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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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> ntrol over-the public purse-strings ; and j they are giving the money without condions , they are not extracting a clear account om our once responsible Ministers .
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EMPERORS EVIDENCE . ee embarrassment of the Trench Governent with reference to its plot seems to be i the increase . In presence of the decided mtradictions and the bold attitude of the fugees who enjoy the protection of the ritish law , it seems difficult for it to proed to the extremity of a conviction and conmnation of its enemies ; yet no less is excted of it hy those -who retain the slightest edence in its good faith . There are thounds of candid and impartial , even confiding en , waiting for a verdict of guilty against . I / edrtt RoiiLiN and his friends—based
i the documentary evidence so pompously nounced by the Moniteur- —in order to be lieved from a suspicion that ' Emperor ' s adence' is a more infamous thing even than ing ' s Evidence in the olden time—that an itated and baffled usurper will descend to bs even worse than those of a common in-: mer , who has no criminal in view , and is irving for want of a reward . The time , the circumstances , the tone of 3 announcement of the Paris Plot—though
2 y somewhat staggered the vulgar crowd newsmongers , and were eagerly seized upon corrupt or ignorant press writers , in order divert , attention from the painful realities the Indian Mutiny—suggested at once to m observers the idea of fraud . The obtion that there was something so stupidly vious in the whole affair—that it was too e a calumny to be one—was evidently not id , and shook no person at all acquainted
th the personnel of the French Grovern-; nt . They are almost all , from the highest the lowest , men accustomed to live on pedients , to catch at a momentary advance and despise a distant danger , to discount art bills at seventy per cent , and trust to b to escape payment when the appointed f arrives . Not one amongst them feels i slightest security in his position , or cares p rovide except for the exigencies of toirrow . For the first time houses are now
ing built in Paris of thin brick walls , with ne facings towards the street . These are 5 investments of imperial speculators and julators , who want nigh rents for a few irs , and do not choose to leave much for ivitable confiscation . There is nothing prising , therefore , in the fact that , to di-• t popular attention even for a few days m the result of the Paris elections , the ench Government has ventured ! to risk the ssent humiliating exposure . Perhaps it calculated on keeping up the 2 eption for a week or two longer . The jat error it has committed seems to bo in
Dposing that M . Ledrtj ItoLiiiN" could lelly be tried in France for an offence alleged have been committed in \ England . It is possible to infringe FrenoW laws where ench laws have no sway . The Republican tder has met this difficulty by offering to bo ed by an English jury—by asking to be ed in order to bo released from the pertual annoyance of being accused of bloody iemes by individuals whose whole existence a been one of scheming and bloodshed . It remarkable that English public opinion 3 already pronounced a verdict of acquittal , \ b this verdict has been accepted in 1 ranee , d that wo hear no more mention of M .
iDitu Roi . i-tn ' s name in tho reports which ) police supply to tho correspondents . of ndon papers . No other tlian the police , course , can . furnish tho details given—so it wo are cither in possossion of their view
of the case , or are gulled by daily fabrications For the present , we may assume that the gentlemen of the Hue de Jerusalem have dropped at least one important name out of the indictment which is to be read somewhere on . the 6 th . or 8 th . The scapegoat is to be M . Mazziot :. Two worthy individuals named Gbii / LI and Baktolotti have suffered themselves to be arrested ; and , as one magnanimously confessed that lie had been set to watch when .
the Emperor went out of the Tuileries- —perhaps as correspondent of the Morning Post , which likes to know at what hour great people ' take a drive '—why , the other , not to be behindhand , accused himself of being sent to assassinate the Emperor . His bare , unsupported word seems to be the only evidence that can be adduced ; for no particular stress can be laid on correspondence in cipher , . translated probably by a process more expeditious than that described in Poe ' s . ' Gold Bug , ' and in which , " Look sharp after Pavia , " is quessed to mean , " Kill the Emperor !"
