The Sun.
London, England, 1851-01-31 00:00:00

°+ ITifltfli rnii

LONDON, FRIDAY, JANUARY 31, 1851.

Expectations of the most diversified character are
rife in the Parisian circles in reference to the probable
election of this individual and that as President of
the Legislative Assembly to-morrow, the Ist of Fe-
bruary. Throughout the whole period which has
elapsed since the convocation of the existing Legisla-
ture, namely, since the May of 1849, M. DUPIN has
occupied that difficult and responsible post, having
been re-elected by immense majorities at the close of
each term of his periodical presidency. His continu-
ance in office as the chosen head of the A ssembly has,
in fact, come to be regarded as something very like a
matter of course. The public have become habitu-
ated to his selection in preference to all other compe-
titors, and the popular representatives themselves ap-
pear to have become equally accustomed to that ar-
rangement. It consequently seizes the attention as a
somewhat startling novelty, the mere announcement
that M. DUPIN is likely to be rejected as a candidate
on the next Ist of February. Such is actually the
statement currently made through the political
circles of Paris ; and it is reported that
not only is M. DIIPIN to be refused
his re-elevation to the Presidential chair
of the Assembly, but that, in addition to this, M.
BAROCHE will be appointed his successor as Procu-
reur• General of the Court of Cessation. Whether
such will be the case or not, it would be rather diffi-
cult to conjecture ; but we believe that the rumour
spok en of in reference to the leadership of the Re-
publican Legislature is in the highest degree pro-
bable. Various hopes are consequently alive as to the
personage likely to be chosen in lieu of the veteran
senator. The minority look forward with some con-
fidence to the success of their favourite candidate, M.
NAPOLEON DIM, the Mountain being certain an-
tagonists of the Legitimatist candidate, General
BEDEAU. Between these two men, at any rate, there
can be little doubt as to the number of votes being
greatly in favour of the former—the latter being re-
garded naturally by all the staunchest Republicans
with an unconquerable suspicion. Whatever may be
the ultimate resolve of the Assembly upon this par-
ticular, there can be no question but that it will tend
very materially to precipitate affairs towards some
broad and definitive settlement. Supposing the Bo-
napartist candidate to be successful, supposing General
BEDEAU to be beaten by M. NAPOLEON DARU, and
this in consequence of the jealousies of the Mountain
and the unanimity of the supporters of his antagonist,
the result must inevitably produce a most favourable
impression as regards the interests of the PRESIDENT
of the Republic. Coming, indeed, so immeediately
after his late discomfiture of the Legitimatists, it
would strengthen his influence almost incalculably.
In this respect the triumph over General BEDEAU
would be a fitting sequel to the victory over General
CHANQARNIER. So important, in fact, would such
an event be in forwarding the development of the po-
licy adventured upon by Louis NAPOLEON, that we
doubt not every effort will be employed with a view
to se cure to his cause so enormous an advantage.

