The Sun.
London, England, 1846-04-08 00:00:00

N
APRIL 8 1846.

A STEAMER RUN DOWN AND ALL

HANDS LOST.
On Tuesday intelligence was received at Lloyd's, report-
ing the loss of the Waterwitch towing steam-vessel, be-
longing to Leith, with all hands, by coming in collison with
a schooner, on the night of Saturday last, at the entrance of
the Frith of Forth. The Waterwitch, which was a large
sized tug, having two engines of twenty-five horse power,
left Leith early in the evening, with the intention of pro-
ceeding to sea, in the expectation of meeting with a vessel
that required to be towed up the roads. At half-past,
eleven o'clock she was observed abreast of Ofscar rocks, at
the entrance of the Frith, by the Vintage from London, a
schooner heavily laden, which was beating up for Leith.
The master of the schooner, Mr. Anderson, in his report
of the accident, states that they saw the steamer a short time
before, and the impression on their minds was that those on
board her could not have kept a good look-out, other-
wise they would have avoided the dreadful consequences that
ensued. She had a usual signal light, and was steaming at
full speed in the direction of the schooner. Mr. Anderson
and his crew hailed her, and exhibited a bright lamp. No
notice however seemed to be taken, and before there was
time to bring the vessel to, both struck with terrific force.
The schooner heeled over considerably, 'and, for a moment or
two, it was feared she was sinking. The pumps, how-
ever, showed all was safe, although she bad sustained much
injury, the steamer having carried away covered boards, bul-
warks, and rails. Soon after the vessels had got clear, those
on board the Vintage were alarmed by cries from the
steamer of " For God's sake, help, help I we are
sinking!" They instantly put about in the direc-
tion the cries apparently proceeded from, but the steamer
had disappeared, and they saw only a quantity of wreck
floating about. They therefore supposed that she must have
foundered immediately after the collision. The schooner was
tacked about for some considerable time, in the hope of pick-
ing up some of her crew, but, not meeting with any, she
pursued her passage to Leith, and on her arrival reported
the occurrence to the Navigation authorities and Lloyd's
agent. Since then the wreck has been discovered lying in
fourteen fathom water, within a short distance of the Ofscar
Rock. That her crew met with a watery grave there cannot
be a doubt; they were, it is reported, six in number—Mr.
Pydre, the master, who partly owned the ill-fated vessel,,
two seamen, a fireman, and two apprentice boys. Mr. Pydre
has left a widow and children. The seamen were married,
and have left eight children destitute of support; but it is
the intention of several benevolent persons to raise a sub-
scription in their behalf.

PRICE SD.

