The Sun.
London, England, 1857-01-30 00:00:00

81011.

THE INCOME TAX.

MEETING AT BURT.—A large meeting was held last
night against the income tax, at Bury. Mr. Frederick
Peel, M.P., was present, and eaid he thought the Chan-
sellor of the Exchequer would fully endorse the opinion
expressed by the meeting, that it was expedient to reduce
the tax to sevenpence in the pound from the sth of April
next.
MEETING AT EVEEHAII —A meeting against the
income-tax was held at Evesham on Wedoesday. Reso-
lutions were carried declaring the present tax excessive,
and the principle of taxing professional income and that
derived from capital alil.•e unjust. Sir H. Willoughby,
one of the members of the borough, was present, and in
the course of his speech observed that the war portion
of the tax ought to be removed after the sth of April
next, and the whole as soon as possible. As to the
capitalisation of incomes, which had been talked about
by the Liverpool financial reformers, he would caution
those gentlemen lest they fell " out of the frying-pan into
the fire."

The Duke and Duchess of Sutherland have arrived at
Stafford House, from Trentham.

The Duke of Wellington has left town for Strathfield-
says. The Duchess is about to resume her duties as
Lady in Wai,ing on her Majesty.
The Marquis of Salisbury has left Hatfield, on a visit
to the Merquis and Marchioness of Exeter, at Burleigh.
The Eirl and C•nintess of Westmoreland and Lady
Rose Fane have returned to town, from visiting the
Marquis of Exeter, at Burleigb.
The Earl of Strathmore has I.ft town for Glamis
Castle, Forfarshire.
The Dowager Lady Cowley has returned to Hertford-
street, from visiting the Marquis and Marchioness of
Salisbury, at Hatfield.
The Royal Commissioners for determining the site of
the National Gallery met yesterday in Downing-street,
at the house of the First Lord of the Treasury. The
Commissioners present were Lord Broughton, the Dean
of St. Paul's, Professor Faraday, Mr. Cockerell, R.A.,
and Mr. Richmond. The Queen's commission was read,
Lord Broughton placed in the chair, and Mr. Montague
Butler chosen Secretary to the Commissioners.
The steamer Ripon will leave Southampton for Alex-
andria on the 4th of February with the mails for India
and Chins, instead of the Indus.
According to the Deutsche Allgemeine Zeitung, the
Emperor of Austria will visit some of the great European
Courts during the summer, instead of going to Hungary.
The Admiralty have accepted the Thames and the
Lady Shelburne for the conveyance of stores respectively
to Jamaica and Natal. _ _ .

The Bank of England yesterday ordered a bonus of
10 per cent, on the salaries of the clerks in that esta-
blishment for the past year.
A memorial very numerously signed by the leading
houses in the wine trade was presented to the Treasury
yesterday, requesting that the privilege may be granted
of bottling foreign wines in bond.
There were no gold withdrawals from the Bank of
England yesterday, but the exchange at Paris seems to
be declining t 3 a point at which gold will he likely to be
sant thither as a remittance. _ _

NEW TURNISEI RAILROAD. —The concession for the
railroad from the Danube to the Archipelago has been
sent after Mr. Layard, who has a term of three months
after the receip` of the concession to get up the com-
pany.
THE SPIRIT TRADE.--The impulse given to the manu-
facture of spirits in this country by the large demand
from Australia, Russia, Spain, and France, where the
distillation of spirits from grain has been prohibited, has
led to a considerable increase hi the price of gin. The
six great distillery houses of London are producing col-
lectively between 200,000 and 300,000 gallons weekly.
It is said by those conversant with the operations of the
trade that this access of demand is equal to that of forty
millions of population, and equivalent to a rise of one-
third in pa!e. The pr ifit9 b7.,iness are Fr..id to ;.,e
very large, but the euoratous expease of tt,e plant re-
quired and the vexatious operations of the Excise have
rendered it almost a monopoly.

