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London, England, 1858-04-17 00:00:00

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LONDON, SATURDAY EVENING, APRIL 17, 1858.

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to and rendered miserable every continental despot. The
Governmept could not proceed with the Conspiracy Bill,
for the Muse bf Con:mons rejected it. An able criminal
lawyer,Mit -Bodkin, who had been conducting for weeks
and Weeks; aka incintry against threprisonee on the charge of
conspiracy, turned round on .Marchl3, and, not abandon-
ing the charge of conspiracybeeause they would see pre-
sently it was hinging over the prisoner's head, but Lord
Derby, not daring to bring the bill into the House of Com-
mons, and the Government feeling that the difficulty must
be got rid of—on the 13th of March, for the first time,
Mr. Bodkin made tills charge against the pri-oner, and it
Was determined that the prisoner should be tried under a
special commission.
-Was not that an outline of the history
of this case ? Now, this,act of parliament under which the
prisoner was charged had nothing to do with the case, and
had no bearing upon it ; it was intended to apply to a to-
tally different state of things. They hal heard the legal
points which ho had submitted to the judges, who would
reserve them if their verdict should ever make that neces-
sary. The act of parliament; under which this prisoner
was indicted he would ihow, when he came to that part
of the case, was never intended for such a case as this.
But this was an experiment on the part of the Crown, to
see if, with their aid, the Government could be delivered
from their difficulty, and if the right of asylum of the
foreign exiles in this country could be destroyed by means
of their verdict. His friend the. Attorney-General was
silent about that part of the case; he had filled up that
space which his learned friend left vacant, and their hearts
and consciences would tell them whether he had right-
fully done so, and they would decide upon the matter. He
was saying that they could not fairly appreciate the
feelings which animated men the liberties of whose coun-
try had been suppressed and destroyed, they might imagine
them, but they could not realise them. Were they to won-
der, then, that Italians, who had seen the liberties of their
country utterly prostrated, denld they wonder that the Ita-
lian, who perhaps had some relic in his heart of Reiman ecru-
rage, should desire to take rneaeores for the deliverance of
his aceniairy? Was-not allowance to be made for men is such
circumstances attempt which was made upon the life
of the Emperor Napoleon was made chiefly by Italians; and
those who were familiar with Contemporaneous history--
knew that everything like freedom of opinion —freedom, he
might almost say, of action— was utterly destroyed in Italy.
The French army kept the Pope upon his throne. Italy,
the seat of the Roman Republic, the mistress of the world
in the middle ages, having municipal institutions which we
had loved to imitate—ltaly, the birth-place, he might say,
almost of liberty, had become now, as regarded freedom, a
political waste and desert. And although they could not
sanction, perhaps, the combinations which these men en-
tered into, they must look at all the circumstances of the
case, and anyattempt to restore their liberties by an organi-
sation of warfare against a tyr int who was oppressing them
—where there was no crime of assassination—any organisa-
tion on the part of the oppressed against the tyrant had ever
been sanctioned in this country. Whenever they had found
a French revolution succeed, journalists who had before
written against it had lauded the patriots who had risen
and thrown off the yoke. So much for Italy and the feel-
ings of Italians who were exiles from their country. Then
take for one moment France, and sketch her history very
shortly. See her position now, and let them try if they
could to appreciate the sentiments of Frenchmen. Ever
since the mighty revolution of 17 9, the excesses of which
every philosopher and every human being deplored—ever
since that mighty revolution which overthrew the dynasty
of the Bourbons, there had been contending for the throne
'of France, the elder brattish of the Bourbons, the Orleanists,
and the Napoleon family ; besides which there was the
great Republican party. Thank God, in this country,
living under the undisputed sway of a sovereign whom
we all loved and adored, we could not well appreciate the
feelings of Frenchmen, but that country had for years been
kept in a state of political excitement and uneasiness. The
Bourbon had been plotting against the Orleanist, both had
been plotting against the Emperor, and the republican
party had been anxious for the assertion of their feelings
on liberty. These four parties bad kept France in a state
of political embarrarsinent from 1789 to the moment that
he was now addressing them. In 1848 the government of
Louiste
m p t
on t the Philippe
ego
vwasgovernment upset,tt of
, a [se;
Philippe
ibiliipcp e i
n was elsBtirsob,l i shetl
threw .
