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Sun (Christchurch), Volume I, Issue 149, 30 July 1914, Page 6

After a most amazing trial comes an equally amazing verdict in the Calmette murder charge—the acquittal of Mine. Caillaux. How it was possible for a sane court of justice to achieve such an extraordinary performance in the face of the stark facts only a theatric Frenchman could say. If ever there was a case in which the criminal looked to be in an irretrievable and hopeless position it was the one just concluded. Mme. Caillaux, it was shown, ostensibly provoked to tlie deed to protect the honour of her husband and herself, planned the slaying of the editor of the "Figaro," procured a revolver, and shot her enemy in cold blood. With this evidence before them, twelve old-fashioned British jurymen would not have had much I trouble in coming to a decision to < 011- j vict the accused. They do tilings j differently in France, particularly ! when the principals of a case move in j exalted public life. Then, as in the j trial under review, the Court degenerates into a stage, and the accused,; the accusers, the advocates, and even ' the judges, into mere strutters playing j to popular emotion. Cold legal argu- j ment gives place to impassioned and j sentimental oratory, interspersed with j irrelevant recriminations that have no J bearing 011 the issue. The tactics of j both parties in this remarkable case, were as indecent and undignified as j theyeould well be. Proceedings reached j a climax (or an anti-climax) when the j President of the Court challenged j another judge to a duel, after a sharp; exchange of allegations. And 011 top j of all this burlesque of justice comes! the acquittal of the prisoner, whose j frequent melodramatic subterfuges in j Court no doubt influenced the suscep-! tible tribunal. Through the whole sorry) business ran a current of disreputable ! politics, and M. Caillaux, whose record | makes him out. a political adventurer j of a dangerous type, has not scrupled to , use his wife's 2>osition in the dock to j his own political advantage. A successful and sinister intrigant, M. Caillaux has so far evaded his Nemesis, but he should remember that poetic justice lias more teeth than the French brand.