the
Chambre des Appels de Police Correctionelle. The Salle d'Audience is a
vast, chilly, and cheerless hall in which the appellant follows
anxiously the retrial of his case in the formal and dispassionate resume
of the magistrates. The president begins by interrogating him
courteously on his age, profession, etc.; then he says, with equal
civility, turning toward one of his colleagues: "We will now hear
Monsieur le Conseiller-rapporteur." One of the group of seven
counsellors thereupon proceeds to read a strictly legal and impartial
summing-up of the whole case, quite devoid of literary ornament or of
personal observation; when he has finished, the president, turning again
to the appellant, directs him to arise and interrogates him summarily on
the principal points of his affair. During this examination, the
counsellors, for the first time, turn their attention upon the
appellant, but very briefly, and then, like magistrates whose judgment
is quickly enlightened, resume the various occupations in which they
have been engaged. Then the president calls upon the counsel for the
defence; to him replies M. l'Avocat general. After these two orations,
pro and con, the president announces that "the court will now
deliberate;" all the counsellors rise, and, after some moments of
consultation in a circle behind the arm-chair of the president, retire
in procession into the Chambre du Conseil. This journey indicates that
there is a question of law to be considered. Otherwise, the decision
would have been rendered immediately, upon the spot.

[Illustration: SCENE IN RUE ROYALE DURING THE LABOR MANIFESTATIONS OF
MAY FIRST. ARREST OF A SOCIALIST CANDIDATE.

After a photograph.]

The poor _prevenu_ draws favorable auguries from this solemn
deliberation. But his hopes are generally dashed; the court, usually,
retires into the Chambre du Conseil only to correct the law, while
affirming the decree, of the lower court. The president re-enters, the
_dossier_ of the case under his arm, and followed by his six
counsellors; he proceeds to read the decision of the court, setting
forth that, while the reasonings of the lower court are entirely
erroneous, its conclusions are, nevertheless, irrefutable. Sometimes,
however, this court, called the "Chamber of Bishops" by Henri Rochefort,
demonstrates its judicial independence by overturning the decisions
brought before it, even though they may be sustained by the popular
verdict,--as it did in