The Sun.
London, England, 1850-12-10 00:00:00

and against, favourable and unfavourable, and giving
the accused the benefit of any reasonable doubt, he
is made to act the part of the most strenuous
and enthusiastic advocate for the prosecution. His
words and opinions, therefore, do not pos-
sess that weight and influence that would
otherwise attach to them. Unseemly theatrical tableaux,
are got up for the purpose of interesting the juries in
favour of the accused, and counteracting the judge's
charge : whole families accompany the prisoner to
the tribunal, as if the innocent were on trial along with
the guilty, that the sympathy excited in favour of
the one may be extended to the other, while
advocates, forgetting their true character and position,
fling themselves into the arms of their clients,
embracing and caressing the most atrocious
criminals, and address them in terms of the most
ridiculous and almost blasphemous adulation.
We shall not now allude to the facts and circum-
stances of this most atrocious case. They have
already appeared in extenso in our columns, and the
duty was sufficiently painful and disgusting,
without unnecessarily recalling the horrible par-
ticulars. But we must express our astonishment how
any body of men could discover " extenuating cir-
cumstances" in the conduct of the Abbe GOTULAND.
He was either innocent or guilty. If inno-
cent he should have been dismissed free and
scatheless, without censure or punishment ; but
if guilty the majesty of the law should have been
fully vindicated, and its extreme penalty carried into
execution upon one of the most atrocious
miscreants ever called upon to answer for his
crimes before an earthly tribunal. His offence
was the highest known to the law, and effected by
the most infamous means. It was wilful, deliberate,
and cold-blooded murder, secretly planned, while his
victim was living under his own roof; with
his own hands he drugged the poisoned chalice,
and with words of kindness and charity on his lips,
and a sympathising and benevolent senile on his
countenance, delivered the fatal cup that was
to consign the aged woman to a lingering
and painful death. And what was the " ex-
tenuating circumstance" that should mitigate
the penalty justly attached to his outrage against the
laws divine and human ? That he, an ordained
minister of the Gospel, had violated the solemn oath
of chastity which he had taken—that he was an
adulterer as well as a murderer—a base and
treacherous poisoner.

As to the alleged companion in his guilt, we
shall not interfere with the verdict, the merciful
verdict, of the jury. She has been exonerated
from all participation in the crime. Let her
receive the full benefit of the decision. Her
feelings cannot, even under the most favourable
circumstances, be very enviable. To a person of any
degree of sensibility the exposure that has ' taken
place—the ripping up of the most secret transactions
of her life, and the position in which she has been
placed—must have entailed sufferiegs of no ordinary
magnitude. We must, however, protest against the
assumption that the double crime 'of suicide and
murder, from which she was barely rescued, should
be regarded as a demonstration of her innocence, and
as arising from the natural ebullitions of a sensitive
and honourable mind when suffering under the pres-
sure of unmerited suspicion and false accusation.
It is scarcely necessary to allude to the admis-
sion of necessary evidence, and the bringing up the
fellow-prisoners of the miserable man on trial
to detail the gossip of the gaol, and the
trifling conversations and demeanour of the accused
during his detention. They must be condemned by
all right-minded men, who, so far as the criminal
code of England is concerned, will join us in ex-
claiming with the Barons of Runnymede, "Nolumus
loges Anglia mutari."

THE FRENCH REPUBLIC

We have received the Paris journals of yesterday.
The Journal des Dibats, which on all matters re-
lating to the funds may be considered as a high au-
thority, has the following on the decree authorizing
the sale of two millions additional of Rentes :
"The announcement of this adjudication appears to
have caused some surprise in the financial world ;
it appears to us, however, that it was a thing which
they rather ought to have expected. On opening
the general discussion of the Budget, on the 18th July
last, the Minister of Finance positively declared that
he should not wait for the end of the year to make
use of the power of selling granted to him by the law
of 18th May. The funds in question, moreover, stood
foremost in the number of resources of which, in set-
ting forth the financial plan of 1850, he recknoned on
availing himself, in order to keep the floating debt
within its just limits. The different Bills for supple-
mentary credits recently voted, particularly that rela-
tive to the levy of 40,000 men, must have warned
attentive speculators that these limits would be reached,
if not exceeded. The Minister declares that it is the
opening of these several credits which has decided him
to proceed to the adjudication, and his motive is evi-
dently just. There are two other causes which might
naturally influence him—the price of rento and the se-
curity of offers of stock. He was right to avail himself
of so many opportune circumstances."

It would seem from the tenor of the following,
which appears in the Constitutionnel, as if the Bona-
partists were becoming aware that their only chance
of retaining power was by maintaining a republic, and
that they now aimed, not so much at destroying as at
corrupting republican institutions, so as to bend them
to their own purposes. To parody the words of LA-
FAYETTE " they would fain make of the Republic the best
of Empires." The article is curious, as showing the
present tactics of the Bonapartists. It purports to
be a criticism on M. GUIZOT'S recently published
works on Moria. and WASHINGTON. The article con-
cludes as follows :

We have only hitherto had two kinds of Republicans in
France—those of 1793, who were demagogues, rational-
ists, insurrectionists, persecutors, and atheists; and
those of 1848, who are socialists and communists. The
republic of the one is as impossible and as in-
tolerable as that of the other. With such doctrines the
foundation destroys the form. Doubtless a republic of
Christians, of honest men, fathers of families, moral
and industrious citizens, men, in short, who found their
liberty on the respect due from one to the other,
and who see in the law the common rule of
order, peace, and civilization—such a republic
may be established, may endure, and produce great na-
tions. The United States is an example; but, so long as
immoral, sanguinary, spoiliatory, and senseless utopian
schemes are connected with the Republican forms of
Government, it will naturally alarm the world. Such
is, therefore, the opinion which the history of our
country gives us on the great and difficult problem
pointed out by the publication of M. Guizot."
The Bourse was animated, and Cr.ovenment
Stock, which was offered at the commencement of
business, rose considerably at the close. The Five per
Cents. opened at 93f. 60c., fell to 93f. 55c., and
rose subsequently to 941. 30c., at which price they
closed; the Three per Cents. closed at 56f. 70c.;
Orleans Railroad Shares, 311 f. 25c. ; Rouen, 6101. ;
Havre, 242 f. 50c.; Great Northern, 4621. 50c. ;
Avignon, 1871. 50c. ; Vierzon, 385 f. ; Bourdeaux,
383 f. 75c. ; Paris and Strasburg, 341 f. 25c.; Tours
and Nantes, 242 f. 50c.

BUSINESS DONE IN FOREIGN RAILWAYS AT THE
LONDON STOCK EXCHANGE, DEC. 9.
Central of France (Orleans and Vierzon), 11I%—Great
Indian Peninsula, 1% —Luxembourg, 2—Namur and Liege,
VA—Northern of France 144—Paris and Strasburg, 8%
Rouen and Havre, 9%.