Lowest in the scale of the courts of justice of the capital, but by far
the most industrious, is the Tribunal de Simple Police. Before it appear
the minor offenders against the law, those whose penalties, when
convicted, attain a maximum of fifteen francs, or at the very worst,
five days of prison. Usually, however, they range from about a fine of
three francs if the culprit appear before the court, to five francs if
he be condemned by default. The difference is not sufficiently great,
usually, to compensate him for the expenditure of time and trouble in
appearing, and he permits Justice to take her course without protest.
These offenders are usually hotel-keepers, shopkeepers, cab-drivers,
concierges, small proprietors, etc.; their crimes consist in neglecting
the proper sweeping of their sidewalks, in shaking a carpet out of a
window, in watering a window-plant too copiously, in putting up the
shop-shutters too late, in permitting the family dog to go about without
collar and muzzle,--crimes usually committed in honest ignorance of the
police regulations thus violated. As there exists but one Tribunal de
Police for the twenty arrondissements of Paris, we are not surprised to
learn that this court is the busiest one in France. The number of
offenders who appear before it annually averages from forty-three to
forty-five thousand.
But, as it does not sit on Sundays, Mondays, fête-days, and but three
days a week during the vacation, the total number of hearings amounts to
two hundred and forty annually. This makes nearly two hundred cases for
each sitting, and as the sittings last from an hour and a half to three
hours, the court has about one minute to devote to each case. To enable
it to dispose of them with this rapidity, it classifies the offenders,
and tries all those accused of the same offence at once. The Ministère
Public announces: "Are accused of violation of the ordinance of police
regulating public cabs: Pierre, Paul, Jacques," etc. From time to time,
a voice from the audience answers to one of these names: "Present!" This
roll-call finished, the Juge de Paix, who has marked on his list the
names of the absentees, reads these names again and condemns them all by
default to the maximum penalty. Then there is a second roll-call of
those who are present. The Ministère Public calls on all those who have
anything to say to come forward; two or three of the offenders advance,
stammer out some excuses which are scarcely listened to, and this second
list is condemned in a lump to the regulation minimum penalty. By this
simple process, the forty-five thousand cases are tried in the course of
the year.
The Tribunal de Simple Police is provided with apartments on the
ground-floor, almost in the basement, of the Palais de Justice, under
the stone arches that date from Saint-Louis, and where the atmosphere is
always damp, chilly, and sombre. The Juges de Paix, in addition to their
civil functions, are charged with sitting in judgment upon these petty
misdemeanors, and they take their places in the Tribunal alternately, a
week at a time. In addition to the Juges de Paix, the court is composed
of three Commissaires de Police, delegated by the Procureur général, who
fulfil the functions of the Ministère Public, one as Chef de Service,
the two others as Substituts, and of a Greffier en chef and of four
commis-Greffiers.
A grade higher in the judiciary scale is the Tribunal Correctionnel,
which sits in the wing of the Palais on the south side of the court of
the Sainte-Chapelle, and which occupies itself with what may be called
the bourgeois of crime and poverty. The sittings of this court draw so
many spectators that the visitor is frequently stopped at the entrance
by the Garde Municipal, who says: "_C'est complet!_" like an omnibus
conductor when his vehicle is full. Four Chambers are devoted to the
sittings of this court, two on the first floor, and two on the second;
on each of these stories is a Salle des Pas-Perdu. All these halls of
justice are thronged by such a compact and democratic crowd that one of
the attributes of the magistrates is a little flask of vinegar or
smelling-salts placed on the bench, by the side of the Code, before each
of the three judges of the Tribunal and before the Substitut. The
avocats do not enjoy this privilege, nor the Greffiers unless they have
been very long in the service of the court. Here, also, the pressure of
affairs is so great that the judges leave the bench, saying to their
consciences: "Well! those who are innocent can appeal!" The terror and
ennui of the law are, however, so great that but very few of those
condemned do thus appeal. One of the characteristics of this tribunal of
the Police Correctionnelle is the number of _avocats raccrocheurs_ who
infest it in the search for clients of any degree, and who seem to bear
a close resemblance to that unsavory class known in New York as "Tombs
lawyers," or "shysters."
In the rear of the Palais, looking out on the Place Dauphine, is 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 résumé
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 général. 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.