PRINCE ALEXANDRE DE GON-
ZAGA, ET DE MANTOIJE.
• (Translation from the French.)
TO HIS EXCELLENCY AL GUIZOT, MINISTER FOR FOREIGN
AFFAIRS TO HIS MAJESTY THE KING Or THE FRENCH,
AT PARIS.
Sir,—Although the policy of your actual Cabinet requires
certain concessions towards Austria, and the acquiescence of
this power in the views of France relative to the Spanish
question, may ultimately tend to the establishment of the
Orleans dynasty in Spain ; notwithstanding these considera-
tions, and many others not less evident, I should not suppose
you would wish to render your Government responsible for a
most audacious robbery committed in my house, No. 78, Rue
St. Dominique, Fauberg St. Germain, Paris, the 27th of No-
vember, 1845 (after my having resided eight years in France),
by the French police, at the instigation of some agents of the
Austrian Government, with the intention of carrying off my
passport, and all the private documents in my possession, my
birth-rights, and those of my family; also printed books, en-
gravings, decorations, seal of my secretariat, and every
article on which the name of Gonzaga was to be found.
Although providentially my most important original
papers were not amongst the booty they carried off, I pro-
test that I will not allow any such unjust attack upon my
interests, and the principles I publicly announced in my pro-
testation of the 26th of April, 1843, addressed to all the sove-
reigns of Europe.
I demand the restitution of all the objects indicated, more
for the advantage of your Government than my own, for it
is evident that the intrigant employed in the direction of this
plot must have attached considerable interestin tvheer
eposses-
sion of these documents, to debase himselfsoas
to
h
a
to the pitiful and unworthy means employed
police; and very little consideration for e
g ist
ty ofsuba thelte
French nation to trample under foot the laws ofhilscountry,
and the sacred rights of hospitality towards a stranger and
an exiled prince I
It is not in this manner your French exiled princes have
been received in the civilised countries of Europe, when de-
prived of their territories or possessions, they sought a tem-
porary home in a foreign land ; for myself I had still less
reason to expect such a breach of hospitality, having been
led to believe, from the proofs I had received from the King of
the French and the Duke d'Orleans, and also the assurances
of a soi-disant friend of the Royal Family, of whom I intend
to speak presently, that the sympathy of the French Govern-
ment was most entirely mine.
I demand by what right the French police (said to be for
security) makes an attempt upon private property? By what
right is my residence violated, by a troop of persons forcing
their entry into it without my permission? By what right
is the Charte (I suppose on the laws of the constitution)
Constitutionnelle violated by an abominable attack on pri-
vate property? By what right is the honour of the French
nation outraged? What authority exists in France to put
a stop to such heinous offences, and repair such wrongi?
The Minister de l'lnterieur at Paris, to whom a complaint
was immediately addressed after the shameful attempt above
alluded to, declared himself to be in complete ignorance of
the whole affair. Even at the Prefecture of the Police, M.
Nabon de Vaux, at first extremely insolent in his expressions,
acknowledged that an agent from the Austrian Embassy at
Paris had been the cause of what had taken place; he ex-
pressed his regret at so great a violation of the rights de
citoyen, and at the unjust means employed by carrying off
the passport given and renewed by the order of the Minister
for the affairs of the interior during so many years. Indeed
he offered to return the passport, and added that all the arti-
cles seized would be restituted at the end of the week ; when,
to my surprise and indignation, I learnt that, instead of ac-
complishing this promise, a M. Monval, police-officer, had in
his possessian my papers, &c., and that afterwards he was
boasting of having carte blanche for large sums of money at
his command, and a "mission (I cite his own words) de de-
monitizer le Pt ince de Gonzaga." It appears that his carte
blanche extended very far, for, disappointed at only having
carried off copies of the original documents, and only one ori-
ginal act, of little importance signed by the Russian Govern-
ment, this police-officer took upon himself to come with
seven men, at seven o'clock in the morning on the 24th of
December, 1845, before it was daylight, and force open the
door of the apartment where the Princess was sleeping, and
to seek in every part of the apartment for me, when, in order
to place my original papers in security in a country where
the authorities respect the laws, I had left Paris for England
thirteen days previously.
Thus, although my name has never been mentioned in any
political association er party; without having the possibility
of extorting even the slightest reproach from the authorities
of the French Government at Boulogne, Dieppe, Rocheim,
or Niederbronn, where I fixed my residences in order to oc-
cupy myself entirely with the Princess's health ; without its
being in the power of any one even te claim obole from after
a residence of eight years in France, a French police-officer
finds himself invested with the character of executioner for
another Government
This fact is still more serious, forming a chain of evidence
which will prove-Ist, that since my protestation, already
mentioned, there have been five attempts made to obtain the
documents which I,h had offered to present in a Congress of Sove-
reigns, or a Council ofMinisters, composed of the representatives
of the five great Powers, in London, and that the names of
the persons employed by the Austrian Government are
known who are implicated in this disgraceful undertaking.
2dly, that I had no intention of returning from London in
1844, to fix my residence again in France, had it not been
that my counsellor, Count Fernig, a general in the service of
his Majesty Louis Philippe, King of the French, invited me in
the most express manner to meet him at Dieppe, announcing
in his letter that my future prospects would be assured by
this step.
This same Count Fernig came to pay me a visit at Bou-
logne two years past, offering to place himself at my entire
disposal with the utmost devotedness; wishing that every-
thing should pass through his intervention in my affairs, and
that he should be entrusted with the execution of my slight-
est wishes. He assured me that his Majesty Louis Philippe
and the French Government interested themselves greatly in
my cause, as being perfectly in alliance with the interests of
