Star.
London, England, 1814-12-29 00:00:00

;uslamejnt, which woilid WO Wit Carla ins exe•
cotton In twenty-four hours, bailie been found guilty,
did not obtain for hitulhis liberty. He was con-
ducted to the Temple, hem wheece he was taken
atter three years of sufferings and outrage, to be
plunged in a dark and unwholesome dungeon of the
Bicetre.
He declares, that for seven years he was subjected
to every species of persecution and torture. He was
put, on his arrival (such are his own words) into a
strait waistcoat, an inurement of torture designed for
raving madmen. In this state he was dragged into
a dungeon ; there the very first day he was tied neck
and heels, in such a manner, that he could not raise
his head half an inch.
His constitution, naturally strong, disappointed the
lhopes of his persecutors; they had recourse, says the
petitioner, during the second winter of his confine.
ment in the Bicetre, to a refinement in cruelty so
atrocious (according to his own expressions) that the
history of prisons affords no parallel to it. They had
the interior of his dungeon, which was but eight feet
square, new plastered, in order to hasten his destroc.
tion. Here they shut him up the very day after the
workmen had finished : to his complaints they drily
replied, 44 It signifies notl,ing—there you must re-
main." Every part of his body was cruelly affected.
His sight in particular was impaired ; it has conti-
nued weak ever since ; and such, he adds, was his
state, that the physician, whom his cries brought to
his assistance, durst not attempt any thing for his re-
lief in so unwholesome a place. Crimes of the most
atrocious nature, murders and poisonings, are stated
by bun to have been perpetrated in this prison. The
King's attorney went- thither by order of the Grand
Judge, to take his declarations and draw up a report.
Examinations took place, but they were quashed, ac.
cording to the petitioner, through the influence of the
old police, whose interest it was to withhold such
horrors from the cognizance of justice. He, there.
fore, prayed the Chamber to bring them to punish.
anent, and to cause the proceedings formerly institu-
ted for that purpose to be continued.
Such was a succinct analysis of these two peti-
tions. The Committee, said M. Sartelon, experi-
enced the most painful feelings in reading them.—
Personal liberty was the most valuable right of social
man. Political liberty had for its principal object to
secure its maintenance. When political liberty was
attacked and destroyed, the object was almost always
to violate personal liberty. The greatest crime which
I could be committed in a state which has laws, espe-
cially in a constitutional monarchy, is the violatioo of
civil liberty.
The charter which we owe to our good King hap-
pily guards us from these abuses; he will never assail
the liberty of Frenchmen of whom he is the father.
—His ministers will never wish, or at least cannot
effect it. The two Ch Ambers are in readiness, to sup-
port the beneficent views of the King, in order to
accuse and judge those who should dare to proscribe,
banish, arbitrarily arrest, and imprison a French citi-
zen. No subject of the King can be arrested, but in
virtue of an order of arrest, and in order to be brought
to trial within the period prescribed by law. All
other arrest, all other imprisonment is illegal, and
will certainly be punished in France, whoeverbe the
author of the order given for such purpose.
But what cannot now take place, or at least with
impunity, unquestionably existed under the expired,
Government. Various articles in the constitution of
the year 8 contained all those securities for personal
liberty which it was possible to wish for. There
*fasted a Senate, a Committee, called that of Per'
tonal Liberty ; and yet it was during the existence
of these constitutional enactments, that there was
audaciously published and inserted in the btilletin of
our laws, a decree of the 3d of March, 1810, of which
the three lines contain a complete code of tyranny :
" Considering that there is a certain number of our subjects
detained in state prisons, whom it is not convenient to bring to•
trial, nor to set at liberty, &c.
What reflections did not such a state of things
excite.
But the Committee, in performing a sacred duty,
that of proclaiming and defending the principles of
personal liberty, would avoid, with religious care,
every thing that might excite reaction in public opi.
nion. France is reconciled with herself: after so
many calamities, she breathes again under the gee
vernment of a legitimate king. Oblivion of the=
is promised by him. The constitutional charter
rantees our rights. The late government is as if it
had never been ; and may deem itself happy, were
it in our power to forget the calamities it inflicted.•
The following are dle conclusions which the Com-
mittee has come to on the two petitions: They deem
it certain from the enquiries they have made, that the
petitioners did not receive the money which should
have been allowed them for their maintenance in pur-
suance of the decree of the Sd of March, 1810: also
that their names were not entered on the list of those
for whom such funds were provided . That the late
Minister, either from want of adequate funds, or
from some other cause, constantly refused to grant
the petitioners the four francs which the above decree
assigned them.
This was doubtless very unjust and cruel treat.
went: they were entitled to complain of it. The
Jaw was violated in regard to them ; this can adni;t
of no doubt.
After the Restoration, they applied to the Direc-
tor-General of the Police of the kingdom. • His reply
was, that the bead of the late Government had not
placed at the disposal of the Duke of Rovigo funds
sufficient for the pay or all the prisoners of state.—
He expressed his regret to the petitioners, that it
was not at that moment in his power to indemnify
them t• but he invited them to prefer their claims to
the tribunals against the old Agents of Government,
—claims which would necessarily be ineffectual.
Nevertheless, as it was possible that the Police
might latterly have funds enabling them to grant re-
lief to the petitioners, and as additional proofs might
be procured, which had hitherto escaped the present
police Magistrates, the Chamber would probably
think that it was proper to send back to Government
the Petition of these 19 state prisoners. As to the
separate petition of M. Grisolles, relative to the cruel-
ties he had experienced, and the continuation of the
prosecutions ordered by the Grand Judge, it would
be proper to send that also to the Government. The
crimes of which complaiht is made are provided for
by the laws. If proved, they must be punished.
The petitioner seems to have thought that the char-
ter of the 4th of June rendered the old Ministers as