Under present circumstances the adherents of the
PRESIDENT must feel themselves encouraged to
enter the lists even against the combined ranks
of their opponents. Their late ingenuity, in evading
the dangers set in their path by the whole body of
the counter-revolutionists, must act perforce as an
irresistible encouragement to yet further attempts of
still more conspicuous audacity. The irritated and
irritating rhetoric of M. TRIERS has failed altogether
to Laing destruction upon them or disgrace upon their
endeavours. Still less can be hoped from the very
questionable prestige of General BEDEAI7. The faith-
less and unconstitutional behaviour of M. BERBYEB
has proved ineffectual in carrying palsy to the arm of
the Executive. Still less can be looked for as a con-
sequence of any flagrant act of the like kind coming
from M. LEO DE LA BORDB. The fate of the Legiti-
matist faction would appear to be sealed by the un-
timely disclosures in which some of its leading men
have indulged themselves, impelled to the declaration
of their real sentiments by the arrogance of an over-
confident ambition. Thanks to that premature
and mistaken reliance upon a vigour which
proves only, when too late, to have been altogether
illusory—the venom of intrigue has been extracted
before its fangs could be fastened in the Government.
Lours NAPOLEON may now, therefore, act towards
his very numerous antagonists with a boldness the
force of which is immeasurably enhanced by the fact
of his perfect self-possession. Satisfied that he is
dealing with men innocuous from their party division,
and impotent from the very circumstance of their in-
sincerity, the PRESIDENT may, with more even than
his customary determination, grapple with the diffi-
culties by which he is yet surrounded.
His latest exploit, though not paraded with any-
thing like ostentation, is perhaps the most effectual
blow yet stricken at the conspiring Legitimatists.
By his " Ministry of transition" he has baffled those
who imagined they had caught him on the horns of a
dilemma. Modestly selected from men of unimpeach-
able integrity, if of a merely respectable mediocrity, the
members of the new Cabinet have taken occasion
through their representative M. ROYER, the Minister
of the Department of Justice, to assure the Assembly
that their mission, undertaken by them with patriotic
alacrity, is of a strictly evanescent and temporary
nature. This assertion, moreover, was made in
language of the most dignified conciliation—the Le-
gislature evincing their appreciation of the course
pursued both by the PRESIDENT and his Ministerial
advisers by abrupt and almost involuntary applause.
Out of this indirect endeavour to smooth down ex-
isting difficulties may spring, will, we hope and be-
lieve, spring a more direct, a more visible, and a more
effectual means of reconciliation. The delay will, at
any rate, enable the PRESIDENT to organize with de-
sirable deliberation the permanent Ministry to be
ultimately appointed. Overtures, it is said, are still
made by him in various quarters, to the end that men
of incomparable ability, as well as of probity beyond
suspicion, may be entrusted with the duties of forming
an Administration. A definitive settlement of this kind
must be acknowledged to be most singularly desirable
under existing circumstances, the Legislature being
divided against itself as well as against the Executive
powers of the Republic, and the May of 1852 drawing
nearer and nearer to us—that importaet month which
will terminate the career of the existing Legislature,
and bring Prince LOUIS NAPOLEON to the close of his
first Presidency.

On Saturday last we directed the public attention
to the case of Mr. JOHN GOLDSMID, a member of the
Stock Exchange, who had on Thursday, the 23d in-
stant, been convicted before Mr. Sergeant ADAMS,
and a bench of magistrates, at the Middlesex Sessions,
of an alleged assault on GEORGE TREVEMAN, an office r
attached to the department of Inland Revenue.
Although at all times unwilling to impeach the de-

