St. Paul daily globe., 1894-02-12

sertions, but most of his witnesses were
people of the lower class, and those who
could be reached by monetary consider
alton. On the other side, the thirty or
forty witnesses brought forward by the
accused nObleman and his retainers
were people OF good character and ante
edentS.
A SECRET TRIAL.
The exact nature of the testimony
adduced i'll these ITO days of trial will
probably never be known, as the
mary criminal hearings OF this kind in
secret. All that the public gained was
mere outline of the proceedings,
which were marked at certain periods
by domlclliary visits to the houses OF
the accused, by the arrest of several
other persons who were in the con-
Spiracy, by the disinterment OF the Wis
counts grave. and by the examination
of the body. Whatever may have been
the nature of the testimony. the de-
cision or the court was handed down on
Oct. 80. 1t was. in effect. that the
charges made by Nishigori had not
been established: that the confession Of
several of the former retainers of the
viscOunt, on which the case mainly
rested, was forgery, and that all the
accused were. therefore, acquitted.
AS Il result of this unexpected verdict,
for large number of the Japanese
vernacular papers seemed to put faith
in the story, NiShigori, his wife and
his leading counsel were arrested on the
very day of the verdict OIL the charge of
bringing false and malicious accusations
against those who had just been ac-
Quilted. A few days later Judge Mama
guchi, of the Toxic local court, was also
arrested by special imperial order on a
charge OF collusion with the conspira-
tors.
Since the arrest of the conspirators
and the Judge many curious facts have
come out, showing that in sustained im-
posture and i'll ingenuity of forgery
this case has never been surpassed in
the criminal annals cf any country. The
facts bear out NishIgOrl'S claim that he
did not make many efforts to secure the
release of his former lord, but that he
had no real ground for the charge that
the ViScount was not insane, nor that
he was murdered.
His animuS against the younger
brother, as well as against the retainerS
whom he accused of so many crimes,
was that he himself was discharged for
dishonesty and incompetency. Burning
for revenge, he set about inStituting
shame and disgrace all those who had
brought about his removal. He was
assisted in this work by his wife, who
was of superior education. being the
daughter of a wealthy merchant near
Toxic. She was divorced by her huS-
band for misconduct, fell in with Nishi-
gori, and, seeing the possibilities of his
scheme, engaged to assist him in MS
great undertaking. She lived with him
as his wife, and advanced him the first
money for legal expenses.
Since his arrest Il large number of
people have coWe forward with docu-
ments showing that they have advanced
money to NiShigorl to defray legal eX-
penses. The sum which he secured in
this way is estimated at S15O,0C0. He
was able to obtain this large amount
mainly upon the claim that certain
bonds had been transferred to him by
the murdered viScount, and that If he
established the CRIME the face value of
these bonds could be collected. Through
the aid of a socialist student, one of the
class known In Japan as Soshi, he Sc
cured forged copies Of large number
of documents bearing out his claim to-
these bonds. and there is pretty good
evidence that this student, who was
remarkably expert with the pen, also
forged the confession which induced
the judges of the Toxic courtIto order the
arrest of the Soma family and their
prosecution in the courts.
What will be the fate OF NiShigOri and
his fellow conspirators remains to be
seen, but it is probable that they will
receive the SevereSt penalty under the
law. The remarkable feature of the
case is that the imperial authorities
should have permitted the publication
Id all the large vernacular newspapers
OF the full details of this atrocious con-
SpIracy. These details revealed depth
ofinfamy such as could be conceived of
nowhere outside. of an Oriental country.
And yet the accused had no chance
for presenting their side Of the case
with equal publicity. All the testi-
mony which went to show the baseless
character of these outrageous charges
was given in secret. and the public,
both Japanese and foreign, can only de-
pend upon the decision of the Toxic
court, which declares that these charges
were without foundation. Many of the
vernacular papers. which hate the
aristocracy and the nobility. have al
ready insinuated that this verdict of the
Toxic court was really white washing
of the noble defendants and their re-
tainers. and that this court was bribed
by the viScouns and his mother pre-
cisely as the lower courts had been
done III the many proceedings brought
by NishigOri.
What the truth may be will probably
never be known, but the English news
papers comment on the hearing of the
most important criminal case that has
come into the Japanese court in twenty
years as virtual default of justice
from European point OF view.