, 1898-01-26
NEW PANAMA TRIAL.

lish autl ortics on tie charge Of Iriting
u6icials, WIS on Saturday put ON his tIial,
together with NJ. Maict and NJ. Boyer, De
lutics, aud MN. St, Martin, Plante9u, Gail
lard, Rigaud, aud ! aisant, cx-Deputies. NJ.
Naquet, Senator, did not appenr, being in
England. The whole day was occupied with
interrogaling Arton. lie allege. that, meet
ing NJ. Charles de LeSseps on board ship
bound for Suez, after the Withdrawal Of the
fins Panam" lottery loan scheme, he offeIed
70 act as Intermediary with Deputies. Accord
ingIy, il 1887, he arranged with NJ. CHARLES
d. Less ps and Baron Reinacl to promote
tie new scheme, NJ. Barbe, the chairman OF
thr dynamite company with which he was
+ mstlf connected, encouraging him to do so.
Il, denies having bribtd 1914 Deputies, for
Il had no acquaintance with 80 many, and
%le.Lod no aeoling with members II The
" 4ut. Baron keinach asked aim whether
1000, 0C0f. would be enough, and his reply
wa that if not lie would come back for more.
He was promised 10 per sent. for his trouble
as also q shane in the syndicate profits.
The Tirard Cabinet refusing to propose The
loan, a Bill was introduced into the Chanbet
by M. Michel and was referred to 8 committee,
M. Malet being nominated reporter. Alton
denies that to 'recompeuse friends is bribery.
Finding some Of his friends in pccvniaIy
FLId IN Slinply N't HNti q u hiCO ~
return for that rendered by them in S ppOrt-
ing the scheme, while he induced some who
were otherwise apathetic to interest them
selves in it. Being told that the Press ought
to be won over, he went to NJ. FlUquet, who
advised him to give BOZ, 000f. to it. He claims
credit for having refused offers Of large sums
tf money from the Boulangists for exposing
The affair, ''and he states that If he now perks
out it is because at his trial on another chaIge
for which he is now undergoing imprisonment
mo Judge represented him as having pocket
ed the money given him to distIibu. t. Tho
presiding Judge at the present trial "cknow
lodges, indeed, that Arton returned COZ, SO0f.
10 Baron ReinaCh. Alton further states thai
some Of the payments were made W thIrd
parties, who may IN solAe cases have pocket
ed the money instead Of handing 1t on to the
persons figuring on the list, but he himself
made the payment Of lOO,O0of. to NJ .Noqutt,
who was beforehand friendly to the scheme,
80 that the payment was the most natural
thing in the world. NJ Naquet had another
zoe, O0Of. direct from HE Panama Company.
On Monday Anton WAS mlerro9ated re-
R~recting a payment Of 81, o00f. to NJ Richard,
an ex. deputy, who has died sine the prose
cution was instituted. His own version was
that the sum was remuneration for loyal ser.
vices. Artom's statement was that NJ Rich
ard, being in difficulties through BourSe
speculatious applied for assI@tlnc". saying
tnat if AIton refused he should apply to the
nti-Panamo party. Anton Wa next Ques-
toned respecting the payment Of j0,0o0f. to
NJ. st. Martin, which he described rs merely
a friendly act, the payment Of 90,00of. to NJ.
Maret. l0,000t. to NJ. Antide Boyci, 30,000f.
to NJ. Ilanteau, I2,oO0f. to NJ. GaiIIard,
IL, O00f. to NJ. Rigaut. and 30,C0Of. TO NJ.
Laisant. All these defendants were deputies
at the time when the alleged payments we've
made.
These o.defendauts were next Intercepted,
NJ. st. Martin, after much beating about the
bush stated thai he received the 50,OOOf. from
Nj. Naquet, acting on behalf of General Bou-
LANCER, for political purposes, and M. Naquet
had by letter given The same version. nj.
Maret positively denied the receipt of any
money from Arton, while NJ. Boyer maintain
ed that lie simply borrowed 3,OOOf. from
ArtOn.
On Tuo&l,y NJ rlauteeo drn'e! dat Anton
had givuu hiu 10000. 10 help him through
his difficulties in carrying on a printing office
and a newspaper. Arton, however, persisted
iu his assertion. III GailIards turn came
next. He ike wise denied the receipt OF
IL, O0Of. from Arton. He maintained that
ais vote in favour Of the Panama lottery
.aLnVoa orifa ,liSiutaractnd and iNul1.