The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1851-07-29 00:00:00

A MAN SUFFOCATED IN A VAPOUR BATH IN PARIS.—
A few days since M. Labaidie, a wholesale wine dealer, of
Bercy, went to the Baines de la Samaritaine, on the river
at the foot of the Pont Neuf, to take a vapour bath, as
prescribed by his physician. It was the first bath be had
ever taken, and the man charged with the preparation of
it neglected to attend it. The unfortunate man opened
the valve by which the vapour entered, but was unable to
close it. The co:isequence was, that the steam rushed in
with extraordinary violence, and in a short time he was
completely suffocated. When touched the skin came off,
and he was, according to the expression of a witness,
"quite boiled." His widow brought a complaint before
the tribunal of correctional police against the waiter of
the baths, a man named Portimer ; and as it clearly ap-
peared that the accident had been caused by his gross
negligence, he was condemned to eight days' imprison-
ment and to the payment of 10.000 francs as damages.
His employer. M. Javal, was declared civilly responsible
for the payment.—Galignani's Messenger.
A ROMANCE OF REAL Luz.--The Princess Aline
d'E!dir, a royal daughter of the Mogul race, expired a few
days since in Paris, at the advanced age of 89. Born at
Delhi, in the Imperial Palace, her childhood was sur-
rounded by all the splendour of Eastern sovereignty. Be-
ing one day at play upon. a terrace of the palace garden,
which overhung the river, she slipped from the embank-
ment and fell in. Carried by the swiftness of the tide soon
beyond reach, she was mourned by her family as lost.
She was, however, picked up by fishermen, who, at the
sight of her rich attire and the jewels with which she was
adorned, immediately seized her as their prize and bore her
off to Chandernagor, where she was given into the hands
of the French, to be held as a hostage to secure the neu-
trality of her relatives in the war then going on between
the French and English. Meanwhile, the recal of the
Captain Bouchaud and Lafontaine, to whom she bad been
confided, caused her to be brought to France, where every
honour was paid to her, and every care taken of her edu-
cation. She was taken to court, and became an especial
favourite of Marie Antoinette, under whose auspices she
was placed in the convent of Mount Calvary, and where
she was baptised, the whole court, with the King and
Queen, assisting, in state, at the ceremony. During the
Reign of Terror, she was imprisoned for daring to belong
to an aristocratic race, and condemned to be guillotined,
having had her hair already cut for the purpose, when the
overthrow of Robespierre restored her to life and liberty
The Empress Josephine took especial delight
in her society, and Napoleon would often playfully declare
his intention of proceeding through Egypt to the conquest
of India for the express purpose of placing her on the
throne of her ancestors. On the restoration of the Bour-
bons, when intercourse was re-established with the East, a
petition was presented to Louis XVIII. for an inquiry
into the existence of her family. The result of this in-
qairy was the arrival in Paris of the Sheik Goolam-Moubi-
Oud-Din, sent by Fei-iaz-Ali-Khan, with express com-
mission to claim her at the hands of the French King,
and bring her back with royal honours to Delhi. Here
arose an unexpected difficulty. The religion she professed,
and in which she had been brought up, precluded all idea
of her ever being admitted back as a member of her fa-
mily. In vain was every promise, every inducement held
out ; nay, every threat resorted to, in order to obtain
even the semblance of a change. Her high soul rejected
with scorn the most alluring temptations, and she pre-
ferred! to live in the poverty and obscurity to which both
England and France, with the basest meanness and injus-
tice. had condemned her, rather than swerve from the
Christian faith. The East India Company, whose spoil
her rich heritage has become, has suffered her to die
without one single manifestation of interest, although ac-
knowledging her claim upon its generosity, and the small
pension allotted to her by the French Government was the
only resource which remained to her of all the greatness
and grandeur which she had formerly enjoyed. She was
a woman of remarkable talent, endowed with the most
lofty soul, and the most persevering love of humanity.
The Order of Virtue, of which she was the foundress and
Grande Maitresse, reckons amongst its members many
whose names stand amongst the highest in all countries.