The most interesting intelligence in the French news of the
week, is the triumphant acquittal of M. BERRYER, the Deputy, who has suffered so long an imprisonment because of his attach- ment to the fallen dynasty. The trial of M. BERRYER took place at Blois, on the 16th. To the interrogations of the Court, M. BER- RYER frankly confessed that he had several communications with the Exiled Family, on private affairs: he had only one letter direct from Holyrood House ; the other communications look place.. -throUgh the "Family Council" of the Duke DE BORDISAUX. The account of his journeyings in La Vendee is curiotis. He got to Nantes. on the 19th May- " On my arrival at Nantes, 'applied to persons of the same opinion and views, and disclosed to them the object of my journey. Two lours after I had ex.. pressed_my wish, -a guide was furnished me. I set out with my guide, who took me to a house, the inhabitants of which be no doubt well knew. He merely said, Here is the person that is.to be conducted.' A new guide was then given me, who took me to a distance of three or four leagues from that spot. I then lad another guide_, who accompanied me ten leagues further; where I had the honour of seeing her Royal Highness."
He stated further, that the Dutchess herself changed her abode not less than three or four times a week ; that every change was known to eight or ten persons at least; and yet, in the course Of six months, not a single person betrayed the honourable confi- dence reposed in him. M. BERRYER was arrested in June. A re- port has been industriously propagated of a supposed confession made by him of the object of his seeking the Dutchess,—namely, to dissuade her from her attempt. On being questioned respect- ing it, he made known a very extraordinary fact- " On my arrival on the 10th of June, I was put under dose confinement ; on the morrow, Junell, a man entered my room, and stated himself to be the Procureur du Rd. He declared to me, who then saw him for the first time, that on the 4th of June he had addressed to the Minister of Justice a report, hi which he said he had examined me, and in which he had repeated my language, words, and answers. He asked me whether it suited sue to acknowledge that he had seen me on the2d or 3/1 of June. I replied to the Procureur du Roi at Nantes, that I would not avail myself of his position to injure a magistrate ; and that if he would show me a copy of his report, I should see whether I could sanction the expressions. The Procureur du Roi promised me one ; but having waited for it in vain, I declared to him that I would stand upon any right. He then called upon M. Granville' my fliend, to induce him to say that he had had a conversation with him. Thus I stand accused, with regard to my ftiends, of having betrayed a secret intrusted to my honour; and with regard to the Dutch- ess, of having expressed an opinion in which I am said to have condemned her courage as a mother. I am accused of these facts by an official report, emanating from a magistrate. The report is false ; I had never seen the Procureur dto Rai before the 11th."
There was another curious charge:against M. BERRYER, equally well grounded. The Court—" The following note was also found in your house ' The spot you mention is that pointed out by my letter. Under the trees and near the tomb was a stone bearing the letters C. B. Your letter overwhelms me. Under this stone I had placed a box, containing papers of the greatest importance to me. As I made the deposit at night, it will be better to dig by the side of the tomb.' What does this mean?"
The Prisoner—" I recollect this letter, which was in my cabinet, but I cannot recognize it in the state in which it is now presented to me. The Jury will observe, that this letter was written in ink pale from age, and that altera- tions have been made with fresh ink. It has even been pretended that the two letters C. B. meant Caroline de Berri. The box alluded to in the letter was in- trusted to me : it belonged, I believe, to Madame de Coislin. According to the directions of the letter, I went to the spot pointed out, in the neighbourhood of St. Cloud, to seek the box. I was accompanied by the Ylayor of St. Cloud; who drew up a process-verbal of the affair, which was in a drawer in my cabi- net with the letter, and, as well as the letter, bore the date of 1817. The date has been erased from the letter, and no notice was taken of the process-verbal; and it is by the aid of such an infamous forgery as this that a capital accusation against me is to be supported !" An approver, who bore the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel and the name of TOURNIER, was called by the Crown to prove that M. BERRYER had attempted to inlist him in the service of the Exiled Family ; but his . evidence was so loose and prevaricating, and differed so much from that which he had given in private, that the prosecutor, the Advocate-General, was compelled to give up the case as desperate ; and the Jury inconsequence instantly acquitted the prisoner. The parts of this plot against the liberty if not the life of a most respectable man, are so ill put together, that one is led to the conclusion that it must have been got up by some Carlist in office, with a view to cast ridicule and, contempt on the existing powers. There is, it is said, still some hope entertained, that, close as the door of office is now shut against M. DUPIN, it will yet open to admit him. This will very much depend on the turn that the ex- pedition planned and determined on against Holland may take.
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