Culprit, Origin of the Word

Long ago I made this note, that this much used English word was of French extraction, and that it was "*qu'il paruit*," from the short way the clerk of the court has of pronouncing his words; for our pleadings were formerly in French, and when the pleadings were begun, he said to the defendant "*qu'il parait*"—culprit; and as he was generally culpable, the "*qu'il parait*" became a synonyme with offender. [Does not our ingenious correspondent point at the more correct origin of *culprit*, when he speaks of the defendant being "generally *culpable?*"]