NEWS OF THE WEEK.
HE Rochefort-Roustan trial in Paris is a most discreditable scandal. M. Rochefort, who from the first has denounced the Tunis expedition, recently declared in his paper that it was a Bourse affair, that M. Roustan was corrupt, and that he and great men in Paris, M. Gambetta included, had combined to run down Tunis bonds by a threat of war, buy them, and run them up by intervention,— a fluctuation which has occurred. M. Gambetta, whose name was withdrawn during the trial by defendant's counsel, insisted that M. Roustan should prosecute, and he did. M. Rochefort justified, and while M. Barthelemy St. Hilaire and M. Waddington testified that M. Roustan was an excellent and upright agent of Government, still poor, and that M. Rochefort's accusations were groundless calumnies, M. Camille Pelletan, M. Gay. and other less reputable persons proved that whether M. Roustan was corrupt or not, he was in Tunis the intimate friend and protector of persons, particularly a family named Mussali, or Massali, who traded on his friend- ship for money, and were believed to sell places, protections, and even policies. Letters from Madame Mussali were read, complaining that one particular bribe had gone not to her, but to her husband. The jury, although entirely "moderate," having been carefully selected, to the amazement of Paris ac- quitted M. Rochefort, and M. Roustan was condemned in costs.
