The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1842-09-16 00:00:00

PARIS CORRECTIONAL POLICE.

(From the Gazette des Tribunaux.)
A SPECIMEN OF THE PARIS SWELL MOB.
Eugene Adolphe Lepartois is placed on the bane des accuses
on a charge of robbery. The prisoner is a young man of a
tournure assez distingue, and dressed with vise yrande re-
cherche. His hands are incased with pale straw kids of a
dazzling clearness, and with his elegant double eye-glass he
views the cow t and those around him with the easy well-bred
air of a man who only waits the hearing of the case to esta-
blish his innocence of the charge which, by some strange
accident, has been laid to him.
Madame Montlouis, the complainant, stated that about 10
o'clock on the previous evening she was returning from a
visit to a friend in the Rue Neuve de Luxembourg, to her
own residence in the Rue Chauchat, when she was much an-
noyed by a young man following and talking to her. Finding
that she would not reply to what he said, he made some re-
mark which much alarmed her, when a well-dressed man
came and said to him, " How dare you insult the lady ? go
on about your business, or I will make her cause my own."
Upon this the fellow went away, and the other approaching
with a tone and manner of the greatest politeness, well calcu-
lated to inspire confidence, said, " Permit me, Madame, to
offer you my arm ; you may be again annoyed, and I shall not
leave satisfied if Ido not see you out of danger." The bearing
of the young man, the service rendered, and the fear of further
insult, induced her to accept his arm, and as far as his bear-
ing was concerned she had no reason to regret se doing, for
he was most respectful. Having arrived at the corner of
the Rue Chauchat, she thanked him warmly for his kind-
ness, and intimated that she was at her own door. At this
moment she felt a tug, and then another, and the next mo-
ment her gallant cavalier had taken to his heels with her
watch and chain ; and, in spite of her cries for assistance,
lie at first got clear off. but was taken at the other end of
the street by three young men who were coming from the
opposite direction. The lady having made her charge, he
was handed off to the station. The thief was our elegant
friend at the bar. _ _

President.—Was the watch found upon him ?
Madame Montlonis.—He had thrown it into the street
when apprehended, but one of his captors picked it up and
restored it to me.
President (to the prisoner).—What have you to say to this
charge ?
Prisoner.—What, sir, would you have me say ? I hare
been made a victim to my own politeness, that 's all.
President.—What ! do you pretend that you have been
made a victim ?

Prisoner.—Certainly ; I don't think I have much the ap-
pearance of a thief.
President.—Do you then deny having stolen the lady's
watch ? _ _ _

Prisoner.—l am incapable of such an act.
President.—But do you recollect that the watch was picked
up close by you at the moment of your apprehension?
Prisoner.—This is the very circumstance which explains
the matter. I suppose the lady's chain caught one of my
buttons, and when I Quitted hpr broke, and let the watch
tall to the ground.
The Avocat du Roi here interposed, and said he had not
interrupted the prisoner's line of defence, but he begged now
to state, that he had already been six months imprisoned for
stealing a watch at the exhibition of pictures.
The prisoner said no more, but resumed his seat, biting
the fingers of his straw-coloured kids, in evident chagrin at
this aspersion on his character, and maintained an unbroken
silence, while the President sentenced him to 12 months'
imprisonment.
FILIAL PIZTY.
Ander Subiron, an old man of eighty-one, was charged be-
fore the Police Correctionnelle, with begging in the public '
streets of Paris. The prisoner, notwithstanding his great
age, was a fine strong man, apparently in the full vigour of
health, his brow unfurrowed by a wrinkle, and but few silver
hairs scattered among his luxuriant black locks.
President.—Prisoner, you are charged with the crime of
mendicancy.
Prisoner.-1 was acquainted with the person to whom I
add): -.sed myself; and I wished to contract a small loan with
him. I was not begging. (Laughter,)
President.—Do not add falsehood to the crime with which
you have been already charged. The officers watched you for
some time, and heard yon beg of five or six persons ; but they
did not apprehend yon until you had received six centimes
from one of them. _ .

An old man, bent and broken down with the weight of his
years, at this moment advanced towards the tribunal. _

President (to the stranger).—What do you want here ?
Stranger,—Monsieur, the prisoner is my father, and I
come to beg that you will restore him to me. A murmur of
astonishment ran through the court ; for the son, in fact,
looked at least t7enty. years older than the father.

Presiden t.—There is no excuse for begging; we will, how-
ever, hear what you have to say. Does your father reside
with you?
Stranger.—Yes, sir; I am a porter, and I have given him
the little room which is allowed to me by my employer au
cinquieme.
President.—Why do you allow him to go out begging ?
Stranger.—Oh, it is not my fault. He has no necessity
to do so. He has as much food as I ; of wine more than I ;
and of tobacco as much as he wants.
President.—You hear, prisoner, what your son says. How
is it that, wanting nothing, you give yourself up to begging?
Prisoner.—Being unable to work, I have no money.
President.—Why, notwithstanding your age, you appear
to possess health and strength sufficient to warrant the belief
that you could work. But you have no need of money, as
Your son sees that you want for nothing.
The Son.—l must tell you the secret, sir. My father has
a passion, for which his age must plead some excuse. He is
so fond of brandy, that he will drink ten or a dozen glasses
a day. This I cannot afford to supply him with. My means
will not allow it, and therefore it is that be begs, in order to
indulge his passion for drink. Mais soyez tranquille, it shall
not happen again : I will work harder, so that he shall have
his petite goalie.
President. —Your conduct does you honour, and it is to
your representations that your father owes the indulgence of
the court.
2'
The tribunal then sentenoed the old man to twenty-four
Hours'urs
imprisonment, and the President addiessing him said,
". You shall to-morrow be restored to your son. Recollect
that it is to his goodness of heart that you owe your liberty,
and endeavour to reward his filial tenderness by better con-
duct for the future."