The Sun.
London, England, 1854-03-27 00:00:00

TO THE EDITOR OF TIE SUN.

SIB,—As the son of a Prince who was born'in England,
I address myself to you, and request that you will have
the goodness to insert in your journal the simple account
of the events which have lately taken place concerning
me in France. Returning to this capital of the civilised
world, where the English people are happily governed by
just laws, I come to demand the protection of those laws,
to which, by the birth of ray father, the Prince Joseph
Louis of Gonzaga Mantua, I have a right.
Doubliess you know what are the misfortunes of
princes when calumniated and persecuted, Calumny
and falsehood are the weapons of their enemies, civil or
political, at home or abroad ; they are the resource of
the weak, of those who hate or of those who fear. The
more absurd and incredible these accusations the more
they are received and repeated. It is in this position
that I find myself. Men in France have denied me the
rights of my family that I have demanded for many years,
and brought me to an unjust trial. This trial, by the
circumstances and the character which it presented,
ever since my arrest at the instigation of the agents of '
Orleans and of Austria, is one of the most remarkable
instances of the injustice of the Parisian tribunals.
Since 1812 I have been received at almost all the Courts
of Europe with the greatest distinction, and treated by
all the sovereigns with the honour due to a deposed
Prince, the victim of Austrian policy. But none have
ever denied me' my titles, and the protestations which
I have renewed several times during more than 15 years
are proofs that I have not renounced the rights, which
I consider inalienable, to the possessions in France and
Italy which my ancestors, the reigning Dukes of Gon-
zaga, of Mantua, and of Castiglione, have left me as
heritage. . _

Amid my claims, I demand the private property,
valued at several millions, of the domain situated in
France, of Arche and Charleville, with their depend.
encies. This property was possessed by my family, and
assigned a peipetuite to our house, by letters patent of
the French kings; Henri 11. in 1550, Henri IV. in
1596, Louis XIII. in 1634, and in January, 1640; by the
decree of the Conseil d'Etat in 1645, and by Louis XI V.
in January, 1646 ; and also by several subsequent de-
crees. By the death, in 1708, of Charles IV. of Gon-
zaga, reigning Duke of Mantua and Montserrat, Prince
of Arche and of Charleville, &c., and by the death, in
1746, of the Duke of Gonzaga Guastalla, the branch of
Gonzaga Castiglione, which I represent, should succeed
to his possessions. The only heir of our family at this
period was my grandfather, S. A. S. Prince Philippe
Louis de Gonzaga Mantua, Prince of Castiglione, born
December 19, 1740, the son of Prince Francois de Gon-
zaga, Duke of Salferino. He was only six years old
when the estates devolved on him. He married at Lon-
don, on April 12, 1760, Princess Maria de la Cerda
d'Aragon de Medina Coeli, daughter of the Duke of
Medina Coeli, and he died young in 1762, and left his
hereditary rights to his only son, Prince Joseph Louis of
Gonzaga, my father, who was born in London, March
19, 1761. A Prince of Conde, our relation (by the mar-
riage of Jules de Bourbon Prince de Conde with the
Princess Anne de liaviere, daughter of Edward of
Baviere, Prince Palatine, and the Princess Anne of
Gonzaga Mantua) profited by the two minorities of my
grandfather and father, and took possession of our
estates in France as guardian. But my father always
claimed these private possessions. Since the tragical
death of the last Prince of Conde in 1838, the Duke
d'Aumale has taken possession. I have made several
demands for this property, even direct, to King Louis
Philippe. In 1844 I was in London, when the General
Count de Fernig wrote to me, from Paris, a letter dated
August 31st of that year, inviting me on the part and by
the eager desire of King Louis Philippe and his family
to return to France, promising me a secure future. The
most brilliant offers were made me. I believed then
that they wished to make an arrangement with me
about the possessions of Arche and Charleville, to avoid
a trial which might have revived unfortunate recollec-
tions, and recalled the circumstances of the death
of tne Prince of Conde. Confiding in these assu-
rances from such high quarters I went to Paris, but,
instead of fulfilling the promises made me, the agents of
Louis Philippe entered my house like brigands on Nov.
20, 1845, to seize all my title deeds and family papers, but
by an extraordinary providence my most important
papers were not in the house. Is it not evident from this
proceeding that they hoped to remove the possibility of
my ever proving my identity ? It was certainly a clever
manceuvre to forestall my demands for the estates of
Arche and Charleville, with their dependencies, which
had passed into the hands of the Duke d'Aumale, in
imitation of the means which Austria had taken to main-
tain herself in her usurpation of Mantua, Castiglione,
&c. Since that time the agents of Orleans have joined
themselves to the Austrian intrigue, and have established
wherever I am a system of defamation, of calumny, and
of falsehood respecting me. They employed spies, intri-
guants, and libellers, and prescribing them their tasks
they combined their attacks to prevent me by this sys-
tem from claiming my hereditary possessions in Italy,
and the immense fortune which the Duke d'Aumale appro-
priated after the death of the Prince of Conde.
In 1849 I lived in Rome, from whence I wrote to the
President of the French Republic, asking him to examine
my hereditary rights to the possessions which I had
claimed for a long time in France. Here is the reply :

" Paris, March 27, 1849.
" Presidenee de la Republique, Cabinet No. 109.—T0

the Prince Alexandre of Oonzaga at Rome.

