Star.
London, England, 1826-08-24 00:00:00

PARIS TRIBUNAL DE PREMIERE INSTANCE.

• CR IK. cox.
In the sittings of the Bth, 1 1 th, and 12th of August,
M. Claveau, the Counsel for the husband, replied to M.
Bennequin in the divorce cause "Desprez v Desprez'."
" Madame Desprez," said he, " is beautiful, amiable,
and witty; she has received a first rate education; plays
in a most superior manner upon the pianoforte, and is
something of a coquette." She had lived happily for.
five years, when she became enceinte. Her temper now
underwent a change.' After her accouchement she fell
into a gloomy melancholy, took a strong dislike to her
husband, and conceived a passion successively for two
young men with whom she entered into a correspon-
dence. ' Here M. Claveau read some letters, in which
',Warne Desprez avowed 10 her husband the "sernti-
ment ardent yet pure" which she nourished for him.—
One of the young men, a physician, advised her hus-
band to allow his wife' to quit the conjugal roof for a
time, for the benefit of her health. M. Desprez having
consented to this temporary absence, his wife wrote to
him a letter, in which she says—" from this day, Sept.
10; 1823, r renounce my husband, and refuse to have
any personal communication with him, the consequence
of which will of course be, that. I can have no more
legitimate children provided he will leave me my own
sntstress." Soon after Medanno.Desprez was sent to
Charantoti (the French Bedlam), whence she wrote again
is her husband, speaking to him respecting her connec•
don with these two young men, and declaring that she
hid only acted as she had done with regard to them,
because she had riot a single being to whom she could
confide her sorrows. She was dismissed as cured, and
bl..Desprez thought at first that she was become sane;
he deceived himself, she was meditating a divorce.—
Nearly thirty allegations had been made by Madame
Desprez: how had they been proved? The blow?
Was that proved ? No! The oath of conjugal fide-
lity taken on the gospels? Not The threat to throw
hir out of the window? Not The menace said to be
made in the coffee-house of cutting off her hair ? No!
That of thrusting out her eyes and disfiguring her
beauty ? Nol Madame Desprez pretended that her
husband made her get up toe early, that he bad re-
proached her with going to Engbien to look for a gal-
lam; that he spat in her face on one occasion, and that
he made her sink under ill-treatment on the 16th of
May, 1824; that he had said a man Mit beat his
wife, provided he took care not to murder her; that he
had regretted that he had not broken one of her arms,
adding, that he should have been let off for a fine of 16
francs. Not a single witness bad deposed to these facts.
He had spitten repeatedly, she said, in her face; he had
accused a librarian of being his wife's gallant, and had
threatened to throw an Abbe out of the window upon
a similar suspicion. Not s Toad of proof of all this. There
temained three facts of no great consequence, insigni-
&sat inahemselves, and by no means proved. To these
three witnesses were brought, a father-ia-law, who had
admitted baying beaten his son-in law; a mother-in-
law; and a widow, who bad had a child after her hus-
band's decease. t is for you to say how much credit
too may choose to attach to such witnesses. These in-
juries have been charged to him alone. But they were
mutual according to one of the witnesses, and a servant
bad deposed that her mistress had sung to the piano a
song, commencing, " My father has given me a bus-
bead who is a rogue end a dwarf; and that M. Desprez
cook his hat and went out. As to the black eye, not a
single witness had seen the husband int ct it. The me-
dical man did not know whether the wound was an ac-
cidental er a pretended one, and declared that he was
unable to speak positively on the subject. What would
Clete be surpri4ng in MadameDesprez, who, according
to the misters of Chessmen, bad once attempted sui-
cide, having hurt herself against a window, or some
piece of furniture? M. Claveau then opposed the
counter evidence of many witnesses who attested the
good conduct of Mons. Desprez towards his wife. He
read some letters, which went to prove that there was,
en his part, no wish for a separation. In one of the first
she says to him, " I am your wife, and you will listen
tomy entreaty. (This was to leave her the child).—
Answer, answer, my friend. Adieu. adieu. I thank
you for the little box. You remember the taste 1 bave
for miniatures." " What," said M. Claveau, "is this
an enemy speaking thus affectionately to her tyrant,
and accepting prexnts from him?' In another letter
she'solicits an interview with her husband. " It is easy,"
she says, " to comprise in one half hour's conversation
snore than in ten or twelve letters. You fear, they tell
me, that you shall make me ill by your presence. I have
lived six years without you, and yet I exist. Besides, 1
can never forget that you are the father of my Laura."
More recently she writes to him—" Unhappy man! you
hare never known the desire of love I I charge upon
you all the faults which I have committed. I owe you
nothing more. You have silenced the voice of religion,
which cried out to me that I was your wife ! You are
ignorant how much weakness there is still in my heart.
Alas! on Sunday. at five o'cloik, I held my portrait.,
which I had had painted, in my bands, without daring
to examine my heart. I found an indescribable pleasure
ia thinking now it will not be for you ; I am going
now to deprive myself of the opportunity of offering it
to you. This ring, symbol of an unfortunate alliance,
I will cast from mine eyes. Adieu! adieu ! For the last
Cute. adieu r Lastly, M. Claveau read a letter, in which
Madame Desprez desires that they may not be judici-
ally separated. " No, you shall not, MOM interesting
sponse!" exclaimed the Advocate in conclusion ; " this
tribunal will condemn you to bc happy with a husband

