The Sun.
London, England, 1857-08-10 00:00:00

TRIAL OF THE CONSPIRATOB3 AT

PARIS.

SECOND DAY.

PARIS, FRIDAY.
The court was much more crowded to-day.
Nearly every seat was occupied. Among the spec-
tators were the Marquis Pes do Villamarina, the
Sardinian ambassador ; and Colonel de Valabregue,
the Prefect of the Palace of the Tuileries.
As soon as the judges had taken their seats, M.
Vaisse, the Procureur-General, rose to address the
jury in support of the prosecution. The honour-
able and learned gentleman, who has a fine voice
and considerable powers of elocution, spoke through-
out in a solemnly emphatic tone. He said :
" Gentlemen of the court and jury—lf all the in-
terests of this affair were concentrated in the three
prisoners at the bar our task would bo easy ; two of
them confess their crime, and the third by his
general denial in the teeth of manifest evidence only
shows how well founded the accusation is. But
the interest of the case goes further. When a
political assassin is taken with a poniari in his
hand the public conscience neither exaggerates nor
undervalues the importance of the capture. While
feeling horror for the crime, it has a sentiment of
pity for the unhappy men who are often but the
blind instruments of others more guilty. In such
cases the public cry out for chastisement upon the
real criminals, but justice unfortunately cannot
reach them, and is able only to punish the second-
ary agents. But on this occasion a fuller satisfac-
tion will be given to public opinion. They who
put arms in the hands of assassins, who sport with
the lives of others while never risking their own,
who pay the wages of crime with money begged
from public charity—they who hide themselves
shall be unmasked. We have naught them in the
meshes of their own abominable intrigues, and we
will expose them to the reprobation of Europe.
Our proofs are complete. Oh, we know that in a
case of this nature people pretend to be
very particular about evidence. Party men,
well versed in the machinery of intrigue,
begin by spreading., a report that there is
nothing serious in the affair. When pressed by
documentary evidence, they deny its authenticity,
and they insinuate that the confessions of the
criminals are stories told out of base complaisance
to the Government. There are coffee-house poli-
ticians who say that the plot is got up by the police.
All these rumours and conjectures Jo, we are
aware, raise doubts of the genuineness of the best-
founded accusations. But on this occasion we have
no fear of failure. Protest as you will in foreign
journals, accumulate lies upon lies—do all you will
to mislead public opinion, we will prove against
you, so conclusively as not to leave a shadow of
doubt, that you have been the instigators of this
attempt at assassination ; that you have abused the
hospitality extended to you ; and that you must
now be placed out of the pale of civilised Europe.
In a cause of this importance we do not speak, gen-
tlemen of the jury, to you only ; we speak to
France and foreign nations interested in the result
of this trial. The great institution of the jury,
against which the real criminals protest by their
absence, has preserved its purity and sincerity in
spite of our political transformations ; it is now
what it always has been, whatever the absent may
say. Yes, gentlemen of the jury, you have always
been zealous in defending liberty when it was in
peril, in protecting order ashen it was menaced.
And I ask where is the peril now ? All voices will
be united when assassins have to be stigmatised.
Therefore, let the refugees cease to protest, to ap-
peal to such or such an opinion. There is no ques-
tion of politics here ; theie is nothing but an inten-
tion to assassinate. This is what we had to say to
you on the justice of France, against which the re-
fugees have protested. And now we will proceed
to lay our proofs before you, and see enter into an
engagement to offer them to you complete." After
this exordium the procureur general went on to say
that the government had employed none but legal
means to obtain a proof of the constiracy :—" Maz-
zini," said he, "is not a man of action ; he employs
his time in writing letters in all di'ections, and we
learned that he sent letters from Genoa addressed
to a man named Stalford ; juEtice exercising
an incontestable right, had one if these letters
opened in the course of the month of J une. It con-
tained three letters, one addressed to Massarenti,
another to Campanella, a third to Tibaldi. In the
letter to Campanella were these words :—' En-
closed is a line for Massarenti's friend, who resides
Rue
.Menilmontant, 122 ; it is thee that the mate-
riel will be found.' After this we lad only to go to
the Rue Menihnontant, where Tibaldi resided. It
was thought right not to allow the project of assas-
sination to go farther, and Tibaldi and the other
two men were arrested. You than see that justice
followed a strictly legal path in obtaining the indi-
cations of the crime. It may even be said, to the
confusion of Mazzini, the instigator of this criminal
project, who has the reputation of being clever,
that it is to his imprudence that we are indebted
