The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1847-08-31 00:00:00

ay that Narvaez

gestion of
The

of the Queen's-righ

THE MURDER OF THE DUCHESS OF PRASLIN.
The Paris papers of Sunday week confirm the account
of the attempt made by the wretched Duke of Praslin to

COMM

found in his bed-room

has not

d the third had contained the
Tirdr. rt

an end to his exist(
preven

now taken to

recurrence of the

attempts. The agents of the
where the Duke is confined.

never leave t

permission from.aqiigh quarter that the Duc de Praslin
obtained the means of putting an .end to his most
wretched life. It is impossible, with every desire to be
credulous, to attach much credit to the statements, put
forth on ,authority, of the manner in which the duke com-
mitted suicide. Up till the account -we ,publish to-day
it was generally believed that laudanum was the particular
poison he had employed. He was represented as having
swallowed the fatal draught at his own house. The most
eminent physicians in Paris were called in to administer
remedies, but until yesterday evening we heard nothing
of any doubt as to the nature of the particular poison.
More than this, no mention was made of this attempt at
self-destruction until after he had been in the custody and
under the watch of the police. On referring back to the
accounts which we published from day to day, it will be
found that there was no talk of poisoning at all until the
Itduke had been put under careful surveillance. M. Allard

and his agents are not men from whose vigilence it is easy
to escape. The prisoner could not have moved or
breathed without their connivance or_ permission. We
can have no doubt that the Duke de Preslin swallowed
poison •on two occasions. The 'first time was at his own
house; and when he had been recalled to life by the
efforts of the physicians it was necessary to call in, the
means•were furnished him of repairing his first failure in
his cell at the Luxembourg. We have but little doubt
that en the first occasion the duke swallowed laudanum ;
on the second arsenic. An explanation put forth by the
Journal des Desbats, that after his arrest a phial was dis-
co•eered in the pocket of his dressing-gown, which had
contained a mixture of laudanum and arsenic, appears
.utterly incredible. Do men ordinarily comminele these

poisons ? No :it was necessary to explain away the
laudanum in the first, and the arsenic in the second in-
stance; and, therefore, the idea was devised that the duke
swallowed a mixture of the two poison•. In order to free
Chas f••-`,

zee uovernment from suspicion, it oeen turther de-
clared•.that the swallowing of this compound potion took
place at a period antecedent to the arrest of the duke.
The farts, however, do not stand so, or all the accoul is
we 1• Iti st be incorrect. With re-

nave receives hitherto mus,
gard /to the second dose (if a second dose was indeed
taken,) it must have been in the prison of the Luxem-

eyed. agents, that the-potion Was taken. Can we, Then,
resist the conclusion that, in permitting. the prisoner an
act_of•se4f-destruction, M. Allard was acting upon high

authority ?
If this be so, we much doubt whether the government
have been well advised in permitting the prisoner to es-
cape from the sword of justice.
Weextract the following from the,Patrie of Wednes-

day evening :
The Duke of Praslin died in consequence of arseni

journal. It is not said who pre

poison, and at s

moment

thy of credit, the circumstances of the morning of the
18th. 'The Prefet of Police and M. Allard, the chief of
the police de .s.Vrete, arrived at the Hotel de Sebastiani
about half-vast five in the morning. The commissary of
police of the quarter and his agents were already in the
chamber where the dead body was lying. The Procureur-
General, M. Delangle, arrived about six o'clock. The
Duke of Praslin was there, going and coming from one
room to another, and expressing his surprise at the mode
in which the murderer could have entered the house.
After M. Delangle had carefully examined the localities,

he declared in an energetic Manner that the
had not come from outside, it being most evich

belonged to the house. The Duke-of Prasli
on hearing M. Delangle express himself thus
nutes after the Procureur-General addressed

tions to the Duke, which intimated the direction Which
his suspicions took as to the author of the crime. The
Duke became then of a cadaverous tint, and his agitation,
his altered features, and his general bearing, showed to
those present who ought to be considered the murdere,'
fit*',.mag'

the moment the examining .strates and tn. _
cureur du Roi entered, the Duke of Praslin disappeared
immediately. He went to an upper floor on which was
his bedroom. It is thought, with reason, that it was
at this instant that finding himself suspected he swal-
lowed the poison. About three hours elapsed when the
Procureur-General had expressed a suspicion. From that
moment the complexion of the Duke became yellow ; this
was the result of the poison. The disorder in the organiza-
tion augmented visibly when the Procureur du Roi told
the Duke what overwhelming charges there were against
him, ' Confess that you are guilty,' said the Procureur du
Roi--` confess that you have assassinated your wife.' The
Duke looked at the magistrate, and concealed his face with

tude of

,sassin

if not for society, you

are bound to speak the truth
makes this a duty.' The Duk
trate, and appeared as if he was going to conic
hut suddenly he_turned round, and said, ' l

the honour of your fa-m

Decidedly ; I

cannot say that
The Procureur-

General i

ited, but the Duke would not

reply a single word. From this moment the Duke was
rigorously watched. Dr. Louis and his habitual physician
endeavoured to combat the effects of the poison, which in
consequence of the over-dose did not produce immediate
mortal 'overed

poisoning

THE COST OF ItHE VAR TO AMERICA.—SIX months
ago, before the battles of Vera Cruz, the advance to Puebla,
or the despatch of reinforcements, the costs of the war
were stated in Congress by a calculating senator to ap-
proach 30,000,000 of dollars. By the same estimate the
marketable value ofCalifomia was set down at 15,000,010.
The French colonies, seeing the rapid strides public
opinion in the mother country is making in favour -of
slavery emancipation, have resolved to meet the wishes of
their countrymen by taking the initiative in the question.
The Colonial Council of Guadaloupe has addressed a pe-
tition, to the King, in which it declares that it is anxious
to join in preparing the way for emancipation, and that it
has appointed a committee to prepare a complete and safe
plan for the total abolition of, slavery.

