The Sun.
London, England, 1858-01-29 00:00:00

NE IT ORGANISATION OF TEE FRENCH

ARMY.

The 'following report has been addiessed to the
Emperor Napoleon by Marshal Vaillant, Minister

of War :

"Sire--The majority of the great military
powers of Europe have their forces constantly
united in armies or corps d'armee. France, on the
contrary disseminates her troops in territorial divi-
sions', completely independent one of the other,
and having no common bond except the superior
authority of the Minister of War. This organisa-
tion presents the inconvenience of keeping at a
distance from the troops during peace the greater
number of the chiefs who are destined to exercise a
superior command over them in time of war. Our
system of barracks has not permitted the points
of concentration of troops to be sufficiently multi-
plied anywhere, except in the divisions of Paris
and Lyons, to form comnitnds of an import-
ance equal to the dignity of a marshal of the em-
pire. It therefore appears necessary to create fox•
the marshals positions which would give them in
time of peace over the generals commanding the
territorial divisions an action similar to that which
they are called on to exercise during a campaign
over the general commanding the active divisions.
For that object, and without modifying the present
distribution of the troops in the interior of the em-
pire, any more than the constitution of the terri-
torial divisions, it appears desirable to unite the
troops stationed in these divisions into several
great commands, at the head of which marshals
could be placed. Such a measure would have the
effect not only of utilising and keeping in
activity those high dignitaries of the army, but
would give to the commandants of divisions—
now isolated one from the other, and for the
most part distant from the centre of the govern-
ment—a force of cohesion which is now wanting to
them. Our troops, necessarily dispersed in so many
different garrisons, and unequally divided over the
surface of the empire, could be rapidly united at a
given moment in the hand of a single chief, and be
thus prepared to preserve on all points public order
and the security of the territory. Struck with these
advantages, your Majesty has ordered me to study
the means for carrying them into execution, and
yourself have laid down the bases of this new oma-
nisation. The institution of extensive commands
has already worked in a useful manner at different
periods in France, and in order to suit existing cir-
cumstances it has appeared to me useful to re-esta-
blish it on the conditions which form the object of
the decree which I have the honour to submit to
your Majesty. —I am, Sze., " VAILLINT.”
The reports followed by a decree dividing the troops
of the empire into five large commands, to be con-
fided to Marshals of France, with the Hie of
Superior Commandant of the troops stationed in
the North, East, South-east, South-west, and West.
The first command will comprise the troops in the
Ist, 2d, and 3d military divisions, with the head-
quarters established in Paris ; the second, those in
the 4th, sth, 6th, and 7th divisions, with its head-
quarters at Nancy ; the third, those of the
Bth, 9th, 10th, 17th, and 20th divisions, with
the head-quarters at Lyons ; the f urth, those
of the 11th, 12th, 13th, and 14th, with the
head-quarters at Toulouse ; and the fifth, those of
the 15th, 16th, 18th, 19th, and 21st divisions,
with the head-quarters at Tours. The generals in
command of the military divisions will report to the
Superior Commandant as to the situation, disci-
pline, and instruction of the troops, but they chill
retain their direct relations with the Minister of
War on everything connected with territorial com-
mand. In case of disturbances, but only in that
eventuality, the Superior Commandants will of

their own accord order such movements and con
contrations of troops as they may consider neces
sary.

ADULTERY AND BOMICIDE.

