A REPUBLICAN ON THE TOURS TRIAL.

[FROM OCR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT.]

Tours, Indre et Loire, March 23, 1870.

No large French town, at a time when party spirit runs high, is better circumstanced for a session of that special tribunal, the High Court, than Tours. The dominant character of the Touran- gean is placidity. Obtaining with comparative ease a richly furnished table from the fat plains and vine-clad hills around, he takes no vital interest in the political and social struggle now being fought in the world. There are here no factories in which labour can learn to combine against capital, except Mame's great printing establishment, where, however, the kind of work done is not favourable to a spirit of revolt. Proof readers and compositors in it have few opportunities of reaching the mental stature of a Proudhon or a Laboulaye. Mame heaps fortune upon fortune through cheap Ultramontane literature based on the dogma of the Immaculate Conception. The Tourangean has something of the valet in his nature. Questions of personal dignity are to him of small consequence when they clash with questions of interest. The Capet and Valois kings gave proof of their sagacity in building palaces along the Loire, and living in them. Had their descendants not preferred Paris to Plesais, Blois, and Amboise, there is no knowing but what France to this day might have gone on at a jog-trot pace like a monk's mule, and never kicked and plunged under the whip and spur of heavy taxes.

As a general rule, politics languish in Tours. The little and very militant band of democrats here, who rally round the Mar- seillaise, have hard work to keep up their cadres. The indifference of those around them stands in the way of their winning martyrs' palms. A local advocate said to me yesterday, with unfeigned sorrow, We have, alas ! no point de resistance. Nothing that we can do will stir those people either to anger or to pity. In the feudal times our ra would have been a fine and easy one, for we shoull have taken the town by assault, and governed it to our liking. Protestantism flourished along the Loire, just because of the intrepidity of a handful of leaders on the one side, and the docility of the sleek-skinned populace on the other. If anything could agitate them, it would be the procim Pierre Bonaparte. Yet the indignation of the Miirseillaise finds no echo here. The Tour- angeans are curious to see the Prince escorted by his two colonels, and Rochefort by a pair of gendarmes. But they don't trouble themselves about this unequal application of the law. They look on with indifference at the privileges accorded to Sou Altesse l'Assassin,' and at the indignities to which Rochefort is subjected."

The disappointed advocate brings me to the trial before the High Court, which is the cause of my presence at Tours. Future Macaulays may speak of this affair as a great solemnity, for I believe our English Press has resolved to treat it as such. So far as it has gone, I can only see in it a clumsily acted farce. The prologue was the daily drive of President Glandaz, a puiene judge of the Court of Cassation, through the town, in a brilliantly- appointed equipage, escorted by a crack regiment of dragoons. People wondered why the accused Prince was not also treated to a triumphal ride through Tours. The aspect of the Court, on Monday morning, was very animated, but certainly not imposing. Those who possessed tickets got in at nine o'clock, but the fore- most members of the long queue, which had begun to form at seven in the morning, only effected an entrance an hour later. The writer of this letter was placed in that portion of the hall reserved for the families of judges. I could not possibly be better situated, both for hearing and seeing. When I took my seat I found myself in the midst of judges not yet robed, witnesses not yet sworn, jurors not yet empanelled, advocates not yet attending to their briefs, journalists not yet at their desks, caricaturists on the look-out for the grotesque features of the solemnity. All chatted, or chattered, for there is a distinction between chatting and chattering, which was very perceptible in the Court-house. Some exquisitely-dressed ladies, the wives of judges and the Crown lawyers, declared themselves partizans of Prince Pierre.

They resolved to disbelieve their ears, no matter what they might hear to his disadvantage. A philosopher near me asked wnen would women be competent to act as jurors ? If he had reflected a moment, he must have seen that the fair prattlers were, in obedi- ence to their marriage vow, merely reflecting the opinions of husbands eager for promotion.