FATAL ACCIDENT AT GENEVA.—A most lamentable
event took place last-week at Geneva. The Rev. Edward
Auriol, rector of St. Dunstan's in the West, Fleet-street,
was on a tour through Switzerland with his wife and son,
a youth of about 17, of the most amiable disposition,
their only child. They arrived at Geneva in the begin-,
ning of last week, and were planning an excursion on the
lake. The morning after their arrival, the youth, with
his parents' consent, went out for a stroll before break-
fast. Unaware of the peculiar dangers of the place, he
got into a boat on the lake, was drawn into the current,
hurried down the rapids of the Rhone, and totally lost.
He was a youth of great promise, and obtained a scholar-
ship and the theological prize at the Midsummer exami-
nation at King's College, London, in the present year.
A Colombo Times, extra, of the 15th July, (Isle of
Ceylon,) contains a very alarming rumour with regard to'
the relations of this country with China, and one which
derives considerable probability from the recent rash con-
duct of Sir John Davies, the governor of Hong Kong.
The report is, that the attack on the Bogue Forts had
roused a desperate spirit of hostility against all foreigners,
but especially the English, and had led to a general ris-
ing of the people of-Canton against them. The report
further states that the consuls bad been compelled to leave
Canton, and that the Europeans were preparing to follow
them. The above news is said to have been brought to
Colombo by the Haddington steamer, which received it
from the captain of, a vessel who had been despatched to
Calcutta for troops, to reinforce the garrison of Hong
Kong.
PUBLIC THANKSGIVING FOR A BOUNTIFUL HAR-
VEST.—Gottingen, Aug. 10.—A beautiful scene was pre-
sented in our fields on Sunday last. In the midst of the
greatest abundance of corn and other fruits of the earth,
many of our congregations, in the thankfulness of their
hearts for the extraordinary bounty of Providence, as-
sembled for the purpose of Divine worship under the open
canopy of heaven, to return special thanks to Almighty
God for the manifest proofs of his beneficence which sur-
rounded them on all sides. Wonderful, indeed, is the

change which has taken place here within the last few
months. The people who were then wandering, and in

vain seeking for employment, are now all full of life,
health, and activity, the reapers and threshers are every-
where at work, the mill going day and night,'and an air of
thankful enjoyment pervades every countenance. Corn
has fallen ; wheat, which was 3 dollars and 20 groschen
above the average price, has now fallen to 1 dollar and 20
groschen below it. The remembrance of so much mercy
in the midst of judgment will, we trust, lead the nations
of Europe to a thankful recognition of the love and wisdom
of God, of the obligation to live up to their blessings and

, .
EXTRAORDINARY CASE OF ABDUCTION AT MALTA.—
A very singular case was tried ,on the 11th of August,
before Judge Grunge, at Malta. The plaintiffs were
Misses Sophia and Mary Ann Cannon, who keep a school
at Valetta, the defendant Mrs. Emma, the divorced wife
of George Savage Curtis, Esq., of Teignmouth, Devon;
and the action was brought to recover possession of Miss
Ellen Curtis, a daughter of the two latter. The young
lady, it appeared, had been confided with two sisters by
Mr. Curtis to the care of the plaintiff, with strict injunc-
tions that they should hold no communication with the

mother, the young ladies themselves signing a formal
document to that effect. On the 6th of August, one of
the plaintiffs, with the three Misses Curtis, were crossing
in a ferry-boat from Valetta to Sheina • to their astonish-
ment they were pursued by a man-o-war's gig, com-
manded by Lieut. Baker, of the Ardent, and which con-
tained Mrs. Curtis and her maid, who, it appeared, had
arrived under a fictitious name from Southampton two or
thrE

days before. The crew of the gig grappled the boat,
xnd Miss Ellen Curtis, who is only 19, was induced to
step on board to see her mother, but said she would not
stay, when the boat set off.—After the case had been fully
argued by the counsel, and the fact proved that Miss
Ellen Curtis was a minor, the court gave judgment in fa-
vniir of 41-In rslnin+;fro nnTl,lOl,-,2-41-1, M.O Pllrt ic to dr.livsztv

wt. ua ualc 1.1.MUC111111116 .11Z. VIAL LJo La,
up to them the young lady, to be by them re-conducted
to their dwelling, there to remain under their charge until
such time as Mr. Curtis, the father, might think proper
to give other directions.—An appeal against this decision
was fixed for hearing on the 16th August.