LXXV. Le procès-verbal
LXXV. The Judicial Inquiry
Turkey's government is reshuffled after Riza Pasha's dramatic fall, while Mexico prepares for war over Texas annexation.
- Sultan Abdülmecid stripped Riza Pasha of his decoration on the spot and expelled him from the Seraglio after the disgraced prime minister fell into a swoon; his fortune of 40 million francs was confiscated within hours.
- Mexico's government was secretly mobilising 30,000 troops toward Texas and reinforcing Vera Cruz, expecting Congress to declare war the moment Texas voted for U.S. annexation on 4 July.
- A French and English naval force landed 350 men at Tamatave, Madagascar, suffered 17 dead — including 3 French officers — when a concealed fort opened fire, and the Hova defenders then mutilated the dead and displayed their heads on pikes.
- Queen Victoria spent her German holiday at Rosenau château near Coburg dining at four in the afternoon, strolling parkland without sentinels or iron railings, while 1,100 local schoolchildren — some costumed as Scottish Highlanders — paraded before her.
- Jean Rouquette, convicted of drowning his own son in the Lot river, mounted the scaffold at Aveyron still protesting his innocence to the crowd, crying "Pray for me — I am innocent" before the blade fell.
- A Belgian charlatan cured a woman's sciatica by having assistants hold her over burning brandy and gunpowder for an hour; the public prosecutor exhumed the corpse and confirmed she had been grilled alive.
- Knife-grinder Auguste Maginot, hearing his second death sentence for murdering his wife and attacking her sisters, turned to the courtroom and stammered "I thank the company — but justice —" before gendarmes dragged him away.
- A benefit concert at the Hôtel de Ville on 4 September for Monville flood victims will premiere several unpublished works by Félicien David alongside a scene composed and donated by Gaetano Donizetti specifically for the occasion.