The Sun.
London, England, 1835-12-19 00:00:00

of men to get together and offer spiritual remedies only a 3
the test of their sympathy. They seem to think that Ca-
tholicism is the greatest curse of Ireland, forgetting that
thirst and hunger, and their thousand attendant ills stalk
in the glare of'day through her lonely valfies• Nay, some
of them go still further, and pretend to believe that, if con-
verted, they would at once leap into comfort and tlenty !
Yes, gentlemen, it is well enough for you to determine in
Your own minds which is the right road to salvation.
You daily sit down to a good dinner. You are wel-
comed home by the smiles of a cheerful family. You
Can indulge in all sorts of speculations before a blazing
fire. Your light is never offended by the horrors of abject
Poverty. How easy is it for you to abuse " the dema-
gogue O'CoxicELL," and rail against the Catholics ! You
doubtless consider yourselves Christians of the first water;
Yet the Gospel, that was wafted to the on the Wings
of peace and gentleness, you would trans.%rm hitt) " oppres-
sion's iron rod." Let me place bekre you one fact, and
reconcile it, if you can, with your coarse attacks upon the
Roman Catholic Reli"ion- a district whose inhabitants
are entirely left to the m'acies of the " brutal priest," and
are, moreover, in a im":ot miserable condition, the lateintel-
ligent and impartip..l .Mr. INGLIS in his " Travels in Ireland,"
observes—" I 7,alked back to Kilkenny from Cullen in the
evening, wie.,.iout any fear of robbery, in a country where
'olf the people are starving. Robbery, singular to tell, is
o my'requent occurrence; and I look upon it, that
traveller is in less danger on the highways of Ireland, than
in any other part of the British dominions."
....When a political reform shall have been effected ; when
1! o isands of unemployed hands shall be at work, and wages
shall be higher ; when tithes shall be swept away, and the
heel of a church—a " Foreign" church—shall cease to dis-
figure the fair face of IRELA4sn—then will be' time to put
into the new soil that plant of celestial seed—the Protes-
tant Religion, But the execution of this mighty design
will not be confided to the rashness of such men as 11.1'GREE,
CPSULL-VAN, ct id actin omne. It must be done " with
Patient care, and wisdom-tempered zeal ;" never forgetting
that men who pursue the dictates of conscience are reli-
gious in the best and truest sense of the word, since religion
is but the echo of conscience. In the 19thL century a
crusade against opinion will not be submitted to ; quot
homines tot sententice is in the immutable nature of things,
and the ravings of such " incomprehensible" noodles as the
above mentioned, never yet did any thing but injure the
cause they espoused, and excite the undisguised contempt
of every man of common sense.

MILO.

FRENCH PAPERS.

