The Sun.
London, England, 1858-04-16 00:00:00

OF THE FRENCH EMPEROR.

TRIAL OF SIMON BERNARD-(FIFTH DAY).

The trial cf Simon Bernard was resumed this morning
at ten o'clock. The interest exhibited in the proceed-
ings increases as the trial approaches its conclusion.

The Court to day was densely crowded. As early as
9 o'clock the avenues of the court were thronged by
persons anxious to obtain early admission, and before
half-past 9 the court was half filled.

The audience was principally composed of ladies,
amongst whom were the Duchess of Manchester, and
the Hon. Miss Campbell, the wives of many of the
aldermen, and their friends.

On the bench were the Duke of Manchester, the Earl
of Lunn, Lord Bingham, Sir R. Mayne.
At five minutes past 10'clock, Lord Campbell, the
Lord Chief Baron, Mr. Justice Erie, and Mr. Justice
Crowder, took their scats on the bench, when the pri-
soner was placed et the bar.

me. James, in addressing the jury, expressed a hope
that the jury would believe him when he raid that he
felt inadequate to efficiently discharge the onerous duty
that devolved on him in entering on the defence of a
case which affected the liberties and privileges of the whole
civilised world. It had ever been the boast, and no idle
one, that it was the duty and the pleasure of the Eng-
lish bar to render every assistance to the weak against
the strong—the oppressed as against the oppressor, and
from that spot where he now stood the illustrious names
of Erskine, Brougham, Beaman, and lastly the Lord Chief
Baron (Pollock) had shed the lustre of their influence
in the cause of freedom. The case had been brought
before them under extraordinary circumstances. He,
however, acknowledged the moderation with which the
learned Attorney-General had opened the case ; but be-
fore
they found a verdict for an act which was not con•
tent with the blood of Orsini and Pierri, but which was
to stain an English scaffold with the blood of the pri-
soner, it was right they should havo known and made
explained to them upon what principle of law, upon
what ground it was that this prosecution was based on
this particular act of Parliament. He, however,
trusted to be able to show that it hal been
perverted and wrested from the object which
those who framed it intended, and he was speak-
ing not only his own opinion, but that which was
guiding the opinions of the greatest jurists of the pre-
sent day. The act of Parliament had never before been
applied to such cases, and had been pressed against the
prisoner under most extraordinary circumstances. He
stated that the prosecution hal been instituted at the
instigation of foreign dictation, for the purpose of bring-
ing about a state of things which the then Government
had not the courage to submit to the English people and
the British House of Commons, and the Treasury Solici
tor had been called upon to ransack the archives of musty
acts of Parliament, and having found one they sought to
enforce it against him for wilful murder for the object of
encompassing a political object which the Government of
the day had not the courage to submit to the English
people through the British House of Commons. The
learned counsel then referred to the history and origin
of the transaction, and in doing so he said he was not
there to counsel assassination. God forbid that he
should ever say a word in palliation of assassination.
It was a cowardly, dastardly, dark crime, and he would
riot then stop to discuss the question, whether it was
light to get rid of a tyrant by that means. Assassina-
tion was a crime at which Eng'ishmen jestly shuddered,
and it was not to the dagger an oppressed pe :pia! meat
look for relief. Gad in his inscrutable wisdom
reserves to tyrants and despots a worse fate than the
machinations of man, and hietory attested the truth
that, though Providence allowed for a time a despot to
triumph over his people, there remained for bins an in-
evitable retribution which reached him more surely than
grenades and the dagger of the assassin. Livine as we
did under the beneficent reign of a constitutional sove-
re.gn, who lived and reigned in the hearts of the people,
we were unable to understand the feelings of those who
lived under the withering blast of despotism. The
learned counsel then referred to the attempted ae,sassi-
notion ; the demand made by France fur delivering uptbe
exiles in this country ; the threatening language of the
French cdonels published in the afoniteur ; the speech
of the French ambassador to the Corporation of London.
Lord Palmerston'. Government pressed for the extiadi-
tion of this and other men who found an asylum here ;
to the conspiracy bill of Lord Palmerston and its fate,
and they were now asked under a spacial commission
to ask these learned judges round them, no', be would
say, to pervert the law, f, r thty were too high and
honourable for that, but toask them through the verdict
of the jury to do that which the late Government
had been unable to accomplish, that of sub-
verting the freedom of asylum in this country.
The learned counsel having again referred to the Con-
piracy Bill of Lord Palmerston, on which Lord Camp-
bell, the late Attorney-General and others, greatly dif-
fered, which the English people would not receive, and
which wracked the noble lord's government, the strongest
that, perhaps, had been ever known, he referred to the
charge preferred before the magistrate of ceaspiracy,
and aaer wards turned into felony as an accessory before
the fact ; and ho implored the jury not to pervert the
law by finding a verdict against the prisoner, and, by so
doing, awient in destroying the asylum of extlee, for an
act never contemplated and not applied to thiscese. The
