The Sun. — 1863-12-25 (London, England)

CRIME IN FRANCE.  The Court of Assizes of the Eure has just tried four young men named respectively Chandellier, aged 19, Delacour, 15, and Dufresney and Langlois, both 21, charged with stealing, on several occasions, from the offices of the Prefecture of Eure, sums of money amounting in all to about 3,000 f. In May and June last, M. Chevalier, one of the clerks at the Prefecture, successively missed several sums of money from a drawer, and the thefts continued until they reached the amount abovementioned. At last suspicion fell on the prisoners, who had been spending money far beyond their means, and they were accordingly arrested. When interro gated Chandellier and Dufresney, who had been employed to clean the offices, confessed that they had accidentally discovered where M. Chevalier hid his keys, and had used them to get at the money, which they afterwards shared with the other two prisoners. This confession having been fully substantiated by collateral evidence, the jury found ali:the prisoners guilty, and they condemned Chandellier to seven years hard labour, Dufresney and Langlois to five and three years', while Delacour, being under 16, was ordered to be confined in a house of correction till his 20th year.  The Court of Assizes of the Loire tried on Tuesday a farmer named Blachon, aged 63, charged with having attempted to murder M. Desfarges, juge de pais at St. Rambert. It appeared from the evidence that as M. Desfarges was returning home from church on the morning of the 12th July last, the prisoner, who had been waiting near the church, approached him from behind, and fired a pistol at his back. M. Desfarges fell to the ground, and the prisoner was taking aim at him with another pistol, when some of the shopkeepers living near seized and disarmed him. Fortunately the wound proved to be only a severe contusion, from which he soon recovered. The prisoner's motive for the crime was vengeance. He had been engaged in an unsuccessful lawsuit, and regarded all the judges who had decided against him as personal enemies; hence his attempt on the life of M. Desfarges, who was one of them. The jury at once found the prisoner guilty, and the Court sentenced him to ten years' imprisonment. The young man Leclapant, who murdered his father last week :at Villers (Marne), has just been arrested near Eperuay, while in the act of stealing the clothes of a shepherd to replace part of his own, which he had left on the bank of the Marne to lead to the belief that he had drowned himself. When apprehended, he gave the name of Prevost, but on being taken to Rheims he was at once identified as the murderer of whom the police were in search, and he has since confessed that he killed his father by repeated blows with a mattock.  The commune of Leran (Ariege) has during the last few days been the scene of disturbances, the suppression of which required the intervention of the armed force. About 100 individuals, men, women, and children, went for two or three days following in bands of from five to twenty, into the forest belonging to the Duke de Mirepoix, where timber is now being cut down. Ia spite of all the remonstrances and efforts of the private forest keepers, they carried off by force all the Toppings and faggots which were piled up, and even the presence of the proprietor himself failed to deter them from their acts of pillage. The interference of the authorities was at length applied for. The juge de pair of Mirepoix proceeded to the spot, accompanied by a party of gendarmes, and a number of the leading actors in the outrage were arrested.