The Sun. — 1851-09-20 (London, England)

LYONS.  A most extraordinary crime was committed in the Thiliatre des CAlestins, at Lyons, on Monday evening, during the performance. Just after the curtain rose for the second act of Adrienne Lecouvreur, a slight cry was heard in the principal gallery, and it was followed by extraordinary agitation. The cry was uttered by a young woman, who had been stabbed in the breast with a large poniard-knife by a man seated behind her. Her blood spurted on the persons nearest her, and she was immediately conveyed to a saloon, where a medical man paid her every attention. But all his efforts were unavailing, and in a few minutes she expired. The assassin, who made no attempt to escape, was secured. The performance, after being suspended for three-quarters of an hour, was resumed, and the spectators, notwithstanding the fearful drama which had passed before their eyes, paid great attention to it. The murderer it was subsequently ascertained, is a young man named Jobard, aged twenty, clerk to M. Thiebaud, a tradesman of Dijon. Having embezzled some money belonging to his master, he feared detection, and resolved to get rid of life. But having received a very religious education, he could not reconcile himself to the idea of suicide, because, as he says, he would have had no time, after striking the fatal blow, to demand pardon of God. Accordingly, he determined to commit a crime which should cause him ,to be sent to the scaffold ; the period which would elapse between the perpetration of it and his execution being sufficient, he said, to enable him to make his peace with the Almighty. He hesitated some time as to who should be his victim. First, he says, be thought of killing the President of the Republic on his visit to Dijon ; but the reflection that he :would bring disgrace on his mother, who lived in the town, prevented him. Then he entertained the idea of murdering a priest as he was returning from celebrating mass, and bad said to himself that such a crime would not compromise the victim's salvation, as he would probably then be in a state of grace ; but this idea he also abandoned. At last he resolved to kill a woman, but without fixing on any one in particular. He thereupon determined to go to Paris, but instead of taking the railway train for that city, he took the steamer to Lyons. Immediately after his arrival he bought a large poniard-knife, and then proceeded to a house of ill-fame, with the intention of killing some girl, but his courage failed him. He then proceeded to the theatre. He quietly witnessed the first act of the piece; and, on the commencement of the second, drew forth his knife. He carelessly picked his nails with it for a moment or two, and then suddenly plunged it with all his force into the left part of the breast of the victim. Her husband, who was seated by her side, not seeing the blood, cried, " What have I done that you strike my wife ?" " Nothing," said the murderer, with great sang froid, "Nothing. I don't even know you." The unfortunate woman had strength to pluck the knife from the wound, and she was then removed. She was the wife of M. Ricard, professor of mathematics in the Lycee of Limoges, and daughter of the proviseur of the same college. She had only been married six months, and was enceinte. She and her husband had only arrived the previous evening at Lyons from Limoges, on their way to visit some relatives at Avignon. One of the Lyons papers states that the morning after the crime the husband disappeared, and it could not be ascertained what had become of him. The murderer expresses not the slightest regret for his horrible crime.— Galignani's Messenger.  EMlGRATlON.—Emigration to Australia proceeds steadily from the Frith of Forth, under the superintendence of Mr. William Bowie, the agent at Edinburgh to her Majesty's Land and Colonial Emigration Commissioners. Since the beginning of last month the following embarkations have been made :—Thirty-four emigrants on the 10th August, on board the Trident, to join the William and Mary, for Sydney; 132 emigrants on the 23d August, on board the Clarence, to join the Stebonheath, for Victoria; seven emigrants, on the 6th instant, by the Neptune, from Leith to Sydney ; and sixty-three emigrants, on the 13th inst., on board the Clarence, to join the Charlotte Jane, for Adelaide. —Caledonian Mercury.