The Sun.
London, England, 1870-06-16 00:00:00

BELGIUM

(FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)

BRUSSELS, Jane 12.

My attention was drawn a week since to a telegram in
the eak' Telegraph which informed the English public
that' rumours declaring that the Ministry would resign if
the King refused to ratify the order dismissing the Procu-
rator-Gdndral, were gaining ground. I suppose that many
readers are unacquainted with the cause of the Ministerial
crisis, and I will therefore make an attempt to explain it.
Langrand Dumonceau, well known in financial circles,
is a man who is said to have sprung from very obscure prigin,
and who, after filling the humblest situations in society,
worked his way up till he became agent of an insurance
company. As such he came in contact with some of the
heads of the clerical party in Belgium. Enjoying the
patronage of distinguished names, Langrand's schemes,
and the many financial establishments he founded,
drew the attention of all good souls in and out of the
country. Other names belonging to the highest gentry,
to the Court, and to the army were shining in the .hand-
bills, which were distributed all over Belgium and in
these were promised fair and enticing returns. Immense
sums flowed to him. There were some who did not
trust the scheme altogether, but they were won over bylthe
immense dividends said to have been paid to shareholders.
The main reason why Langrand was so favoured by the
clergy is stated to have been in consequence of his having
done some service on behalf of the Catholic faith at the
time of the Congress at Malines in 1863. He was then
Complimented in a letter from his Holiness the Pope.
Subsequently the clergy supported him, thinking his mo-
tives thoroughly sincere in every project he undertook.
And thus it was that after a time he succeeded in gaining
his great reputation as a financier. It was soon after the
formation of the soi-disant General Catholic Fund that
he disappeared mysteriously from Brussels. The first
_person to point' out the alleged fraudulent practices of
Langrand was Marwell, the editor of the Cote Libre. This
man denounced the financier, and called upon the Tribunal
to prosecute him. A preliminary investigation was ae-
cordinglyheld, but the financier was acquitted of all blame,
and no regular trial was proceeded with. Marwell then
accused the Tribunal of incompetency, and he was himself
afterwards ordered to appear before the court in the posi-
tion of a defendant. Marwell is a man who enjoys an
undoubted esteem ; he had no personal interest in the
, affairs of Langrand ; his name is highly respected "on
'Change" at Brussels, and being a native of Hungary, the
chief field of Langrand's operations, some say that he was

the better able to judge of them.
Langrand is a man about forty years old, and was born
at Vospen, South Brabant. In his youth he enlisted as a
soldier in Algiers ; returning from which place he became
clerk in an assurance office. He married a Miss Dumon-
ceau, daughter of a grocer at Brussels, whose name he
attached to his own, and he thus became Langrand
Dumonceau. The procedure resorted to by the specu- ,
lator is reported to be a scandal almost
without example in the financial world. Lan-
grand founded the Royale Beige with 3,000,000 f.
L'Ancre with 5,000,000 f., and other companies to
the amount of 50,000,000 f. All his companies were
highly praised at first by high authorities in Belgium,
including, it is said, unfortunately the clerical party.
It is stated, moreover, that while friendly with the Princes
of the Imperial family at Vienna, he was paying
out false dividends to keep his enterprises
afloat. It was while here that he founded the
International Company, with a capital of 200,000;000f.
Langrand has been in his time created Count of the Holy
Roman Empire, and Knight of some important Austrian
Order. Langrand has now gone to America, and it is
stated that he offers 100 per cent. to all who invest
their money in the mines of Agnemara, but those who
are alleged ,to have trusted the financier, say that
a donkey does not allow himself to be hurt twice by the
same stone. As I said before, • Marwell, editor of the
Cote Libre, accused Langrand Dumonceau, but the Pro-
curator-Gendral would not continue his prosecution of
the alleged defaulter, and thus great excitement has been
caused.
The jury acquitted Marwell on all points on the charge
of slander, and the verdict was received with immense
cheering. At the same time Langrand was declared
bankrupt, and it was expected that the Procurator-
G4ndral and the Procureur du Roi would tender their
resignation. During the proceedings it transpired that
the Procurator-Gen6ral had given a written guarantee
to Langrand, to the effect that if he would come from
Vienna to be heard as witness in the case he should not
be arrested ; it also seemed that the son of the Procureur
du Roi, Monsieur Hody, was employed as a clerk by
Langrand at a salary of 4,000 francs.
At the hearing of the charge against Maxwell, M. Jansar,
his counsel, ended his speech thus :—" Gentlemen of the
jury, on one side stands before you the Procurator-
General, who allowed M. Langrand to decamp ; on the
other side Marwell, in full conviction of his duty, and
certain that he objected against fraudulent unjust acts."