11:41
A-tir (-1
ALA Ll ILA

The Russian journal Le Word, of yesterday,
publishes a telegraphic despatch from St. Peters-
burg of the contents of a despatch received there
from Teheran, dated the 21st of December.
It mentions the appearance of the British fleet,
consisting of 8 steamers and 13 or 14 transports,
off Bushire. The English army is stated to con-
sist principally of Sepoys and Negroes, commanded
by General Outran]. The English had over-
powered a small, fort near Bushire. The Persians
hare from 50,000 to 55,000 troops in the pro-
vinces exposed to the enemy's invasion.

The King of Naples has concluded a convention
with the Argentine Republic for the reception of
his political prisoners, who may consent to be
exiled thither. The offer has been made to
Poerio, but he bas declined to go.

THE ASSASSIN VERGER.
Ti3e appeal of Verger came on before the Court
of Cassation yesterday. The ,proceedings opened
at half-past 11 o'clock, and the crowd was nearly
as considerable as on the day of the trial at the
Court of Assiz3. M. Legagneur, Counsellor at the
Court of Cassation, presented his report, explaining
the three points on which the sentence was sought

to be reversed, and which were put forth in the
paper presented by M. Morin in support of the
appeal.

M. Morin, on the part of the appellant,
then addressed the Court. The appeal of a
convict sentenced to capital punishment, he
said, was one of those cases which no
member of the bar could refuse to under-
take ; humanity, justice, and . the traditions
of the bar imperiously required a defence. Having
been entrusted by the Court with that difficult

task, be should endeavour to perform it to the
best of his ability, and master the painful emotions
to which it would give rise. He was the more
encouraged to do so as, on the present occasion,
the only question was one of law, and to that he
should addres himself before that Supreme Court,
that judicial Senate, the guardian and protector of
legal forms, the conservator of the authority and
purity of the law. He had nothing whatever to say
on the crime itself of which the prisoner was found
guilty
_by the Court below. He could only repeat
with every man of sense that it was abominalole.
A virtuous prelate stabbed to the heart during a
religious solemnity, and by the hand of a priest
whom he had relieved in his necessities ; who was
in the act of blessing him while he knelt among
the crowd. Even now he (M. Morin) could not
understand how the prisoner could have committed