The ninety-six Councillors-General crowded into the space in front of the bench. For the most part they were very old men. It was whispered, and, as it afterwards fell out, with truth, that several of them had received each Death's three warnings. The majority of those jurors in posse wore decorations. It would have been surprising if they did not. Thirty-two of those territorial magnates were mayors of communes. The Emperor it was who invested them directly with their civic dignities, why and wherefore I have not space to mention. Then there were a university inspec- tor, a jetge de pal; an honorary president of an assize court, and an assistant judge, who has overstepped the period when French- men are no longer competent to sit on the bench ; a chamberlain of the Empress, an engineer of public works, a sous-prefect grown grey in the discharge of his functions, and a captain of artillery. A small group stood apart and conversed earnestly in a low tone. It was made up of the nine Liberal Councillors-General afterwards challenged by the Procureur Imperial. The leading man among them was M. Morin, formerly a Professor of Philosophy in the College of France, and now an editor of the Rappel. M. Morin is of cold and reserved exterior, and finds it hard to get on with the exuberant writers of the Marseillaise. The remaining eight included M. Perdrix of Dijon, an advocate of a Liberal tinge ; Dr. Rathier of Lyons, a socialist of the Fourierist school ; a Radical manufacturer from the Vosges, a tulle manufacturer from Normandy, a commission agent from Marseilles, and six notaries of independent politics, but, in the Imperialist sense, strictly men of order.

At about half-past ten the privileged persons began to think of getting to their places. As to the unprivileged outside the bar, they sat or stood wherever they could. A marshal of France, some generals and colonels, and many local functionaries were shown to seats on the bench. Judges and Procureurs dropped off, and disappeared behind a green curtain. The reporters hastened to their desks, and the ladies belonging to judicial families installed themselves in the comfortable baize-covered pews erected for them.

The Court entered at half-past eleven. Gill, the leading carica- turist, who has come down to Tours in Rochefort's interest, showed himself alive to the disfiguring influence on bald old gentlemen of bright scarlet robes and rich lace bands. His pencil was out in an instant, and in a few strokes a row of grotesque heads sprang up on a leaf of his little sketch-book. His eye next wandered to the Councillors-General, who were marshalled by ushers to the front of the bench to answer to a roll-call. The penalties for those absenting themselves without sufficient cause are 10,000f. fine and loss of civil rights for five years. Six Councillors-General failed to appear. But they excused themselves on grounds the validity of which nobody can dispute. M. Buis de Drome, for instance, alleges that he is over 80 years old ; M. Privet, of the Eure-et- Loire, is past 75 ; Itt. Bessetaux is senile, and indisposed ; M. Rollet is blind with age ; another old gentleman is paralyzed ; and a M. Benais comes forward to state himself that he is hopelessly deaf, and entering on his seventy-sixth year.

Those whom time has dealt, with more gently retire to the jury-room, where, in the presence of Prince Pierre, his counsel, and the Procureur-Imperial, they draw lots for the honour of serving at the trial. Frenchmen are not habitually fettered by the promises of secrecy which are so binding to English jurors. In this instance, the challenged jurymen hastened to whisper to their friends what had just happened behind the scenes. The three first names which had turned up were challenged one after the other. The rejected jurors angrily demanded,"So»zmes nous done des suspects?" The incapacitating cause was traceable to the fact of their having been returned to the councils-general as independent candidates. The fourth person objected to was M. de Metz, the benevolent founder of Mettray. He hardly ever meddles in politics. But he was known to have said that Prince Pierre Bonaparte was a dangerous man to let loose on society. M. Morin naturally was set aside, with his Liberal friends from Lyons, Dijon, Marseilles, and Rouen. Out of eighteen challenged there were two Imperialists and sixteen Liberals of divers shades. The jury constituted, Prince Pierre Bonaparte was ushered in by a captain of gendarmerie, who seated himself close to the dock. The Imperial prisoner was at once the objective of every opera- glass. In Paris they do not stare at a man accused of murder until he gets into the thick of the interrogatory. But in Tours

people are not held back by delicate feelings from satisfying curiosity immediately. Besides, every one felt certain that no guillotine awaited the Prince. The interest and solemnity of the trial were ter- ribly lessened by this knowledge. However MM. Saurier or Flo-

rather the Napoleonic legend than the Prince. His High- ness, Prince Pierre, bore traces of fatigue. He apparently stood in need of a little refreshing sleep. The eyelids were heavy, and the face swollen. There was in his demeanour as he entered 'the dock, and stood up to answer to the usual questions, a strange mixture of gentlemanly distinction and grossness. His corpulent body was very erect. The features, which are of a rude Napoleonic -cast, with something of the present Emperor in the outline, had an appearance of repose which a very restless eye declared was due to an effort of the will. The swollen lids were constantly in 'movement, and a wild, savage glance from time to time shot from beneath them.