The Queen and the Princesses will leave Balmoral
for England on Friday afternoon.
Count Beust is slowly recovering. The Emperor
has paid him a long visit

The treaty of commerce with Spain will be signed
shortly; nearly all the difficulties which prevented its
conclusion having now been removed.

The body of a young man, named Kelly has been
ound lying on the road just outside Belfast. The poor
Fellow is supposed to have been murdered.

A. Middlesbro' correspondent, reporting the con-
tinuance of remarkable briskness and activity in the
North of England iron trade, says that puddlers are so
scarce that in some works a considerable proportion of the
furnaces are not lighted.

AN ARDENT CONSERVATIVE.—Mr. J. M.
Richardson, an auctioneer of Tunbridge Wells, made a
journey to the Isle of Wight, on Friday, in order to assist
in the return of Mr. Baillle Cochrane. This gentleman
has a qualification in more than twenty county con-
stituencies.

SUICIDE ON A RAILWAY.—Mr. William Henry
Edwards, a retired tradesman of Clifton, committed suicide
on Tuesday, at the Dawlish station of the South Devon
Railway, by throwing himself across the rails just as a
train was passing. His wife was by his side whenhe jumped
off the platform.
The Freeman's Journal says that a bottle con-
taining a card has been picked up at Castlegregory, near
the shore of the Maharees. It was stated on the card
that the Cunard steamer Aleppo was in a sinking condition.
The Aleppo left Queenstown on the 12th of May, for New
York. _ _

THE Ems INTERVIEW.—An Austrian journal, the
Vienna Presse, gives a new version of the much talked of
rencontre between the Russian Emperor and the Prussian
King at Ems. The matter under discussion was the mar-
riage of the Czar's second son to a young princess of the
Prussian Royal house, and the betrothal was finally
decided upon by the two monarchs.
JAPANESE RAILWAYS. Mr. George Preston
White, C.E., consulting engineer to the India Office, and
examiner for all appointments of engineers for India, has
been appointed consulting engineer for the Japanese
Government in the construction of the railways for which
the 9 per cent. loan of £1,000,000 has just been raised.
It is satisfactory that the Japanese in their first experi-
ment will thus have as much care exercised as if the works
were under British control.—Times.
THE CHARGE OF PERSONATING WOMEN.—Le
Nord says that Mr. Cumming, against whom a warrant
has been issued in connection with the charge of person-
ating women, went to Brussels immediately after the
arrest of Park and Boulton, and put up at one of the best
hotels. As, however, he had no papers, and could not
give evidence as to his means of existence, he was re-
quested to leave the country. The Nord adds that when
he was called upon he had his hair in curl papers, and that
portraits in which he and a friend were represented in
women's clothes were found in his rooms.
MELANCHOLY CANOE ACCIDENT.—A. Cattoo acci-
dent, resulting,
.there is every reason to fear, in the death
of Mr. Peter Rantoul, jun., of Glasgow, occurred in Loch
Long on Saturday last. Mr. Rintoul, it is understood,
left Dunoon or Ardentinny with the intention of proceed.
ing in his canoe to Arrochar, and he was observed about
noon in the middle of the loch, paddling his tiny
craft with great industry, there being a strong wind
and a heavy sea on at the time. Nothing more is known
to have been seen of him ; but about three o'clock in the
aftereoon the canoe which had evidently drifted ashore,
was found on the beach at Strone Toll, on the east side
of Loch-Long, some four or five miles north from the en-
trance to Lochgoil.
TORPEDO OPERATIONS.—An attack by torpedoes.
was made on Tuesday afternoon by the Royal Engineers
upon the wreck of the Golden Fleece, which has been for
so many months an obstruction in the channel way for
shipping off Sully Island, Bristol Channel. The charges
were in three iron cylinders, amounting in the aggre-
gate to 1,500 lbs. of gunpowder, and were applied to
a portion of the vessel immediately in froit.of the engines
A large quantity of timber was brought away by the ex-
plosion, and the general condition of the appearances dis-
played were such asto signify that the operation had been
successful, but no actual results can be recorded until a
survey by soundings has been made.