LONDON,

Jibe-ate deeison of a judge and jury—of a person of
education and experience, selected to discharge the
arduous and important duties of the judicial
office, and of twelve men sworn on the
Holy Evangelists to decide impartially according
to the evidence—we felt it to be an imperative duty
to protest earnestly and emphatically against that
verdict, which we had no hesitation in declaring to be
" totally opposed to the weight of evidence," and we
called on the Home Secretary to institute a searching
inquiry into all the circumstances of the case.
In thus acting, we were influenced by no private
or personal motives. We knew nothing of the
parties concerned ; nothing but a strong sense
of duty to a person whom, from an at-
tentive consideration of the evidence brought
before the Court and jury, we verily be-
lieved to be an innocent and deeply injured man,
and to the three respectable witnesses produced
on his behalf, to whom the commission of wilful and
deliberate perjury was openly and unequivocally at•
tributed, could have induced us to take up the case.
We felt that the fundamental principle of the criminal
law, which declares that it is beter that one hundred
guilty persons should escape than that one innocent
person should suffer undeserved punishment, had
been violated. The jury gave the benefit of
the doubt to the Crown, and not to the prisoner ;
they gave credit to the loose and flippant swearing of
the prosecutor, who obstinately persisted in his
charge, rather than to the concurrent testimony of
the seven witnesses for the defence. He might have
fallen into error, he might, and we believe really did
conscientiously believe that he was stating " the
truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth,''
so far as he was concerned. We believe it to be a
case of mistaken identity ; but there was no possibility
of such a mistake on the other side. If Mr. JOHN
GOLDSMID did not go down to Brighton under circum-
stances which rendered it impossible that he could
havo been at the Blue Posts on the evening of the Ot
October, Messrs. SAMPSON and SEPTIMUS GOLD-
SMID, and Mr. J. STEVENS, together with EDWARD
STONE, footman to the first witness, must have deli-
berately stated what they well knew to be false. If
it was not, Mr. HOGGINS, who indulged in the rough
practical joking which had been erroneously attri-
buted to the defendant, and which led to such un-
toward results, then must the landlord, waiter,
and porter of the Blue Posts have been all guilty of
perjury, and, cui bono, for what object was this enor-
mous mass of crime to be perpetrated ? Was it to
save the life of the defendant ? or, at least, to save him
from perpetual banishment from his native land, that
he would be capable of suborning seven persons, in-
cluding his own father and brother, to commit so
fearful an offence, or that those persons could have
been induced to have yielded to such infa-
mous solicitations ? No such thing 1 The
worthy magistrate before whom the charge was
first investigated justly designated the entire trans.
action as " a foolish business," and recommended the
defendant to make an apology and some recompense
to the complainant. Had that advice been complied
with the matter would, most probably, have ter-
minated there ; or, if there was no difference as to the
facts, it would have been summarily disposed of, a
fine of 51. being the highest punishment that could
have been inflicted. It was really too absurd to suppose
that a man in easy circumstances, to whom such a sum
could have been of no great importance, would prefer
going to trial to making such an arrangement; but,
unfortunately, the jury disregarded all these matters,
and still more unfortunately, the Judge adopted the
same erroneous view, and justified the severe sen-
tence which he passed on the defendant on the ground
of his having " called upon his father and brother, as
well as other persons, to commit perjury," and feel-
ingly declared that he " had never seen such an
exhibition of wickedness in his life ;" while it
was suggested by another gentleman that " steps
should be taken to deprive the landlord of his
licence," a suggestion to which the Learned Counsel
for the prosecution immediately responded, promising
that such steps should be taken. _ _

It now appears clearly and distinctly, beyond the
possibility of doubt, that we were right, and that,
as we declared, the Judge and jury bad fallen into a
very serious and lamentable error. No sooner had
the extraordinary and unaccountable verdict been re-
turned than Mr. SAMPSON GOLDSMID sought further
evidence to confirm the accuracy of his state-
ment and to vindicate his veracity, which had
been so wantonly attacked. The distinct, positive,
and unequivocal declarations of no less than fifteen
additional witnesses, whose attention was directed to
the case by the publicity which it attained, all con-
firmatory of the evidence for the defence, were ob-
tained and forwarded to Mr. Sergeant ADAMS, with
the view of being laid before Sir GEORGE GREY, and
at the same time, in order "to make assu-
rance doubly sure," the real Simon Pure,
disregarding all personal consequences, most hand-
somely and honourably came forward to save
an innocent man, and acknowledged that he was the
person who had so roughly jested with the sensitive
exciseman. The result was, that within half an hour
after the matter was brought before Sir GEORGE
GREY, the defendant, Mr. Jonri GOLDSMID, was
liberated with a free pardon !! ! The unenlightened
reader may ask, " a pardon for what ?" Is it for
having been subjected to unmerited punishment?
for having been associated for five days in the House
of Correction with the lowest class of criminals ?
Why should not the mistaken verdict be reversed, and
ample compensation made to the victim ? No such
thing. The wisdom of the Legislature has decided
that a verdict once returned in a criminal case is final
and conclusive, and cannot be reversed under any cir-
cumstances whatsoever. Once more, then, we repeat
our interrogatory—when will a court of appeal in
criminal cases be established ?

The vindication of Mr. JOHN GOLDSMID is complete.
It is now spoken of as a "singular case of mistaken
identity," in place of being designated in more homely
but more correct language, while the verdict
must for ever remain recorded against the
injured gentleman. Such things should not
be possible in this mighty empire; and once more
we repeat what we have so often hitherto asserted—
that amongst the many legal reforms so urgently re-
quired, none is more essential than the establishment
of a court of criminal appeal, where the facts of a
doubtful case may receive a second investigation.