Louis Napoleon, who from this country hal made an at-
himself upon the free will, or, as he called it, the sove-
reignty of the people, and was elected President of the
Republic by fire millions of votes, whereby
be was placed
in the grandest position that ever was filled by man.
What might he have done, placed as he was at the head
of a constitutional government, and surrounded by the
halo of a great name ? Louis Philippe and he changed
places. Louis Napoleon, from being a political exile
in England, became the heat of a constitutional govern-
ment of France, and Louis Philippe, who had been at the.
head of a constitutional Government in France, became a
the Conspiracydestroy,
Bill of Lord Palmerston sought to
to and which they were asked by their verdict utterly
political exile in England. So mach for the asylum which
an-
nihilate. Louis Napoleon had been an exile in Switzer-
land, which country they would remember had refused to
give him up, notwithstanding the threats otLouis Philippe;
he had been exiled in America, and then be sought a re-
fuge on the shores of Eng'aed e and from the banks of the
Rhine and the constitutional shores of England he had
enunciated those principles of liberty which induced the
enlightened people of France to confide their political desti-
eters in his hands. Placed at the head of a coast itutioaalGo-
vernment, he swore to maintain inviolate the freedom of
France, and before the oath was cold on his lips he violated
it. (Cheers, which were immediately suppressed.) His
learned friend the Attorney-General had tried to enlist their
feelings by talking of 516 wounds which were inflicted on
the byestanders on the 14th of Jan. •, but let him-call their
attention to the 2d December, IFSI, Talk of wounds !
Why, on the 2d December, 1851, the drunken French sol-
diers ware turned loose upon an unresisting mob, and men,
women, and children were indiscriminately slaughtered.
Louis Napoleon had determined that he would not govern
constitutionally any longer. There were men in Par is then
who were more attached to order than himself, for they had
never been guilty of treasonable practices against the exist-
ing government. There was Cavaignac, than whom no man
ever did more to maintain order in Frame, and than whom a
greater patriot and a greeter lover of ccustitutional freedom
never lived ; and there were Changarsier and Thiers, and
Lamoriciere an Bedeau, who were lovers of order, but who
were equally lovers of constitutional sovernment. On the
2d Doc., 1851, Louis Napoleon, by whew, he trusted he bad
s h w
tehmisbperreoseecfutthioenr‘evparseienesnttiiintitveed,awsietehmobultyretaesobne,
caused
t.hemthe
seized in their' beds, and oonfined in
gaol. Without cause
and without reason his drunken soldietybroke into the Cour
de Cessation, whore tho jurigee of the court ware sitting,
and where an accusation of treason was being made against
him, and these soldiery turned the judges into the streets.
o n
He erected himself a throne, and Oen went through the
mockery of an election. Upon that occasion, and be was
speaking from history well known, from able letters from
Paris, which were published in the jearnels, thousands of
persons were sent to gaol without trill, and transported to
the arid plains of Algiers, or to the deadly marshes of
Cayenne. Such had been the conduct of the man who-was
the prosecutor in this case, and they were asked to con-
vict this prisoner under some absurd sod ridiculous threats
that we were to have a war if he, wts not executed. The
prisoner was charged with being an accessory before the
fact of the murder of Nicholas Battle. Of course he was
not there to contend that if the prisoner and Orsini con-
spired to kill one person, and in the attempt to kill him
kilied another, he was not liable; but of course this par-
ticular occurrence must bo proved tothoir satisfactions, and
it must be shown to the exclusion of every reasonable
doubt, that this crime was "instigated, counselled, and
planned," which he believed, were the terms of the in-
dictment, by the prisoner. That was the charge which the
Government bad undertaken to
rove; and if it was con-
sistent, as he would show them it was, with the whole of
this case, that the prisoner had nothing whatever to do
with this attack upon Napoleon, bat that he believed that
what they ware about to be engaged in was an insurrec-
tion for the restoration of liberty in Italy, then, according
to the (return of one of the most able judges who ever sat
ou the English bench—Mr. Baron Alderson—the prisoner
must be acquitted. Mr. Baron Alderson said, "If they
found a state of things consistent with the prisoner's
committing the act, but inconsistent with the conclusion
that any other than the prisoner was the guilty person,
that one single circumstance being inconsistent with such
a conclusion, however unimportant of itself, would de-
stroy the hypothesis of guilt." And what did they
prove ? They proved to the satisfaction of the jury—
for it must come to them at last, as the great sanc-
tuary of freedom and of life—that he instigated and corm-
gelled this emeute— that he was a party to sending the
grenades which he (slr. James) said were intended for any
other object than an attack upon the life of Napoleon. if
they found that many of the facts, as he should show- -
and they had never been disputed—were consistent with
both suppositions, and, as he should show, that the assas-
sination of the Emperor hal never crossed the prisoner's
mind, but that whenever he had expressed an opinion on
the subject, as he did to King, it was that on Orsini's re-
turn Italy would be free, they would not be justified in
finding the prisoner guilty. Baron Alderson laid it down
—he was quoting from " Russell on Crimes," vol. 2, p.
