The Sun.
London, England, 1842-07-14 00:00:00

FROM THE FRENCH PAPERS.
On the 19th of March last, about ten at night, two
policemen, on duty in the Rue de Marais St. Martin,
observed three men employed in posting up something
against an inclosure of planks, and then immediately
walk away. The officers followed them to the .Rue
Samson and the Rue St. Nicholas, where, having
ascertained that their placard was composed of the
words Mort au tyran Louis Philippe la sangsue, du
peuple, they endeavoured to arrest the three men ;
but succeeded in securing one only, and the hat of
another, in which were two similar placards, printed
by means of a plate with the characters cut out, and
twelve papers with writing in nearly the same terms.
Dabadie, the man arrested, on being searched, was
found to have about him two of the printed placards,
and eleven square pieces of paper of the same
size. On being interrogated, Dabadie declared that
two men, Lenoir and Eugene, came to him in the
morning at a liquor-shop on the Qaai Vainly, and
dictated to him the manuscripts. It was Eugene who
carried the papers, Lenoir who put on the paste, and
he, Dabadie, who posted them up. Lenoir was taken
the next morning. He confessed his participation.
pretending that he had no animosity to the King or
his Government, and was led to the act by having
read similar writings. As Eugene could nowhere be
found, Lenoir and Dabadie, who are both journey-
men cabinet-makers, were prosecuted without him,
and were yesterday brought before the Court of
Assizes. Lenoir was found guilty of a libel against
the King, and condemned to imprisonment and a fine
of 500 f. Dabadie was acquitted, as it appeared that
he had been led into the affair only by a boyish desire
to play a trick upon the police.
Among the illicit gambling-houses, to which we
alluded yesterday in our article on the lamentable
death of M. C----, of Sevres, was one established in
the saloons of the Count de H-, in the Rue Neuve
des Petits Champs, who had repeatedly been desired
to close them, but who resisted, as he was highly
connected, and received none but titled persons. At
length, however, the Prefect of Police issued his war-
rant, and two days ago the Commissary of the quar-
ter entered the Count's rooms while a party was as-
sembled round a hazard-table. On the table was a
quantity of counters marked with the figures 500
and 1,000, passed no doubt as tokens for money, but
there was none of that, except 240 francs in gold, put
in a basket under a candlestick, and appropriated to
the expenses of the evening. The suspicion of its
being a gaming-house was, however, increased by the
bank being kept by a person recognised as having
been a croupier in one of the former licensed gaming-
houses. The Commissary seized all the articles used
in play, and sent them to the Prefecture, with his
report.

EARTHQUAKE AT HAYTI.
(EXTRACT OF A PRIVATE LETTER.)
PORT AU PRINCE, MAT 16.—1 wrote to you on the
lth by the packet a long account of the effects of
the late awful earthquake as far as Port au Prince
and Gonaives were concerned.
On the 12th I wrote you a letter, via New York,
giving you the still more afflicting account of the de-
struction of Cape Haytien. This last account has
been confirmed, and each succeeding report adds to
the horror and consternation first felt, by the particu-
lars of the event. Some that we feared for are safe
—others, no more.
Among the sufferers, or dead, are Mr. Dupuy's
mother, his sister, Mrs. John Blain, whom you kne w
and liked so much. Mdlle. Theogene Dupuy, Mdlle.
Cerfberr, and whole families of respectability buried
alive, or crushed to atoms, amidst the ruins. The last
estimate is from 70,000 to 80,000 souls—two-thirds
of the population of the Cape—not a home is left
standing—those persons that have escaped are in ge-
neral badly wounded. To give you some idea how in -
stantaneous WAS the destruction, two gentlemen were
sitting befhre their doors, and jumping out of the way
at once, one had his arm, the other his leg fractured
by the ruins. The air they say is pestilential, and to
complete the scene of misery thousands of the savages
from the plains and mountains are now pillaging the
ruins, in organised and armed bodies, plundering the
unfortunate survivors, and murdering the wounded
they fatind among the ruins.
Th:s is no exaggeration, no high wrought colour-
ing. I had it from eye witnesses, who had to fight
their way through the town, and it would have been
the same here had we suffered to the same extent.
Mr. Theogene Dupuy offered 1,000 dollars to any
one to dig a grave for his wife, and could find no per-
son among the thousands of banditti, who would
undertake the sad office, such was their eagerness for
plunder.