for a knowledge of it ; this man, in fact, has been
caught in the threads of his own intrigue l" The
learned gentleman then proceeded to examine the
evidence against Bartolotti, whom he described as
a member of one of those bands of Italians in which
partisans, instruments, and soldiers for all bad.
causes and all bad designs can always be found. He
reminded the jury that it was at York that Massa-
renti picked the man up and induced him to follow
him to London, and that he was afterwards sent to
Paris with the object alleged in the indictment.
His own confession proved his guilt. "But we must
see how and why he made disclosures," continued
the procureur-general, "for by so doing we shall
reply to suspicions, which in this class of affair
attaches to revelations. On the 13th June, arto-
lotti, who had just been arrested, was taken before
the Commissary of Police ; and M. Pietri, the Pre-
fect of Police, was present. He admitted that he
had come from London in April last with a
passport
in the name of Lazzeri, and that he was accompa•
panied by Grilli ; but that was all. He main-
tained that he neither knew nor had seen either
Massarenti or Mazzini, and that he had not re-
ceived any mission from them. NU; admitted
also that he went to England to pass a few days,
and that on his return he saw Tibaldi ; but he
would say nothing more. He did not know_
that in mentioning those two names, Tibaldi and
Grilli, he had unveiled the truth. He did not
know that justice had in its hands the ovehel to.
ing letters which have often been refer rwred
When those letters, and especially that of Massha-
renti, dated London, the 26th May,.
told him what the old man,' nseaning Mazzini,
in which o
had said, were read, he (Bartolotti) could not re-
sist making avowals. In presence of the evidence, ,
he was constrained to do so." Proceeding next to
the charge against Grilli, the Procureur-Genersl
said that he also had confessed, and had done o
with a humility which would have been g,
The fact was
if it had not been caused by fear'
that he was a more cunning roost
than Bar-
tolotti ; he at first maintained that it was in a
steamer he had met that man, and insisted that
he had never seen either Mazzini 0: Massarenti •
,
in a first, a second, and even a third interrogatorythe
he would not make any revelations. Bu when
was told that Bartolotti had revealed all, e made
d
1 hehad one he
a full andc al
omplete avowal of d
t h had
went further than Bartolotti, for he lea ey;
movements Of
come to Paris not only to watch the
na• With respect
the Emperor but to assassinate hi • .
to Tibaldi the Procureur-General maintained that
the letters of Mazzini, the replies of the prisoner
himself, the declarations of Grilli and Bartolotti,
and the seizure of the trunk containing the arms,
undeniably. He then
proved his guilt most what is the legal
pro-
ceeded " And now, gentlemen
this crime ? On this
qualification to be given.
to
In Ithere is plot
law
point there is no difacultY•
take the resolution of
where two or several Now,
e
ow I ask if, in the acts with
acting in concert. N
which not only these men at the bar, but those who
sent them, there are not the proofs of a concert
What they did was not a vague proje ,
cs revealed
by a few words let fa
11 by chance ; no, it was a
matured idea—a resolution come to. Mazzini
wrote, " The thing is more necessary than ever, it
is a vital question. ; We may also invoke the ag-
gravating the lot was llowed
circurnst
ance
by an act destined to p
re ace the p
executionfo of it."
The Prooureur-General, after some further argu-
ment on the legal definition of the crime, went onto
say: "We should disappoint public expectation, we
should dissimulate certain facts, if we were to e b silent
respecting certain men mixed up in this affair. .
We
will speak of it, for on ,
•t as on all others, light
must be thrown. Campanella comes first he is an
Italian, he calls himself a literary man, he is the
friend and agent of Mazziui. In the absence of Maz-
zini, it is he whose mission it is to cause his orders
We see that by the letters that
to be executed.wrote Mazzini
to Massarenti,
have been seized.
capable of acting, and reso-
"Do you think them
• e'lla, I have charged him
lute? If so, go to Camps:: ;
„that Campanella had.
&c." Therefore it was clew.
'a In another let-
entered into the resolution to ate. ~self. 46 Will
ter Mazzini wrote to Campanella hi
-sarenti on
you have a secret conference with Mas. 'e Mas-
the affair of Paris 1" &c. The second man a. 'ot
sarenti. The participation of this man in the p.._
is greater and better proved. We have proofs of his
guilt not only in the letters seized, but in the arri-
vals of Grilli and Bartolotti. Mazzini calls him
secrecy incarnate. It was he who picked up in a
public house in London the two men who are now
who tempted their misery by making gold.
glitter before their eyes, who excited their political.
opinions. When Bartolotti secretly left Paris to go
to England, it was Massarenti who scolded him
the letter which has been read to you—a letter full
of blasphemies—a letter in which the Emperor of
the French is designated under the name of the

