Alfred de Rosann by G.W.M. Reynolds — page 33: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

20 Alfred de Rosann. of his client. He described the negligence of which the accused had been guilty in conducting his business—the investigation of his cir- cumstances, which took place in compliance with the judicious counsel iven by an old friend of his late father’s—the partnership between Fim and La Motte—the notorious indifference which he still mani- fested towards the details of his commercial speculations—the material fact that the whole business was left to the entire management of La Motte—the ignorance of De Rosann in mercantile matters—his occu- pations and pursuits so much at variance with them—his perpetual absence from the establishment—and the facility with which a design- ing villain might have taken him in. The lawyer, amidst a hum of approbation which ceased at a signal from the President, then proceeded to detail De Rosann’s version of the affair that had thus brought him before the court—the manner in which La Motte had made use of him as a mere tool—his intoxication on the night when the bills were fabricated —the circumstance of La Motte’s having desired a domestic to supply them with writing materials, and to retire for the night, as his services were no longer required—the certainty that La Motte himself negotiated the bills on the following morning, and decamped the day after—and, lastly, the contents of the letter despatched from Dover, which was in La Motte’s own hand-writing, and which proved that De Rosann was ignorant of the fraud attached to the transaction, till the receipt of the said letter. The counsel terminated his skilful defence by saying that if the evidence he had recapitulated in favour of his client were not sufficient to procure a verdict of acquittal, he sincerely hoped that the youth and inexperience of the accused might have their weight in lis side of the balance which a just judge and jury held in their hands. murmur of approbation followed this able defence ; and hope beat high in the breast of De Rosann, when the Procureur du Roi rose to reply. he public minister said that however negligent in his affairs the accused might have been, he must still have had some acquaintance with the principal transactions of the house—that the investigation into the position of his affairs, which took place according to the wishes of a friend, must have opened his eyes to the ruinous con- sequences of indifference and inattention to his business—that the partnership between him and La Motte would not have increased that inattention on the part of a young man of De Rosann’s known talent and abilities—that De Rosann had often been in La Motte’s private office —that it was fair to argue those visits were for the purpose of looking a little into his affairs—that however ignorant the accused might be of mercantile transactions, he knew enough to ascertain whether the books were kept in order, whether the receipts equalled the expendi- ture, and whether those receipts and expenditures were properly balanced—that no sensible man could conceive the possibility of the head partner in a large house not knowing whether he had a thousand or a fundred thousand francs a year—and that with regard to the continued absence of the aceused from his establishment, he, the Procureur du Roi, had already called evidence to prove that De Rosann was seen at least on ten different occasions in the private office of La Motte, the time he spent there being quite sufficient to COnicbooolks (GO)