The Sun.
London, England, 1860-02-02 00:00:00

THE FRENCH BAR AND THE

AMNBSTY.

(From lho Presse.)

A painful and surprising incident has just oc-
cured at Lyons. The following letter, which has
been communicated to us, seta forth the facts, and
these facts are of a nature to make a sad impres-
sion. The Conseil de Discipline of the Lyons bar
seems to have mistaken both principles and circum-
stances in claiming to make dependent on the re-
sults of a previous inquiry the admission of a
former colleague, M. Juif, who was exiled for po-
litical reasons, and who has returned to France in
virtue of the amnesty. Such a requirement would
be only intelligible if M. Juif had voluntarily
abandoned his country and his profession in search
of adventures abroad. He has yielded, on the con-
trary, to the hardest necessity ; he has returned as
soon as return was possible ; and moreover every-
body admits that, by a sort of generous fiction, the
amnesty does not merely put an end to a certain
state of things, but annihilates it, so to speak, ,in
its causes and in its circumstances. Advocates
should lose sight of this less than anybody.

" To the Batonuier and Members of the Conseil

de Discipline of the Lyons Bar.
"Gentlemen,---After more than ten years of exile,
and in consequence of a general and unconditional
political amnesty, I have returned to Lyons to re-
sumo there the practice of my profession as advocate.
In consequence, I have asked that my name should
be inscribed on the roll of advocates, not as a
favour but as a right, the most sacred all, that of
making use of a property legitimately acquired, of
following a profession which I have learned by
many years labour and great expense.
" You have not openly denied my right ; only
you have forced me to, understand that the Conseil
de Discipline of Lyons is not composed of juris-
consults who officially examine my title to the
exercise of my profession, but of partisans who set
up a claim to sit in judgment on my political prin-
ciples and antecedents. This is a power which you
have not, and which I refuse you.
" At the same time I placed myself faithfully at
your service, for all such explanations as you might
deem desirable. During your deliberation yester-
day, which lasted an hour and a half, I waited all
the time in an apartment of the court ready to obey
your summons. You knew that I was there ; you
were all informed of the fact ; and you saw me
there on your way to the council chamber.
" You did not think proper to summon me before
you. You preferred to compromise the dignity of
our profession, by endeavouring to obtain from
the Registrar of the Council of War a copy of the
proceedings in the political trial which I underwent;
you hoped, perhaps, to find in them some pretext
under which to mask the real motive of your ostra-
cism ; and you have not even learnt the lesson in
propriety which a public functionary, the Registrar
of the Council of War, gave you, in refusing the

eommunication you asked for.
Foiled on that side, you have taken the deter-
mination of submitting my conduct during my long
exile to the investigation of a commission—a clever
way, I admit, of keeping me at a distance without
taking the responsibility of a refusal.
" Whole years would be insufficient to procure
you the information which you pretend is neces-
sary ; you know neither the laws nor the custom's
of the countries I have lived in ; you know still
less their intelligence and freedom. The Americans
would smile with astonishment if you were to ask
them what the proscrit who left France, deprived
of all resources and only his labour to live by, had
done among them. They would reply, what I
have told you myself, that he had energetically
struggled against the difficulties of hie situation;
that he bad even known want ; but that, thanks to
God, he had never been redueed to those extremities
which make men commit base actions.
" They would have added, that they had suffi-
ciently shown the consideration which they accor-
ded to the unaided foreigner, by admitting him to
discharge among them functions which involve
greater responsibility than those of our profession
in France.
" I had offered to communicate to you my diploma
as advocate of the state of New York ; you hays not
thought fit to take notice of it. Your desire was
not to exclude me without having to declare your-
selves. You knew that exile does not enrich a man,
and that I could not wait long for your decision.
You have succeeded; be satisfied; I withdraw. I
wish, however, that our position towards each other
should be clearly marked; that is the object of this
letter.
" I thank the very small number of my colleagues
who have valiantly defended right and justice by
defending me in the council, and I have just told
you, gentlemen, that I withdraw for the present
my claim of admission to the bar of Lyons, so that
you have no further need to deliberate upon A..--
I have, &e.,
"F. Joie, Advocate, Doctor of Law."