called, but not being forthcoming, her deposition on the previous examination was read. It stated, that Rocton had told her that his statement of having picked up the pistols was false, but he made it in the hope of getting some money, and would keep it up till the last.

M. Rocton being called to explain, declared that Madame Peyronnet was a female spy, who had been sent by the police on a secret mission into La Vendée; he (witness) met her at Nantes, and loaded her with kindness. She called herself a widow, but her husband was a convict at the hulks, still living. What he had stated about the pistols was the truth, which he would declare before the court and all France. (Loud bursts of laughter.) The hilarity of the court, the bar, and the whole auditory, was excited in the highest degree upon the witness affirming, "I am an independent man, and live at my ease at Bourbon Vendée; I have 10,000 bottles of Bourdeaux wine in my cellar; I am a grocer; I sell lamp-black, treacle, and other articles, and am known as an honest man, incapable of imposing upon anybody."

Langlade, the keeper of a winehouse, said he knew Bergeron, and was sure that he was incapable of the crime with which he was charged. The President (to witness)-In the deposition signed by you, you state that you heard Rocton say, that his statement of having picked up the pistols was merely to gain some advantage, and turn the police off the scent. -Answer.It is wholly false.

President.-Your signature is affixed to the procès verbal?—The signature is true, but the deposition is forged.

M. Persil applied to the court for the witness to be immediately put under arrest, as his testimony was in open contradiction to his preceding depositions, and tended to charge the magistrate who examined. him with forgery. This application was admitted, and Langlade was taken out of court by a party of municipal guards. In leaving he exclaimed-"Do with me what you will, but I still persist."

M. Lepage, a gunsmith, spoke to the facts set forth in the indictment, relative to the manufacture and state of the pistols.

The President (to Bergeron)The paper used as wadding was a college theme, and you are an usher. Do you know this paper?

No, sir; besides, the writing of all M. Deuze's pupils has been verified, and none resembles it.

Lance, a corporal on duty at the spot, remarked none of the persons near him, except a woman marked with the small pox. A pistol was picked up by a sergeant. This witness and Rocton being confronted, did not recognize each other.

Homer, a private on duty, spoke to the same effect as the last witness, and identified the pistol produced as that picked up by the sergeant.

Mademoiselle Boury then came forward, and the audience showed anxious attention. The President desired a chair to be brought for her, but she preferred standing. After stating her name and address, and declaring that her age was nineteen years and six months, she deposed that she did not know either of the prisoners before they were arrested. In answer to questions from the President, she said, that she arrived at the Pont Royal about two o'clock, just as the

King was approaching, and placed herself on the left side; next to her was a man with black mustachios and a beard, and he wore a blue coat; he rudely pushed her aside; she remonstrated with him, but he made her no answer; to look over his shoulder she was obliged to stand on tiptoe; at the moment the King was passing, and the people cried "A bas les chapeaux," this man put his left hand into his bosom, drew out a pistol, and fired it at the King, but she laid hold of his arm and diverted his aim; he immediately ran off to the left; oppressed by the crowd, she became unwell, but recovering herself she went to the Minister of the Interior, thence to the Tuileries, and afterwards to the Prefecture of Police. On being desired to look attentively at the prisoners, she said she could not tell whether either of them had worn false mustachios, but she could not recognize either of them. On being shown the coat produced in evidence, she said it was one of the same colour as that worn by the person who fired at the King, but she could not say anything positive about it. The President then observed, that no person had seen any female on the spot, except one marked with the small-poxa circumstance which did not apply to her. To this she replied, that she could not account for this, as she was certainly there, and referred to all her former depositions, in which there would not be found any prevarication.

The President asked the prisoners if they had any questions to put to the witness? They both denied that they had ever worn false mustachios; and Bergeron, after remarking that the prosecution was chiefly founded upon the

information she gave, said "She has declared that she was so close to the criminal, that she not only could observe him, but actually touched him; and yet she does not recognize him either in me or my friend. I leave this to the judgment of the jury."

M. Moulin said-"I will add, that M. Giroux is the only person who resembled the description given by this witness, and yet he was released."

After a short discussion between the Procureur-General and M. Joly, arising out of the above ob. servations,

M. Martin, private secretary to M. Thiers, then Minister of the Interior, and Captain Demanche, of the gendarmerie of the Seine, who were both present when Mademoiselle Boury made her statement at the Minister's hotel on the day of the event, declared that it strictly corresponded with the evi dence she had given in court.