727—that " where an indistment for murder was supported
entirely on circumstantial evidence, and no fact amounting
to presumption of guilt, the jury must, before finding the
prisoner guilty, be satisfied, not only that the circumstances
were consistent with his committing the act, but that they
were inconsistent with the conclusion that any ether than
the prisoner was the guilty person ; and that a single
circumstance inconsistent with such a conclusion was more
important than all the rest, because it destroyed the hypo-
thesis of guilt. Nor was there any difference between
civil and criminal cases, except that in the former the de-
gree of probability might be more safely adopted, property
only being in question, than in the latter, which affected
life." Tay must be satisfied in their hearts and in their
consciences, before they consigned the prisoner at the bar
to an English scaffold, that he was a party in instigating
this particular murder. Now he held that the facts were
inconsistent with that view. No doubt they had proof
that a murder had been committed in Paris—no doubt that
Radio and Gomez used the weapons with which they had
come provided, for a different purpose, to commit a sud-
den attack upon the Emperor—no doubt of that. But the
prosecution sought
to establish the charge against the
prisoner by three general propositions, and although their
witnesses were• extremely numerous, many of them having
been brought forward to establish that which nobody
disputed, viz., the facts of the murder in Paris—
they would fid a vast deal of that evidence inapplicable
to the three propositions he referred to, and which, us not
bearing upon the salient points of the case, might be rejected
from consideration. 'diadem ned friend the Attorney-General
made out first a connection between the prisoner and All-
sop, the Englishman, and through him with the grenades,
which, it would be rernembsred, were ordered by Allsop,
and, if they pleased to say so, paid for by him in the
menthe of October and November. They were ordered on
the 6th of October, and delivered on tho 23d of Novem-
ber. The Crown sought to establish the connection with
the prisoner by means of these grenades, and the case was
this —" You," they said to the prisoner, " went to Geared,
who was keeping the Cafe Suisse in London, and asked
him to take'over the grenades to Brussels." Now no one
could doubt that in this part of their case the Govern-
ment bad utterly failed ; and the woman whom they had
called on the previous day, and whom they had brought
over at the last moment from Brussels, had not only not
proved their case, but had proved the direct contrary. But
when they sought to make out the connection by means of
the grenades ordered by Allsop of Taylor, of Birmingham,
and by the delivery of them to Georgi to be carried to Brus-
sels, they must establish the identity of the grenades, or
there wee no case, It must be proved to the satisfaction of

the jury beyond doubt that those grenades which were
made by Taylor in Birmingham, and which it was proved
did the mischief in Paris, were those which passed through
Dr. Bernard's hands. The six grenades manufactured by
Taylor were those that did the mischief. How was it at-
tempted to trace these grenades to the hand of the prisoner
at the bar. Here were the grenades (exhibiting the speci-
mens in court to the jury.) Taylor, it appeared, made six
of them. There were two sizes, one three and the other
four inches in diameter. Now,svery one of the six grenades
made by Taylor had 25 holes, and he begged especial atten-
tion to this point. These six grenades were accounted for
in this way. One was found upon Pierri entire, one was
found in the track of Orsini ; three explosions were hoard
at the time of the attack, which accounted for three more;
and one, it was suggested, was used for experiment, and
not taken by Pierri, making the sixth. The prosecution,
in making out their case, endeavoured to trace from Mr.
