On Saturday—or rather at 3 o'clock on Sunday morning— the
jury engaged in the trial of Norton and Ducret for the Cocarde forgeries—i.e., the papers purporting to show that our Embassy in Paris was deluging the Chamber with British gold after the manner attributed to Pitt by the Jacobins— returned a verdict of guilty with extenuating circumstances. Ducret, the editor of the Cocarde, was condemned to one year's imprisonment and costs, and a fine of 100 fr. ; and Norton, to three years' imprisonment and costa, and a similar fine. The trial was remarkable for the allegation that M. Develle did not at once condemn the documents as absurd forgeries, but " recognised their importance," and remarked : " Every one knows that German money has caused Belgian strikes ;" and that M. Duprey had said that he regretted that politics could not be carried on as at Venice, and that certain men could not be told " between now and to-morrow you must disappear." That is a phrase which, whether or not M. Dupuy used it, appears destined to catch on. During the trial, M. Clemen- ceau, who was made a party to the proceedings by a technical claim of 1 fr. damages, made an able defence of himself. He attacked his defamers with such spirit and success, that it seems by no means impossible that he will survive the Panama scandals. Unquestionably, be is what the North- Country pitmen call "a good-plucked one."
