this respect, is very striking; and there is not a piece of more curious history than that relating to Madame Manson, who was a spectator of the assassination of M. Fualdes, a gentleman of Rhodez, and a very reluctant witness against his murderers. After a variety of contradictory statements which this woman had made, she was at length introduced into court as a witness. The President made her a speech, in the course of which he told her, she was an angel destined by Providence to clear up a horrible mystery. She was invited to tell all she knew of the assassination; on which she darted a terrible look at the accused, and fainted away. A marechal-de-camp flew to her help. Recovering, she cried out, "Remove from my sight these assassins." The next moment she deposed that she knew no assassins, and that she had never been at Bancal's house, where the murder was committed. She added, that she believed Bastide and Jausion, two of the accused, were there.

The President. Why do you believe so?

Madame Manson. In consequence of anonymous notes I have received.

President. Since you say you know nothing yourself against these men, why did you call them assassins?

M. Manson. By conjecture; besides (turning to Jausion), when one kills one's children, one may kill another's friend.

The Chief Judge enters with much eager curiosity into this story about killing children; and a good deal of irrelevant talk takes place on the subject, between him and this lady; and all this in the hearing of the jury. Being still further pressed, Madame Manson

again fainted away; but this time she kept her seat. On her recovery, she put her hand on the sword of an officer who was administering the remedies proper in such cases, and exclaimed, "You have got a knife !" The officer removed his sword, that she might not be alarmed by its sight.

M. Fualdes, the son of the murdered person, is busy in court during the whole proceedings; he is indulged with permission to make speeches as often and as long as he pleases, and on any subject that may occur at the moment, The public prosecutor and another lawyer are employed against the prisoners, but that appears to be no reason why M. Fualdes should not possess the ear of the court at his pleasure. The best possible understanding seems to have existed between him and the judges; he abused Bastide's advocate in outrageous terms, often interrupted the prisoners in their defence, and favoured the audience with long accounts of his mode of living at Paris, what company he kept, and what were his motives. Nothing could equal the nobleness of his conduct and feelings in pursuing the assassins of his father, say the reporters; and the audience never failed to dissolve in tears whenever he opened his mouth. When the accused persons take the undue liberty of cross-questioning him, the court murmurs disapprobation! The display of grief made by M. Fualdes, is scarcely less theatrical than Madame Manson's horrors; but what is more offensively ridiculous, is his intolerance and impatience, which perpetually goad him to interrupt the debates. The advocate for Jausion having objected to the testimony of a domestic belonging to the family of the murdered man, that

his statement before the court went much farther than his deposition before the Judge of Instruction, M. Fualdes gets up without ceremony, and informs the court that his servant ought to be easily excused for the omission, inasmuch as he himself could scarcely at first bring himself to believe in the guilt of Jausion (then on his trial). "I was in my bed," said M. Fualdes, "when at the approach of that person I felt an indescribable horror, so much so, that I shrunk beneath the clothes to avoid his sight. It was then, as if by inspiration, I felt convinced he had been the principal instigator of the murder of my father!" All this goes without a word of caution from any body to the jury. M. Fualdes, as attentive to the inspirations of others as to his own, requested the court to order a file of armed men to be placed between the prisoners and Madame Manson, that she might feel reassured; this arrangement of the scenery took place, and had a striking effect. Madame Manson played her part still more interestingly; she assured M. Fualdes, with whom she carried on the dialogue, that to discover the assassins of his father, she would give all she had," all," she added with a sigh, but my son."

This is but a small part of the miserable mummery of a French Court of Justice, in which melo-dramatic scenes of mock sensibility are acted before a jury assembled to try men on life or death. What are we to think, when we find the Chief Judge exclaiming in the middle of the trial to the two prisoners, Bastide and Jausion," You certainly were in Bancal's house; TELL US, which of you saved the life of a female ?” To the woman, Bancal, he said, "You know you

are guilty;" and then exhorted her to look at the figure of Christ, suspended over his head, and no longer to conceal the truth.

The President having again affirmed, by way of address to Bastide, that he was in the house of Bancal the night of the murder, Madame Manson suddenly exclaimed," Avow, wretch !" This indecent interruption would have been severely rebuked in England; but in France" all hearts trembled," says the reporter. She had just declared, be it remembered, that she knew nothing of the affair; yet there appears to have been no one in court, not even the counsel for the prisoners, to charge the jury, as they valued their consciences, to dismiss entirely from their attention the mountebank tricks of this infamous woman. A M. Amans Rodat is then invited by the Judge to rehearse in court a sort of metaphysical lecture, which he delivered one day to Madame Manson, on the propriety of speaking the truth when examined in a case affecting men's lives and the punishment of murder. After several modest excuses, he commenced the repetition of his discourse, in which he told her, that "If a wicked world should judge of her by appearances, it would at the same time say, as had been said of our first mother, On, happy fault!" "Go on! speak, sir!" said the president," your words may serve for our public instruction."

Two hundred and forty witnesses were examined for the prosecution; and in several cases, the ridicule thrown upon the name of judicial investigation, was as great as the insult offered to justice. Will our readers believe, that in France, in the year 1817, a witness was permitted to make the following statement

as regular evidence against a man on trial for his life? J. Vignes, who described himself Professor, being sworn and questioned, deposed as follows:

"I met Bastide on the 19th of March, about two o'clock in the day, on the Boulevard d'Estourmel, below the garden of M. Seguret. I said to my companion, 'That man looks like a rogue.' 'He belongs to a respectable family, however,' said my friend. 'No matter,' replied I, he carries a bad look with him.' More late in the day, I was in the shop of M. Fontana, the jeweller, with the same person; Bastide again passed; I was seized with horror, and hastily retired into the shop. You will get yourself into a quarrel,' said my companion. I cannot help it; I am not master of myself,' I replied. When I heard of the affair in which he was involved, I felt no surprise, and I observed to my friend, that I was not deceived."

This is the whole of the witness's desposition; and although it proves nothing but his consummate folly, yet Bastide is questioned by the President what he has to say to this testimony! Five or six witnesses are brought in, merely to say, that they had heard from others, that these others had heard it reported, that M. Fualdes had been watched for a considerable time before his death. A Justice of Peace is examined, who commences his testimony by declaring, that he has nothing at all to say in regard to the murder, but that he has been told, that eighteen years ago Bastide opened a cabinet at his brother's, and took out some papers! For the first and only time, one of the counsel here rose, and said that the jury ought to distrust the reasonings and surmises of witnesses, who should