The Sun.
London, England, 1845-08-19 00:00:00

CONVICTION OF THE PRINCE
DE BERGHES FOR FORGERY. _
..

Some months back both the sporting and the fashion-
able world were deeply astonished by rumours of the
commission of a very grave offence by a gentleman of
rank and family, in the French capital. The delinquent
was the Prince de Berghes, a young man about 23 years
of age, and belonging to a very honourable family. A
criminei process was instituted against the Prince, and
his trial came on on Thursday last, at the Cour d'Assizes
de la, Seine in Paris. The prisoner, on being arraigned,
gave his name as Eugene Joseph Marie, Prince de
Berghes, aged 23 years. After the usual formalities,
the following act of accusation was read in open Court,
and by it our readers will be put in possession of the
whole affair as it now stands against the Prince:—
There has existed for a long time past at Paris seve-
ral clubs or societies, regularly authorised, and which
have, for the purposes of interior management, and
with a view of giving more facilities than usual to
the members thereof, in all pecuniary transactions,
created a certain number of cheques, representing a
value agreed upon, and always meeting, at the com-
pany's treasury on
.the exhibition of the secretary's or
caehier's signature, a. prompt payment from the capital,
of which the cashier is constituted the depositAin. Since
the year 18:33 this usage has been adopted by the
Soce.ie d'Encouragement pour l'Amelieration des
Races de Chevaux," known under the name of the
Jcel/4ey Club, the seat of which is established at Paris,
No. 2, Rue Grange Batalier. The cheques of this
society, the number of which has been increased by
successive deliberations from 150 to 250, are valued at
100 francs each. They arc made of polished ivory,
painted red, and bearing on the face of them the year
of their emission ; on the other side is the ordinal
number from one to two hundred and fifty. Above the
year Is engraved the name of M. Grandhomme, the
secretary of the society, which gives them their obli-
gatory value. Under the guarantee of this signature
they serve the purpoie of current coin, either between
the members of the club or for the payment at the club
of the expenses of subscription, or any other expense.
The cashier takes them in payment, and reimburses
them at sight. On the 28th May, 1845, M. Achille
Stillere, a member of the Jockey Club, sent one of his
agents to receive from the cashier the sum of 1,000
francs, the amount of ten cheques from his brother-in
law, the Prince de Berghes (who did not belong to the
Jockey Club), who had given them to him on the pre-
vious' evening, as he was about to start for the
country, for a similar sum in money. As he was
on the point of counting out the money, M. Grand-
homme was struck with the fact that the greatest
part of the cheques appeared to be entirely new.
On a closer examination he discovered that nine
oat of the ten were made of bone, while the cheques
belonging to the club were made of ivory. In a word,
he discovered that the signature was not real, except in
one of the cheques, and that on the other nine it had been
falsely executed. The Prince de Berghes arrived in
Paris on the morning of the 30th. Being pressed to de-
clare from whom he received the cheques that be had
given to his brother-in-law, he said that he had re-
ceived them, with others, at the Chantilly Races, on
Sunday, the 18th of May, from a foreigner whom he had
heard called Zarleeti, and a description of whom he
gave ; he added, that he feared he had given similar
ones to many of his friends, and on the advice of one of
the members of the Jockey Club he made, accompanied
by M. Grandhomme, several inquiries, by means of which
thirteen false cheques were withdrawn and sent to M.
Grandhomme. Another false cheque was found the
same day by M. Grandhomme in the number of those
which he had in his cash-box. The society of the
Jockey Club made known the facts to several of its
members, and a letter to that effect was deposited
at the parquet on the 2d of June. A few days
after an instruction was demanded, in order to
state judicially the facts and seek out the authors. They
were first of all deceived with respect to Zarleeti, of
whom Prince de Berghes had given particulars with
such assurance and precision ; but, while justice was en-
gaged in fruitless researches an important discovery
pointed to a new path to arrive at the truth. The police
discovered the workman who had fabricated the cheques;
this was one M. Morel, living at 152, Rue St. Martin.
He was therefore called, together with his wife, before
the magistrate, and they declared that on the 17th of
May a M. Mignon, the brother-in-law of M. Lefevre, in
the Rue de Bac, had ordered of him the cheques, con-
formable to a model which he gave to them, and on which
there Was no signature ; that they had given en order of
engraving on the face of them the figures " 1845," and
on the other side a number conformable to that list which
was given to them.
M. Lef‘vre was called in his turn and confirmed this
deposition, explaining that on-the 6th of May a gentle-
tleman who was tall, slender, and elegantly dressed, but
whom he did not know, presented himself at his house
to order fifteen cheques, conformable to a model, in red
ivory, ehich he exhibited to him, bearing the figures
" 1845," and above which the cheque was entirely white,
as if it had been scraped • that on the 24th of May the
same person gave a second order for ten cheques, and on
the same day came to take away the twenty-five
cheques, which were delivered to him on payment.
It was evident, therefore, that the false cheques could
not have been delivered to M. de Berghes, as he pre-
tended, on the race-ground at Chantilly, for the Chantilly
races commenced on the 15th of May, and finished on
the 18th, and it was prayed by the testimony and the
books of those who had fabricated the cheques, that they
had not been left in their hands for more than a week
an.er the races. It was for the accused to explain before
justice this strang contradiction. Ile appeared for the