Dupuys, a shoemaker, stated, that he was on the Pont Royal when the King passed, and stood behind two soldiers. On his right was a person pale and thin, having a large scar under one of his eyes, The pistol was fired quite close to him; he did not actually see by whom, but he conceived it must have been by the person he had described. On being desired to look at the prisoners, he pointed to Bergeron, and said, that gentleman is very like the man ; but he could not positively affirm it.

The President asked why he did not arrest him?-Dupuys answered, that the ranks opened immediately, and the man made off towards the Tuileries.

On being asked who were near him, he named Mademoiselle Finot, the widow Sentin, and Ma

demoiselle Lefevre; but he did not see Mademoiselle Boury.

Mademoiselle Boury, who was placed near the witness, said, "If, as you pretend, the assassin was on your right, placed as I was, touching his shoulder, and you did not arrest him, it must have been because you were unwilling to do it. He must have fired with his left hand close to your ear, and yet you now say that you are not certain the shot came from his hand. I leave these facts to the consideration of the court."(Marks of approbation.)

Bergeron then asked the witness Dupuys whether he positively recognized him.

Dupuys replied, that there was some resemblance in the forehead, but he could not be so certain as to the rest of his face. "You have no scar," continued Dupuys, "but on such an occasion a man may disguise himself." (Murmurs.)

Bergeron observed-" Besides the scar, the witness has mentioned a beard; but observe that I have not nor ever had either. He has stated, that the man was about thirty, and I am only twenty-one. The only similarity is, that I am pale and thin. Besides, when I was first shown to him, with two other persons, he did not recognize me." The witness Dupuys was afterwards confronted with corporal Lance and the fusileer Hamier, both of whom recognized him as being close to them when the event took place.

Mademoiselle Finot saw two men talking together in a mysterious manner. When the King was passing, one of them advanced and fired a pistol. She should know the person if she saw him, but neither of the prisoners was the man.

Madame Sentin spoke to the same effect. She is stated to have been a widow.

A female servant named Martin saw the pistol fired by a man with black whiskers and a blue redingote, about twenty-five or thirty years of age. The man who fired the pistol was the prisoner Benoit, who afterwards shouted "Vive le Roi!" She recognised him by his nose and his mouth.

M. Joly read a former deposition of the last witness, in which she swore, that the man who fired the pistol was Giroux, and that he wore a brown redingote. False mustachios, resembling those described by the woman Martin, were put upon Giroux, and she then declared that she no longer recognized him.

M.Moulin applied for the procès verbal of the confrontation of Benoit with the woman Martin, but it not being found among the papers, he remarked to the jury, that the defence was deprived of this document.

Five or six other witnesses deposed to having seen the pistol fired, but could not identify the prisoners.

Vienzam, a dragoon, stated, that being in the lodge of M. Deuze's porter, he heard Bergeron declare, at the same time displaying his pistols, that he had fought in the days of June, and would again.

Bergeron did not deny the fact, but alleged that he acted with regard to him the part of a mouton de police.

M. Moulin, Benoit's counsel, expressed his regret that the Procureur-General should not have abandoned the prosecution of Benoit earlier, and concluded in the following terms :-" Gentlemen, among the reproaches, but too well

merited, brought against the Restoration, the most serious is the abuse of political trials, plots, and conspiracies. The exile of the Bourbons avenged the blood of Bories and Caron. The monarchy of July has not yet three years' existence, and already it reckons more accusations of plots and attempts than the Restoration during its fifteen years. It has been hitherto happy that your independence has refused it the heads which it coveted; but it is time for it, for the country, for you, and for the magistrates, that an end should be put to these prosecutions -bloody when they succeed, and odious when they miscarry."

M. Joly, counsel for Bergeron, then addressed the court.

Bergeron next delivered a long address, in which he appealed to his antecedent conduct, argued the improbability and impossibility of the charges alleged against him, professed himself a republican in principle, vindicated the republicans from the aspersion, that they were capable of murder and regicide, to accomplish their aim, and expressed his firm confidence in the decision of the jury.

The President then summed up, and proposed to the jury the following questions:-Is Bergeron guilty of having, on the 19th of November last, voluntarily, and with premeditation, made an attempt on the life of the King? 2. Is Benoit an accomplice ?