His manner as the acte d'accusation was being read was calm and respectful, but he went very badly through the interroga- (tory and the confrontation with De Fonvielle. The voice, to begin with, is husky, the pronunciation is defective, the tongue somewhat large for the mouth. The smile which played over the Prince's face as the President "stroked him down," and suggested loop-holes to escape through, was not ,pleasant. The pantomime his Highness went through in ex- plaining how he drew the pistol out of his pocket and fired it was nothing short of ruffianly. This pantomimic explanation was -followed up by a theatrical appeal to every honune de mar present, whom the Prince took for granted would, in his place, have acted precisely as he did. Prince Pierre, with all his coarse- mess and ferocity, is totally without swagger. In this respect he contrasted very favourably with Paschal Grousset, the Corsican

• journalist who sent him the challenge on the 10th of February. There was a pert vulgarity in this young man's behaviour which was very offensive. Those Corsicans can boast a great deal of physical beauty,—Grousset has the head of an Adonis. Thanks to this youth, strong passions have not yet spoiled his perfectly regular features. Della Rocca, another Corsican, who appeared with M. Paul de Cassagnac among the Prince's witnesses, is also -a superbly handsome man, of the purest classic type, and of a 'violence of temperament which hurried him into assertions of a -damaging nature to his friend in the dock.

De Fonvielle, the leading witness for the prosecution, gave his -evidence very well. The majority of those who listened to him -entertained a bias against him which they took no trouble to 'hide. He spoke like a man who was telling the truth, and did 'not allow the President to trip him up, or to lead him from -different points he wished to bring out. De Fonvielle is said to be man of old family and superior education, but his clothes had a Sunday air, and hard-grained self-assertion "came out in every pore." In some respects, De Fonvielle's is a bad countenance. The eyes are intensely brilliant and deep-set. The strongly -defined aquiline nose almost dips into the mouth. But the 'intellectual energy of the entire physiognomy goes far to redeem unpleasant lines. I know not whether it was the power of a :strong mind over a weak, or the consciousness of untruth which 'made two wretchedly-dressed old men quail and stagger in their -evidence when they came forward to confront De Fonvielle, and Trove that he had admitted the circumstance alleged by the Prince, -of Victor Noir giving him a slap in the face to provoke a duel.

The presiding judge addressed them with paternal mildness, .and encouraged them to tell all they knew to the jury. But his leading questions produced no echo, and the two witnesses in -question were finally curtly told to go about their business. The -deposition of M. Milliere was second in importance to that of De .Fonvielle; M. Milliere being still a prisoner and au secret, on the -charge of conspiring to overthrow the Government, was led to the witnesses' bar by two gendarmes. I afterwards learned that the counsellors-general on and off the jury were favourably impressed by Milliere, and shocked with the swagger of De Cassagnac and Jdella Rocca. There was every reason why they should have been favourable to poor Milliere. • His position and his broken-down .health excited their pity, whilst his fearless and unaffectedly 'truthful tone was set off by his singularly felicitous diction.

Milliere, Grommet, and Fonvielle are to have another hearing tin support of the Noir family, otherwise in partie civile. Rochefort and moat of his sub-editors, with M. and Mdme. Louis Noir, will be heard on the same side. -Louis Noir is a tall handsome fellow, and strikingly resembles his deceased brother. Though a man of

very humble origin, his address and bearing are those of a thorough gentleman. His wife is a very beautiful brunette, quiet, ladylike, intelligent, and dressed in very becoming mourning. If I am not greatly mistaken, her testimony will prove the most damaging to