A STRANGE EVENTFUL HISTORY.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 825, 12 August 1864, Page 6

A STRANGE EVENTFUL HISTORY.

(From the Paris Correspondent of. tlie Times.)

The Government met with a slight check in the debate on a certain class of the estimates of the Finance Department. There was actually a majority of one in favour of an amendment moved by the Baron de Janze. When the result was announced it caused a good deal of agitation; the 113 who voted against 112 seemed somewhat startled at their own temerity, and M. de Moray left the chair and allowed the proceedings to go on under the direction of a vice-president. Yet it cannot be said that there was anything factious in the amendment itself or in the support given to it. You have probably heard of the case of Joseph Lesurques, who was tried, convicted, and sentenced to death in 1794, on a charge of having robbed, the Lyons mail and murdered the courier. At the very beginning there were doubts as to the identity of the Reused, but, in spite of the exertions made to save his life, he suffered death pursuant to sentence. Soon after his execution the real murderer was discovered, between whom and Lesurques, who had no hand or part in the crime, existed a wonderful resemblance in stature, complexion, features, and even in certain accidental marks, such asascaron the forehead and another on the hand. Not only was the innocent man immolated, but his family reduced to beggary, for his property was confiscated and sold, in order to indemnify the Treasury for the sum—upwards of 54,000f.—0f which the mail had been robbed. For more than sixty years many humane persons exerted themselves to obtain the reversal of the unintentionally iniquitous sentence which took from an innocent man his life, and threw his children into the streets, and to efface the stain still attached to his memory. Those efforts were vain, and the most strenuous opposition came from those who were charged with the administration of justice, out of a superstitious respect for what they called la chose jugee, as if it were more important to sustain the presumed infallibility of the bench than to repair, as much as it could be repaired, so terrible an error. No case of legal wrong has gained more sympathy among the people than that of Joseph Lesurques. His trial and his death have formed the favorite theme of chroniclers and poets. The Courier de Lyons has been dramatised, and exhibited in playhouses all over France ; and humanitarians love to dwell upon it as their most popular and most telling argument against capital punishment. But the life of Lesurques was not the only one sacrificed. His wife went mad under the infamy that clung to her husband's name, and I believe? ended by destroying herself. His son, who was but a child when his father perished,

would not live in the country; he joined the army in the Russian campaign, and left hisbones in the snows of1 Moscow. His daughter made desperate efforts to get justice done her; she failed and drowned herself in the Seine the morning after the rejection of her petition by the Chambers; and the second daughter died in a madhouse. Under previous Governmentssome money was awarded to the family; and the amendment moved by the Baron de Janze in the debate on the finances was for the restoration of the 54,585 francs, of which the mail had been robbed, and which were levied on the property of Lesurques, together with interest since 1789. The case was gone into at length by M. de Janze. It was admirably seconded by M. Clary, who expressed himself deeply interested in it from the fact that the murder had been committed about the avenue leading to his father's house. They were both supported by M. Jules Favre 1 in a speech, of which it will be sufficient to say that 113 deputies caught the contagion of courage from his words, and, even with the eye of M. de Morny (who thought the affair a bore, and doubted the competency of the Chamber, &c.) upon them, voted against the Government Commissioner, M. de Parieu. M. de Parieu spoke on the subject like a lawyer, anxious to prevent the Legislative Corps from establishing a troublesome precedent, and he relied on the opinion of MM. Zangiacomi and Simeon, of the Council of State in former days, who did not implicitly believe in the innocence of Lesurques. This special pleading, however, was swept away by M. Jules Favre, and the house voted, only it is true, by a majority of one, that the amendment should be sent back to the Finance Commission for consideration. -. - '■■ . ' -,-.■ Chinese Amazement at English Fashions Europeans who go to China are apt to consider the inhabitants of the Celestial Empire very odd and supremely ridiculous, and the provincial Chinese at Oanton and Macao pay back this sentiment with interest. It is very amusing to hear their sarcastic remarks on their appearance—their "litter astonishment at the sight of their tight fitting garments, their wonderful trousers, and prodigious round hats like cbimneypote, the shirbcollars adapted to cut off the ears and making a frame around such grotesque faces, with long noses and blue eyes, no beard; or moustache, but a handful of curly hair on each cheek. The shape of the dress coat puzzles them above every thing-. They try in vain to account for. it, calling it a half garment, because it is'impossible to make it meet over the breast, and because there is nothing in front to correspond with the tail behind. They ad•aire the judgment and exquisite taste of putting buttons behind the back, where they never have anything to button. How much handsomer do they think themselves with thtir narrow, oblique, black eyes, high cheek bones, and little round noses, their shaven crowns and magnificent pigtails hanging almost to their heels! Add to all these natural arraces a conical hat, fringe, an ample tunic with large sleeves, and black satin boots with white soles of immense thickness, and it must be evident to all that a European cannot compare in appearance with a Chinese, A. Fatal "Difficulty."— Major Glover and Colonel Wheeler, residents of Montgomery, Confederate States, quarrelled about some business, and exchanged hard words. The former posted the latter as a liar, a scoundrel, and a traitor. Upon receiving notification from Major Glover that this had been done, Colonel Webster promptly repaired to the spot armed with a double-barrel shot guni As spon as his approach was discovered, his antagonist rapidlj procured from his-office, situated near the place of nostiog, a similar weapon, and promptly taking position in the middle of the street, commanded bystanders and other intermediate persons to clear the way, receiving in the meanwhile the first fire of Wheeler, which produced a painful wound in the knee, then firing deliberately upon Colonel Wheeler, who had now ad-, vanced to within thirty yards, he wounded him severely in the body, but not to the extent of preventing his second shot; this, however, was wildly delivered, inflicting no hurt,'and leaving him completely in the mercy of his more fortunate adversary, whose second fire knocked him to the earth mortally wounded.— Wilmington Journal. ; .'..'•