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To all such we would earnestly say--"pause |
Consider the circumstances of China--how capricious and perfidious its people are by nature--the _possibility_ at all events of their acting on the hostile policy we have above alluded to and discouraging your trade; or if not so still do not imagine that the vast empire of China is standing agape for any sort of goods you may send or take out |
" We must however pass on to allude briefly to a subject both important and difficult--the opium trade with China |
This is a subject imperatively demanding the best consideration of the Government |
A careful examination of the subject in all its bearings induces us with due diffidence to express an opinion that the Government sale of opium in India should cease |
We cannot of course prevent the poppy's being grown in India--nor on the other hand should a great source of revenue be easily parted with |
Let their opium be produced and sold as before and subject to such a tax as may appear expedient to the Government |
With reference to the policy and propriety of our continuing to supply opium to the Chinese we have already expressed our opinion as to the true ground of objection to it by the Emperor of China namely simply a financial not a moral or religious one |
We have reason to believe that Sir Henry Pottinger most strenuously and in our opinion most judiciously urged upon the imperial commissioners the expediency of the raising a revenue from opium by legalizing its importation |
To this they replied however "that they did not dare _at present_ to bring the painful subject to the Emperor's notice |
" We are notwithstanding very strongly of opinion that the opium trade will at no distant period be legalized as soon as the Emperor can be made to understand the great profit he will derive from it |
In any event it will be obviously nugatory for the Government directly to prohibit British subjects from importing opium into China |
The only effect of such a measure would be that they could carry on the trade through the intervention of foreigners |
Many other topics such as the opportunity now afforded for the introduction of the Christian religion into China the extent to which we shall be permitted to acquire a knowledge of the habits the economy the literature and the science of China; the exertions which may be expected from other nations to share in the advantages which we have by our own unassisted efforts secured--we must pass over as inconsistent with the limits assigned us or indeed the scope of this article |
Whatever may be the ultimate effects of the blow we have struck in China there can be no doubt that it has prodigiously extended the reputation and augmented the influence of Great Britain especially coupled as it is with our contemporaneous brilliant successes in India and our satisfactory adjustment of our differences with America |
We are now thank God at peace with all the world to whose counsels soever it is to be attributed |
Let us now endeavour to make the most of the blessings which the Divine favour vouchsafes to us |
Let us cultivate virtue--let us cherish religion |
Let us as a nation give up all idle and dangerous dreams of foreign conquest satisfied that we already possess as much as it is possible for us to hold with safety and advantage |
Let us _honour all men_ |
At home let us bear with cheerfulness the burthens necessarily imposed to support the state and each do all that lies in us to extinguish party animosities; generously and cordially co-operating with and supporting those whom we believe honestly striving to carry on the government of this great country at a very critical conjuncture of affairs with dignity and prudence |
Let us discourage faction and each in our several spheres exert ourselves to ameliorate the condition of the inferior classes of society |
May the ensuing session of Parliament commence its labours auspiciously and in due course bring them to a peaceful and happy close in a spirit of good will towards all men of loyalty to our Queen and piety towards God! * * * * * LESURQUES; OR THE VICTIM OF JUDICIAL ERROR |
[Many as are the frightful cases of error recorded in the annals of every judiciary court there are few more striking of the uncertainty of evidence respecting personal identity and of the serious errors based upon it than are to be read in the curious trial we are about to relate; and which has for forty years been the subject of parliamentary appeals in the country where it took place |
The recent death of the widow of the unhappy sufferer excites a fresh interest in her wrongs so strangely left unredressed by the very government that was the unwitting cause of them |
] I |
--THE FOUR GUESTS |
On the 4th Floreal of the 4th year of the Republic one and indivisible (23d April 1796 ) four young men were seated at a splendid breakfast in the Rue des Boucheries at Paris |
They were all dressed in the costume of the _Incroyables_ of the period; their hair _coiffes en cadenettes_ and _en oreilles de chien_ according to the fantastic custom of the day; they had all top-boots with silver spurs large eyeglasses various watch-chains and other articles of _bijouterie_; carrying also the little cane of about a foot and a half in length without which no dandy was complete |
