The Sun.
London, England, 1847-09-02 00:00:00

THE CASE OF THE DUKE DE

PRASLIN.

COURT OF PEERS.
PARIS, AuG. 31.
The Court met yesterday at two o'clock.
The Chancellor commenced the proceedings of the
day by reading the following report :
" Report made by the Chancellor of France, Presi-
dent of the Court of Peers, at its sitting of Mon-
day, Aug. 30, on the present state of the previous
examinations in the case before the Court, made in
execution of the tecree of the 21st of this month:—
" Gentlemen,—An account is due to you of the
exercise of the powers you placed in my hands at the
moment when you were charged with the duty of in-
quiring into and judging the author or authors of the
execrable crime committed on Wednesday, Aug. 18,
upon the Duchess de Praslin. You were charged
with the investigation of this attempt, on the pre-
sumption, unhappily too well founded, that it was
committed by her husband, the Duke de Praslin. No-
thing had been neglected for the accomplishment of
your intentions, and for the discovery of the truth on
every point. The time which has elapsed since the
Duke de Praslin was placed under your jurisdiction
has not been of long duration. Brought into the prison
of the Luxembourg on Saturday at five in the morn-
ing, in virtue of the warrant which I issued in the morn-
ing of Friday, and which could not have been executed
ooner for the reasons I have given to the Court, his life
was not prolonged beyond the fourth day of his en-
trance into that prison. Judged and condemned by
himself a few hours after the perpetration of the
crime, he took a dose of arsenic too considerable for
his existence not to be quickly destroyed by this cor-
rosive poison. He expired on Tuesday, the 24th, at
half-past four in the afternoon, seven days and a halt
after the moment when, with an atrocious barbarity,
he immolated the most innocent, most pure, and most
interesting of victims. These few days, however,
were sufficient for the examinations commenced by

the ordinary magistrates, and afterwards followed up
in the name of the Court of Peers, to expose, in all

