New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1858-06-24

"Cattoiic ir,ttuti )D;' that ts Minister'S "accus'
STONED 70 e,pi mage and tieschery, carry dis
uuiou, adultery aud incest into families, and that
"tbe debaocbe'ies of Ce'srism have been eqaaled
"by those Of theOcIacy." Nor does he allow any
greater mo al efficacy to the ceremony OF civil
marriage, AID raises the question whether morality
in love - ould Lot be better secured, as the con-
rnunists preteud, by unrestricted liberty, than By
any al cunt Of legal forDaities.
A second charge is spoogizng for ac.s which
tie penal lsw classes among ctimes This charge
Is based upon Proudbou's remarks upen the case
Of woman sente'ced to two years i'm
prison ment for bieamy, but whom he maintains,
&" in spite Of the Church and the law" to be inno
cent AID worthy Of respect. A third charge is
attacking the respect due 10 the laws by de-.
Dyrg the rght of society to punish, By character
fz'Dg the penal code as psciog the legislator aud
The Judge on par with the criminals they pursue
aid as frIebtiuly arbitrary ia the distribution Of
PunisbmeLts. A fourth charge is sowing dlsunion
and exciting hatred between the classes Of society
by represent ng the fifteen thousand propnetors Of
the thirty thousand houses of Paris which serve to
lodge million of tenants as expressing labor and
ttaivipg tie wo hmen; by speaking Of The army
as ga body Of men set free from every human right
"sad DUTY, whose conscience is the word Of
" commend, and whose argument is the bayOnet;"
eLd by insisting that in a state of society in hich
the lsbcrer hates the employer, nothing can pre-
vent nsuIrec ion. The fifth aud last charge is the
publication OF false news 10 bad faith, in accusing
the Sisters Of Charity in the Crmea with neglect
ing such Of the sick as did not confess and ia stat
ing that, utder the inspiration Of the clergy, list
Ct forty thousand persons had been prepared with
view to their eIpatriatiOn.
The prosecution, as if to give it the greater i'm
PortaDce was undertaken BY N. de Gordon, Pro-
cureur General, aud leader of the Paris bar. His
open Dg was very moderate, almost limited to
recitation of the extracts from Proudhons book,
several Of which We have cited above, and which
were relied upon to sustain the charges. The de-
feDse was iGtrusted to N. Chaudey, all advocate Of
BesancoD, and a friend and disciple of Proudhon,
though perhaps the case might have been handled
to better advantage by an advocate protesting no
sympathy wih the opinions of his client. The strong
point Of the case was that the book and the real
opinions of the author could not be fairly
judged from detached passages, and that what
seemed very outrageous when thus presented,
might yet, when taken in connection witch the con-
text, prove innocent enough. Thus the prosecutor
hsd s'gnalizsd as among the most questionable
passages of the work, one beginning: "COme,
"Satss, come thou caumniated of priests and
"kiDgs, let me embrace thee, let me take thee TO
"ny breast" In explanation of this passage the
council for the defense called attention to another
Immediately preceding, in which the author apos-
trophies Cardinal Matthew in these terms:
elderly sigualzed in the history of the tempta-
"tiop is your Anti-christ. For you, liberty is the
"devl;" while the apostrophe to Satan is i'm
mediately followed by q pOetical quotation ad-
dressed to the Goddess of Liberty, showing that
otter all it was only to liberty, though under the
name Of Satan, given to it by its adversarles
that PioudhOn had addressed himself. But in
other cases, not content with rectiyiDg the false
interpretations put upon the cited passages, the
counsel Undertook the defense of those passages
thereby exposing himself to frequent Interrupt
tons, and placing bis client in dangerous position
before the Court
ProudbOn, however, may be well satisfied to put
I'D with the sentence of the Court 10 cons Iteration
Of the great public attention thereby attracted to
the work and to himself. Had it been the special
object Of the French Government to aid in spread.
ing abroad the opinions Of Proudhon they could not
have bit upon a method more eiTectual. Since the
trial, tls work has been in the greatest demand.
considerable part Of the edition was seized by
tie police, but many copies got into circulation.
These are now sought for at fabulous prices, while
Che privilege of merely reading the work paid for at
high price No doubt, it will be reprinted 10 Lon
don or somewhere else beyond the range of the
French censorship, and by the help Of the imperial
prosecution will obtain circulation and notoiiety
altogether beyond that it would have reached had
III. Pro ldhon been let alone.