The breakfast was given by a M |
Guesno a van-proprietor of Douai who was anxious to celebrate the arrival at Paris of his compatriot Lesurques who had recently established himself with his family in the busy capital |
"Yes _mon cher_ Guesno " said Lesurques "I have quitted for ever our good old town of Douai; or if not for ever at least until I have completed in Paris the education of my children |
I am now thirty-three years of age |
I have paid my debt to my country by serving in the regiment of Auvergne with some distinction |
On leaving the ranks I was fortunate enough to make my services of some slight use by fulfilling gratuitously the functions of _chef de bureau_ of the district |
At present thanks to my patrimony and the dowery of my wife I have an income of fifteen thousand francs (L |
600) a-year am without ambition have three children and my only care is to educate them well |
The few days that I have been at Paris have not been wasted; I have a pretty apartment Rue Montmartre where I expect to be furnished and ready to receive you in my turn with as much comfort as heartiness |
" "Wisely conceived " interrupted one of the guests who till this moment had maintained a profound silence; "but who can count upon the morrow in such times as these? May your projects of peace and retirement Monsieur be realized: if so you will then be the happiest man in the Republic; for during the last five or six years there has been no _citoyen_ high or low who could predict what the next week would decide for him |
" The speaker uttered this with a tone of bitterness and discouragement which contrasted strangely with the flaunting splendour of his toilet and the appetite with which he had done honour to the breakfast |
He was young and would have been remarkably handsome had not his dark eyes and shaggy brows given an expression of fierceness and dissimulation to his countenance which he vainly endeavoured to hide by never looking his interlocutor in the face |
His name was Couriol |
His presence at this breakfast was purely accidental |
He had come to see M |
Richard (the proprietor of the house where M |
Guesno alighted on his journey to Paris and who was also one of the guests ) just as they were about to sit down to table and was invited to join them without ceremony |
The breakfast passed off gaily in spite of the sombre Couriol; and after two hours' conviviality they adjourned to the Palais Royal where after taking their cafe at the _Rotonde du Caveau_ they separated |
II |
--THE FOUR HORSEMEN |
A few days afterwards on the 8th Floreal four men mounted on dashing looking horses which however bore the unequivocal signs of being hired for the day rode gaily out of Paris by the barrier of Charenton; talking and laughing loudly caracoling with great enjoyment and apparently with nothing but the idea of passing as joyously as possible a day devoted to pleasure |
An attentive observer however who did not confine his examination to their careless exteriors might have remarked that beneath their long _levites _ (a peculiar cloak then in fashion ) they carried each a sabre suspended at the waist the presence of which was betrayed from time to time by a slight clanking as the horses stumbled or changed their paces |
He might have further remarked a sinister pre-occupation and a brooding fierceness in the countenance of one whose dark eyes peeped out furtively beneath two thick brows |
He took but little share in the boisterous gaiety of the other three and that little was forced; his laugh was hollow and convulsive |
It was Couriol |
Between twelve and one the four horsemen arrived at the pretty village of Mongeron on the road to Melun |
One of them had preceded them at a hand-gallop to order dinner at the _Hotel de la Poste_ kept by the Sieur Evrard |
After the dinner to which they did all honour they called for pipes and tobacco--(cigars were then almost unknown)--and two of them smoked |
Having paid their bill they proceeded to the Cassino where they took their cafe |
At three o'clock they remounted their horses and following the road shaded by stately elms which leads from Mongeron to the forest of Lenart they reached Lieursaint; where they again halted |
One of their horses had cast a shoe and one of the men had broken the little chain which then fastened the spur to the boot |
The horseman to whom this accident had happened stopped at the entrance of the village at Madame Chatelain's a _limonadiere_ whom he begged to serve him some cafe and at the same time to give him a needleful of strong thread to mend the chain of his spur |
She did so but observing the traveller to be rather awkward in his use of the needle she called her servant _la femme_ Grossetete who fixed the chain for him and helped him to place it on his boot |
The other three travellers had during this time alighted at the inn kept by the Sieur Champeaux where they drank some wine; while the landlord himself accompanied the traveller and his unshod horse to the farrier's the Sieur Motteau |
This finished the four met at Madame Chatelain's where they played at billiards |