Taylor's manufactory these grenades with 25 holes
which did the mischief; and in the course of doing so, it
was sought to implicate the prisoner by his visits to Rudio's
house in Bateman's-buildings the moment a difficulty arose
in the course of the examination as to the number of the
holes. It was perfectly clear that they had not connected
the prisoner with any knowledge of these particular gre-
nades. The prisoner believed that certain instruments were
to be used for a general rising for the liberation of Italy.
That he admitted ; but he had never had a part in the de-
livery or conveyance of these particular missiles by means
of which the murder had been committed. Witnesses had
been tempted to prove by falsehood that he had. Let them
see how the evidence established, not that these were the
grenades given by the prisoner to Georgi, but the direct
negative of that proposition. The first evidence with
which they bad to deal was Georgi's. He (Mr. James) ab-
horred imputing perjury to any man ; nor was he about to
do so on the present occasion ; but he could not forget that
this witness came before them under very peculiar circum-
stances, and they found that he had a most elastic memory.
Al the present moment there was a raandat d'arret —a state
warrant hanging over the head of the witness ; and he
hoped that after his evidence was given, and he had helped
tolconvict the unhappy prisoner at the bar, to go back to
Brussels, and find that affair settled —" arranged," as he
expressed it iu his evidence. See what cause hehad to make
his evidence agreeable to those by whom he had been
brought there. Ho had been arrested---bad been 26 days
in prison on a charge arising out of this affair. And now
he was sent over here to ''iv.) his evidence before an Eng-
lish jury with a Brussels State warrant hanging over his
head, issued at the instigation of the Emperor of the French,
who he knew well would leave no stone unturned to in-

sure his conviction, unless he bought immunity by his tes-
timony in the present case. He asked the jury to look at
'hose grenades. Could they have them in their bands once
without being struck by the peculiarity of their construc-
tion ! Examine the top of the cylinder and the space that
was occupied by the 25 holes. What said this witness ?
The articles produced as specimens were like this (the
model exhibited). The articles which he brought as speci-
mens were like this (one of the baud grenades), but they
had not the screw at the end. He showed me five, but they
were not all the same size. The specimens he showed me
consisted of five halves of the instrument produced. There
were thrre of the upper ball of the shell, and two of the
lower half. The latter had several nipple holes, but there
wore no nipples in the holes ; the surface was perfectly
smooth. The upper halves had a hole in them, but they were
without the sore w. "There were not so many holes as in this."
That was in his deposition. In his cross-examination be
said— -" I saw no balls with 25 holes in each. There might
have been one with sor 6. I never counted them. I might
has e seen one with 5 or 6 holes, but I will not swear." Then
the Attorney-General most fairly—and no one could have
discharged theduty which had devolved upon him with more
fairness or humanity than his hon. and learned friend ha I
evinced in this case—got up and said to him : " But were
there not 25 holes?" This, be it remembered, was af er the
witness had distinctly sworn to sor 6 holes. The thought
of the mandat d'arret flashed on his mind, as a sword hang-
ing in the air, and he immediately swore up to-23. No
doubt this man was under great temptation to stretch his
memory, which appeared naturally servile and elastic, and
remembering before ho left the b x that his testimony
would net be sufficient unless he swore up to 25 ho did so.
(A learned gentleman at the table—No; 15.) He (Mr.
James) was wrong ; ho found that the witness only swore
up to 15. The next witness called was Fourmarier, the
boy waiter at the Cafe Suisse. He said, " There were ten
halves, and they appeared to be of three kinds ; two of
them had small holes in them. There were so many as 20
or 25 of these holes in souse of them. Five of the hdles
were about the size of the one now produced, and I think
there was a screw in every one of them." Upon his cross-
examination be would not swear to 25 or to 15. " Will you
may," asked his learned friend Mr. Hawkins " that there
were ten ?" " There may have been more, perhaps fewer,"
was the reply; "I don't know." He next' came to the evi-
dence of Iteghenzi, That witness not only failed to sup-
port the case of the crown, but proved directly the contrary.
