The record-union., 1899-09-02
Colonel Picquart-During the sum-

Colonel Picquart-During the sum-
mer of 1896.
NJ. Labor having remarked that this
was all he desired to ask at present,
| General <Hippolyte Sebert (retired) Of
the marine artillery deposed. He pre-
ceded his testimony by saying he did
not think he ought to withhold the
evidence he was able to give, as he
felt it would contribute to the repatria-
tion of a judicial error.
The General then criticised the bor-
dereau from a professional standpoint,
pointing out that the writer must have
been a low-classed man, negotiating
directly with a correspondent on whose
doles he was dependent He said he
was probably an officer but certainly
not an artillery officer, adding that
this was proved by the employment
of expressions an artilleryman could
not have used.
The witness gave a number of in
stances showing the dense ignorance
displayed in gunnery technicalities by
the writer of the bordereau, and amid
profound silence, General Sebert de-
clared that his study of the case had
led him to the conviction that the bor-
dereau could not have been written by
an artillery officer nor by an officer
belonging to a special arm of the SER
vice who had passed through the poly
technic school.
General Sebert referred to the salts
faction he felt at knowing that the ex-
perts of the highest standing in hand
writing had confirmed his opinion and
y g oScnrtinnS
saying that on examination he (the
| witness) had easily found proof of the
worthlessness of that demonstration.
| (Sensation)
''It is painful for me-" added Gen
eral Sebert, Ito express such an opln-
ion on the man whose name is con-
nected with the application of the an
thropometric method. which has done
the greatest service. but French science
cannot give it's authority to lugubria-
tions so pretentious as those M. BERTH
lon brought here. I assert most en-
phatically that the bordereau was not
written by an artillery officer, nor by
an officer who passed through the poly
technic school.
Il have been sustained in giving my
evidence by my firm belief in the entire
innocence of Dreyfus, and l am glad
1 have had strength enough to bring
here the stone which I have to lay on
the edifce of repatriation, which you
are constructing SO carefully and con-
scientiously, while holding aloof from
outside passions. (ExcitemenD. This
edifice is the work of appeasement ana
peace which will restore the country TO
an era of concord and union" Gro
longed excitement)
brief suspension of the session fol-
lowed.
When the session was resumed, at the
request of M. Labori, General Sebert
expressed his opinion of Valeric's evil
dence in support of M. Bertillon's sys-
tenn, saying that in spite of the latter $
talent he had not succeeded in con-
verting a false theory into a true one.
M. Bertillon at this point exclaimed:
81 beg leave to speak"
Colonel Jouaust asked the prisoner II
he had anything to say in reply to the
witness, and the prisoner replied that
he had not.
Then Colonel Jouaust, without taking
the slightest notice of NJ Bertillon, call
ed the next Witness Major Ducros of
the artillery, who showed that Dreyfus
had abundant opportunity in 1894 to
obtain information about guns, but did
not take advantages of them.
General Mereier tried to belittle this
testimony by saying Dreyfus was prob
ably aware that knowledge of the Du-
eros gun was no longer of Importance.