e. d,

cutioner (bourreau). Thus Campanella, Massarenti,
Tibaldi, Grilli, and Bartolotti are the active instru-
ments of the plot; but whatever the share of the
crime of this scum of Italy, there is awidodifference
between the culpabilityof such instruments and the
criminality of the two men who organised and
directed everything—Mazzini and Ledru Rollin.
These two man have played a part of a certain im-
portance in the affairs of their country, and since
then they have affected to regulate the interests of
the whole of Europe. From the union of their efforts
arose a plot against thelife of the Emperor. Mazzini
is the principal author of the crime. He is the in-
ventor of a new the oryof assassination—assassination
by two men—by isolatedhands, who do not know each
other ; and these couples of assassins are cast into our
country as fast as they can be found. But hear
his theory from one of his own letters :—" Remem-
ber what I have told you as to the method to be
followed. Act independently—two by two ; that
is the only way. The two new on-s must be
economical. I would give millions if I could, but
I cannot ; expenses in Italy are incredibly high."
Gentlemen of the jury, we have no lett. r of Ledru
Rollin, for it is well known that prulence has al-
ways been his system ; but we have the declaration
of two women who were with him for a short time.
In two circumstances we shall find him in fiagrante
delicto of conspiracy. If the preweediuers wer3 re-
gularly opened against him, I could prove that he
already rendered himself guilty of conspiracy in
1853. At that period a captain of infantry, named
Koelsh, came to Paris with two Italians, and by
his interrogatories which were read to you yester-
day you saw that he avowed that he came with
the intention of attempting the life of the Emperor,
and he admitted that he had made known his
project to Ledru Rollin. Yesterday you heard the
witness Geraux, who was mixed up in his intrigues.
Geraux, who afterwards became discontented with
Ledru Rollin, gave some valuable information.
He bad been charged by that person to take a
sum of 5001. which he was to give to an individual
whom he was to meet on the place de la Madeleine.
The witness pretends that he was ignorant for
what object this sum was sent. Koelsh avowed
his projects, he was excited by the persons by
whom he was surrounded, but scarcely had he set
foot on French soil, and found the real state of
things and of public opinion in France, than he
discovered that he bad been deceived. Can all
this, gentlemen, leave any doubt as to the culpa-
bility of Ledru Rollin in 1853 ; and at present,
also, he has performed the part of purveyor of
money, councillor, and instigator. Grilli, before
the examining magistrate, made declarations
which 'he repeated before the court yesterday.
He was, he said, at the house of Mazzini with
Massarenti and a Frenchman named Rondrone
Rolline. Make allowance for the Italian pronun-
ciation [of Grilli, and no doubt can be felt as to
Ledru Rollin having been present at the meeting.
Besides, Grilli gives a description of his person, a
tall, stout man, wearing moustaches. Bartolotti
declares that he asked Massarenti for money, and
that the latter replied, " Mazzini will give you
some when the Frenchman has given it to him."
" I am very certain," added Bartolotti, "that the
name of Ledru Rollin was mentioned at that time."
Every time money is the subject, Bartolotti is clear
and precise. Besides, if he invented the statement,
would he not be making Ledru Rollin play a very
important part ? How can it be believed that those
two men should speak falsehoods in this part of
their declaration, while all the rest of their recital
corresponds word for word ? If Mazzini were here,
gentlemen, he would also, there is no doubt, pre-
test against the accusation of assassination. "I am
. incapable of such an act," he would exclaim. We
s will, therefore, place the protests of Mazzini by the
side of those which have been made by Ledru Rol-