Several daggers and a dozen pistols or so—all loaded —( this is a terrific detail)—were found in the possession of one Tibaidi , who perhaps intended to convert himself into a battery , and to rake the Bond-Point' some day when his Imperial Majesty was returning from a salubrious drive . Imagine the effect , among the crinolines and the hacks hired by the hour , of this terrific fellow with a dozen brace of pistols pr so—this Falstafnan progression is peculiarly appropriate on the present occasion—all stuck in his belt , taking his stand under the Triumphal Arch which records to the astonishment of British tars who
lurch along those waters the French victory at Aboukir ; and peppering away indiscriminately ! The man takes grand proportionsswells , into a Briarean Bashi-Bazouk with a revolver in each hand—and we begin to respect him , until suddenly we learn that he denies tho whole transaction in a very mild way , and offers to show that he has been several . years living in Paris , gaining an honest livelihood by labour , and that he has no connexion with any conspiracy
whatever . But this , in auother way , becomes a very serious matter for foreigners resident in Paris . Every one whom the police dislikes or suspects may at any moment be accused of a crime of this kind ; and we know how easy it is for a police tojind things when it has an interest in so doing . If our name ended in o or i , we should scarcely like to live within the lino of circumvallation now . We should be
nevei * sure ot not waking up some morning and discovering that we were members of a conspiracy , in correspondence with M . Mazzini , and on tho way to Mazas . Such a mistake in this country , after the first surprise had passed , might only be the source of a little wholesome excitement . But they mauage these matters differently in France . When onco a man has been suspected or accused there , his life or his liberty is in danger . Tho very proof of his innocence is taken as an outrage to Government . Every one knows the case of the man accused of
treason by tho Procureur Imperial , sentenced to a fortnight's imprisonment by the court , accox'diug to law ; and , according to the good pleasure of the Emperor , to ' ten years' supplementary transportation . ' Wo cannot bo surprised , therefore , that tho report of this conspiracy has created the greatest uneasiness and excitement among tho Parisians . Italians may , perhaps , have somo hope of support from foreign public opinion . Attention at any rnto is attracted to their cases . But for a resident Frenchman , dogged by tho poliqo , there is no hope . Ho knows that hie ruin is determined on , and that ho must
submit . No one in Paris , after the first day or two , seems to have been deceived by the paragraph in the Moniteur . It meant ' vengeance for the Paris elections / Nothing more—nothing less . The Government can do what it likes with suspected people . It can choose whom , to suspect . As soon as a conviction of some sort or
another can be obtained , the private arrests , the secret transportations , which constitute the orthodoxy of the Imperial system , will recommence . AVe shall again see families going about despairing , asking in whispers what has become of their chief , who is not to be found at the Morgue , and of whom the police gruffly disclaim knowledge . When the first case of t his kind occurred , M . de
Gaspabiit , not quite understanding the position of things , interfered , asked questions , bestirred himself . No one interferes now . The bereaved family finds a circle of loneliness widening around it , or is consoled jiist as it prosecutes its inquiries , in whispers with which curses mingle . Who can wonder , such being the case , that Paris is gloomy—that vague murmur 3 of danger constantly besiege the ears of the The Al
exasperated Government ? gerian campaign has been brought to a successful termination , the harvest is splendid in prospect , France has no demands upon its energies abroad , yet its Three per Cents , are down to 66 ; and there is a threat of a monetary crisis . It seems certain that the educated and civilized classes are becoming more and more disgusted with the present regime . The Paris ouvriers , indeed , who turned out of late to honour their great
Songster , were so clearly ripe for insurrection on the day of the funeral , that the most extraordinary precautions were considered necessary . The manner in which they eyed the troops who guarded every thoroughfare with loaded muskets , was so hostile in some cases , that officers had difficulty in restraining their men from provoking disputes . This is , perhaps , why the papers were instructed to say that the greatest cordiality was
exhibited between the crowd and the soldiery . Another significant fact was the absence of the Imperial Guard . That petted corn ' s has of late so excited the jealousy of the Line , that within this year numerous duels have taken place between private soldiers on either side . The Zouaves never lose an opportunity of insulting the Guard in the streets . Hence these collisions . On the day of Bebanoeii ' s funeral ifc was feared that some
quarrel would take place that might lead to serious results . If the Line attacked the Guard , the people would of course side with the Line . ' Vive la Ligne ! has been used as a cry before now . We must remember that the Republicans are two to one in Paris , perhaps three to one , of able-bodied men . All these facts are ominous . The Government is losing its head . It prefers revenge to popularity . We know what such signs usually portend . But there ' s a luck for Emperors as : br drunken men .
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TRIAL BY JAWEY . Ttie case of Bacon illustrates the danger of relying on circumstantial evidence , and a propensity natural to tho human mind of demanding a retributive offering when a great wrong has been done . If the culprit cannot be ascertained , take the noxt bad man' Take any man ' s horses . ' Two childron were mur < lered , and ' society' demanded a retribution . Mrs . BACOtf confessed , and ' society' prepared for a penitential sceno ; then she accused her husband , and pity for her exasperated the execration against him 5 tlio sneaking scoundrel could scarcely be shielded from Lynch law—that law bo reasonable in
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No . 384 , August 1 , 1857 . } THE I ^^ AI ^ BR , 735 __
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Aug. 1, 1857, page 735, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2203/page/15/
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