The Sun.
London, England, 1857-09-04 00:00:00

EXTRAORDINARY TRIAL IN ALGERIA.

A trial. of extraordinary character,- and likely to
be fraught with important consequences, has just
teen concluded in Algeria. So sparingly 'has public
attention been generally- at'racted to the internal
affairs of that African c Bony thst the Parisians
Veinselves appear taken by surprise it the parti-
culars reve:ded, and Vie subj:ct has now lir some
weeks been disetiv.ed wit :r and once s;ng
interest on the other side of the Channel. It is
now almost a twelvemonth ago—tint is to say, it
was on the 12th of as September—that a public
conveyance sta,ted in the middle of th3niulit from.
Tlemc-n for Oran, two towns at no great distarice
from each other in the western districts of Algera.
It was attacked on the road by armed .men, exteflyi
as might have been the cese in Spain er Mexico,
and, among other casualties, one cif the p tsseng- re,
an Arab chief of censiiieration, styled the Aga Ben
Abdallith, was shot dead, His widiw, who had
previously lose three other limb =nd e and all by
deaths equidly violent, raised an Oriental clamour,
at this climax of her woe,, lo tded. ht r,elf with
chains, tore her garm-rys and her hair, and pub icly
demanded vengeance at the hands cif the Gevern-
meur. After seine ineffectual inquiries the aeroci y
was at length laid to the charge of a French ofiker
—Captain Doineau, who; wite soma 18 Arab accein
plices, was put to the bar at the Court of ASSI73 at
Oran to answer for the crime. The proceedings
which ensued were singular in the extreme. Th 3
mixture elicited in the depositions of civilize,' iou and
barbarism, & Arab manners and French adminis-
tration, of military rule and civil procedure, presents
a picture so discordant in its fea, urns as to les almost
bewildering. The first fact in the case, inclead—t hat of
a bona.fideArief of the Desert—the r. algenuinceSheik
of the BeniSuous, having me: his de..th, not on herse-
back or under a tent, but in the coupe of a diligence,
is a suggestive specimen of the int:Mews which fol-
lowed. When we say that the principal witue3sts
against the chi-f culprit were those who stood ac-
cused of the same crime, and that they perpetually
contradicted themselves and each other, we shall
have said enough to excuse ourselves from entering
upon the judicial portion of tin niirrative any fur-,
ther than to add that a conviction has been ob-
tained. Even the incidental disclosures produced
by the trial will not create quite so much astonish-
' ment in England as they steal to have done in
France. It appeared in the evidence that the
military Beards of Administration iu the colony, at
the lead of one of which had been Doinean himself,
had exercised an authority transcending in its rigour
and its despotism even the recogni,ed severities of
inattial law. Summary executions were spolen of _
as notorious transaction; and in certain districts of
the colony the military administra' ors pronounced
their duress, even in matters of life and death,
without so much as the form of trial. We trust
we may assume that in no Briiish dependency have
the abuses.of colonial rule everbeen pushed to such
a length as this ; but, as we ere colt raisers by in-
stiect, as we ice() w vesat it is te maintain authority
in countries where life as well as government is to
be preserv• d only by dtily vigilance, we can corn=
prehend without difficulty the exc-s-ies to which
soldiers might in carried when charged with the .
administration of a territory in which every man's
hand hand was against them, and that hand well armed.
Considering, in short, the character of the Arab
populittion, the pesition of the French colonists, and
the thities in`rusted to the French army, we cannot
profess to be much surprised that the dependency,
when left to itself, without inquisitive supervision,
should have yielded such examples of government
as were related on this trial. The most notable
feature in the transaction we discover in a different
qu4rter.

It might have been not unnaturally supposed that
in a country where the suppression of public in-
formation is readily pralt icabte such proceedings as
these, involving so many unpleasant disclosures,
wont' not have bean suffere I to emerge very freely
into light. The r...sult, iu fact, has oec,tsioned au
extraordinary amount of scanlal, and the conduct
of the military Boards has been severely criticised,
not only in ordinary French circ'es, but in the
Cabinet itself. All th-tso conditi.ns, however,
have betm int] tkly accepte 1 by the Government of the
Emperor, and the whole case, with all its attendant
anecdotes, has been tried, canvassed, c'rculated, and
scrutinised with as much freedom and publicity as
could have been commanded among ourselves. At
Oran itself the interest created was remarkable.
Officers from all parts of the colony were attracted
to the trial, and the court was even attended one
day by visitors from an English ship of war which
had come to anch-,r off the town. In France the
public journals have seiz3d upon the topic with an
avidity very intelligible, and the details of the in-
vestigation have been placed without reserve before
the country. What is of greater importance, this
publicity is working out its proper ends, and it is
understood that the trial will probably produce
a reform of the admitastration throughout Al-
geria.