lin. These two men, who have been- always seen
united together for evil, would not separate at the
moment of crime. Besides, is not assassination the
logic of their revolutionary opinions, and if we exa-
mine the writings with which they poison the dif-
ferent countries of Europe, shall we not find in
them a proof of this fixed idea ? Ledru Rollin
writes, "Paris knows that the' life of the cursed
one has been twenty times threatened, and that the
army has furnished its contingent," &c. Thank God,
that is a falsehood. The Procureur-General conclud-
ed his speech in these words : " And now gentlemen
of the jury, measure if it be possible the extent of the
disaster which would have happened if the machina-
tions of these two men had succeeded. The elections
of Paris, the assassination of the Emperor, a gene-
ral rising in Italy were to work together for the
success of their enterprise. The theatre which
they had chosen for this vast but miserable scene
was not Italy, and not France only, but Europe.
Who can doubt that if France and Italy were in
flames, the conflagration would extend to Europe ?
I know of no nation, not one, that could have
hop 2d to escape from this grand disaster. It was the
constitutional government of Piedmont that was
to have been attacked the first. What a lesson for
those who think to establish a solid alliance between
constitutional liberty and demagogue license
Thank God, the danger is gone from us. Our
general elections, which the agitators of France
fixed upon as a certain occasion of trouble and dis-
order, went off with a calm and regularity which
show conclusively that the political rights of a
people are never so freely exercised as under a
government which is at once strong and respected.
Italy, instead of responding to Mazzini's cry of
insurrection, and joining his armed bands, repulsed
them by faithful troops and national guards, and
cursed once more the name of Mazzini, so fatal
to liberty. What remains of these attempts, happily
so abortive ? For France, the conviction that she
is at this moment the bulwark of Europe, and that
those who desire to trouble the world aro
driven to conspire against France and her sove-
reign. For Italy, the conviction, now more
certain than ever, that Mazzini is her most danger-
ous enemy, and that she will never attain the
object she pursues until this indefatigable
conspirator shall be driven out of Europe. As
to Mazzini and Ledru Rollin, I tell them, with
all the authority that I derive from the cry
of the universal conscience, that their political
career is at an end, and that this day, on which
their crimes are disclosed to the whole world, will
be more fatal to them than ten lost battles. It
was not on that day when your armed bands were
repulsed with indignation by the faithful troops of
Piedmont and Tuscany, or by the armed peasants
of Calabria ; it was not on that day your power
faded away ; but it was on the day when you
were proved to have organised and methodised
assassination—on the day when you preached to
your adepts and put in practice the theory of assas-
sination by couples going about separately and "in-
dependently"—on the day when you earned the
title of the King of Assassins. Whether foreign
nations shall now repulse you, or continue to you
an hospitality which you so little deserve, you will
see around a second and more terrible exile. The
prestige of misfortune is no longer yours. You are
no longer entitled to the privileges of a political
enthusiast. Ah ! you are no longer dangerous to
the peace of Europe. You have hitherto agitated
in the name of liberty • but hear this—you are no
longer entitled to speak or to fight for liberty be.
cause you are an assassin. Say what you will,
there is nothing political in this accusation against I
you. These poniards, these pistols, which we see
on the table before us, and which were seized at
the house of one of your accomplices, are not arms
of war ; they are instruments of assassination. They
vi t. Ire bought with your gold, and it is you who put
them into the hands of murderers. May the
stigma of this accusation for ever weigh upon your
head, and may it finally unmask you and destroy
you in the eyes of Europe, whose worst enemy you
are. There never was in this world an accusation
resting upon more precise, more consistent, more
judicial evidence. The confessions of your accom-
plices, your own letters, the letters addressed to
you, the arms seized—all shows your guilt, and
justifies the requisitions that we may make against
,von. Gentlemen of the jury, we have done our
sluty. It is now for you to do yours with the firm-
a less and independence of free and honest men."
M. Desmarest, counsel for Tibaldi, then rose and
s aid :—I will not follow the Procureur-General
through Europe. My task is simple and modest.
I have only to defend Tibaldi. The Procureur-
General admits that Tibaldi is an honest workman,
but he describes him also as a skilful conspirator ;
that is, I believe, an honour to which he cannot
aspire, and all that must be taken into consideration
in the excellent and honourable testimony unani-
mously given in his behalf by he
terday. He is depicted as a person perfectly mild,
calm, polite. But if all that is a mask—if he has
been able to deceive everybody, if be is really a
skilful conspirator, some evidence of that moral
disguise could surely have been brought forward.
It has been said with reason that a great crime is
always preceded by a smaller crime. But let us
examine if that is the case with Tibaldi. M. Des-
marest here traced the existence of his client since
hie arrival in Paris, and depicted him as always oc-
cupied with his trade. He asked how such a man,
who was never known to attend any political meet-
t witnesses of yes-
ing, who had never mingled in conspiracies, could
give rise to the accusation brought against Mink.
The public prosecutor has thought proper to sI will
absent ' absent persons ; but I willnotitnitate him ; .
01 . ' these personal questions. My attention ts ex-
avoia I
devoted to Tibaldi, whom I defend. have
elusively - ' e with such persons ;
nothing too, such company, and has merited
significant for of honour or that excess of
neither that excess s assecutor he's alluded to new
my client is too ins
The public pls. 'set we proclaim al,
danger.
more admit different theories
that we cannot atnyan
fi we eau different theories of
such a crime .
for s that undi;r euvire, =-
morality. Our theory i
theories of assassination, '''s a