THE FRENCH REPUBLIC.

We have received the Paris journals of yesterday.
The Legitimatist representatives have unanimously
resolved to oppose the Dotation Bill, and the Re-
publicans will also vote against it to a man ; thus
there is but little chance of its being carried at pre-
sent ; indeed, it was stated that the PRESIDENT had
determined to postpone its presentation for the pre-
sent. Had it not been for these demonstrations on
the part of the Legitimatists and Republicans the Bill
would have been presented to-day.
All the persons arrested at the Bemire Pigole for
complicity in the supposed plot of the Union des
Communes have been set at liberty, with the excep-
tion of five. The sham having served the purpose of
its concoctors, and terrified the Legitimatists and
Orleanists into silence on Monday, is now to be suf-
fered quietly to pass into oblivion, M. CAELIER hav-
ing no further present occasion for it. The Burgraves,
have lost entirely the confidence of their followers in
consequence of their conduct on Monday. The Le-
gitimatists and Orleanists are loud in their denuncia-
tions of the cowardice of MM. TRIERS, BERRYER,
ODILON BARROT, and LEON FAUCHER.
The Assembly has granted an authorization to M:
CHERON to prosecute M. MAILIGUIN for debt.
The Constitutionnetpublishes an article by M. DE
LAISIARTINE, on the recent conflict between the two
Powers; it is intended to appear in the forthcoming
number of the Conseillier du Peuple. We extract
some of the most remarkable passages. After re-
citing the circumstances of former Parliamentary
coalitions, M. DELASIARTINE alludes as follows to
the late coalition against the PRESIDENT of the Re-
public
Three Governments have been undermined, and
have fallen by three coalitions. And now there is a
fourth coalition against another Government—weaker
and younger in years—the Republic. And yet, in find-
ing the same actors on the scene, the same raanceuvrei
at stake, the same petty passions in wrath, the samo
speeches in common, and the same hands applauding,
en attendant the occasion to be railed in hostility—you
trembling
bnl
iontg sfodrmitthuesßeub
to be
a
ic nd moved, warned, alarmed,
for
the
people con-
ducted a fourth time to the abyss—an abyss a thou-
sand times more profound than those of 1829, 1840, and
1848! You will not admit us to tear away the veil, a
thousand times too transparent, of a conspiracy against
the public peace. Go to! You may conquer us, indeed,
involuntary
complicity to the inexplicable credulity or the
complicity of certain men, but you will at least not have
the satisfaction 0 having deceived us! We see as

FRIDAY EVENING,

clearly into your game as one can see into the dark
fbachinations of parties, anti as one can discern the truth
on physiogniwies of such different aspects."
M. DE LAMAUTINE then observes that the enemies
of the Republic, dissatisfied with the calm and pros-
perity which prevailed, resolved to get up a storm,
and for that purpose began to accuse the different acts
of the PRESIDENT. M. DE LAMARTINE passes some
of these acts in review, and on the dismissal of Gen.
NEUMAYER, remarks :

"This was a misfortune; but we well know that
General Neumayer was not dismissed for having forbid-
den cries of Vive l'Empereurr but for having lessened
the acclamations of Vive le Plbsident!" Vice Napo-
leon!' Perhaps at that moment the President had need
of those demonstrations, which were not sedi,ious, but
expressed affection and devotednes, to intimidate the
malevolence, the rivality, and the hatred which threat-
ened to break out elsewhere."