COURT OF PEERS—THURSDAY.
The proceedings in the Court of Peers commenced by
the examination of M. Maillefer, the editor of the Journal
Le Peuple Souverain, published -in Marseilles, and against
Whom the bill of indictment contained the following charges :
—" When the Journal Le Peuple Souverain was established
in Marseilles, the editorship was confided to M. Maillefer,
rho published in Douai,the Liberal du Nord. In his qua-
lity of principal editor, 111. Maillefer had the exclusive direc-
tion of that Journal, particularly in the absence of M. Im-
hert • and it was on that account he was prosecuted for
articles inserted in the nurabers of the 12th, 13th, and 14th
of April, and for his personal participation in the events of
that period. The article the most seriously incriminated
Was the extraord:mary postscript of the numbers of the
13th and 14th, in which it was annnunced that the insur-
gents of Lyons were masters of the city, and that Louis
Phillippe was besieged in the palace of the Tuileries by the
Repub,iicans of Paris. The reader of the printing-office of
the journal declared that M. Maillefer was among the per-
BUS who brought him, in the night of the 13th, the manu-
script note of that article. The printer had at first attributed
it to a M. Lardier, but M. Maillefer, in his examination of
the 16th of April, presented to the Judge of Instruction a
letter, signed " Berard," in which the latter had inclosed the
article to the Journal, with an invitation to publish it on
his own personal responsibility. M. Maillefer added, that
he was not aware who had brought Berard's letter to the
Office ; that he had copied it, and sent it to be printed, under
the double guarantee of the author and manager of the
Paper. In a subsequent interrogatory, M. Maillefer main-
tained that he had not written any of the incriminated ar-
ticles ; that, moreover, the influence of the Journal, both by
its publications and the exertions of its editor, had been in-
Variably used to restore tranquillity in Marseilles ; that the
sections of the Society of the Friends of the People had been
convoked fog the purpose of preventing demonstrations that
might have compromised the peace of the city, and that it
was witb that View that he had had, at the office of the Jour-
nal, several conferences with members of that society."
'M. Maillefer, having been invited by the President to rise,
begged leave to be allowed to explain his personal position
in the case. He reminded the Court of his endeavours,
at the opening of the debates, to bring his co-accused
to make concessions to the exigencies of the . Court,
which would at the same time conciliate their in-
terests and the dignity of their judges ; but although
his opinions respecting their incompetency were not
altered, the voluntary secession of 28 of the prisoners,
the abominable crime Which had sullied with blood the
fifth anniversary of the great week, the sinister insinuations
which the Government had thrown out against the Repub-
lican party—the law of intimidation of the 9th of Septem-
ber ; and, finally, the interest of the cause, placed him
under the necessity of presenting his defence, and opposing
facts to the calumnies of the bill of indictment. He, a
simple plebeian, might be proud of being tried by Ministers,
Ambassadors, Generals, Prefects, who were, to be sure,
his Peers, as citizens, and he regretted to see the assembly
widowed of its noblest illustrations, who protested, by their
absence, against the theoretical competency of the Court,
Which the above considerations alone had induced him to
accept, and he would, consequently, answer the questions
the President thought proper to address to him. M. Mail-
lefer accordingly gave a full account of .his conduct dur-
ing the events of April. He never had been a member
of the Society of the Rights of Man, and had often dif-
fered in opinion with some of his friends who belonged to
the association. Although the principal editor of the
Journal, he had not so much authority in the councils of
the redaction as might be supposed from his title, for
'there were perhaps thirty or forty shareholders in the con-
cern, who had more influence perhaps than he possessed.
Most of the proprietors were members of the Society of
the Rights of Man. He was merely charged with what is
called the Polemique of the Journal, and did not attend to
the news, which was left, when it came in at a late hour, to
the reader and other persons of the printing-office. He
then explained how the two incriminated postscripts had
appeared in the journal. They had, he said, a nzagnetical
origin. In the absence of intelligence from the seat of the
insurrection, some persons who have faith in magnetism
thought it expedient to consult Madame Chabot, a som-
nambulist, or pythonisse of Marseilles, on the passing events.
Her answers were translated into French, from the Pro-
vencal, and brought, written with a pencil, to the office of
the Journal. The investigation made by the Judge of In-
struction had proved that such had actually been the origin
of the postscription ; and if he (M. Maillefer) did not
summon the sybil as a witness, it was in consideration of
the respect he. had for the Court, as that woman was a
half savage, who could not speak a word of French, and
that her appearance hafese the house would be a farce only
'worthy of the theatre of l'ariNs. That was the sole rea-
son why he did not summon that witness, who might have
been of the greatest use to him." The letter, enclosing the
postscript, was sent to him by M. Berard, a respectable and
wealthy citizen of Marseilles ; be had read. it before it was
given to the printer, and he could not suppose that such
serious facts as those recited therein could. have been ad-
vaned on so extraordinary an authority..
The interrogatory of M. Maillefer being concluded, the
euamination of witnesses commenced. The first examined
'was a tavernkeeper, at whose house 112 'republicans had
held a meeting on the 10th of April. He did not know
what was the object of the re-union, and he only suspected
it was of a seditious nature when the President ordered him
not to quit the house.
The Mayer of Marseilles entered into a long account of
the preparations of the republicans of that city to make a
diversion in favour of the insurgents of Lyons, but stated
that M. Maillefer, to his knowledge, had done everything
in his power to calm the effervescence of the party, and
prevent an explosion.
Three or four witnesses were then examined, not one of
whom could articulate a charge against M. Maillefer.
The Attorney-General observed that those witnesses had
been merely summoned to give the Court an idea of the
state of agitation of the public mind in Marseilles during
the events of April.