narchy, or republic, human life should be re-
spected • and that is the only theory that the de-
fence will present. Let us say aloud, and congra-
tulate ourselves on the fact, that the importance
which may have been attached to the plot previ-
ously to the public trial, can no longer be admitted.
The danger has not been great ; in truth no real
danger ever existed.
M. Floquet, second counsel for Tibaldi, entered
into legal arguments on the following point, which
he afterwards placed in writing on the table of the
court ;---" In admitting as proved the evidence
against Tibaldi, it would result that in 1857 Tibaldi
proposed to Grilli and Bartolotti a plot having for
aim to attempt the life of the Emperor, which pro-
position was not accepted by the said Grilli and
Bartolotti ; we submit to the jury, as resulting
from the debate, the following question—ls Tibaldi
guilty othaviog, in 1857, made to Grilli and Bar-
toletti a proposal, not accepted, having for object
the crime mentioned in Art. 86 of the penal code—
a crime provided for by Art. 89, par. 4, of the
penal cede ?"
M. Flrquet's motion was rejected by the court.
M. Lacan Adressed the jury on bThalf of Grilli.
Ho demanded the acquittal of his client on the
ground, that if he had really acccepted money to
conic t ) Frince and assassinate the Emperor he
never realiy e utertained that criminal idea. His client
never even walked the streets with weapons on his
persen, since the daggers entrusted to him were
found concealed in a room which he did not even
inhabit. Moreover, it had been shown that. Grilli
had never seen the Emperor, which proved that he
had not sought to execute the project for which he
had received money. Let us now examine the men
of the plot. We see the conspirators assembled.
Tibaldi is reclining against a chest of drawers while
Bartolloti and Grilli are looking on. Weapons are
distributed all round, and what does then occur ?
Why the conspirators conceal their weapons ;
Grilli saunters about, eating and drinking to his
heart's delight, while Bartollotti. who has more of
an amorous nature, rushes off to York after
a yonng English g:t. Well, the conspirators are
assemble 1 in Paris, and they conceal the arms en-
trusted to them. All that I desire is, that if ever
nay life is menaced, the dagger may be brandished
by Grilli, and the pistol aimed by Bartolotti.
(Laughter.)
M. Lecanu engaged in the same argument] on
behalf of his client Bartolotti, whose acquittal he
also asked for. _