prisoner was an Italian, a native of that country which
had been almost the (Arai-place of freedom, but which
had now become a political waste and a desolation ; it
was not to be wondered at that an organisation should
base existed against tyranny, which bad not only been
lau led by the greatest men of the age, and which had
met no favour in the English journals, whenever a
French revolution for restoring the liberties of the people
bad been successful. The Emperor of France bad him-
self erjoyed the rights of asylum on the shores of England,
which he now sought to destroy for ever by the conviction
of the prisoner f or murder. In 1843, the throne of Louis
Philippe was upset, and the republic of Louis
Napoleon established, who they knew had made an
attempt from this country on the Government of
Louis Philippe. He afterwards, in Deceinbc.r, 1851,
threw him-elf on the free-will of a generous people.
HO obtained five milli ins of their votes, and he was by
them placed in a position the greatest that God bad
ever allowed nay man to hold for wielding the liberties
and destinies of roan. What might he not have done, so
placed by the free-will of a people, with the halo of
the great name he bore, and which carried him into that
position I In 1848 the Emperor of the French was
perched on the height of his ambition, arol he than
wore to protect the liberties of the French people. Louis
Philippe and Louis Napoleon had then changed places.
Louis Napoleon had gone to France, upset the govern-
merit of Louis Philippe, and taken his throne. Louis
Philippe had lost his throne, and sought refuge in thin
country ; and it was that right of asylum, which the
Conspiracy Bill of Lord Palmerston sought to destroy,
they were now asked by their verdict to annihilate, and
which Switzerland and Sardinia had determined to pre-
serve in their respective countries. Tile learned gen-
tleman then referred to the wanderings of Luis Napo-
leon, and said that the sentiments which he had enun-
ciated from the banks of the Rhine—from the fastnesses
of Switzerland and the wild plains of America—induced
the most intelligent and generous people in the world—
the people of France—to confide their destinies to his
hand ; but before the oath was cold on his lips he
faltered. (Slight applause, which was immediately sup-
pressed.) Referring to the attempt of the 14th Jan.,
the learned counsel alluded to the number of wounds
which the prosecution had stated, said they were as
nothing when Louis Napoleon turned the drunken
French soldiers on the night of the soup d. elat loose on
men, women, and children, and when the representa-
tives of the people were seized and thrust into prison,
and afterwards transported into the deadly plains of
Algiers, and the more deadly swamps of Cayenne, that
he might erect his throne over a mighty people.
(Slight applause.) He should be able to show that
the attempt to assassinate the Emperor never
crossed the prisoner's mind, and that he never
for a moment instigated this particular murder.
There were no doubts about the facts of the murder
which it was sought to connect the prisoner with by
three general positions. The first was his connection
with Allsop, and through him with the grenades ordered
by Allsop, and paid for by him between Oct. and Nov,,
1857, but he contended the prosecution had failed to
identify the grenades used with those ordered by Allsop.
Not one of them bad been traced to his knowledge,
though he (Mr. James) admitted that the prisoner knew
some instruments were to be used in an insurrection
in Italy, but he never had a hand or part in
the sending of those instruments. In order to
trace them a man named Georgi had been called before
them under peculiar circumstances, and who bad a most
elastic memory. At the present moment a State war-
rant impended over his head, which he hoped to avert
by giving evidence that would convict the prisoner,
when he would be able to go back and have it arranged.
Already he had had twenty-six days' imprisonment, and
had now a Brussels State warrant hanging over him; he
had sworn in reference to these grenade°, brat, that there
were five holes in them, and afterwards there were
twenty-five, and in the drawing he wade of them before
the Jugs d'lnstruction he represented there were only
seven holes ; and after analysing Georgi's evidence
the learned counsel contended it ha I failed to prove
die prisoner's knowledge of them. With regard to the
pistols he did not deny, as lie had already said, that he,
with o,eini, were collecting for a political eincute of
which Paris was to he the focus, and Dr. Bernard bad
contributed to that supply, but without cognizance of or
in instigating this attempt. He wished that proposition
to be distinctly uederstood, and he defied the Crown to
prove that Dr. Berard was implicated in instigating
this murder. He was connected with Oreini and others
for an out break and in defence of their liberty, and soy
a tack that might be made against them ; and it was
prima facie consistent with much of the evidence for the
Crown. It was remarkable that with but one exception
there had been no attempt on the part of tho prisoner to
conceal his name. There was no concealment when he
sent the pistols, nor when he obtained his
pusportMore arms, no doubt, would have been sent by him had
not Orsini, in a fatal moment, made this deplorablevence
.
attempt. A letter of Allsop 's had been read in d
Their lordships had decided the law that the letter
eotohuelidr
be read, but its weight rested with the jury ; and if
verdict on it was adverse,
no man
would be safe who received a letter,
iwohitchhishceo.unnevtryr
answered, and which he carelessly threw aErn
sidie4de o
.Ttiet
letter contained a reference to the Society f