The Sun.
London, England, 1870-10-19 00:00:00

THE SUICIDE OF DELESVAUX.

EVERY day fresh proofs are forthcoming to shew
the utter corruption of the Second Empire. Some
days ago the French journals published the details
of an intrigue in which a high judicial officer acted
as the agent between the EMPEROR and his mistress—
details so scandalous that English journals with a
regard for decency have not published them. To-day
another story is forthcoming wanting these
erotic incidents, and therefore fit for publication. A
few night ago Judge DELESVAUX, who had been the

terror of journalists under NAPOLEON 111. committed
suicide in Paris. Seeing a light in his room at a late
hour the judge's valet went in and found his master
writing letters, and his usually rubicund face
looking deadly pale. The valet advised the
judge to go to bed, and received a sharp dismissal
for his reply. Some time later he was summoned
by his master, who gave him the letters he had
written, and said that no one was to disturb him.
A. few minutes afterwards the report of a pistol was
heard, and the servants rushing into the room found
that the judge had destroyed himself. It was not
surprising that he had done so. This judge,
who had been noted for his reserve and the solitary

life that he led, had been noted, also, for the rigour
of his treatment of offenders against the press law.
If the EMPEROR wished to get rid of a troublesome
journalist, he could always reckon upon the aid of
M. DELESVAUX. It was not necessary for the offence

to be proved; it was not necessary
for it to have been committed. It was enough
that the defendant should be accused ; he
was sure to be convicted by this official. How was
it that he was always to obliging ? His salary was
miserably small, scarely enough to pay for the
glasses of beer that he used to quaff in the boulevard
estaminets. It now turns out that he was paid by
the job, and that the job did not consist in
trying, but in convicting a prisoner. Mora than

that; his reward was in proportion to the amount of
the punishment inflicted; the fine, or a portion
of it, which he imposed went into his own pocket.
Thus he bad a direct personal incentive not only to
convict but to punish severely. If he were ever
inclined to clemency the thought that his pocket
would suffer checked all sach weakness. There was
no need for the EMPEROR to refuse to relax the Press
Law when he had such a tool as DELESVAUX
to enforce it. It might pacify the Libe-
rals to make concessions to the journalists
in theory ; but NAPOLEON could be sure that
DELESVAUX would nullify all such concessions in
fact. The conspiracy has now been brought to light.
One conspirator still lives in royal state at Wil-
helmshohe, fbr the author of the coup d'etat was not
likely to feel compunction at this late period of his
career. The other conspirator, shut up in Paris, unable
to escape from the scorn and the vengeance. of the
men whom he had wronged, has found life intoler-

able, and has sought refuge from shame in death.
It is not the first suicide to which the events of the
past three, months have given rise. The two first
victims of the war into which M. OLLIVIER entered
with a light heart fell beneath their own hand near
Norwich and at Washington. The English banker
who found himself ruined by the financial
panic which the war induced, the French ambassa-
dor, whom the fierce summer heat and political
disappointment at the collapse of Liberal institutions
in France, drove to despair, deserve our pity. For
this corrupt judge DELESVAUX we cannot feel any
such emotion. For him and for the master who
could make use of such as him we can find only con-
tempt. Western Morning News.

TOPICS OF TIIE DAY.

LORD PENZANCE ON NEUTRALITY.

Lord Penzance gives his high authority in support
of those who aie adverse to binding neutrals by
too many conditions. His lordship questions

the propriety of putting any check on the free course
of trade, whether in arms, blankets, or anything else,
on the score of neutrality. In his eyes, blankets for
the Germans outside Paris might prove of just as
much assistance to the one enemy as the supply of
rifles to the French within the city. He argues that
thorough neutrality would best consist in the ob-
servance of a policy by which neither of the belli-
gerent Powers would reap a benefit which would be
due to an act or intervention of the neutral Legisla-
ture or Government. It might be allowed,
however, that a natural course of trade
should be sanctioned, but left to itself in
its operations. Attempts at special legis-
lation for the preservation of neutrality have not
hitherto been crowned with success, and therefore,
although Lord Penzance does not affirm that all
such legislation should be avoided, he holds that
experience has shown us that its limits should be
carefully watched. He is not blind to the fact that
there is a great difficulty created by the acts .which
attempt to successfully draw the line between the
fitting out of a naval expedition, and the mere sale
of a ship for war. The existence of such a difficulty,
however, should make us chary of taking new steps,
and obliterating the line altogether. At the same
time, as we cannot achieve a real neutrality by
destroying our trade with belligerents altogether,
Lord Penzance intimates that it might be the best
policy for the Government to ref use, at least in more