The series of judicial defeats sustained by the French Govern-
ment has been continued : a party of political agitators, who were dragged before the court at Pau like malefactors with chains round their necks, have seen their trial turned to a triumph, and their re- turn from prison converted to a progress of public honours. There are exceptions to the rule of defeat, for a crowd of Mar- seilles rioters have been convicted ; but the exceptions are not nu- merous enough to throw any doubt upon the rule.
In this state of matters, the Government ventures upon the most extravagant of all its judicial enterprises, in the indictment of M. DUPOTY ; who is accused of conspiracy because one of QmkNISSET'S accomplices wrote a letter to him in his capacity of newspaper editor ; while a conviction was sought by the prosecuting counsel, on the ground that the general tendency of his writings was such as to excite attempts like that of QUtNISSET ! Let us suppose a parallel case in our own country. Suppose WILLIAMS, the Welsh Chartist, had written a letter to NIr FEARGUS O'Cossioa, as editor of the Northern Star, informing him that one of the Chartist con- spirators had betrayed "the rest of us," and asking the editor to give them the advantage of his it tv,,eacy ; that Mr. O'CoNNos, on the proof of this letter, had been sized as a conspirator ; and that Sir Jona CAMPBELL, at the trial, bad told the Jury that they must convict him of the conspiracy, because the tendency of his writings was to encourage such outbreaks. The Jury would have laughed in the Attorney-General's face, or h,ioted him out of court, if the Judge had not stopped the extravagancy ; which of course he would have done. Nor is it nwrel■ a difference of national law : the accusation of DUPOTY violater every law of common sense and natural justice. It is difficult to aeL ount for so outrageous a pro- ceeding against the press,—setting aside the consideration that Lours PHILIPPE was put in CUARLES the Tenth's place because of far less arbitrary conduct towards the press by the deposed Monarch,—except upon the principle that when once an obstinate man is committed to an odious and disreputable course, the very re- proach he encounters exasperates his will. The result cannot be other than ill for the King. If DUPOTY be acquitted, Government will have done its best to place beside the assassin of the Princes the representative of a triumphant Republican press ; the effect of QuErasscr's punishment will be broken and obscured ; and the condemnation of the august Court of Peers will be made to wear an air of qualification : if he be condemned, France will ring with indignation at the despotic cruelty the associate of the assassins, made so by Government, will be a martyr to popular opinion ; and the general disgust at the inane ruffians of the con- spiracy will be merged in sympathy for the ill-used writer. The case, no doubt, is an extreme one—seen by the milder matter- of-fact light of the present day, it has a touch of the ridiculous: but a few years back it might have been a tragical matter for all parties. It is a stretch of arbitrary power out of date. It may serve, if warning be needed, to politicians nearer home. A man has just been taken up and committed for trial, in Ireland, for the tendency of his speech and writing. Of course there are not the same anomalies in the case as in the other of Durant but, before entering upon any thing like a series of stltVaetious, it were Well to glance at the odium which similar proceeigilgs excite, even in this country, though happening in a foreign land and among a people who affected to put on a semblance of hostility. It were well to glance at the complicated embarrassments which thicken round such a codrse when once begun, and almost forbid retreat. Mr. CONNOR'S language may have justified attention ; such language, among the inflammable Irish, may require a check : but it were well to inquire what amount of toleration towards such an evil is worse than a course which must draw upon the Government pursuing it the most jealous and suspicious watch in England as well as in Ireland, from all parties ; endangering all the credit that a moderate bearing has gained for the present Administration in Ireland, and that may be gained. Before over-zealous officials are allowed any system of state-prosecutions for political discussion, let the blunders and embarrassments of that "wise prince" Louts PHILIPPE be well weighed.
