The trial of Courvoisier commenced on Thursday. Long before the
doors were opened, persons holding Sheriffs' tickets of admissioe were in waiting to take their seats. Only a few of the privileged, however, were allowed to enter before nine o'clock. By Istlf-past nine the court was filled. Many persons of distinction appeared in places set apart for people of rank : among them were the Duke of Suasex, the Earl of Mansfield, Lord Sheffield, the Earl of Cavan, Lord and Lady Arthur Lennox, Lady Granville Somerset, and time Honourable Mr. Villiers. The Judges were Chief Justice Tindal and Baron Parke, The counsel for the Crown, Mr. Adolphus, aIr. Bodkin, Mr. Chambers; for the pri- soner, Mr. Charles Phillips and Mr. Clarkson.
Francois Benjamin Courvoisier being called upon, pleaded " Not Guilty, in a feeble tone ; and preferred an English Jury to one com- posed half of Englishmen and half of foreigners, to which he was en- titled being an alien. He was dressed in black, very pale, but perfectly composed.
Mr. Adolphus opened the ease for the prosecution. The report of his speech occupies four or five columns of the Morning Chronicle's broad sheet. He went into a minute, elaborate, and verv able statement of all the circumstances connected with the murder ; presenting. a mass of circumstantial evidence against the prisoner, pausing frequently to re- move any impression flivourable to him, and suggesting a guilty motive for all that he said and did. There was no novelty in the learned gentleman's speech to those who have paid attention to time evidence on which Courvoisier was committed for trial. One part of that evidence, on which much stress had been laid, Mr. Adolphus made slight account of— the discovery of blood-stained gloves and linen in the prisoner's port- manteau. He said he was aware that an attempt would be made to show that Sarah Mansell was not a trustworthy witness : but he defied the prisoner's counsel to damage her character. He admitted that the evi- dence for the prosecution was entirely circumstantial, but he contended that for that very reason it might be most safely relied upon ; and he strongly urged upon the Jury, that the circumstances demonstrated the impossibility that the murderer could be any other than Courvoisier. The witnesses called on the first day were Sarah Mansell, the house- maid ; Mary Hanuell, the cook ; aYilliam York, Lord William Russell's coachman ; Emanuel "Ioung, Mr. Latham's butler ; Mr. Elsgood and Mr. Nursey, surgeons ; Thomas Selway, servant at the house next door to Lord William's ; and John Baldwin, a Policeman. Sarah Mansell was severely cross-examined by Mr. Charles Phillips ; but her testi- mony was not shaken. It was, however, distinctly elicited front her, that a ladder belonging to the house was placed in the yard ; that it was the height of the wall of the back area, and would enable anybody to get over the wall into the yard of the next house ; and that the pri- soner bad taken it out of the house into the yard by her desire on the Eight of the murder. She also said that a great many persons had tried chisels, screw-drivers, and pokers, at different places in the house since tie murder.
Baldwin, the Policeman, was not a very good witness for the prose- cution ; as his cross-examination by Mr. Phillips shows. This man had first said that the area-door was forced open from without ; after- wards be thought that was not the case-
" I am not liable to make mistakes intentionally:. I know that if a man does aflame., intentionally, it is a misrepresentation and not a mistake. I did at first thak that somebody had broken in, but afterwards I found that that was a mistake. I will swear I never saw the placard offering a . reward, nor have I ever heard of it to this day. I have spoken to one or two Policemen
about this murder; but I have never spoken to any parties connected with the house. I will not swear that I have not spoken to twenty Policemen about the murder—I might have spoken to twenty : I won't swear that I have not
spoken to a hundred Policemen about it : but I still persist in saying that I never heard of the reward. Something was read out in orders about a reward. I cannot say what the reward Was ofiered for. I do not know whet the sum of money was. 1 do not know whether it is a month ego, a fortnight a:,o, tbur days ago, or whether it was yesterday. I cannot tell any thing about it."
At the conclusion of Baldwin's cross-examination, the trial was ad- journed.
