapelle to Paris. The Baroness arrived ate /47111 - '
in the afternoon of August 21st ; and a few ho .-: tiii.-_-..t ,_.----
. her, alighted two gentlemen, who gave as their
Kronecker, a merchant of Breslau, and Ullmann, _ _
chant of Berlin. __
Kronecker, immediately on his artiv-
made minute inquiries about the Baroness, particular
as to the baggage she had brought with her, and also t,
to the stay she meant to make. This stay was vet
i short, as she intended to embark the next morning it
steam-boat going down the Rhine. At six in the mor:
ing of the 22d all her packages were brought from h
apartment into the passage, and left there wh -
her valet went into her with the bill of the lens
lord. When he returned with the money to pay it he .
once missed from the heap of packages a small caske
which he knew to be of great value to his mistress. I.
immediately proclaimed the loss, and the people of tl
house of once recollected- that the two travellers, Kr
necker and Ullmann, had just taken their departure
a hackney-coach, and conceived that they might, 1
mistake, have carried away the casket with their ow
luggage. Esser, a man in the employ of the Baronet,
ran after the coach, but met it coming back empty. Tl,
coachman informed him that one of the gentlemen ht.
got out on the way, but that the other had alighted st
the railroad station. Esser followed the latter, an.
found him in one of the carriages. On being *mkt..
whether he had by mistake taken with him a cask'.
that did not belong to him, he assured them that he hay
nothing with him but the paletot en his arm. Ar
however, he was pale, and seemed agifateet
Esser's suspicions were excited, and taking wit*
him a police officer, he went on by the san.
train to Bonn. On arriving there, the baggage of tl-
traveller was found to consist of a small trunk, and ti;
sacs de nuit, which were seized ; but the traveller, wl
had assumed the name of Ullmann, effected his escar
On examining the contents of the trunk in the presen
of an officer, the casket was found in it intact, ai
among other things several innkeeper's bills, made of the name of Dr. Mendlesohn, a distinguished Prussia
advocate. In one of the bags was a portfolio cotainia
letters and other papers, addle ssed to and bearing ti;
name of M. Oiipenheim, assessor of the Royal Court t
Berlin. In the beginning of October and November t%
had several articles giving the details of this transactioi
from which it appeared that the travellers, under th
names of Kronecker and Ullmann. were Dr. Mendlesoly,
and M. Opp -nheirn; 0 a, their .•l j et was only to recove I
from the Baroness a rent ehanze or her life of 25,000
a year, grantett by the Count dr ris.veld,- sr cured upn,-
his estates, :he eon..i aeration tOr whieh uas stfite
to be 250,00011, and e. old ..1•1 b.- fi.-t,ti ,u.. as
juths,
o
Baroness was ~vold .1 ta:l m an, '0 3.'v ~teine an #
such sum. M. Oppenheim si:-!,....! fed liims,lf try
tice, anti has now taken his t.ial. Dr. Mend] ,sohn ha.,
however, still remained at liberty, though, as our reader,.
will recollect, it was at one time thought that he waa
caught at Hebersthel, a small Prussian town on the
frontier of Belgium ; hut the captive turned out to h
Felix Mendelsohn, the celebrated Doctor of Music, bi
no Doctor or Laws. M. Oppenheim was arraigned nr
only for stealing the casket, but also for having wilfull'
torh, during his previous examination, rem- document,
laid as evidence before the examining magistrate. Thee,
consisted of drafts of letters, which were, he maintainek
of a private nature, having no connexion with th"
matter in question. M. Oppenheim, on being inter
rogated by the President of the Court, avowed that h.