" Prince,—The President of the Republic will examine
with serious attention the claim which you make to the
tion necesstta UPaactulkitaitik;ratticlf coqbefore having a reply.--Agitez, Prince, &c,
" Le Chef du Cabinet.
(Signed) " MAIIGART."

On February 28th, 1852, I arrived in Paris from
Italy, with a passport en, regic, and on March 16th I
received a letter from Count Roguet, aide-de camp of
the Pfince President, in which he announced to me, by
order of the President, that I should have an audience
•n March 18th, at the palace of the Elysee, and that
this letter would serve me for introduction. After this
audience, I made a request, full of details, about my
heritage which I claimed in France, which I sent to
Count Roguet, for him to remit to the President of the
Republic. Here is the reply of Count Roguet :
" Palais de l'Elysee, March 25, 1852.
" To his Highness the Prince Alexandre de Gonzaga.
" Prince,—l hastened to place before the Prince Presi-
dent the note which you did me the honour to address to
me on March 24. lam happy in having the opportunity
of showing the pleasure I feel in serving you, and beg you
will consider me quite at your service.
" I am your Highness's most humble servant,
" Le General de division Aide-de-camp, &c.,
(Signed) •` COUNT ROGUET."

Since then I have constantly had communications
with General Count Roguet. The spies and agents of
Orleans and of Austria had carefully observed my pro-
c,:ediugs at the Palais de l'Elyse, without my having
observed it. On May sth of the same year, I received
the order of the police to quit France, without giving
me a reason. I went the same day to General Count
Itoguet to ask him if this was by the order of the Presi-
dent, or if it was with his knowledge. He replied that
it was the first he had heard of it, and that the Presi-
dent knew nothing of it ; but he promised me to speak
to him of it, and in waiting he told me that I might re-
main in Paris without uneasiness. Having his word I
remained. On July 23d of the same year, at the time
when the President was at Strasburg, the agents of
police came to my house with the excuse of making a
search to see if I had any arms or ammunition con-
cealed. Not finding any, they took from me the
legalised copies of my documents, and the copy of my
request to the Prince President on the subject of Charle-
ville. Then they ordered me to follow them to the pre-
fecture of police, and there they arrested me on the charge
of being a prince without a principality, of distributing
decorations, of making protestations on the subject of
sovereignties in Italy that Austria possesses, and
of reclaiming proprietaries in France belonging
to the Duke d'Auinale. The agents of police
who arrested me were the very same who came to
me in 1845 to look over my papers. Every one
knows that the police have two journals at their
command for the purpose of defamation ; they are the
Gazette des Tribuiteaax and the Droit. From this pe-
riod I can affirm that certain persons in the Administra-
tion gave the immoral and sad spectacle of their in-
confinement. Everywhere menaces,
famy during my
seductions, and denunciations, and intimidations of
every sort ; calumnies, sometimes stupid and oftentimes
ignoble, emanated from men who were cowardly and
vile. All the subordinates and spies were on the alert ;
for the rest, the public will be able to judge to what
point the scandals and intrigues of this trial were car-
ried in Paris. I will here cite three among the worst
of the intrigues. First of all, Stankiewiz, an old Polish
priest, declared that he had known me. For his
having given this testimony they menaced him until
he retracted it, even going so far as to take away
the subsidy he received from the police as a refugee.
Secondly, a Polish officer, Chruielinski, who also de-
clared before a public meeting at Paris that he had
known me in 1827, and other years, and constantly cor-
responded with me besides. For this evidence he was
arrested and put in prison, until he had retracted what
he had said in my favour. Finally, they made several
attempts to persuade my wife, an English lady, to aban-
don me to them, by offering her as much money as she
desired. This proposition was renewed a few days be-
fore my liberation. Like a true English lady she was
indignant at the wickedness of this proposition.
An examination took place, which lasted for six
months, during which time I remained a prisoner at
the prison of Mazas. During this time a certain ex-
amining magistrate, named Brault, wrote to all the
diplomatic agents, to all the Governments of Europe, to
the police of Austria and France, who, for the most
part, are still attached to the Orleans family, to endea-
vour to establish by false reports thift lam not the
Prince Alexandre de Gonzaga. This anxiety, whose
minuteness is without precedent, proved nothing
except his bad intentions.
On the day of the trial they condemned me on the
simple declaration of some Polish refugees, ex-officers
who receive the subsidies of the police, who said they had
not known me in the Polish army, although I produced,
through my advocate, M. Avoud, all the papers relating
to my family, my genealogy, my certificate of birth and
•f baptism, and my proofs of military service, and the
attestation of Baron Walchter, the Minister of Wurtem-
burg, on my naturalisation of 1833 at Stuttgard, and
the attestation of General Trezel, in which lie declares
that, in 1840, in his position as Director-General of the
War department, he wrote to me, by superior orders,
offering me the rank of Colonel in the foreign legion in
Africa. I also produced the attestation of General de
Lamarre, who declared that, "in 1850, at Rome, he had
been witness that the Commander of the Staff, Corbet,
recognised the Prince Alexandre of Gonzaga, whom lie
had known on the staff of Marshal Ney in 1813." Ge-
_
noral Buoy also declared that ho had known me in the