plaintiff-Damages Eight Thousand Pounds.

breast a silver crachat, or distinctive mark of his princely origin. Next came general Montholon,

LEON.

nels Voisin, with his arm in a sling, Parquin, Bouffet de Montauban,

TEMBER 28.

At 11 o'clock the gates of the hall were opened, and the tribunes reserved to the public were filled in an instant. No extraordinary precautions had been taken round the palace; a few military posts were stationed here and there at the principal outlets of the prison and palace of the Luxembourg, but the gardens remained open as usual, and the circulation round the palace was perfectly free.

Before the meeting of the court, the eagles, colours, arms, and other emblems of imperialism seized at Boulogne were carried in and laid on a table.

No alteration had been made in the division of the hall. The recess, in front of the semi-circle occupied by the peers, was, as usual, reserved for the prisoners; the chair of the president was placed on their left, and opposite to him were the four seats intended for the attorney-general and his three substitutes. The decoration of the hall was still in an unfinished state; the woodwork had not yet been painted, and the naked portions of the wall were covered with green velvet hangings.

At 12 o'clock the lawyers and counsel took their seats in front of the bar, and shortly afterwards the nineteen accused were brought in. Prince Louis Napoleon came in first, preceded by a lieutenant of gendarmes, and followed by Messieurs Berryer and Marie, his advocates. The prince was dressed in black, and wore on his left

Conneau, de Persigny, Orsi, Ornano, Forestier, Bure, Lieutenant Aladenize, &c.

The prince seated himself at the extremity of the first row, opposite the president, and by his side sat general Montholon and the lieutenant of gendarmes. Those two prisoners were separated from their co-accused by a brigadier of gendarmes, but, contrary to the practice hitherto followed in regard to the Republicans tried by the Court of Peers, the accused were not individually flanked with two soldiers, but sat next to one another, the military employed to guard them being drawn up in the rear.

The prisoners had no sooner sat down than the court entered the hall, preceded by the chancellor baron Pasquier, and followed by M. Franck Caré, the attorneygeneral, and his three substitutes. The president having waited until all the peers were seated, announced that the debates were commenced, and ordered the recorder, M. De Cauchy, to call over the names of the members of the court. This operation lasted a quarter of an hour. Between 160 and 170 peers responded to their names. The absent peers were at least seventy in number, and consisted principally of the marshals, general officers of the old army and navy, and the principal high functionaries of the empire, members of the chamber of peers.

After the termination of the appel nominal, the president called on the prince to rise, and ques

tioned him respecting his name, age, profession, &c.

"My names," replied the prince, "are Charles Louis Napoleon Buonaparte. I am 32 years of age, born in Paris, and a French exiled prince, residing in London."

General Montholon, colonels Voisin, Parquin, Laborde, and the other accused, severally replied to similar questions.

The president next directed M. Cauchy to read the decision of the court, dated September 16, and decreeing the impeachment of prince Louis Napoleon and his followers, and the proceedings were suspended a moment, whilst the witnesses, composed of a motley assemblage of Custom-house officers, pilots, national guards, officers and soldiers of the 42nd regiment of the line, and citizens of Boulogne, were brought in to be present at the reading of the act of accusation. This task again devolved on M. Cauchy.

After the conclusion of the act of accusation, M. Cauchy was asked by the president to call over the names of the witnesses, who were then ordered to their room and retired.

The sitting was afterwards suspended during twenty minutes, when both judges and prisoners quitted the hall.

At a quarter past 3 o'clock the court and accused returned, and the president having invited prince Louis to rise, the latter begged leave to offer a few observations before he answered this interrogatory.