had taken away the casket, but denied that it could be iii,
puted to him as a crime, as he merely meant to get posses
sion of an illegal deed of rent-charge, executed by thet
Count de Hatzfeld, the husband of his client, the Conn;
tens de Hatzfeld, upon a fictitious consideration, to thc*
great injury of her and her children ; and at the Barnet
time to avoid the scandal of a suit at law between hus-
band and wife. The President observed to M. Oppena
heim that it appeared from his letters that one of his
objects was to obtain some proofs of adultery against the
Count de Hatzfeld. The prisoner also admitted this, but
declared that it was only a secondary consideration with,
him and the other advisers of the Countess. On the-
second charge of tearing the documents before the exa-
mining magistrate, he maintained that he was not guilty
of any breach of the law, as they did not in any wise re-
late to the matter in question. The Court then proceeded
to the examination of witnesses. The first called was
the Baroness de Meyendorff, but she did not appear. The
rest of the witnesses were the valet and femme de
chambre of the Baroness, and the officers who arrested M.
Oppenheim, whose testimony went merely to the facts of
the taking away and recovery of the casket, and the sr
rest of' the prisoner, as before stated. M. Windschert„
the registrar of mortgages at Dusseldorf, after pro-
testing against giving evidence of mortgages intrusted
to his charge officially, objections that were overruled
by the Court, was proceeding to give evidence, when
the Procureur-General interposed, and admitted that in
June last the Baroness de Meyendorff had contracted at
Paris, by a notoriate act, to advance to the Count de
Hatzfeld 250,000 fr. in purchase of a rent charge upon
his estates, of 25,000 fr. a year for her life, but that this
contract had since been annulled. He then addressed the
Court in support of the prosecution, and demanded a
verdict of guilty on both counts.—The counsel for
M. Oppenheini replied. In defence of the attempt
to gain possession of the grant of the rent charge,
he gave an animated representation of the cir-
cumstances under which the attempt was made,
and maintained that it could not be perverted
into a robbery. He stated that the Countess de Hatz-
feld, the daughter of a Sovereign Prince of Germany,
was married at the early age of sixteen to the Count—a
marriage that was only the commencement of a life of,
misery. Even the birth of three children could not se-
cure her from the ill-treatment of her husband, and in
1833 she was obliged to separate herself from him, and
go to live at Berlin with her two younger children. The
Court instituted a suit for a divorce, but which she (the
Countess) had defended with success. To persecute her,
be had since deprived her of the socily of her children;
and, by the deed of annuity to the Baroness de Meyen-
dorff, had attempted to rob them of part of their inl-erit-
ance. He ceased to pay the Countess her stipulated
almony, and nut her daughter into a convent at Vienna,
where she had been incarcerated for nine year.. In 1840
a reconcibation took place, and the Countess ret:tnrnaerdostoe,
live with her husband. Diffe-ences ,coon at,;. a
and the Count withdrew from her to his chateau of
Schoenstein. She once more joined him, grit he imme-
diately after abandoned her and their children, and went
to reside at Dusseldorf, leaving orders that she should
be kept in the château as a prisoner. She was treated
with disrespect by his servants. In 1841 her family
interfered, and the Count was induced to sign a deed of
separation, binding himself to allow her a certain in-
come, which, however, he never paid in full. In 1845
he announced to his wife that he would never be recrm-
ciled to her, and declared to his youngest son that if
he remained with his mother he would lose for ever the
protection of his father. She went to Berlin, and 'there
learnt that the Count was living at Aix-la-Chapelle
with the Baroness de Meyendorff and, at the same
time, gained information of the annuity deed, arid a
letter from the Count to the Baroness fell into their
hands, containing the following passage:—" I believe I
love you so much, because I never before loved any
woman. It is a misfortune to love so well, when one is
obliged to separate from the beloved object. I will make
every sacrifice to get rid of that horrible woman, and
then your future happiness will be secure." Upon this the
Countess, accompanied by a venerable priest, went to
Aix-la-Chapelle, and after some discussion the Count
promised to annul the annuity deed ; but on the l'ollow-
lug day again repudiated his wife, and she returned from
Aix-la-Chapelle ; and the recovery of the dee 3, sup-
posed to be in the hands of the Baroness was -resolved
upon. To prove that the consideration of 2 50,000 fr.
