The Express.
London, England, 1866-09-25 00:00:00

EXPRESS FROM PARIS.

(nom oua OWN CONIN6POND/24t.)

PARIS, MONDAY Eywawa.

Count Baciocchi died yesterday evening. The
last visit paid by the Emperor before his depar-
ture to Biarritz was to hie bedside. The deceased,
a relation of the Emperor, one of his most inti-
mate friends, and for many years the chief com-
panion of his private life, was a Corsican, born at
Ajaccio in 1803. He was the son of Count Francis
Baoiocchi, a colonel of the noble guard of the
Grand Duchess of Tuscany, Eliza Bonaparte, who
married his cousin, Prince Baciocchi. Prince
IBaciocchi created a fief (or inajorat) worth 8,0001.
a year in favour of Prince Louis Bonaparte (now
Napoleon III.), with remainders to Prince Napo_
loon and Count Baciocchi, but on condition that
the owner of the fief should take the name of
Prince Baciocchi. As it did not suit either the
Emperor or his cousin, Prince Napoleon,
to comply with these conditions, Count Baciocchi
would have had the estate but for the
I unfortunate circumstance that it is situated in

Romagna, and Romagna at the time of the death
of Prince Bacioochi belonged to the kingdom of
Italy, in which fiefs are abolished. The late count,
therefore, never claimed his inheritance, and as ho
had a considerable private fortune, and largely
enjoyed the Emperor's bounty, he did not greatly
feel the loss. Count Baciocchi passed his early as
well as his latter years in the atmosphere of a
court. At the age of eight he was a page of his
aunt, the Grand Duchess. In 1814, when 11 years
1 old, he returned to Corsica, and was afterwards

sent for his education to Pisa and Aix.
Italian was his native language, and his
friends say that he never spoke with per-
fect ease in French. A friendly biographer,
alluding to his intimacy with the Emperor,
says of him :—" He scrupulously kept, without ap-
pearing to feel their weight, the most important
secrets. The tendency of his nature was to conceal
things which others would have divulged from
vanity. His knife and fork was always laid at the
Sovereign's table, and he was admitted to the pre-
Bence at all hours." From 1836 to 1848 he was
employed as a secret emissary of the Bonaparte
family to various courts. The King of Wurtem-
-1 berg took a great liking to him, and conferred upon
I him several decorations. He was wont to tell a
story how, when on a mission to St. Petersburg in
1836, he was set down to a gaming table where
stakes were played which, if he had had three
lad Bards, would have stripped him of all the funds
for his travelling expenses. He was arrested after
the affair of Boulogne, but released for want of
!sufficient evidence to establish his complicity with
Louis Napoleon. In 1848 he was appointed colonel'
of the National Guard of Ajaocio, but he left
; Corsica the moment Louis Napoleon was elected
President of the Republic, and ever since remained
attached to his person. He entered the Elysde as
an orderly officer of the President. After the coop'
d'itat he was sent on a mission to Egypt, Tunis,
and Constantinople. ♦s soon as the Emperor
formed an imperial household he was created first
chamberlain, superintendent of court entertain-
ments, court music, and the court chapel, and in
1883 he was appointed to the post of superintendent-
general of theatres. But in addition to his osten-
sible functions he was in reality a minister and often
a more important minister than any with a recog-
nised portfolio. Every day after breakfast he laid
before the Emperor a report upon a great variety
of matters, and no man about the court was so per-
manently influential. He was the most decorated
Rua in Europe, unless, perhaps, M. Rioord, the
Specialists doctor, and Dr. Evans, the American
dentist. He, however, surpassed them in the

quality, if not the number, of his decorations, for
he had eighteen grand cordons. Not only the