On the Permanent Committee of the Assembly, M.
DE LAMARTINE says---
'• During the President's journeys, banquets, and re-
views, suspected or ron-suspected, what occurred in a
certain quarter of Piris? The Permanent Committee
there assembled. TAB committee, which replaced the
Assembly, was composed, including the bureau and the
questors, of thirty-six representatives, chosen by the ma-
jority of the Assembly from among the most accredited
and most eminent members of the Parliament, but not
assuredly the most notorious for their Republicanism.
We do not reproach them with this; the Republic, as
we understand it, is rot made for Republicans alone, but
for everybody. Opirions in it are free, and sentiments
respected. That is
,:ust, great, and politic. Each one
must be master, and proud of his place on the common
field of the Republic, and even his heart may be Royalist,
provided his vote be constitutional. But the heart occupies
a great place in human organisation; and when the heart
declares frankly that it is with the fallen dynasties, we
may, without calumniating any one, suspect the mind to
be involuntarily influenced by it. The members of the
Permanent Committe, either rightly or wrongly, were
not accused of too nuch heartfelt leaning towards the
Republican system sf government and the President of
the Republic."
M. DE LAMARTINE next notices the visits of the
Legitimatists to Wiesbaden, of the Orleanists to
Claremont, the celebration of a mass for Louis
PHILIPPE in the chapel of the Tuileries, and other
acts of the Royalist parties, and complains that none
of them were noticed by; the Permanent Committee.
But this Committee, he says, was occupied in watch-
ing the Empire:—
"And how did it watch the Empire? Ah ! You have
only to open the minues—they are a chef d'ceuvre of
sagacity and solicitude; from each page there arises an
odour of police from the hands of such or such subalterns;
there are gossipings put into reports, half confidences,
night patrols; the phantoms of an autumn evening seen
by the fireside. One had beard say; another had fancied
he had seen; th's one imagined that he had suspected;
that one was surprised to have remarked; such a one felt
the necessity of calling on the conspirator, the Minister of
War, to ask him frankly if he were not conspiring—
another to make him promise to give nothing more than
the simple ration to the soldiers, thirsty from the march;
another to wait patiently for the coming review to as-
certain if really, yes or no, the Republic will that day
be confiscated—determined, no doubt, to denounce the
conspiracy atter it should be accomplished: in short,
things that are really prodigious in keenness, tact, logic,
and sagacity! And all ends by the famous assassination.
But the general commanding the troops, according to
these minutes, was present at some of the sittings. He
necessarily trarquiliised the committee; for he had only
to speak, and there would have been no reviews, or he
would only have to resign, and his retirement would have
revealed the supreme peril. At the instant the Assembly
would have beenconvoked, and the conspiracy would have
been crushed by the weight of a nation which wilt have
none of such things. But, no—the Parliament is not con-
voked, and nothing is said, but there are whisperings
which are the denunciations of silence! Well, let us
reason closely, and say the truth to the Permanent Com-
mittee. This truth is one of two things : either the
Permanent Committee saw crimes in the acts of the
Executive Government during the absence of the As-
sembly, and in that case it is inexcusable for not having
at the same moment sounded the constitutional tocsin of
alarm, and recalled the Assembly to prevent, beard, and
pulverise the coup d'itat ; or the Permanent Committee
saw only phantoms, and in that case why has it joined
in a chorus with the retrospective coalition which has
just denounced the soi-disant conspiracies of the Execu-
tive Government to the Assembly, has agitated the peo-
ple. caused a panic in the Republic, suspended affairs,
divided the two powers, whose harmony is the necessary
condition of all good, and whose conflict the condition of
all evil? Either the committee was very blind two
months ago, or is very mute at present. Let it reply if
it can."
The Moniteur announces that the PRESIDENT of
the Republic has received the King of SARDINIA'S
reply to his letter accrediting M. DE BUTTENVAL at
the Court of Turin.

In the Strasburg election of members for the
Tribunal of Commerce, the Democrats obtained a
majority.
The Gazette de France states that Prince Dean-
DOFF has received permission from the Emperor of
xtussla. to come and reside in Paris.

There was a considerable amount of business
transacted at the Bourse, at an advance of prices.
The Five per Cents. opened at 96f. 20c., and
closed at 96f. 35c.; the Three per Cents. closed at
57f. 85c.; the New Loan at 96f. 10c.

BUSINESS DONE IN FOBEIGN RAILWAYS AT TBE
LONDON STOCK EXCHANGE, J. O.
Boulogne and Amiens, 9%—Central of France (Orleans
and Vierzon), 16—EasOndian, 111/2—Luxembourg, 2N
Namurand Liege, 81/B—Northern of France, 151/B—Orleans
and Bordeaux, 4—Sambre and Meuse, 3%.