We need not ascend the annals of France very far
to find a Government under which no such di,clo-
sures as the_e would probably have been permitted.
The Emperor, however, has taken the responsibility
of the occasion with equal courage and wisdom. The
person inculpated by the researches of tills police,
though an cfficer of high professional character and
considerable position, was publicly arrested and pro-
secuted the trial was unreservedly open ; the in-
quirks of the Court were carried witbont impedi-
ment into all the details of the colonill administration,
and the reality of the abuses alleged receives a
proof from the resolution of the Government to
effect a reform. We are bound, indeed, to ac-
knowledge that not even under our own constitu-
tion, with all its machinery for detecting and
denouncing wrong, could any 0350 have been more
thoroughly sifted, more freely discussed, or more
unshrinkingly exposed than that which has just
terminated at Oran.

It way be anticipated that such an example will
produce good fruit. There is no greater political
mistake than to assume that publicity is injurious,
and that the governed classes of a country should
bl kept systematically in the dark. The o!d saying
that what is mikuown is always great applies with
as much fere, to demer:ts as t) me its. The actual
rsTufaton of Algils is not likly to be deprecia,tyd
ly anything that has bi,en disclosed, while it
may be reasonably assumed that reform will fellow
on exposuTe. It was always probab'e that in a
colony withdrawn fo a great extent from cognisance,
ruled almost as a matter of necessity upon principles
mainly military, and still hel I in some quArters
the bayonet's p int, the Itw of the sword should
occasionally predominate in an unwarrantable
degree. Alen who Lai their own lives by hourly
tenure are not likely to set a high value on the lives
of others, nor is it surprising that an authority des-
potic in its essential character should degenerate
into a vicious form of despotism. The French
officers who lived among Arabs and governed
Arabs as best they could a ]opted, not, indeed,
justifiably, but in pursuance of known temptatives,
an Arab code of justice and an Arab form of proce-
dure. What was related of si me of them on the
trial would, if related of Aiab or any Oriental
authorities, have been regarded as perfectly na-
tural. The scandal of the French public has arisen
from the abrupt and jarring contrast produced by
the administration of Tlemcen and the administra-
tion of Paris when the two sp cimens were I,)roueht
unexpectedly toge her. The evil was occasioned by
keeping the affairs of these communities so much
apart. Had the eyes of Frenchmen been always
directed to the colony, the abuses of its govern-
ment could never have assumed such a magnitude ,
and the publicity, now g;ven to the subject isthe
best pledge and security for effective reform.--
Times.

THE NEW LAIV OF DIVORCE.--PO WEBS
CONFFRIED ON ASS,ZI JUDGES.

The object of the Legislature in enabling the
Judges of Assize to entertain original applica ions
under this act, seems to be that of saving expense
to the parties in bringing their witnesses to Lan-
don from a distance. Th power, lelol:eu\d'egre,aloilsi
confined to application for the restitutiouof con-
jugal right,, and for judicial separation. The
ap-
plication must be by petition to n
Assize at the assizes held for the coun'y in which
t i
he husband and wife reside, or have last resided
together. Uponsyatimsft theort evidence being laid
and when the application is hladdeecrbeey puriaeywedifefofror;
before,,"judicial
di
clitai
lm' he maseparation" he may make any order for
aimmy he may deem just. The act does not say
whethercoru ro stei
iotherwise,
sill
theiwl petition is to be heard in open court,
o
presumed that the scitlllet
lisebe adoptedbutl.tis upon petitions present() at
the assizes - i
-I the full Court will pursue where
p titions are heard before them.
The Judge of Ass ze may delegate his authority
' to any of her Majesty's C,,unsel or Sergeants
named in the Commission of Assize, who, for tho
purpose of deciding upon the matters of such peti-
tion, are vested with all the powers which the
Judge hems. if might exercise. This is a power
I beyond that given to the full Court, and, it is
1.r,-,nmed, will be exercised only in exceptional.

cases.
All the other powers which may be exercised by
the full Court, except receiving and hearing peti-
tions for the dissoluton
.of marriages, are also
vested in the Judge of Ass•ze, including the power
to make orders as to the custody, maintenance,
acid
Al eidourcdaetrisonwoafdcehtilludr lreen
*the powers so conferred
may, upon the application of the party obt,ining
the same, be entered as an order of the full Con,,rt.
and be enforced in the same manner as if originally
made by the Comte—Advertiser.