such a crime—a crime which had produced stupe-
faction among the clergy and among society at
large. It was a crime unprecedented, without ex-
planation, unless by insanity. He did not plead
madness at the moment of the act—that was the
duty of the prisoner's counsel at the Court of Assize,
and that duty he had scrupulously performed.
It was not permitted to him to discuss that ques-
tion after the verdict of guilty had been pro-
nounced. He would maintain that there was mad-
ness now which required a suspension, and he
would be authorised to do so by the fundamental
principles which he put forward in the case of the
appeal of the convict Gilbert, and which were con-
firmed by the remarkable judgments of the Court
of Ca cation on the 25th Jan., 1839 ; for at what-
ever period mental derangement disclosed itself the
judge ought to pause from proceeding against an
unfortunate wretch who had neither the conscious-
ness of his crime and of his situation, nor the sea-
timent of the rights and the duties of 'defence.
He should, perhaps, be required to produce proofs
and juridical documents. He confessed he had
none—he had no proofs but the scandalous
violence which had outraged witnesses and
judges alike, at the moment they exhibited the
most admirable patience—violence so extrava-
gant as to necessitate the removal of the accused
from the court—of the accused, who was on his
trial for his life. He would not here appeal to his
own personal opinions, nor to the manifestations and
scientific opinions which he constantly met with, be-
cause it was erroneously believed that he was bound
to prove insanity, so far as he could judge from pub-
lic opinion. It was only, then, to the examination
of the proceedings themselves that his argumen• s
would refer. The question was this—Had the forms
and delays required by the law for• the sacred right
of defence been observed since the decision of the
court for putting the accused on his trial, and
which decision had been maintained This is what
he could, and what he was bound to dispute in the
development of his arguments for annulling the sen-
tence, M. Morin then explained his grounds for
supporting the appeal. The first related to the con-
stitution of the Court of Assize. He admitted that
conformably with the letter of the law, and with
the decree of the Court of .Cassation of the 15th of
1855, the chief president might preside at
the Nov.,ourt of A.siz'a by retaining as first assessor the
president named by the keeper of the seals ; but, he
asked, was not an ordinance necessary for the sake
of regularity, which, should stare why the compo-
sition of the Court was changed, since the change
did not take place in consequence of any .uhforeseen
circumstance, but a change of authority arbitrarily
substituting one President for another. The second
ground, which M. Morin argued, is founded on the
shortening of the period allowed for the trial. He
insisted particularly that 48 hours had not inter-
vened between the rejection of the appeal and the
appearance of the accused before the Court of
Assize ; and he asked whether, in law, this delay
was sufficient for the accused to prepare his defence
and summon his witnesses. According to counsel
for the prisoner the period was so short that
the accused could not be forced to accept the
trial. No doubt the object and the result of
the law of the 10th June, 1855, was to prevent
prisoners from escaping from justice by dilatory
proceeding ; but in the present case the appeal
was regularly drawn up, consequently- the code of
1808 should have been followed. Now, according
to article 296, the accused had five days from his
examination to appeal against the order for trial.
If he allowed this period to pass without au appeal,
the presumption was that he had prepared his de •
fence ; but according to precedent it is not the same
when he has chosen to demand that the proceedings
shall be annulled. In that case the presumption was
that he had devoted his time to prepare his appeal,
and not to his defence before the Court of Assize.
He should, consequently, have been allowed a
further delay. It not, it might be said that
he was liable to be called before the Court of As-
size immediately after the notification of the re-
jection of his appeal, and he might thus find it
materially impossible to summon his witnesses, of
whom the list must be notified to the public prose-
cutor 24 hours previously. In fact, the accused
prCested at the trial, and demanded the time
necessary for summoning the witnesses, of
whom he had furnished a list to the Attorney-
General. It was replied that the facts on which
he wished to examine his witnesses were
irrelevant ; but that is a contradiction Which
cannot be admitted in an absolute manner, for it is
not possible to know whether those witnesses would
not have cleared up some doubts and established
the insanity. Arriving at the third point, which
he declared to be the most important, M. Mona
maintained that, whither according to the law of
9th September, 1835, well considered, or even ac-
cording to the decree which, conformably with the
right established by that law, prescribed that the
accused should be taken back to prison, the effect of
the expulsion ought to cease at the conclusion of the
trial, and the accused ought to have been brought
back to hear the sentence, or at least he should
have had an opportunity of answering whether he
had anything to add to his defence. M.
Morin admitted that the practice .is contrary
in Paris, but he maintained that this practice is
contrary to the spirit of the law, and he cited, in
support of his argument, various precedents;
among others, the case of Madame Laffarge at
Limoges, and the trial before the Court of Peers
in April, 1834. He then concluded by demanding
that the proceedings should be quashed, as well iu
the name of the principles of defence as in the
name of justice, so much interested in a new ex-
amination which should permit the degree of
insanity to be verified, which had not yet been
ascertained to a certainty.
After the speech of M. Morin the proceedings
were suspended for some minutes.
On their being resumed, the President called on
the Procureur-General (M. Royer) to address the
Court. M. Royer went over the incidents of the
trial before the Court of Assize, and alluded to the
painful effect produced by the violent conduct of
the accused on that occasion. Such things, be
said, should cease at the threshold of the Court of
Cessation. After saying a few words on the ac-
cused himself, he entered minutely into the three
arguments put forward by the counsel for the
appellant. These arguments he refuted at some
length, and he ended by calling on the Court to re-
ject the appeal.
When the Procureur closed the address the judges