The Procureur-General then replied upon the
whole case, and denounced Tibaldi as a dangerous
political fanatic, a well-chosen agent of Ledru Rollin
and Mazzini, upon whom he made a still more
violent attack than he had done in his opening
speech.
M. Desmarest, pursuant to French practice,
which gives the prisoner the last word, replied for
Tibaldi in a speech of extraordinary eloquence, to
which no translation can do justice. He said in
substance-.-" I feel obliged to the public minister
for his reply ; he has given me the right to
answer him. In my first address I carefully al)-
, stained from saying a word about those absent men
whom the Procureur-General considers to be the
chiefs of the conspiracy. But since he has again rc-
ferred to them in his reply—since he will introduce
the name of Ledru Rollin whenever he speaks of
Mazzini, it becomes my duty to clear the cause of
these phantoms. - It is not for me to speak of Mazzini
—he is a foreigner. His letters are on the record of
th;s trial. But I will say that, apart from this prose-
cution, Mazzini's name is more associated with the
sacred cause of Italian independence than with any
political struggles. The Procureur-General, with a
boldness to which we have of late years been but
little accustomed, has pronounced in a sympathetic
tone the word Poland. That name reminds me of
other peoples, who are also struggling for their na-
tionality. For Heaven's sake, let us not confound
domestic insurrectionary movements with those
sacred explosions of patriots against oppressors,
which should command our admiration. Let us re-
spect all those men who work for the resurrection of
nationalities—who would see Poles reign in Poland,
Italians in Italy, and Frenchmen in France—each
on the soil given them by God. I will now speak
of Ledru Rollin. His name has a double interest for
me. He is a Frenchman, and a brother barrister.
There is no evidence whatever to justify the intro-
duction of Ledra Rollin's name into this cause. The
prosecution has raked up the testimony of a man, to
whom it is said Ledru Rollin gave a sum of 500 f. in
a mysterious manner many years ago. But of this
alleged fact there is no proof whatever—no guaran-
tee, no check, no opportunity of contradiction fur
the accused party, and consequently the accusation
is a nullity—a dream. Have we fallen so low in
France that the records of administrative inquiries,
which it may be it was very right to make, but
which at all events were made exparte and in secret,
,re to be received as evidence in a court of justice ?
We have before us no fact whatever against Ledru

Bartolotti proves nothing. The French-
man whom he says he saw went away before
his conversation with Mazzini. He has told you
that not a word was said in that Frenchman's
presence. A letter of Mazzini's, speaking of Ledru
Rollin, has been cited, but the terms of that
letter exclude the idea of assassination.* The
expressions there attributed to Ledru Rollin
evidently amount to nothing more than prudential
counsels given to a young man in whom he took an
interest not to risk his career by embarking in po-
litical adventures. It was the kind paternal advice
which we who knew Ledru Rollin might expect
from his noble, open-hearted, venerous nature. Let
us leave to the judgment of public- opinion, the pro-
per tribunal, the appreciation of Kist-Tical person-
ages, and let us come to the facts of the case before
us. M. Desmarest here recapitulated the moral im-
probability against Tibaldi's guilt, upon which he
had before insisted, and concluded as follows
"In considering this case, gentlemen, you may
safely dismiss all political considerations from your
minds. Your verdict, whatever it may be, can never
be considered either as an act of flattery or an act
of opposition to the Government. I affirm emphati-
cally—and I trust that my words will be made
public beyond the arena of this court—that assassi-
nation, under any circumstances, is always a crime
and a cowardly action. In the days of my youth I
was never a partisan of what may be called classi-
cal assassination, and I adopted even Brutus with
reserve. A verdict of acquittal, or of moderate seve-
rity, will in no respect imply that you do not hold
in horror the crime of assassination. Such a verdict
will signify only that the plot has not the import-
ance, and was not big with such perils, as the pro-
secution would have you believe."t
The President summed up the case in a perfectly
unobjectionable manner, and the jury, after retir-
ing for three quarters of au hour, returned a ver-
dict of guilty against all the prisoners, but with
extenuating circumstances in the case of Bartolotti
and Grilli.
In consequence, the court condemned Paoli Ti-
baldi to the punishment of deportation for life ;
and Bartolotti and Paolo Grilli to 15 years' im-
prisonment.

* It is remarkable that no evidence was given that the
letters attributed to Mazzini were really in his handwrit-
ing. The fact, however, does not seem to be doubted by
the prisoner's counsel.
t The French journals are prohibited from publishing
the most striking parts of this reply.