could not be real, the counsel affirmed that n,either the
Baroness de Meyendorff nor her husband possessed apy
aforretuvneneuwehoaftesvoeor:onooorf: c
per
ue
rl d a tnhneu
mC o, uann td deenHirajyrienfegld, with
an
;itsheel
'F sum
c counsel
then credit,enormous
ra t
rate
possibly
pwant
cent.to b o rTr Iv
learnedan
then entered upon the technical question of the robbery,
and insisted that under no law, human or divine, could
the taking away the casket be cons el ered as a crime.
The second count of the indictment ver4s argued against
by another advocate, for M. Oppen/ teim. The usual
replies were made, and the Judge sr limed up the case
with great clearness and impartiality, leaving the deci-
sion to the Jury, who, after retiriei g for halt an hour,
returned and pronounced a verdic t. of Not Guilty. M.
Oppenheim was immediately discharged out of custody.

:avasAtar

of
thisASHLEY.-=Thep AsELEY.The absenc_etNoble Lord
from the recent meetings in Yorkshire and Lancashire,
to promote the ten hours factcmy agitation, has occa-
sioned some surprise in this pa rt of the country, and
has not, we believe, been satis factorPy accounted for,
except that his Lordship is not willing to surrender his
own judgment to the dictation of much less cool-headed
men. —Leeds Mercury.
Our obituary this week ee,ntains the name of Mr.
J. P. Anderdon, of Farley-hil,„ near this town, a gen-
tleman whose courtesy, urinanity, and open-handed
aimed
ur.
e
rc.llnridti3nt
gha.dfttt roans
neighbourhood:j, mars.*.rn. A
de,,,drpeardnimhatod the
av
the venerable see of 87 yips rs, and the whole of his bmg
life had bean distinguish ed by the virtues whic'n adorn
rp
the gentleman and the Chrsrian. His 104 s will be
-ev-rely felt by the poor of the neighbourhood, this
'own included, his muMfieei et. being nomialh extended
to many of our 10.,a1 Berk.hire Chronicle.
The principal in tilt:l, late elopement from Bond-
street having been disec,rered, we understand an indict-
ment will shortly be preferred against, him, and also
againsf the house in Ling's-place, for re,..eiving the stolen
property. It is hoped a conviction will relieve the
parish of St. Jailres from one of thou..,. nuisances which.
have of late aided in the entrnpmen t and seduction of
mere children.--Sunday paper.
THE QUEEN V. RICHARD DIT.NN.—The trial of
this indictment is appointed to talLe place at Guildhall,
an the 15th instant. A special jui,ty will be summoned at
the instance of the prosecutrix, Miss Burdett Coutts.
Mr. Lumley, director of 'tier Majesty's Theatre,
London, leaves Paris in a few 'Jays for England, having
concluded all his continental arrangements in the most
satisfactory manner.—Galig
LIVERrooL, SATURDAT,---It is
ii,czni..
shortly r
the Government to replace Mr. OuseleyiliMnCrittb
be r.e Rivered on
'Change that a new Minister will
Plate. There is, we believe, sent t out by
no doubt that Mr. Ouseley
will be recalled.—Times.

TAX ON BEER.—The tax on ale is three fa xthings
per quart—poor people are charged 4d. But th ydu not
know it, and, therefore, it is said they are not taxed at
all. A labourer who earns 15s. per week, and who
drinks a quart of ale a day, pays as tax 2s. 4d. l per week;
per quarter, 30s. 4d.; and per annum, 61. 15..4141. It is
proposE.d in place of this, that he should pay 4 c. 9(1. per
quarter, or 19s. per annum—ll. is put on, 61. a. re taken
oft —Mr. W. B. Smee on ,Extending the Inco pec Tag.
Second Edition.