He was in a different position from Georgi---he had no state
warrant hanging over his head. He was free from police
control or state prosecution, and he was at liberty to speak
the truth, without risk or danger to his life or liberty when
he returned. He said— " I made a drawing of the article
when it was fresh in my memory, but the specimen put into
my hand does not bring back to my mind the same descrip-
tion of article"—that was the article of which he made a
drawing while it was fresh in his memory. There was in the
drawing seven holes. Here was the evidence of three wit-
nesses. Now, he would take the 'testimony of CAsiinir
Zeguers. It appeared that certain articles were given to
him to convey to Franco, and there eould be no question
that this man did convey to France the articles that did
the mischief. He had more opportunity of examining the
balls than the other witnesse.. He saw them on the man-
tel-piece in the smoking-room of the cafe. He took them
out one by one in halves, an-I he could not, therefore, fail
to observe how the top of the cylinder was riddled with
holes. He took thorn out one by one at the frontier; he
put them back again one by one, and he took them out
again when he gave them to Orsini et Paris. He had thus
four distinct opportunities of examining them. Ho said,
" They were of this description, but I did not observe any
boles in them." But this being a witness for the Crown,
the question then arose, what had been his epees' tunities ;
and having had full opportunities of examining them, the
evidence of this witness not only could not satisfy the jury
of the identity, but altogether disproved the fact of their
being the same articles at all. Such was the position in
which the case for the prosecution stood on Wednesday
night. The witnesses to identity had faded, and had
,prrhoevnetalitilortehtelri r
weeitt
nceosnstwraarsy
s
Saunders was sent over for the female witness who was ex-
o of
sentwfhoart. • w Ta arequired
u boifq ttt ihteomu

&mined yesterday, She made a drawing, which was un-
fortunately left behind, but which by the way wai
attached to the deposition which Saunders had brought
over. The deposition was here, but the drawing wad left
behind at Brussels,

The Attorney-General—lt was not attached.
Mr. James --But it was given beyond all doubt to the
uge d'instruction.

Tho Attorney-General—lt was produced before the
British consul; the deposition was before the jugs d'iu-
struction.

Mr. James said her drawing was not produced, but she
said the counted them, and there were 25 holes. Then
were they to suppose that Reghonzi could have made a
1 drawing and not have seen the holes ? This link in the
chair' of evidence was wanting. The case for the prosecu-
,
tiou was that Taylor made the grenades at Birmingham,
and that Dr. Bernard was shown to
have been in possession
of them. He said they had failed in showing that, but, on
the contrary, the instruments which were aeon in the pri-
soner's possession were proved not to have been grenades,
and the prosecution bad not only cast a doubt, but had
utterly negatived the evidence as to the identity of them.
Aud now they came for a moment to the question of the
pistols. Those pistols were bought by Orsini and Pierri of
Mr. Millis, of Birmingham. lie was not there to deny
that Orsini was calculating on some great emeute, and was
preparing arms for it, and he was not denying that Dr.
Bernard contributed ire that preparation. But he did
deny that Dr. Bernard was aware of this particular
attempt. He wished it to be known, that he denied—and
it could not be proved because it was not the fact—
that he was cognisant of and was privy to this attempt
ou the life of the Emperor, but that he and others were
assisting Orsini to bring about an emeuto he did not
deny. That was consistent with every portion of
the evidence on the part of the crown, it was
I consistent with the evidence that lie knew he was as-
sisting in the collection of arms at Paris, but he
I denied that the intention to murder Napoleon was
known to, or was canvassed by him. Well, these
pistols were sent, and how were they sent? King, the
keeper of the office of the South Eeaetern railway, at Re-
gent-circus, had known Bernard for some yeas, Bernard
went to him and declared to him, openly, that the parcel
contained two revolvers to be sent to the house of Outre-
quin, in his own name and with his own address. That
he knew that these arms were to be sent to Paris there
could be no question, and it was a remarkable characteris-
tic of all Dr. Bernard's acts in this matter, that there was
not one of them in which there was any attempt at con-
cealment except one, the letter to Mrs. Rudio after the at-
tempt. Ho took out the passport for Belgium in his own
name and address, the pistols were sent by him, and the
notes were changed by him in his own name. When he
took the pistols to King, a conversation took place, in
which ho said that he was a proscrit, and there would be
some difficulty, upon which King, who said he had had
dealings with Dr. Bernard before, permitted the parcel to
go without the usual declaration. King asked him when
be thought he should back to his own country, and the pi i-
roner replied, "I shall go back when your ally, to whom
you seem so much attached, conies here." He was not dis-
puting that fire-arms were being collected in Franco, and
that the prisoner was engaged in sending them. But in a
fatal moment Orsini and the men who were there made
an attempt which everybody regretted. Then there
was this letter of Mr. Allsop's of the let of January,
1857. Dr. Bernard was seen with him about rising
money in July, 1857, and that was the only time
ou which he was seen with him. But they were not,
as in the time of Sydney, to execute a roan because
a paper was found in his desk. Their lordships bad de-
cided that the letter was admissible, and ho bowed to that
decision, but the effect—the weight of it—was net for their
lordships to determine. If a letter written a year ago,
found under the table, was to be regarded as proof of the
complicity of the prisoner in a transaction of the 14th
January, 1853, what man was safe ? Let them see what
this letter was? "Riverhead, Kent, January let, 1857.—
My dear doctor,—Many thanks for the two slips which
you propose sending to the friends of Italy." He paused
here for a moment to remark, that at the last moment,
without any notice to them, a latter from Orsini was put
in, and there was an intimation that there was some dark
mystery about it ; but of that the jury would judge. But,
to revert to the letter from Allsop—" the communications
which you propose sending to the friends of Italy." No
doubt, there was a vast combination, and, as he said be-
fore, they could not consider that these men, seeing the
liberty that was enjoyed here, should indulge in aspira-
tions to procure liberty in their own country. It seemed
that some of these men met in a room in Leicester-square,
and Rogers, the spy, spoke of what the prisoner said there.
