To chronicle any events of the Zola trial is not within my province but to write letter just now and not mention the subject would resemble going to see the play of Hamlet and finding the Prince absent and riy under-study provided. I suppose that for many years no case has excited such universal interest. Wherever tone goes one hears the names of Zola and Dreyfus and one's opinion is asked as to the merits of this strange case. Personally I think one year's imprisonment and a fine of 3,000 francs is a very heavy penalty for interfering with another man's affairs, hut of course the general opinion is that it' was not so much the supposed miscarriage of justice in this one particular case as the mode of procedure in criminal prosecutions in France against which Zola was waging war. That he has for the present is roved by Wednesday's verdict. Probly his failure is owing partly to his mode of procedure, as reforms are rarely effected by using Janguage which may possibly be regarded as libellous; but like the great Napoleon he is a man who will not easily own defeat and probably when his form of imprisonment is over he will renew the attack—only lot us hope on some better thought-out plan.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.