On Friday morning the Court was again crowded. Several Police- men were examined. They described minutely the disordered state of the house, and the discovery of the property in the pantry. The ten-pound note found in the pantry, and several articles secreted on the premises, were identified by different witnesses as Lord William Russell's property ; but attention was chiefly drawn to the statement of a new witness, Charlotte Piolane, an Englishwoman, wife of Louis Piolane, a Frenchman, who keeps a house of entertainment called L'Ilotel de Dieppe, in Leicester Place, Leicester Square. Charlotte Piolane's testimony was as follows-
" 1 know the prisoner at the bar. I knew him about four years ago. Ile came to our hotel tar a situation. Ile came to take a place in the hotel. I don't revollect that he gave me his name, nor (lid I know it. We used to call him John in the hotel. Jr al is generally spoken in our hotel, and we called him Jean. He lival with me as a servant for about a month or live weeks, not longer. I never saw him since that time
Ilk! 1)11 till about six (veeks ago. He m
to e at the Hotel de Diet Sunday morning. lie merely asked me how I was, stayed a short time, and went away. When he crone he knocked at the door; and I said, 'Come int. and he walked in. I did not recognize him when he first came. As it teal been some time since I saw him, I could not recal his features to memory. Ile said, 'Don't you remember me? I am Jean, who liveni with you some time ago.' Ile stayed but a few moments, and Ivent iiway. I asked him in the bar if he was in a situation ; and he said, Yes,' and I said, I am very glad of it.' I saw him again on the Sunday week or fortnight afterwards, I cannot remember which. Ile merely cau l,. in and asked me how I was. It Ivas in the evening., !Ind he had a parcel in his hand—a paper parcel. Ile asked Mil to take care of it tal tlIC Tuesday following, and he would call for it I said, ' Certainly I will and he left it and went away. I put up the parcel in a closet. I did not know :it that time what the parcel contained. The parcel was a sort of brown paper parcel, about that lemmeth [about eighteen inches.] and it was tied up and sealed. Ile did not call no. it on the Tuesday following, and I never saw him since until to-day. I beard once iir twice of the murder of Lord William Russell. The parcel had certainly been left with Inc hefore 1 heard of the murder. I put it into my closet and locked it up. I took it out of the closet for the first time yesterday- mornin,7,. I kept it at the bottom of the cuplioanl. 1 %V:I■ 1111111(NA to tax it out ill COlISC1111CIICC of an account which my cousin read in a French 11()W ,riper, and showed to me. I communicated with my cousin, and with mr t;;Ir.liee, for whom I sent : he lives in King Street, Seam, and is a chaser and i»omlyller. I sent also tbr Mr. Cumming : lie iS a solici ma I believe, and is It very intimate friend of ours. My cousin Vitt- cent is my hush :11.1s partner in time hotel, and (as vell as we could hear the witness, who spoke very low,) is Cl/Miceli:a with a French newspaper. Time palTel Was Opened ill the presenee mt m I LmC persons. It was ilercr tipolled be- fore from the moment it came into my potsession. [Mr. Confining, who was subsequently examined, here produced the parcel, which was about eighteen inches long by six wideal That is the parcel, and that is the paper that was on it. [The witncsa by direction of counsel, opened the parcel.) It contains spoons annul forks of silver, two pair oflieW stockings, a pan- of gold- ] don't know what they are [auricles for assisting the hearing,] a pair of dirty socks, and an old flannel waistcoat and a jacket, The jacket was wrapped wrapped round the other articles, and there is also some tow or yarn, which. wou Id have the effyet of preventing the plate from being felt or rattling. When we discovered tlie,e things, Mr. Cumming immediately put it up again, having first put in an inventory which he took down 4111 paper, and whiell we all signed. Ile then liistelled it up and took it away. Ile brought it here, I be- lieve. I did not look if there was any mark un the stockings. They are here."
l'ross-examined by Mr. Phillips, the witness denied thet there was any gambling in her honse—not even a backgammon-board was kept ; butt there was a billiard-table. No gang of suspected peraons, not one person, had been taken out of her ionise by the Police. It was much Deere:Wed, especial!r by foreigners. Everybody might Come in or go out as time) liked. She aid not know that there were gamulaing-houses or lodging-houses in Leieuitcr Square. Iler husband was in France. She had scarcely said or heard any thing about the murder—did not re- collect ever to have talked about it to her husband. She was occupied upstairs, and scarcely ever heard the conversation that went on in the house. They took in no Enelludi new:41,.iper. Tm the question whether her "special occupations allowed her to converse with her husband on army topic during the three weeks after the murder," she replied, " I cannot eay ; " and Mr. Phillips requested the Judge to take a note of that answer.
Louis timeline :mil Jos.epli Vincent. the persons mentioned in Mrs. Piolutoe's evidence, confirmed her stet ement as to the delivery of the parcel by a person before the murder ; but they could not identify the prisoner as Dm man. Mr. 3Iolteno, :a print seller in Pall Mall, identi- fied the brown peper in which the spoons and forks were wrapped up, as the covering of a print sent from his shop, and he believed to Lord Willent Russell. De knew it was sent from his shop ; his own stamped, label was on it ; and he was in the habit of selling prints to Lord. William.
Thomas Davis, formerly in the service of Mr. Webster, an optician, made a pair of gold auricles for Lord William, similar to those found in the parcel. John Ellis, his Lordship's former valet, recollected that Lord aN'illiain wore such " ear-inatruments." Lydia Banks, a washer- woman, identified tie sooks mu a Courvoisier's.
The evidence for the prosecution closed with the examination of these witnesses ; and the Court adjourned to this (la).