At half-past seven after a parting cup with the Sieur Champeaux whither they returned to re-saddle their horses they set off again in the direction of Melun |
The landlord stood at his door watching the travellers till out of sight and then turning into his house again he saw on the table a sabre which one of his guests had forgotten to fasten to his belt; he dispatched one of his stable-boys after them but they were out of sight |
It was not till an hour afterwards that the traveller who had had his spur-chain mended returned at full gallop to claim his sabre |
He drank a glass of brandy and having fastened his weapon securely departed at furious speed in the direction taken by his comrades |
III |
--THE ROBBERY AND MURDER |
At the same time that the horseman left Lieursaint for Paris the Lyons mail arrived there from Paris and changed horses |
It was about half-past eight and the night had been obscure for some time |
The courier having charged horses and taken a fresh postilion set forth to traverse the long forest of Senart |
The mail at this epoch was very different from what it is at present |
It was a simple post-chaise with a raised box behind in which were placed the despatches |
Only one place by the side of the courier was reserved for travellers and that was obtained with difficulty |
On the night in question this seat was occupied by a man of about thirty who had that morning taken it for Lyons under the name of Laborde a silk-merchant; his real name was Durochat; his object may be guessed |
At nine o'clock the carriage having descended a declivity with great speed now slackened its course to mount a steep hill which faced it; at this moment four horsemen bounded into the road--two of them seizing the horses' heads the two other attacked the postilion who fell lifeless at their feet his skull split open by a sabre-cut |
At the same instant--before he had time to utter a word--the wretched courier was stabbed to the heart by the false Laborde who sat beside him |
They ransacked the mail of a sum of seventy-five thousand francs (L |
3000) in money _assignats_ and bank-notes |
They then took the postilion's horse from the chaise and Durochat mounting it they galloped to Paris which they entered between four and five in the morning by the Barrier de Rambouillet |
IV |
--THE ARREST |
This double murder committed with such audacity on the most frequented route of France could not but produce an immense sensation even at that epoch so fertile in brigandage of every sort where the exploits of _la Chouannerie_ and the ferocious expeditions of the _Chauffeurs_ [8] daily filled them with alarm |
The police were at once in pursuit |
The post-horse ridden by Durochat and abandoned by him on the Boulevard was found wandering about the Palais Royale |
It was known that four horses covered with foam had been conducted at about five in the morning to the stables of a certain Muiron _Rue des Fosse's Saint-Germain-l'Auxerrois_ by two men who had hired them the day before: these men were Bernard and Couriol; the former of whom was immediately arrested the second had with the other accomplices taken flight |
[8] An atrocious gang of thieves who adopted the unnecessary brutality of burning the unfortunate victims they intended to rob |
The research was pursued with great activity at Paris as well as at the scene of the crime and along the route which the assassins had twice travelled |
The information obtained showed that there were five culprits |
The description of the four horsemen who rode from Paris stopping at Mongeron and Lieursaint was furnished with as much precision as concordance by the various witnesses who had seen and spoken to them on the road and in the inns and cafes |
The description of the traveller who under the name of Laborde had taken the seat beside the courier was furnished with equal exactitude by the clerks from whom he had retained the place and by those who saw him mount |
Couriol recognized as having with Bernard conducted back the horses to Muiron after the crime had left Paris for Chateau-Thierry where he was lodged in the house of Citoyen Bruer where also Guesno had gone on some business |
The police followed Couriol and arrested him |
They found upon him a sum in money and assignats nearly equivalent to a fifth share of what the courier had been robbed |
Guesno and Bruer were also arrested and had their papers seized; but they so completely established their _alibi_ that they were at once dismissed on their arrival at Paris |
At the epoch of which we write the examination of judicial affairs followed a very different course from the one now traced by the French code |
It was to the Citoyen Daubenton justice of the peace of the division of Pont Neuf and officer of the _police judiciare_ that the Central Bureau confided the examination of this affair |
This magistrate having ordered the dismissal of Guesno told him that he might present himself at his _cabinet_ on the morrow for the papers which had been seized at Chateau-Thierry; at the same time he ordered an officer Hendon to start at once for Mangeron and Lieursaint and to bring back the witnesses whose names he gave him so that they might all be collected the next day at the Bureau for examination |