He acknowledged, however, that what the prisoner said
amounted to but little, and was not worth a report. The
letter went on to say, "I hope that some answers have
been received in London. lam glad to learn that any
difference of opinion is limited to ono point. Difference of
oo fpi actionnio n is
s
fo
necessary However,
.havo t
ovnioty
ry
confidence in the future. The abominable unscreant Of
the 2nd of December seems to have reached hie cul.
itr
success.e xi sti in every but u

.
[PRIOR 4D. sa,]

minating Have you seen the withering con-
tempt with which Smith O'Brien alludes to the
Queen's kissing this unconvicted felon." Now, h
did not endorse the opinion of Mr. Allsop, who seemed
to be a wild enthusiast. But he had not said more
than many Ministers had said. He proceeded— He
is not likely to give much more trouble, even if he should
escape the retribution he se richly merits. If I was in
California now I would at once double the amount offered
by Lentlor to the man who should perform an act of jestece
on that most wretched caitiff." He was alluding to a letter
by Mr. Lender, which at that tiote was attracting great
public attention. "He must be killed," the letter went
on to say, "and with him the system which ho seems to bo
necessary to keep up." Now, because Mr. Allsop wrote the
opinion of a wild enthusiast in January, 1557, was that any
proof that Dr. Bernard shared in them ? On the contrary,
Rogers the spy said the speech he had heard Bernard make
was not worth a report, but this letter was read in evidence
against the prisoner on a charge of murder. Men of litera-
ture must take care that no letters were found in their
possession. If a letter which was found in a man's passes-
Sion were to be proof of murder, was there a member of the
House of Commons, or a man devoted to literature, or a
journalist, who might have a letter or a pamphlet, which
he read or did not read, counselling assassination, who
would be safe ? He beiieved that at first some of their lords
shipsthought that the letter was da' el let Jars, 1358. In
that case the letter would have been material ; but it was
January, 1857. The letter went on to say, " I shall be
glad to hear of Orsini's progress." Orsini had been lectur-
ing in Edinburgh and Glasgow, and no doubt it was to that
that he alluded. He now came to the other letter that
was found on the 7th of April, 1557, in which
the only expression that called for remark was ai
to "the red and company." Why, was there any-
thing in that expression which exceeded in violence the
terms applied in what were called the tory days to
the radicals in this country? This letter was about as
harmless a letter as ever was written by one gentleman to
another. Next he came to that part of the case ou which
the Crown mainly rested, the evidence of Mrs. !Indio.
Their c ,scs would be this :--" Rudio was a man in distress.
Wo may imagine him a ready tool iu your hands. You
hired him not for any expedition for Orsini, but for this
particular murder." That must be their case or none.
