The Sun. — 1849-11-17 (London, England)

IVJ. PROM:MON has roused the ire of his brother Socialists by the publication in the Voix du People of the following observations on the conviction of the accused of the 13th June by the jury of the High Court of Versailles :  ‘• We do not hesitate to say, although the declaration may excite much hatred against us, that it was owing to the ur..-heard-of an guilty determination of the counsel. When it was necessary to justify the good faith of the prisoners, to show that the constitution had been violated oy the majority and by the Government; when the question was consequently to lay down and defend the appeal to the people, the right of p cific and legal manifestation, the only point that was in question, the counsel preferred to raise the argument, doubtful in its kind, and in all cases perfectly useless, of the right of insurrection. When Republican dignity commanded that the charge should be deprived at any price of its last pretext, the counsel considered that it was better for the defence to withdraw before a decision, which only imposed limits to their chattering, than to expose themselves to a condemnation doubtless possible, but which, efts r the solemnity of the discussion, would have b. come for every one unjust in its groundwork—unjust in all and everywhere. Now, thanks to the Moritagnard ectinsellin, the high jurymen may sly, while they rub their- Lands, Thank Heaven, we have not condemned innocent men ! The conspiracy betrayed itself by the mouth of the counsel employed for the defence ; the insurrection was plainly laid down before us—Hauimus confitentes reos. Contrary to what ought to have taken place, the prisoners have been sacri • Seed to their counsel, absolutely as a patient dies to save the reputation of his physician. We certainly do not mean to give our approbation to the sentence which has just been delivered by the High Court, any more than the policy which has been followed by the Government tor more than a year ; but it must be confessed that on this occasion .the Revolution has been betrayed by its own partizans. After having committed suicide politically is: the public street, the Mountain has now done it morally before the High Court. What, in fact, is this premeditated retreat of the counsel charged with the defence but a judicial 13th of June? What could be the objects of these strange tactics? Let them utter as much as they like the high-sounding phrases of liberty of defence, right of counsel, dignity of the robe, tyranny of the court, the solidarite of the defence, community of system, discipline of opinions—all that, in our eyes, is only a vain disguise, under which is concealed, in the place of a true love for the Republic, the most absurd of all despotisms—that of party spirit. God forbid that we should, by the severity of our remarks, aggravate the grief of the condemned, any more than the remorse of the counsel; but we cannot prevent ourselves from saying that, in the present case, both prisoners and counsel have failed in their duty. Why did not Guinard, Porestier, Pilhes, Langlos, all, in fact, whom we have heard from the commencement of the trial protest as to the pacific -character of the manifestation, rise after the decree delivered against the conclusions of the counsel, and declare to the Court that, as their intention had never been any other than a pacific manifestation, they could not conceive the utility of pleading in their defence the right of insurrection?" It is said to be the intention of the Passinceer to extend the amnesty on the 10th Decerber to all political persons convicted of offences, including those excluded from the recently published amnesty, the convicted of Bourges and of Versailles, and the exiles of England, Belgium, and Switzerland.