who contends against you with reluctance, and awaits
Ton with inspaimmir
Afters reply from aed emober from 4
ll.t
Ms rid
ttfrl" saimalPed for a week, tolredes srliaff

MURDER.

One of the most savage--1.--nsurclers that has been re-
corded for years was perpetrated on Tuesday last, at
Brighton, by William Burt, who killed his child; only
three months old, and attempted to assassinate his wife.
A Coroeer's Inquest was held yesterday upon the body
of the infant, and a verdict of Wilful Murder was re
corded. He is now in the black hole, doubly ironed.,
Burt has been married upwards of twelve months to his
present wife ; about six months back he attempted to
murder her with a poker, at which time he inflicted,
several seve;e wounds on her skull, for which he was
committed ; but the wife not being able to appeir
against him from ill health, hi was ,liberated. on his
brother's recognisance that he should keep the peace
towards his wife. Ever since the wife. has refused to
live with the prisoner, from an apprehension that he
would murder her, as he had repeatedly threatened to
do so.- The unfortunate woman has been for some
months (since the birth of her infant) in the woithonse
at Dichlingoo which parish she belongs. On Sunday
evening last she came over to Brighton, to spend a week
with
sher mother, an industrious widow, residing in
Wobtirn place. On Monday the prisoner was seen
lurking about the neighbourhood by the old woman,
who inquired of him if he had anything to say to her,
or her daughter, to which he made no reply, but walked
away.- About two o'clock on Tuesday the wife went
out to callow a woman in the neighbourhood, and im
mediately after she entered her friend's room, the hus-
band rushed in after her, and commenced putting his
diabolical purpose into execution with a shoemaker's
knife, which he had concealed in the sleeve of his jacket.
He stabbed his wife in both temples, in the breast and
side; he then stabbed the child in various parts of the
body, inflicting seven distinct wounds, two of which
were in the abdomen. The last wound was in the
child's thigh ; the knife passing through the bone, it
stuck so fast into it, that in attempting to pull it out
the handle came off, by which means he was prevented
from instantly dispatchinfotollie ;.wife, who by this time
had fallen from loss of b there being no weapon
in the room, he attempted to complete his horrid design
by kicking his victim in the thro.it and head. At this
moment the woman of the house (who was absent at
the time the parties entered the room) made her ap-
pearance. and on seeing what was going on, cried out
" Murder!" Mrs. Burt, on hearing the voice, made a
supernatural effort, got on ber feet, and darted out of
the room, with the child in her arms, and ran into a
house nearly opposite, the door of which was open,
where the poor creature fell almost lifeless; the infant
was taken up by a woman who was present, in whose
arms it expired in heady minutes after. Mrs. Burt was
conveyed to her mother's, when surgical aid was in-
stantly procured, and the wounds dressed. At present
she is despaired of---indeed it is the opinion of the star•
geons that she cannot recover. In the mean time,
several neighbours, on hearing the cry of " molder,"
rushed into the house, and secured the murderer, who
made no resistance. The poor woman, in endeavouring
to ward off the blows of the knife from herself and her
infant, received a number of wounds in her bands and
arms. Burt is a journeyman shoemaker, and a native
of Dichling, about eight miles from Brighton.

