M. Labori.—“Has not the witness refused to testify as an expert in the present trial?”
M. Crépieux-Jamin.—“That is a proof of my honesty and my independence. If I had been a paid agent of the Dreyfus family, I would not have refused. When I was approached about this matter, I answered: ‘Thank you; I am a physician and a dentist, not an expert in handwriting.’”
M. Labori.—“If I am well informed, the witness declined to testify for motives of prudence?”
M. Crépieux-Jamin.—“Yes; I am not particularly fond of having my windows broken. In the first place, I am not a professional expert in handwriting; I am only an amateur. When I was asked for a first report, I gave it, because it suited me to give it. When I was asked for a second, I refused, because it did not suit me to give it, and because I saw danger in doing so. I did not want people to come to me and say: ‘You have done such and such things; hereafter you shall not fill our teeth.’”
The witness being asked if the photographs shown him by M. Teyssonnière resembled the fac-simile in “Le Matin,” he answered:
“It is inconceivable that any one should deny it. A fact is a hard thing to kill. Sooner or later the time will come when the original photograph of the bordereau will be in the hands of everybody, and then the persons who have declared these fac-similes to be false will see that they have been guilty of an impudence which lays them under suspicion.”
M. Labori.—“What is the difference between the official photographs and the fac-simile?”
M. Crépieux-Jamin.—“The difference is slight. It is more or less marked, according to the copy of ‘Le Matin’ that you happen to get. In my opinion, that newspaper had several plates. One of these plates must have received a blow in the lower right-hand corner that crushed a few of the words. The rest is so typical that there is not the smallest difference. Besides, if there is any forger here, it must be the sun, because these things are obtained by purely mechanical processes. One must be ignorant of the methods of reproduction to say that a plate has been altered. You can no more alter a plate of this kind than you can alter a photographic plate. What retouching process could it have been submitted to? It would have been necessary to efface entire words, and replace them with other words. But, I repeat, facts have a long life; they have time to live, and the truth that I am telling you will be very plain one of these days.”
Testimony of M. Paul Meyer.
The next witness called was M. Paul Meyer, director of the Ecole des Chartes, member of the Institute, and a professor in the College of France.