The jury retired, and, after a deliberation that occupied not that occupied not quite half an hour, returned into court, and the foreman pronounced their verdict in the following terms: "By a majority of more than seven voices, no, the prisoners are not guilty."

This announcement was follow-
VOL. LXXV.

ed by three rounds of applause, which the President did not attempt to check.

The President then pronounced the acquittal of the prisoners, and ordered them to be set at liberty forthwith.

LANCASTER, MARCH 29-30. Trial of the Clithero Rioters.-Rex v. Greenhalgh and others.

Mr. Serjeant Jones stated the case. The borough of Clithero formerly sent two members to parliament, but, by the bill for amending the representation of the people, only one member was allotted to it. In Clithero there were two candidates in the field. One was a Mr. Forth, who finally obtained a seat for the borough; the other was a Mr. Irving, who was the unsuccessful candidate. On the 24th of July Mr. Irving issued a public notice that he would make his appearance among the electors on the 31st, and present his claims to their notice. Accordingly he was met on the morning of that day at Whalley Abbey, a seat of Lord Howe, by some of his friends, and three carriages, together with a number of horsemen, and proceeded to Clithero, which was about four miles distant. They had proceeded only a short distance when they saw large bodies, consisting of several hundreds of the country people, with staves and colours, bending their course towards Clithero. On the arrival of Mr. Irving's cavalcade at the Swan Inn, the horses were struck, stones were thrown, and a great deal of ill language used, so that, instead of alighting, Mr. Irving thought it most prudent to drive through the town. Some of his friends in the carriages behind, X

not knowing that he had not alighted, did so, and went into the inn. At that time the people began to insult Mr. Irving and his party by abuse, calling him "a d-d boroughmonger and a slave driver," shouting, "Burke 'em, Burke 'em, Forth for ever," and striking the horses, both of the carriage and of the horsemen, with their flag- staffs. Stones were thrown, and Mr. Irving's carriage being stopped by the horse of a Mr. Hall, which had become frightened, and had got entangled in the fore wheel, the carriage door was opened, a staff was thrust in at Mr. Irving, and the defendant Greenhalgh spat at him. Things being in this state, the magistrates were called upon to interfere. The civil power of the town (which consists of upwards of 5,000 inhabitants, besides a populous neighbourhood) was composed of one constable and his one man. In this emergency, and being obliged to act on the instant, they resolved to send to Rochdale, for a troop of horse. This was accordingly done, and, about three o'clock, about 50 hussars arrived, and reconducted Mr. Irving into the town. The people had then mostly dispersed, and Mr. Irving shortly left the town and returned to Whalley.

Mr. Brocklehurst deposed, that he was a magistrate of the county of Lancashire. On the 31st of July he went to Whalley to meet Mr. Irving, and to accompany him to Clithero. It was publicly known that Mr. Irving intended to be there, and address the electors on that day, and a printed bill or placard had been issued by Mr. Irving to that effect. On the way from Clithero to Whalley he met a great body of people going to wards Clithero. They had flags.

One had upon it. "The operatives of Padiham." Padiham was not within the borough of Clithero. He afterwards met three other bodies of people, of several hundreds each, going in the same direction. All had flags with inscriptions. There was "Forth, reform, and freedom for ever," and the like. Witness followed Mr. Irving from Whalley to Clithero. There were three carriages and a gig, besides 50 horsemen. Mr. Irving's carriage went first, then Mr. Whittaker's, and last Mr. Taylor's, in which was the witness. About half a mile from Clithero they saw a vast concourse of people with flags and banners. There was a great deal of shouting and verbal abuse, such as " Burke 'em, Burke the old resurrectionists." They then went on to Clithero, and the carriages stopped at the Swan Inn. There was then a general movement of the people. Witness could not then see if Mr. Irving got out, When Taylor's carriage got to the yard, a horse got entangled with the carriagewheel. They alighted, and went into the Swan yard. The streets were then very full and the people very violent. Witness thought it would have been impossible for them to have got into the Swan yard but for the accident with the horse. He found that the other carriages had not got in. He remained there till the evening; he dared not go out for fear of the people till five o'clock, when he went out with Mr. Hall, and, at the bottom of York-street, a stone knocked Hall's hat off. They followed us all the way, shouting "Boroughmongers," "Burkers," and the like. We returned in about five minutes. Opposite the Brownlow Arms I was struck, and Hall