RolligaT 07 MI BIRMINOII/111 Tamarac—Tuesday
I morning it was discovered that the Theatre had been
broke* sato, and the whole of the cash receipts of the
previous night, amounting to upwards of SOW. stolen
from the treasury. The villains had broken open ado ,r
next to the stage-door, passed over the back of the stage,
broke open the treasury door, and a closet which con
tabled the key of an iron box, from whence the money
was extracted. No clashes been obtained to the robbers.
A trial for murder is about to commence before the
Court of Assign at Riom, which is expected to rival in
interest the famous trial at Roder.: The circumstances
of the crime are equally atrocious, and the evidence is
iovolved in similar mystery. The prisoners amount to
six, and were all, with one exception, the relations of
the person assassinated, whose body was thrown during
the night into a well, in the public square of Maoism
The murderers eluded for a long time the pursuit of
justice, by frightening the only witnesses who could
reseal their crime. One of these witnesses was even I
compelled to observe secrecy by an oath taken on the
altar. More than 100 persons are summoned to speak,
to circumstances affecting the life of the pritoners.
A launch took place on the litth inst. at Marseilles,;
of a frigate of 60 guns, built for the Pachd-of Egypt.'
A detachment of troops attended to preserve order'
during the operation. The pernaistion given to the Riche
to build ships of war in French ports has little appear-
ante of neutsality in the war which he is carrying on i
against the Greeks.
On the morning of the 17th instant, Sir Wm. Elliet's
butler was found dead in the river near the Castle. He,'
had gone to fish on the preceding evening, and it is sup-1
posed that he had been seized with a fit, which termi-
nated his existence, as the river was quite shallow where
his body was found.
At the battle of Senelf, the-bravery of the Prince al
Oraige (afterwards William III.) led him into the mid-
dle of the enemy, when, becoming sensible of his'
error, he, by a peculiar presence cf mind, gave the word
of command in French, which he spoke perfectly well.
But the French soldiers, who took him for one of their
own Generals, making answer that their powder was all
spent; this intelligence encouraged hiin to persist in the
attack, after he had taken the first opportunity of with-
drawing to his own troopss
An Act of Parliament in 1454 notices, " that there
had formerly used to be six or eight attorneys only for
Suffolk, Norfolk, and Norwich together ; that this
number is now ineteased to more than eighty, most
part of whom, being not of sufficient knowledge, come
to fairs, etc inciting the Feople to suits for small tres-,
passes, kc. wherefore there shall be hereafter but six for
Norfolk, six for Suffolk, and two for the city of Norwich."
A match of cricket was played on the Eastern Hill,
Hastings, on Saturday se'nnight, between three first-
rate players from Beisenden, and three excellent crick-
eters of Hastings. The game terminated considerably
in favour of the-former.

Thursday, a well contested foot race of 0 rods was
run on Braborne Downs between Mr. J. Huckstep, of
Elham, and Mr. Skinner, of King:north, for 40f. which
was won by the latter, beating his opponent three quar-
ters of a rod. The well known speed of both men
caused much betting.
A Gentleman stooling on the Derwent moon, near flbeSeld,
bagged $1 heed 4 gnome at 00 allots, on atarday weeb, Ow or*
ing day, before lt o'clock at soon.