The Sun.
London, England, 1847-08-27 00:00:00

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LON )')N, FRIDAY, AUGUST 27, 1847.

On Tuesday evening the Duke DE CHOISEEL
PRASLIN committed suicide while confined in the

prison of the Luxembourg. This, we take it, is a
conclusive testimony that the deceased nobleman was
in truth the 'murderer of the mother of his nine chil-
dren.. He bras escaped the avenging hand of Justice,
he has hurried before a more awful Tribunal than
that of hriman authority, he has plunged into the
mysterious abyss of Death, after imbruing his bands
in his o'Nn.blood and in the blood of his wretched
wife. 'The departure of a miscreant covered with a
guilt so tremendous must mar-e one shudder, but
oanzt,st inspire any right-thinking man with in-
plirration to follow the spirit of the de.o with :ex-
pressions of indignation. There is a sangity Nen

in •the death-chamber of the assassin—even over the

,cadaverous corpse of the suicide—which bushes the
-voice of wrath, and reminds us that the power of man
is impotent before the majesty of the grave. Years
hence the tale will be told bow the Duchess DE
Cuotssux. PaAsmx was killed by the hand of her
I:tti.sband-; the sleeping apartment in the hotel Praslin
will possibly be shown as " a place accursed" to those
who are yet unborn ; the print of the bloody hand
upon the wall will tell of the struggle of the poor
lady in her last agony, and will attest the spot in
NiOuldh the deed was perpetrated, like the stains upon

the floor of Holyrood , or the broken flag-stones in

the dungeon of Berkeley Castle. With ourselves,
however, this horrible occurrence must be associated
'filth very different considerations. The self-destruc-
tion of the 'Peer who, within the last fortnight, has
rendered the name of an august family infamous, and
covered its. survivors with shame and desolation;
makes it i ncumbent upon us to turn from the imme4
diate acte I% in this domestic tragedy, and scrutinizEi
the cone uct of thOse persons who were morally
responsi Me for the life of the accused and for the
expiatic in of his crime in the event of his conviction.
That; the Government has been most culpable in
permitting the Duke DE PRASLIN to escape the igno—
.

minies of a trial and execution is beyond all denial.
It were an insult to the common sense of the
peoPlf: for the authorities to pretend that
the suicide was a casualty which occurred
wholly and entirely without their connivance.
Every circumstance that has transpired since the
fatal morning of Wednesday, the 18th instant, has
betrayed the willingness of the Government, or
rather of the subordinate officers of the Government,
to facilitate that catastrophe which has just deprived
the ducal murderer of an existence which had be-
come loathsome and unendurable. AVe cannot, of
coarse, distinctly assert that poisons were con-
veyed to the Duke DE PRASLIN at any direct in:liga-
tion:l from a high quarter, or that the transmission of
that instrument of death was under the express per-
mission of his official guardians, but we must most
plainly and emphatically pronounce our conviction
that indirectly the authorities have been accomplices
in the suicide—that opportunities must have been
intentionally afforded—that precautions must have been
wilfully foregone—that efficient remedies must have
been purposely neglected. These inferences are ine-
vitable from the facts that have transpired. Why, of
itself, is it not a most suspicious particular, that
during his life, when in confinement, the Duke DE
CHOISEUL PRASLIN is treated as one who had swal-
lowed laudanum, and after his decease it is disco-
vered that he had saved himself from the bar and
the scaffold by a dose of arsenic ? Antidotes
are administered for laudanum, when they should
have been antidotes for arsenic, and yet some of the
most distinguished physicians in Paria were
summoned to the aid of the criminal in the
prison of the Luxembourg ! how is this be-
wildering and anomalous fact accounted for ?
Why the Journal des Debars endeavours to explain
the circumstances away by an extravagant assertion
that a phial-bottle was discovered in the dressing-
gown of the deceased assassin, containing the dregs
of a poisonous draught compounded of arsenic and
laudanum together! This is a mere prevarication, a
mere quibble to hide the damning complicity of those
who should have appeased the popular indignation by
visiting upon the head of the Duke DE PRASLIN the
penalties of a crime which would inevitably have
brought the head of a coalheaver or an artizan to the
axe of the guillotine.

That the occupants of the Chateau should abhor
the notion of the execution of a Peer so noble
by birth and position as the Gentleman of the Bed-
chamber to Madame la Duchesse D'ORLEANSf 15 very
conceivable. They must instinctively have shrunk
from such a supposed profanation of the aristocracy.
In yielding, however, to this sentiment of repug•
Dances the Government of France has involved itself
in a grievous and perilous dilemma. They have di-
verted upon themselves that popular indignation
which was concentrated upon the suicide and
the murderer. Public opinion has been so far
roused in the metropolis, that it must by some
means. be appeased. The people are not to be
cajoled in their fury ; their rage has been enkindled
recent evidences of crime, and
by the many
licentiousness, and depravity among the higher
classes of the community..avit Thmatustcrimbee,
expiated,
or Ili-
centiousness,
that depl.ll -b'e very sudden and
or the consequences
very appalling. Fr fiance not in ' the mood to be
ava trifled with ; it has been trifledsNriutphtioofn,
late
nd too
en
re-
peatedly by the disclosure of corruption,
lity, and perjury, and debauchery,
anidleblcooridssishedi
among its rulers and its princes.
coming ; it has been hastened by the supreme ruler
and the loftier minions of the Tuileries. Let
them thank themselves for the consequences
of their schemes and their policy; let them remember
that a nation enforces retribution when retribution is
evaded ; let them call to mind their vicious acts in
Spain, in Switzerland, in Portugal, and in the very
precincts of the Tuileries ; let them hear in recollec-
tion the unnatural friendship contracted between
France and northern absolutism ; and let them, in
the hour of their more selfish remorse, curse the day

when they permitted the suicide of the Duke
CHOISEUL PEASLIN.

The proceedings of the Court-martial assembled
Portsmouth on Wednesday, for the trial Jou
CONNOR, a seaman of the Agincourt, 72 guns, fi
striking his superior officer, are worthy of the mo
serious attention. We do not complain of the dec
sion of the Court in awarding the sentence of an ign
minious death for a blow, and not a very severe or

struck in the heat of passion, occasioned and aggr
vated by drink. Indeed, they had no option, a)

when they declared the charge fully proved, the

were bound to adjudge at the same time the extrei

penalty, the Act by which such courts were

lowed a discretion as to the nature and quantity

punishment in similar cases, not coming into opera

tion until the Ist of January next, and their earne

recommendation to mercy sufficiently prove
that if it had been in their power, the

would have ordered a milder and more sui

able punishment. We do, however, strong ly
object to the Draconic severity of a code that could
not only sanction, but render imperative, such a
sentence for such an offence. It should not be pe
x.
mitted to exist in a civilized and Christian land. A.
slight alteration has, undoubtedly, been effect( )d,
during the past session, but it was by no meat Is,
adequate to the evil, affording a discretion to tilt
court, but it being still authorised to pass such a
sentence, if the majority of the members of which c it
might be composed should decide thereon.
character of the various provisions may be estimate :el
friam that under notice ; and we do not hesitate t
say that the entire of the Articles of War should be'
thoroughly revised, and the most extensive change
effected therein.