New-York tribune., 1867-08-01
BEREZO HSKL.

of tbe Seine on the 18th, of July, when
BerezowsN was tried for attempting to as
sassinate the Car. Before the witnesses
were called, the presiding judge, accord
ing TO the custom in such cases, subjected
the accused to a long Interrogation, which some
times took the form rather of an argument than
of questioning. The indictment had already
given a pretty minute history Of the prisoners
life, and description of his habits. Inc
Judge now took up the narrative, and recounted
the incidents of the assassination, the buying
of the pistol, the hammering OF the bullets 10
make them fit, the movements OF the lmperai
procession, the reasons why the route had been
altered, the firing of the shot, and the proyl-
Dental bursting of the pistol Since witnesses
were at hand to testify to all these facts, and
Berczowski had already admitted them, 1t Is
not easy to see why the judge need nave
made them the texts of discourse, nor
why that functiOnary should have held
the discussion with the accused which
thereupon ensued upon the morality OF
political assassination. But for some OF the
other questions, inapt as they seem when put
10 n man who is on trial for his life, the reason
is palmer. No regcide can be brought into
wHl stand beside him at the bar. No poor
crazy exile, maddened by the wrongs OF his
country, can be sentenced for attempting the
murder of his country's oppressOr, but the world
will mentally pronounce sentence against the
usurper who planted his imperial throne upon
the grave of murdered republic. The pistol
shot in the BOis de BOulOgne on the 9th OF
June woke the slumbering echoes of the 2d OF
December. 1t was the business of the presid-
ing Judge both to convict and to defend; 1t
was his part while Furnishing the avenger OF
Poland to impress it upon the public that the
wretched man was not also an avenger OF
France For Napoleon rode beside the Car
when Berezowslli made his criminal attempt
and there were those who thought that it was
not for Alexander that the shot was intended.
But the Pole was frank in all his replies. He had
aimed at the Car he had no purpose of killing
the Emperor of the French; he thought it right to
slay the man who had murdered his country
who, with q stroke of the pen, had sent
hundreds of youth to Siberia, and had filled
hundreds Of households with mourning. All,
"but suppose. wretchcd man, interrupts the
Judge, suppose your bullet had struck tho
" Emperor of France; suppose-for bullets are
uncertain-that the blow you aimed at the
Gear had penetrated the innocent breast OF
4" the august ruler whose hospitality you have
"abused did you never reflect upon this
" dreadful contingency Ye heavens! had he
"been killed. what would have happenedm
What would have happened. indeedl Why,
only that the opprcssor of France would have
fallen by blow meant for the oppressOr of Po-
land the exiles of Cayenne would have been
avenged instead of the exiles of Sibe ria NJ
Berthelin's ordinations were rather ingenious
and effective but for the life of us we cannot
see that the danger of the Emperor made the at
tempt upon the Car a whit more atrocious. We
cannot see that n greater wrong would have
been done to the world by the murder of the one
than by the murder of the other. Berezowsh,
however, did not say this. The sufierings of his
own country seem to have filled his whole mind
and left no place for resentment of the wrongs
of Others Were these the "extenuating circum-
stances in his case which saved him from the
guillotine, that when he had chance to shoot at
Napoleon he shot at somebody else, and when he
might have denounced in open court the author
of the coup dttdt he poured out all his indigna-
tion upon Aexanderf