Our friends found refuge on board the ships in the
harbour, but they are all ruined. Poor Mr. Thomson
was going home by this paoket full of spirits. The
poor CerfllerN lost their only child, she was about 16
or 17 years of age, and by such an awful death, it
makes me shudder to think of. All the other towns
in the north, of which we have yet heard, are de-
stroyed, as well as the Cape, Port Vde Paix, the Mole
'Jean Rabel, Plaisance, Limbo, St. Mares, &c. At
Port de Paix they had buried by the last accounts, 110
bodies *grid, Mountains have been rent in two,
and eten at Morne n Selle, the shock was severe l
After such calamities at other places, it may seem
trifling to dwell upon our anxieties here, but these sad
accounts make us very nervous when we feel a fresh
shock, which we do constantly up to this day. Last
night it was very severe, and the night before, during
the most awful storm I have ever seen in Hayti, when
the skies blazed with lightning, the thunder never
ceased, and the rain came down in torrents; one vio-
lent shock drove every body out of their house, and
many passed the night in the streets. The person
just arrived from the Cape is astonished at any one
sleeping under a roof, so alarmed are they all in the
north.
Mr. M— appears still wild with the fright he
has sustained. He says the town was thrown down
in thirtyfro
seconds. The family of Mr. Bird, the
testant Minister, were at the time in the 4: •Belvedere
(or observatory), the house and 14-1.
down together, and not one ved
ral other escapes w them—lere all came
ev'was hurt ; seve-
in his salon ur s miraculous. Mr. Boden was
the scree esiairs, and suddenly found himself in
tunhurt, amidst the ruins of his own house.
Mr*. 14--- states that no imagination can conceive
horrors of the event at the Cape, or the subse-
quent excesses of the brigands, who are pillaging. He
thus describes his escape :
He was sitting in the balcony with Mr. T. Dupuy,
Mr. Theogene, &c., when they heard a noise like dis-
tant cannon, and on looking behind them, into the
salon, saw the whole house going down, except just
that portion supporting the gallery. They caught
hold of each other to save themselves from falling,
and waited till the first shock was over ; but such was
the cloud of dust, they could hardly see a few feet
from where they stood. Disengaging himself from
Mr. Theogene, who held him with a grasp of iron, he
jumped down into the street, with Mr. Daly and
others, Mr. Theogene springing into the ruins, all un-
hurt. They lost sight of the latter, and were running
off towards the place, when a man, recognizing the
doctor, ran up to them with a child, whose leg was
dreadfully fractured. With pieces of shingle and a
handkerchief he set the limb. They then ran towards
the market, clambering over roofs of houses and
fallen walls, amidst the shrieks of the sufferers, and
and reached the place, where they found the church
one heap of ruins, with a few wretches crawling out
of it, poor creatures ! dreadfully wounded. They
then made their way out of the town, to an elevation
called the Fossette, where others had escaped ; and lie
says their number was very small. The fire broke
out immediately (the subterraneous fire of the earth),
and many must have been burnt alive in the ruins.
Neverthele.s, on the fourth or fifth day after the
event, he saw people dug out alive.
The next day the ruins swarmed with canaille and
soldiers plundering- Whenever they went into the
town they had to go in bodies, armed to the teeth,
for the fighting in the streets for every article found
never ceased. He mentions having seen four men
fighting for a piece of linen; two were killed by the
others; and he saw two officers ride up, and blow out
the brains of the survivors. He also saw two men fight-
ing for a trifling article ; the weakest being cut down,
he begged for mercy, but all he received was his ad-
versary's sword through his breast. Another coming
up, shot the first assassin. Mr. Alexis Dupuy, In
trying to save some of his property, shot three or four
of the savages, reloading his pistol after each dis-
charge with the utmost coolness.
Mdlle. Cora Cerfberr was found amongst the ruins,
poor thing, dead ! Mrs. John Blain also, from appa-
rently a slight wound on the back of her head. They
could bury them only by covering them with the rub-
bish. Poor Mr. Cerfberr' whose arm was broken,
escaped with his wife, and both are so heart-broken,
as they doated on their child, that they have left the
country. Mr. Thomson writes me a few hurried
lines, under great distress of mind. He is also going
home.
The Cape in fact no longer exists. Mr. states,
that the people at the Cape appeared stupified and
wild at the extent of the calamity. Every one you
met had lost more or less of their family, and yet not
a tear was shed. In some instances whole families
had disappeared. I conversed some time with him,
and was sickened by his accounts, which would fill
pages, if transcribed.
Alr.Dupuy is not returned, but we expect him daily.
We are more tranquil here at present, not having felt
a shock for the last two days. Ido not know how
long our present uneasiness of feeling may last. Mr.
Dupuy, however, leaves this house in a few months to
occupy a building near it, which, being built of wood,
is much safer than the present store. For a fortnight
preceding the earthquake, the heat of the atmosphere
was both excessive and unusual for the season, and
the day it happened the air was hot, calm, and, as the
French say, gras, or hazy.
I have just seen Mr. Bird, whose miraculous es-
cape I have alluded to, and I cannot resist giving you
his own account. He was in his balcony when the