4.-RETURN of the Number of Persons committed to Tothill Fields Bridewell, from the several Police Offices, by the several Magistrates of the City and Liberty of Westminster and County of Middlesex, in the Years 1821, 1822, and 1823.

6.-RETURN of the Number of Persons committed to the County Gaol of Surrey, from the several Police Offices, by the several Magistrates of the City of London, and of the Counties of Middlesex and Surrey, in the Years 1821, 1822, and 1823.

1

ASSIZE COURT AT PARIS. Trial of Castaing, the Physician,

for Murder.-Nov. 11-17.

THE trial commenced on Monday the 11th of November. At a quarter past 10 o'clock, Castaing, the prisoner, was brought into court. He was a young man of a fair complexion, and an interesting figure, with a mild and gentle voice, and of peculiarly calm and decorous manners. The bar, upon which the articles necessary to the conviction of the prisoner are usually placed, did not upon this occasion present any blood stained garments, or any spoils taken from the person of the murdered victim: but a range of decanters, bottles, and phials, containing either the poisons found in the house of the accused, or the analyzed results of them; together with two chests, tied and sealed up, in which were contained other substances, designed as tests for

them.

The prisoner declared his name to be Edme Samuel Castaing, his age to be 27 years or thereabouts, his profession to be that of physic, his birth-place to be Alençon, and his residence to be No. 31, Rue d'Enfer, Paris.

The indictment was then read, and occupied the time of the court from eleven o'clock till half-past two. It was divided into three parts, each containing a distinct VOL. LXV.

charge against the prisoner. The first was, that early in the month of October, 1822, he attempted the life of Daniel Hippolyte Ballet by certain substances calculated to produce death; the second, that, about the same time, in conjunction with Claude Louis Auguste Ballet, deceased, he purposely destroyed the last will and testament of the above-mentioned Daniel Hippolyte Ballet; and the third, that in the last days of the month of May, and on the 1st of June, 1823, he also attempted the life of the above. mentioned Claude Louis Auguste Ballet, by substances calculated to produce death. Under each of these charges there was stated in the indictment the motive which was supposed to have led the prisoner to the commission of these crimes, and also the direct and circumstantial evidence by which they were to be established against him. The motive alleged for the murder of Hippolyte Ballet was this :-that Castaing, who was not possessed of any private fortune, having been distinguished from his earliest youth, for a profligacy of conduct, which led him into the most ruinous expenses, determined to supply those expenses by murdering Hippolyte Ballet, by de stroying his genuine will, by forging another, and by selling the will so forged for a valuable consideration to his brother Louis Auguste. The circumstances alleged in proof of Castaign's A*

having poisoned Hippolyte were principally these:-1st, That he was his medical adviser, and, 17 days before his death, bought a considerable quantity of the acetate de morphine; secondly, that about that period he was much engaged in trying different poisons, and had conversed with M. Chevalier regarding those, whose effects were most likely to escape detection; thirdly, that on the evening of the day in which Hippolyte was taken ill, Castaing trumped up a story to Auguste regarding 80,000 francs having been promised by Madame Martignon to some individual, provided he could make Hippolyte's will in her favour valid, a story evidently invented to pave the way to his ulterior proposition to Auguste of procuring another will for 100,000 francs; fourthly, that, four days after this proposal was made, Hippolyte died, and that the symptoms, which appeared on his body being opened, were such as would ensue in case of an individual's being poisoned by the acetate de morphine as well as in case of his dying from an inflammation of the lungs. The motive alleged for the destruction of one will, and the forgery of another, was the same as that alleged for the commission of the first crime; and the proofs of it were as follows:-The existence of a prior will, well known to several individuals and admitted by Auguste Ballet and the prisoner;-the boast of Castaing to Auguste, that he had caused the suppression of one copy of it that was in the hands of Hip polyte, and his declaration in general terms, that the other duplicate must exist somewhere;-his subsequent assertion, on the evening that Hippolyte fell sick, that Madame Martignon, the testator's

sister, had promised 80,000 francs to the person with whom the will was deposited, if it was valid; and his avowal that he would take certain steps with regard to Lebret, the only person with whom it could be deposited;

the fact that no one was permitted to see Hippolyte during his short illness-the proposal of Castaing, within a few days after his death, to pay 100,000 francs to Lebret to destroy the will— Castaing's visit, on the day of Hippolyte's death, to Lebret, and a letter of Auguste on the same day for the immediate supply of 100,000 francs-the sale of Auguste's effects by his agent on the 7th of October to that amount, and his payment of that sum to Auguste, in an order on the Bank of France-the payment of that order at the bank in the presence of Castaing and Prignon-and Castaing's denial and subsequent confession of that circumstanceCastaing's subsequent visit by himself to Lebret-the avowal of Auguste upon that day to Prignon, that he had thrown 100,000 francs out of the window to succeed to his brother's property, and to Mademoiselle Percillié (his mistress) that he had done with Lebret, that he had gotten his brother's will, and that there was the seal of it;-his declaration to several witnesses, that he had paid this sum of 100,000 francs by the agency of Castaing, and Castaing's avowal, that it was all he could do to get Auguste to trust him with it;— the discovery, after great research, that Lebret's fortune did not increase a single farthing about this period, and that Castaing, who, a few weeks before, could not pay a bill of 600 francs, had lent his mother on the 11th of October, 1822,