He began by saying, that it was for the first time he had occasion to address Frenchmen in France; and although now surrounded with guards, and a prisoner, he found himself with pleasure in that palace of the imperial senate, in presence VOL. LXXXII.

of so many faithful servants of his family. He would not enter into a justification of his conduct and intentions, although he might do so without pride or weakness; but he could not help observing, that during the last fifty years, since the reign of national sovereignty had been proclaimed, never did it manifest itself in a more solemn manner than in the framing of the constitution of the empire. That act of national omnipotence had never since been revoked by France, and all that was done subsequently was consequently illegitimate. "I was born," added the prince, " of a father who preferred descending from the throne, the moment he perceived that he could not reconcile the interests of his kingdom with those of France. The emperor, my uncle, resolved on abdicating sooner than consent to the retrenchment of an inch of the empire committed to his defence. Although fallen from the throne, and an exile for twenty-five years, I ever prided in the glory, and felt most anxiously devoted to the interests of France, and when, in 1830, the people resumed its sway, I hoped that it would repair a great injustice, and again sanction the votes of four millions of citizens given to my family. My intention was to abide entirely by the wish of the people, freely expressed in an assembly of the nation. I would have bowed to the principle of the sovereignty of the country, and whether it decided in favour of the establishment of a republic, a monarchy, or an empire, it would have found me full of respect for its decrees. My late attempt was culpable only inasmuch as I compromised a number of friends, who followed on blindly, without my explaining to them the motives

X

that prompted me to act as I have done. In every struggle there are always conquerors and vanquished. I am a vanquished enemy, and know before-hand that I have no justice to expect from my conquerors."

After the prince had concluded his address, the president said to him-I do not think that what you have said is very favourable to your cause; you ought to have sought for other means of justification. You ought to have known how to appreciate in a better manner the sentiments of the country whose will you invoke. The president then repeated his question as to his landing at Boulogne.

Prince Louis.I have replied to this question in my preceding interrogatories.

The President. It is the custom for all tribunals to repeat them. You might reply here differently from the first time. (The prince remained silent.) Did you on landing find Aladenize and Bataille ? Prince Louis.-I refer to what I have already said. I will alter nothing in my first answers.

The President.-Did the custom house officers attempt to prevent your landing?—Yes.

Did you say any thing to them? -No.

Did you not endeavour to induce them to follow you?-No an

swer.

The president then put several questions to the prince as to known facts. The prince replied that he had nothing to add to what he had already said on his previous examinations, and nothing to change.

Did you not, finding that you could not win captain Col-Puygellier to your cause, fire a pistol at that officer?-There are moments when we do that of which we are

unconscious. The pistol went off against my will.

When did you conceive the project of landing in France to overturn the government?—I did not come to this resolution until I had seen that after a lapse of ten years the government had established nothing.

Are you the author of the work entitled Les Idees Napoleoniennes? -Certainly.

Did you not desire Mesonan to see a general, and tell him that for ten years past, you had had the intention of making him a marshal of France? I will not reply to this question. I will not change my character of an accused person into that of an accuser. (Sensation.)

The president then put several questions relative to the events of Boulogne,towhich the prince repeatedly said, "I have already replied."

President. Do you acknowledge the proclamations which I now place before you ?—Yes.

Was it without the knowledge of general Montholon and colonel Voisin that you affixed their names to these proclamations?—Yes.

By one of these proclamations you form a provisional government: how could you compose this by placing in it the names of persons whose consent you had not obtained? Because I thought such a proceeding useful for my designs and the interests of France. Besides, I wished to take as the chiefs of that government men in positions of dignity, although they were not of my own principles.

But in invoking the principle of the sovereignty of the people you desired to convoke a national congress, and to effect a revolution ?— A national congress cannot be convoked without a revolution.

The president then put several

more questions to the prince as to his not having confided his projects to general Montholon, colonel Voisin, and others, and desiring him to explain how this could have been the case?-The prince refused to reply.

General Montholon was next interrogated.

President. Did you not at tempt to excite a rising in Buologne, in order to change the form of government in France, and proclaim Louis Napoleon emperor of the French-I refuse to reply to the question.

You landed in France in the night with prince Louis and others of his suite?-Yes, but I did not know where I was going. I left London in the Duchess of Kent to go to Ostend, and arrived at Margate, to which place only the packet was going. In the night of Tuesday prince Louis sent me word that he wished to speak to me on board a vessel in which he was. I went there immediately. I there found the uniform which I wore at the moment of my arrest. We set out immediately. I asked where we were going, and the prince replied, "You will see. It was therefore without knowing the projects of the prince that I found myself involved in the affairs of Boulogne.