Our Paris correspondent has already hinted at
an affair which has created much sensation in that
capital. It appears that at the beginning of this
month a hairdresser of Mont de Marsan killed M.
de Garidel, Councillor of the Prefecture, whom he
found with his wife, and that he immediately after-
wards gave himself into custody. On Saturday
this man was brought to trial before the Court of
Assizes of the Landes. His name is Late rrade, his
age 42, and his bearing on the trial was suitable
and modest. The court was crowded to excess.
The prisoner, who was somewhat agitated when
first placed at the bar, but who soon recovered his
compcsure, having answered the usual questions as
to his name, age, and occupation, the indictment
was read. This document was unusually brief and
set forl these facts :—On the 3d of this month,
at about eleven at night, the prisoner, who had
been supping with a friend, returned home, and
found his wife partly undressed seated by the fire-
side. She complained of a violent stomach ache,
and her husband proposed to make her some
gruel, but she refused, and after a while sud-
denly left the room, taking the oandle with her. He
had noticed that she seemed agitated and had cast
anxious glances towards a large arm-chair. He
removed the chair, and found a man behind it.
This man seized him by the throat, threw him
down, and, kneeling on his breast, tried to strangle
him. At this moment the woman returned, and
cried to the man, "Do not kill him ! 0 God I do
not kill him !" The man then released him, and
the prisoner saw that he was M. de Garidel ; where-
upon, taking a sword-cane with which he had en-
tered the room, and which he always carried, he
drew the sword and plunged it into de Garidel's
breast. M. de Garidel fell to the floor without
saying a word, and expired. The prisoner subse-
quently went to the police, related what had taken
place, and gave himself into custody. " What the
indictment alleges," said the prisoner, when the
reading was concluded, "is exact. It does not
give all the details of the scene, but I do not con-
tradict anything that it says." " You ought," re-
marked the President, "to have taken legal pro-
ceedings to obtain redress for the injuryde Garidel
did you, and not to have killed him yourself."
" I do not know, sir, that I should have been suf-
ficiently master of myself to do what you say, but
the fact is that de Garidel did not leave me time to
reflect, for being much stronger than I am he threw
me down, and kneeling on me grasped me by the
throat with such violence that he almost suffocated
me. My wife, hearing the rattle in my throat, came
in, and on her entreaties he released me. I confesss
that this new insult, following close on the outrage
of my honour as a husband, exasperated me,
and I stabbed him. I had no idea that he
was serioudy wounded, neither had he him-
self, for he begged me to be calm, and offered
me money. " Money 1" I cried, indignant
at such a proposition, and I struck him in the face
with the cane, and broke it as you see. (Here the
prisoner pointed to the cane which was lying upon
the table.) It was then that, without saying a
word, he fell. Not knowing why he fell, I gave
him a kick, and exclaimed, " Oh, don't play a
comedy here !" I then went downstairs, and not
having the slightest idea that he was dead, walked
to and fro before my door, expecting him to leave,
but not seeing him went up-stairs, and to my sur-
prise, found him dead. I then gave myself into the
hands of justice." The statement which the wife of
the hairdresser made to the examining magistrate
after the fatal event was then read ; sire said that
up to the evening in question she had not had any
criminal connection with M. de Garidel, but on
that evening she had consented to commence one,
and that he was in her chamber with her full per-
mission. When her husband returned home de
Garidel had not undressed himself, but had re-
moved his watch, and he was seated in an armchair
opposite to her. She then described what had cc-
curred when her husband entered, and how he
had stabbed the other. She had, she said, given de
Garidel a rendezvous on that evening because she
knew her husband had long been jealous of her,
and in consequence they used to occupy separate
rooms ' • but she did not believe that he had sus-
pected de Garidel, or that he had had the slightest
intention of killing him when he returned home.
The woman added :—" Before I gave the ren-
dezvous to de Garidel, I expressed my fears
that if my husband were to discover us he
would kill us both. `Oh 1' answered de Gari-
del, ' never fear—l am a strong man and I would
strangle him !" Ali, you would not do that I'
said I with a Well,' he answered,
would not kill him, but I would give him such,
squeeze that he should be insensible for a time !
Some witnesses were then examined, and the jury,
after a very brief deliberation, returned a verdict
of acquittal. The Court ordered the prisoner to
b discharged, and as he left the dock a number of
friends gathered round aud warmly congratulated

ST. MARTIN'S HALL.—A rather extraordinary exhibi-
tion took place at this hall last evening. A very yong
man, Mr. C. Coghlan, undertook to rea, in pubu
lic, a
four-act tragedy of his own compositidov, dressed in
" the costume of the period," the age of Charles the
First. As a piece of writing this play calls for no
particular criticism, being neither markedly good nor
specially bad ; it is filled with the usual attempts at
Elizabethan interjectional quaintness, while the more
high flown portion much resembles the worst parts of
Mr. Sheridan Koowleu's drama.. Mr, coeglohclualtiognilli
was perfectly self-sufficient, and hie
tolerable, but it is evident that a reading like reallys
where an untried artist sustains the entiref weightofthtil:O
characters, has to simulate male and
and, moreover, to interpolate the text ritlatiet.hevositcaegse
directions, must necessarily become
monotonous. The idea, though an wear3ing and
carried out with a spirit worthy ofunhappy one, was
a happier notion.