The great trial in France has terminated in an explosion,
for which even the strange history had not prepared the public : the truant M. Pellapra had sent in documents unequivocally estab- lishing the guilt of M. Teste : on retiring from court, the Ex- Minister attempted suicide! Corruption, it seems, is so univer- sal, that for some of the prisoners, such as General Cubieres, it is pleaded in extenuation, as a political necessity from which indi- viduals cannot arrogate a right to be exempt. Yet we see that demoralized condition coincidentally with so nice a sense of ho- nour, that detection is deemed a calamity worse than death The corruption is not the only alarming symptom. A wide and deep-rooted revolutionary spirit no doubt exists in the capital : it has been aggravated by this exposure, and by the ill-timed fête which the Dlue de Montpensier gave, as if to contrast with the official crime and the scarcely ended popular distress. The ex- pression of the people, in face and word, is noticed to be like that which characterized their aspect in 1830. A great" Reform banquet," lately held, called forth a strong show of such feeling. A curious and startling anecdote of the Duke's fête is current in Paris. In a carriage returning from it was a lady who was reputed to have reciprocated favours with Royal gallants: the mob stopped the carriage—the lady was made to alight, and was compelled to go the round of her captors, each exacting a kiss— and was then suffered to reenter her carriage, overcome by fright and disgust, amid derisive shouts, and cries of hostility against princes.
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