What expedition Rudio hail been engaged in with Orsini
they did not know. Those who could explain that were
no more. The manner in which the woman Radio, tutored
as she had been by the police, and under the surveillance
of Rogers and Saunders for so long a time, gave her
evidence, dial her credit. Rudio, it was clear, had been
intimate with Orsini ; he had received charity from
Orsini ; and who could tell what was the expedition upon
which Rudio was engaged—Orsini, who was lead ; Radio,
whe was in the prison of France, anal the prisoner at the
bar--all of whom had their mouths closed. E udio might
have been brought over to give evidence, and the threat
that he might have been discharged here by habeas was
idle, as he might have been re-demanded under the extra-
dition treaty. The whole of the evidence was consistent
with the supposition that the grenades were intended not
for the assassination of the Emperor of France, but to be
used against the Fr such army in an expedition for the re-
generation of Italy. The number of grenades ordered
sixty-eix—and the quantity of fulminating powder, wholly
bore out that idea; anal the explanation was that Oreini,
in a moment of impulse, used them in the unfortunate
atterept of the 14th of January against the Emperor. Had
Rudio's evidence been confirmatory of the view taken
by the prosecution, he would doubtless have been pro-
duced ; but the probability was that had he been called,
he would have proved that the prisoner knew nothing of
the attempted assassination, but that he was privy to an
intended expedition for the liberation of Italy. That being
so, Rudio was not forthcoming. If there was much of the
evidence consistent with the case the Crown wished to
make out ; yet if there was touch of it also inconsistent
with the guilt of the prisoner, he could not be convicted.
The evidence of Eliza Cheney, corroborated by-Mrs. Rudio,
went to show that the destination of Rudio was Italy, not
France. That was the impression of Dr. Bernard; anal
hearing of the attempt of the 14th of January, which
shocked the whole world, he naturally rushed down to
Elize Ctieney's house, and asks, " Good God, what has
Rudio done ?" What so natural that having been en-
gaged in procuring those grenades for another arid so to-
tally different a purpose, be should have felt alarm when he
heard of the purpose to which those missiles had been ap-
plied. Suppose a man had procured a pistol for aeother
under the impression that it was to protect his twee° against
housebreakers, and afterwards hear I that the man had
used it for the purpose of murder, would net he, being
identified with the pistol by which the deed was committed
feel alarm ? Consistent, therefore, as was the conduct of
the prisoner with the case for the Crown, it was also con-
sistent, and thoroughly consistent, with his own. It
might be urged that the smallness of the number was in-
consistent with the supposition that they were intended
to be used for the purposes of war; but that argu-
ment was answered when the difficulty of introducing
into Paris arms intended for a great political
object--an expedition for the regeneration of Italy--
and the absolute necessity that existed of forwarding them
in small parcels. If there was any doubt the prisoner was
entitled to it. They had heard of the letters found on
Dr. Bernard ; had any letters been found on Orsini, or
rierri, or Rudio, or Gomez ? They knew the dying decla-
ration of Orsini, it was consistent with the truth, that Dr.
Bernard was engaged in an expedition for the regeneration
of Italy, but it was wholly inconsistent with the supposi-
tion that Dr. Bernard was implicated in an attempt to as-
sassinate the Emperor of the French. He implored them
seriously to consider this fact, that- ett him was not only
no letter or scrap of any letter or document found, but that
if there had been any, the French police, which was as
perfect now as it was in the days of Fouche, when wives
were bribed to betray their husbands—with all the power
of the French police not only was there not found on him
any document, bat there was not the trace of any letter
through the post-office, or any communication which
showed that the prisoner had any complicity in this
fatal enterprise. I am now, said the learned coun •
sel, coming to the conclusion of my observations an this
extraordinary case, and I ask you is this a case in which
you will wrest the law and give a verdict of guilty? Is
this a arse in which you will consign to death the prisoner
at the bar? I should have thought that under the twilight
of that morning when Orsini and Pierri expiated their
crime on the scaffold enough had been done to vindicate
French justice. 1 should have thought that the vengeance
of Louis Napoleon, whose insulting demands on Sardinia
and Switzerland you have heard so much of, demands
which were also made on this country, but which were re-
si4ed by the firmness of our Hoe-e of Coen-Leone—had
been satisfied. But you have this unfortunate man in-
dicted for conspiracy and for wilful murder also. I have
a right to say—and it is not merely my opinion, but the
opinion of jurists more able than myself—that the Act of
Parliament under which he is indicted does not apply to
this case. I believe that as regards the law this trial is a
mockery and a sham. The great objt ct of the French
government is to establish the principle that the French
exile is not protected in this country. It has been the
pride of Englishmen that this country is tho refuge of all.