its nakedness, his culpability and the accumulation of
horrible circumstances, which at every instant more
clearly demonstrated it. As it is important that the
Court should have a full conviction that its President
.and such of the Peers as were joined with him have
done all that was in their power to attain this end,
and also to prevent as far as possible the consequences
of the resolution which the Duke de Praslin has exe-
cuted himself, I have thought it necessary to have
printed and distributed to the Peers a collection of
all the proceedings on the examination, from the mo-
'tient it was commenced till that of the death of
the Duke de Praslin, followed by the proofs of his
death, and, as regularly as it could be acquired, the
cause of that death. Among all the numerous proces-
verbaux and the numerous interrogatories of which
this collection is compsed, there is not one document
that does not come to the same point—that does not
with greater or less evidence prove to a demonstra-
tion the real author of one of the most horrible acts
to he found in the annals of crime. The Duchess de
Praslin was murdered by her husband, to whom she
had given ten children, of whom nine are still living
—to whom she had brought, with all the gifts of
nature, those of the most cultivated mind, elevated
soul, and affectionate heart. Her illustrious origin
was equal to that of her husband. Ido not speak
of the magnificent fortune which she had added to his,
and of which she was worthy in every way by the
use that she knew how to make use of it when she
had the means, and by the acts of charity inspired by
the principles of the holy religion with which she was
penetrated. This angel of goodness has fallen. Words
would be wanting if I were to attempt to describe
to the Court the feelings inspired by the discoveries
which I made during the afflicting researches which
it had ordered me to make. It appeared to
me, and my colleagues shared my opinion, that the
best mode of conveying to you the ideas which I have
been able only very feebly to express in this short
statement, would be to place under your eyes at least
a portion of the letters written by Mdme. de Praslin
to the very person who was so unworthy to receive
them, and some 'of the reflections and meditations,
the expression of which is contained in a small num-
ber of writings, the precious remains of the emana-
tions of one of the purest minds ever created by God
for the honour of all times and all ages. These do-
cuments form part of the collection of which I have
just spoken, and which has been distributed to you.
If the Dnke bad not been his own judge, this collec-
tion would give to_ those who should take the pains to
read it the means and the right of judging in their
own consciences with the equitable severity from
which the remembrance of him will not escape; and
if this collection is to remain an eternal monument
of the perversity of one of the greatest criminals
that ever lived, there will arise from it, at the same
time, the consolatory reflection, that by the side of
the most Curious passions of the most perverse men
Providence has frequenly placed in all ranks and all
classes the most angelic virtues, wishing thus to grant
to humanity a sort of right sometimes to turn away
the eye from the perversities which afflict it, and per-
haps also to solicit for them a little mercy. Who, in
fact, can doubt, after having read the letters and
writings of the Duchess de Praslin, that her soul is at
this very time entirely engaged in appeasing, if it be
possible, the anger of Heaven against the man who
was her assassin, but who had also been the father or
her children ? I turn, gentlemen, from these natural
reflections to enter on the recital of some facts which I
must fix your attention. I have not to give you a
report of the prosecution of a criminal, who is no
longer before you for judgment, as regards what
principally concerns you. The death of even the
most guilty man puts an end to all the proceedings of
justice ; hut there is an important point which cannot
he too deeply entered upon. The rank, the fortune,
the position of M. de Praslin in the world, placed him
In a sphere where the perpetration of a crime, such as
that which has been c,antiiitted on the person of his
wife, seemed more incomprehensible; but on that ac-
count the example of such a crime in so high a sphere
has something in it frightful to society at large. We
cannot, therefore, help thinking that it was to have
been wished that the reparation should have been
as striking as the crime. sever could the prin-
ciple of equality, in the eye of the law, have been
more justly called for, and you would not have failed,
in your judgment on M. de Praslin, to act on this
principle. There are, however, persons disposed to
think that the desire that such a criminal should not
be subjected to the ignominy of the punishment which
awaited him—as if ignominy depended upon the pu-
nishment, as if it were not the inevitable consequence
of the crime itself as soon as it is proved—that the
desire, I say, of sparing him this ignominy had in-
spired the idea of furnishing him with the means of
escaping it by self-destruction, and thus avoid the in-
fliction of death by the hands of the public execu-
tioner. On this point the following are the results of
the most thorough investigations, confirmed by the
report of the medical men, of whose capacity and
sincerity there can be no doubt. M. de Praslin (if
we are to believe the words addressed to him by the
Grand Referendary on the morning of the 24th, atter
the visit of the physicians who bad predicted his
death, had brought arsenic from Praslin,
where he always had some, for the destruction
of vermin, and had used it on his person in the
course of the 18th, when he saw that he was the ob-
ject of the investigations of justice. The plans which
he had conceived, and on which reposed without
doubt his hope of sufficiently concealing the crime
upon which he had resolved, were all defeated by cir-
cumstances which it will be easy to perceive in the
collection under your eyes. Finding himself over-
whelmed by the appearances of a conviction from
which he could not escape, he immediately, without
doubt, adopted the determination to use the poison
with which he was provided. He thought, according
to all appearance, that the effect would be more prompt
than it was. He certainly took this poison iu the
course, of the Wednesday,. either a little earlier, or a
little later, but in such a way that the evacuations
which it would produce, considering the dose that he
had swallowed, began at 10 at night in a way
night
and the following day were very h!_l_d
evacuations had ceased at the end of Th
Aurspdhayy:
but were succeeded by great
sician of great ability
forwho but, did not arrive
whaed naTnded him
and his family, was. sentda
y Notwithstanding the
till the morning ofdll:h
inquies enter! intuor,sand.w.which appeared to be
veryserious, he did not recognise the symptoms of
poison, but thought he discovered in the
the patientremedies
those
of an attack of cholera.
usually prescribed in such cases. The rest of that
day and the following night were passed most pain.
fully, but in the morning of Friday his condition
seemed to be ameliorated. Having already invested
myself with the power conferred by the royal onion-
nae rendered the day before, and which had just
reached me, I thought myself bound, al out the
middle of Friday, to call in Dr. Andral officially, to
examine most minutely the state of M. de Praslin.
Dr. Andral immediately came to him and examined
him with the greatest care. hut from the improve-
meat which had taken place he was not ab!e
to discover the true cause of the evil. At
my desire he went again to the bedside of
the patient, and on his return assured me
that his removal to the prison of the Luxembourg
might be effected without inconvenience. It took
place, in fact, on Saturday at five in the morning, and
in the course of the day I was able to interrogate him
in the presence of the Peers, who had accepted the
charge of aiding me in so laborious a tack. That
examination will be found in the papers before Y? 4,11,3"
Although a complete avowal did not, during tt e
whole length of it, pass the lipsthe
i,
absence of all formal denegati of the accused,on, even w en
option between a yes and a no was formally given
tune
estate
him, might well pass for an avowal.
This examina-
tion could not continue anyoth of time •
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