You have stated that you were living in London? You were then no longer in the service of France? -I was travelling only in virtue of a permission from the minister of war, and with a police passport. I am still on the list of French generals of the first section, but I receive no pay. Pay is not granted when leave of absence abroad is granted.

Do you persist in saying that you did not attempt to excite a

rising at Boulogne for the purpose of changing the form of govern ment in France, and proclaiming Louis Napoleon emperor of the French? I could have no intention of proclaiming the prince emperor of the French, for he did not wish it himself. As to my views and sentiments they are clearly explained in the answer which I made to the prince when he announced to me his intended landing. I said, "You are ruining yourself and us; but I will not abandon the nephew of the emperor in the hour of danger, and I follow you in the hope of saving you, and preventing French blood from being uselessly shed."

Did the prince never speak to you of his projects? Why did not you attempt to dissuade him?The prince often talked to me of them, and I always told him to wait until France should call for him, and to remember Strasburg. I repeat that in the affair of Boulogne, I was utterly ignorant, until the last moment, of what he was going to do.

The president here reminded the general that proclamations and other papers had been seized bearing his name. The general replied, that the proclamation bearing his name was not known to him; and, in reply to an observation that it was not probable that the prince would have put his name to it without his authority, he repeated that such, however, was the fact, and that he would never have been fool enough to play the ridiculous part of a major-general with an army of forty men. He added, that he had always attempted to divert the prince from his projects, and this was the reason why the Boulogne affair had been concealed from him to the last.

The president then called upon colonel Voisin, who, in answer to the questions put to him, admitted that he landed with the prince at Wimereux, and followed him throughout the morning, feeling it to be his duty to support and defend him, but had no other arms than his sabre. He heard, he said, the report of a pistol when he was with the prince at the barracks, but he did not see who fired it. The colonel acknowledged that he had transcribed the proclamations, and had written several letters, and also

some orders addressed to Messrs. Parquin, Orsi, and Mesonan. He repeated the statement given in the act of accusation as to his wearing his uniform, which he found on board the packet.

M. Le Duff de Mesonan was next interrogated. He admitted his participation in the prince's attempt, but, though with him at the barracks, did not see him fire any pistol, and thought that some one had let it off by accident. On being questioned as to his having, previous to the attempt, endeavoured to gain officers to join in the cause of the prince, Mesonan replied that there was not a single officer in the army who could say that he had made any such overtures to him. He further maintained, that he never endeavoured to influence general Magnan to take an interest in the views of prince Louis. He denied having ever distributed Bonapartist pamphlets. He last declared that when he embarked with the prince he was ignorant of his projects.

Colonel Parquin was the next prisoner questioned by the president. He denied that he had any previous knowledge of the prince's object. He was his aide-de-camp,

and felt it his duty to follow him without inquiry, and landed with him at Wimereux. On being asked whether he did not endeavour to surprise a post of four men, colonel Parquin affirmed that he was never near the post, but rejoined the prince when moving towards the column. A lieutenant of the 42d, with several others, had failed in seeking to carry the post, and therefore he asked how could he alone have committed such an act of folly?

The president observed to colonel Parquin that his well-known intimacy with the prince and his former conduct, made it extremely difficult to believe that he (the prisoner) was unacquainted with his plans.

Colonel Parquin replied, "It has been said that I have never quitted the prince for three years, but since the Strasburg affair I never saw him till 1840. My passport proves that I have never been near him. I did not know his projects until after I was embarked." He further denied that he had made any attempts to seduce officers. He knew not the projects of the prince, and therefore could never have endeavoured to draw any one to participate in plans of which he was himself ignorant. On being reminded that he had gained over a man from the municipal guard, he replied, "The prince wanted a chasseur; to make a handsome chasseur a fine man is necessary, and to obtain a fine man one must have recourse to the municipal guard." (Laughter.) Colonel Parquin again persisted in his declaration, that the projects of the prince were unknown to him, and he never used any means to insure their success.

M. Bouffet Montauban admitted