first time on the 18th of June, before the Juge d'lostrue-
tion ; there he first produced and attempted to sustain
W., version, so manifestly contrary to the truth. He
then caused it to be understood, without, at any time,
accusing any person, that the false cheques could not be
those that he held from Zarleeti, but that he must have
received them while playing or the night of Saturday,
the 24th, and Sunday, the 25th, at the house of the
Messieurs De Guistry and Stanislaus Larochefoucault,
where several of' their friends had assembled, and where,
in the excitemennt of play, a considerable number of
cheques of the Jockey pub had been circulated.
'l'nis new versian could not long exist. The same day,
or some d iys after, M. Leftlvre was re-heard, and re-
lated the following in ident :—On the 17th, a domestic
carne to his house to request he would call on the Prince
de Bargbeg, at 32, rue St. Guillaume, where he was re-
ceived by the Prince in his cabinet. He found the latter
writing, and he at once recognised in him the person
who had ordered the false cheques. The prince imme-
diately said that the cheques had been seized, and that
he ha I found it was a bad affair He begged of him in-
stantly to keep silence, and give him his word of honour
to that effect.
He . ipplicated. on various occasions, to be spared the
condemnation and the dishonour which would fall upon
his family end on his friends, &feting, if it was neces-
sary, to implore it on his knees, and promising to ob-
serve, on these conditions, everything that should be de-
sired of him. Lefevre apprised him that his declara-
tion had already been made, and that he had also given
a descriptor of the person to whom he had delivered
the cheques. He said that he could not take upon him-
self any engage -:),..nt not to tell the truth if justice de-
man•led it turn him ; that all he could do was to de-
neitoce the guilty. and not to direct researches upon him
if he was nut interrogated.
This is what preceded the position made by the Prince
d,-! Berghes on the 18th of June, and in which, by two
recitals equally false, he vainly attempted to conceal
from jestice the meleneholy truth that was already too
clearly foreseen. Ile soon acknowledged the inutility
of hi-,
presenting himself before the Juge d'lnstruction, he
avowed his cuipability, giving at the same time, as, in-
deed he has since done, the most profound repentance.
He confirmed all the evidence of Lefevre, and confessed
that he hirneelf forged the signature of M. Grand-
hom ne. lie also avowed that on Sunday, the 25th, he
remitted false cheques to M. Stanislaus de Larochefou
cault, anti three to M. de Betonniere ; that on Tuesday
night, the 27th, he sent seven by M. de Guistry to M.
Thin rry do Montesquieu, in payment of the sum of 700 f.,
which he owed to him. As to the other five he accounted
for them thus: —Two, on which the signature of Grand-
&mime had not succeeded were scratched ; a third was
broken ili the process, and two others were disposed of
in a manner which cannot be accounted for. Thus the
author hi.oself has avowed the fabrication of 25 false
cheques, repre•enting 2.500 f., and of using 22 false ones,
representing a value of 2,200 f. Ulterior interrogatories
have reproduced and maintained his avowals. If we had to
search in the annals of justice foe an explanation to so
gravedifficult to find it in the ordi-
nary impulses of shameful ac-ions. Eugene de Berghes
is the ivsas of a justly honoured family ; he was in a
position wllere nothing could be desired, and there was
nothing appakemtly to tempt him to the commission of
such a creme. lie was already rich on his own account,
and hes recently given his name to a young woman of
an opulent family of great consideration. It is said that
he had at his immediate disposition larger sums than
those whirl he has lost, and that he could," by showing a
rexamehle employment for it, have had from his father
and tether, in I,w any sum, for they lied never refused
his deeeteds. He was not pushed for his debts. He
felt the neiessity of giving an explanation, and be has
allege I that he yielded to bad counsels and pernicious
intuences. When he made the avowal of his guilt
to the juge d'lnstruction, he pretended that
the produL:e of the false cheques were fear the use of
a woman with whom he was connected before his
rof.treiage, which c nnexion he had done himself the
injury to continue after his marriage, and to
wheal on leer demand he would be obliged to give money
unknown to his wife. These allegations, however, were
denied. The person he indicated was called. She ad-
mitted the: he had beets brought to her house by a
friend of his previens to his marriage, hut she denied
that she hill ever had any intimate relations with him.
Confronted with this witness, he acknowledged the truth
of what she stated, and admitted that he bad imagined
this story to give a reason for the creation of false
chegiusc. In his lest examination he stated that he
could not account for what he had dune, except from
childishness and avant of reflection. Such an action can-
not, heave ver, either in his case, or in the case of any
otshur person, be confounded with simple childishness,
but must be explained by that life of idleness and dissi
tuition which is eo common with the young men of the
day who abendon themselves to frivolous expenses and
innrdhiat, gambling. Nothing has occurred in the exa-
mination to show the accused to be deprived of the con-
sciousness & the acts which he commits. There is no-
thing to show that he is attainted with insanity. In a
word, there is no circumstance in the whole of the exa-
mination to show that he ought to escape the conse-
wetkelA(Kie4tA unction.
- She , pronounced:the accusation in the
..s .r ?ere,' 1 ,p 1) he courts in France, and pro-
',.1-W
likefiro • ie accused in the midst of the
1., ,
16544k.51-11iit-illee
:Ttfei;tilftiFF;ltt e, nished, the prisoner was inter-
\esogatelbxflit'OeA as to the facts set forth in the
' ygliettnent --;ll4,\A " ed nearly all the questions put

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