France! that it was quite in conformity with the views of
the French Government that I should grant the Order of the
Redemption to the French. In definitive, and to abridge as
much as possible details into which I am obliged to enter,
during the last two years, not a step has been taken except
in concert with the Count, under the firm conviction that we
were supported by the King and his Government. In -the
month of November last I went to Paris, the Count Fernig
having assured me that it would be gratifying to the King and
Queen, and other members of the Royal Family, that the
Princess and myself were presented at court, when the veil was
removed, and, to our extreme astonishment, the Count Fernig,
whom I had welcomed as envoys from the King of the
French, proved to be a friend of the Austrian Government.
I have already declared, and I repeat, that so far from
wishing to recede from explanations, I am happy to give any
required that are in accordance with my dignity; but Aus-
tria, who acts always in the most dark and treacherous man-
ner, not daring to deny openly either my person or my rights,
is indefatigably occupied in spreading covertly, by her emis-
saries, doubts and calumnies regarding me, ever since my
mother, the Princess Gonzaga, born Princess Esterhazy, died
in 1836.
I have hitherto despised these false reports, trusting to the
evidence of my private and public life, the latter almost ex-
clusively military, to speak, as facts must speak, for them-
selves; but it is time that the truth should assert its
rights in the midst of such wilful deceptions, and it is time
that historical facts, which Austria perverts wherever her
power can be exercised upon the press should be presented
to public opinion in their reality.
I am, by the grace of God, Prince de Gonzaga Mantoue
Castiglione, heir to the Dukes of Mantua and Guastaila, de-
scendant in direct line from Charlemagne, and a long succes-
sion of Sovereigns,, who have reigned in Mantua since 1328,
when Louis 1., de Gonzaga,was elected by voxpopoli Sovereign
of Mantua, as your actual Sovereign was elected in 1830
King of the French ! My country is Italy ! By the mar-
riage of my grandfather, his Serene Highness Prince Philip
Louis de Gonzaga, in England with the Princess de Medina
Cecil, in 1760, and the birth of my father, his Serene High-
ness Prince Joseph Louis de Gonzaga, in 1761, I have the
privileges as an Englishman which the laws'of England ac-
cord under such circumstances. By the marriage of my
father, first with the Princess Susoff Countess of Murzynowski,
the title of Murzynowski was added to the other titles of our
family; by his second marriage with the Princess Juliana
Madelina Esterhazy, in 1791, he had three sons, of whom I
alone am the survivor.
I, Prince Alexander de Gonzaga, &c., was born at Dres-
den the 12th of November, 1799, and was baptized at Wola
by the desire of my
.father, according to the inclosed act.
I was naturalised in the kingdom of Wurtemberg, in 1833,
with the permission of his Majesty the Emperor of Russia,
and Lieutenant-Colonel in the service of Poland, but in
Russian Poland, as I observed to the Prefecture of Police at
Paris. Notwithstanding this explanation, and knowing per-
fectly that my last military service was in Spain until 1838,
the chief of the office for foreigners, chose to continue to in-
scribe my name on the list of Polish, instead of Spanish re-
fugees. Although, to say the truth, he had no right to en.
title me otherwise than citizen of the kingdom of Wurtem-
berg until 1842, when I offered the demission of my services
as subject of the King of Wurtemberg preparatory to my
protestation in 1843, claiming my rights as a Sovereign
Prince.
For the last six years I have been travelling about inde-
pendently, and without having experienced any molestation
with my passport, delivered by order of the Minister for the
Affairs of the Interior at Paris, given by M. Delessert, Pre-
fect of the Police, with the quality Spanish general, the
passport signed, as usual, at the Office for Foreign Affairs.
How then, Monsieur le Ministre, without informing your-
self to what extent you might compromise your King and
his Ministers in their different correspondences with me since
the year 1838—without making any reference to the letters
written until 1840, your Government qualifying me Spanish
refugee, as I certainly entered France as such on my arrival
from Spain in 1838—how, I repeat, could you venture into
the crooked policy of the interior of a prefecture of police at
Paris, and allow yourself to acquaint M. de Kesseleff, Charge
d'Affaires of Russia, at the moment I was reclaimieg some
copies of documents from his Government, not wishing to
displace the originals, that I could only be considered as a
Polish refugee? Those persons who thought proper to make
use of you to be the interpreter of this falsehood, have ontmenti,
et gravement menti! and have not even the pretext of igno-
rance, for my protestations have been sufficiently.made
known in the public papers and in all the Courts of Europe.
Does the French police pretend then to be unaware that I
arrived in France about the same time with many other
Spanish officers, after having served in the army of Don
Carlos in 1837 and 1838? I admit, that whilst waiting for
some money I expected to receive from my family, that I
accepted a trifling sum of 80 francs from the Office for Stran-
gers at Paris. I offered to reinabourse this sum at the office
at the end of the two months, for which space of time it was
given. This does not then appear to be a sufficient motive
to excuse the wish of metamorphosing me into a refugee of
any nation ; nor for you, Mbnsieur le Ministre, to adopt in-
consistently a misrepresentation which has net common
sense. It is truly a clearly purchased hospitality, I may
flay;
I have received from the French autlim Wes, on arriving kreoenp
the Spanish frontier as a Prince and officer of rank, to
give
my sabre and two pistols, worth 30,000 francs, and
to
King of
me an allowance of 80 francs. The Secretary
of
answer the
to my
the French had written to me in 1840, i
re-
clamation of these articles, that the Min
of the Interior was entrusted with this affair,
d the
until Affairsnow
I have not received them. request, and to
I profit by this opportunity to reiterate
hospitality
should have
been so treacherously offeredto my
express to you my regret that FrenchFarPan.rince whose ancestors had
e_er
France.
If part with France andr f
are s.ufficiently forgetfulto of what is
If some Frenchmen
owing to themselves
,and their countrymen eagoavgeerninent
fill intrigues of another
them-
selves in the disgrace
shame upon them'
A 4 to myself, firm in what I know and feel to be my rights,