As Cicero says, Regina's, populartun, nationum portus ct
refulgum." We have hail exiled kings here ;we have
hail exiled priests and exiled nobles. We have had
monarchs of France in exile here; and Louie Napoleon him-
self was an exile here. The object of this prosecution is
to make this country no longer the asylum of the exile ;
but I trust you will hesitate long before, by your verdict,
you bring about such a result. I trust that you will find
in this case doubts which will justify, nay compel you to
say that the particular crime which is charged is not proved
to your satisfaction. It has been a great advantage to this
country that it has ever been open to political exiles. The
inquisition, the persecutions of Phillip, and the revocation
of the edict of Nantes, sent to our shores many who en-
riched us by their knowledge of manufactures and arts,
and from these refugees some of our best citizens, amongst
whom I may mention the Laboucheres and the Romillys,
have sprung. Will you destroy that asylum which exiles
have ever enjoyed, and which I trust they will ever con-
tinue to enjoy? No, gentlemen, you will not. I implore
you to pause, because I believe t hat at present you do not
see the political results of your verdict. Gentlemen, I
have done. I have discharged my duty in regard to this
unhappy gentleman to the best of my ability. I have dis-
charged it as an English advocate, and I trust that I have
discharged it fearlessly, and as 1 should in au English
court of justice. And lam proud to say, that though the
liberty of the press is extinguished in France—though a
man there cannot record his opinion if it be unfavourable
to the imperial government --I sin glad that it is the pride
of the French Isar that freedom of speech still lingers
there, and that the tyrant cannot destroy it. I have dis-
charged my duty to the best of my ability, little equel to
the magnitude of the case. Let me urge you to discharge
yours fearlessly, conscientiously, and firmly. - You will
have the case left in your hands, after the reply of the
Att, racy-General, by one who holds the scales impartially.
Let me implore you to discharge your duty unintimidated
by the French army and by threats of French invasion.
Tell the French Emperor that he cannot intimidate
an English jury. Tell him that the jury-box is
the sanctuary of English liberty. Tell him that on
this spot your predecessors have resisted the power
of the crown backed by the influence of crowtoserving
and time-serving judges. Tell him that under every diffi•
culty and danger your predecessors have secured the politi-
eel liberties of the people. Tell him that the verdicts of
English juries are founded on the eternal and immutable
principles of justice. Tell him that panoplied iu that
armour no threat of armament or invasion can intimidate
you. Toll him that though 600,000 French bayonets glit-
tered before you, though the roar of French cannon
thundered in your ear, you will return a verdict which
your own hearts and consciences will sanctify and approve,
careless] whether that verdict pleases or displeases a foreign
despot, or secures or shakes and destroys for ever the
throne which a tyrant has built upon the ruins of the
liberties of a once free anal mighty people. (Loud cheers
and clapping of hands from all parts of the court, in which
the prisoner joined, but which were suppressed by the
officers of the court.)

Tne Attorney-General rose to reply on the whole case.
He said—The time had now arrived for him to sum up
to them the evidence fur the prosecution, and the timr!,
was not now far di-tant when they would have to per
form their part. In discharging his duty
en-
deavour to confine himself within the law
and
icP not b e
of our courts in questions of this kind.
Les in asking
supposed that he censured his friend Mr. Jam ,
ho
wouldractice
them, in a strain of eloquence rare in_fcoaunratsavool justice,oateal_
that he bad transgressed the boundst of
topics in the
though he had introduced a variety to
say so much
cour,e of his address. He rs. :joy to follow him
because it was not 0
endeavour to bring their minds
through them, but questions they bad to consider and de•
back to the real
oeeded to disabuse their minds of
cide on. He firsiP
land, in a /In 1.. court of j'ostice,
the dream of his learnedr_
friend that this trial, before
learned judges of. the
and' before a British jury, that the prosecution had been
instigated or promoted by the French Government or
any other persons but those who were able to direct
each a prosecution in this country. The late Attorney-
General instituted this inquiry, from certain circum-
stances laid before him, that there was evidence to show
that the prisoner was implicated with Or,ini and others
in a conspiracy to murder. The case was brought before
a magistrate when certain evidence was given, and the
case a,sutned an aspect that led the learned counsel who
conducted the case and the worthy magistrate before