The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1842-07-19 00:00:00

AKATiI OF Tfl

PIMP; 0? MILFANg

Au extraferdinary eloresc from Paris, dated six o'rh,ick of;
Wednesday afternoon, containing the afflicting intollioice
of the death of his Royal highness the Duke of Orleans,
eldest son of his Majesty the King of the French, reached
London on Thursday night. The Paris correspondent of the
Morning Chronicle, writing on Wednesday afternoon, says,
" A serious ttcpident happened to the Duke of Orleans this
morning on his way to Neuilly. The horses in his carriage
took fright, and proceeded at such a fearful rate that the
Duke, becoming alarmed, threw himself out, and fell on his
head. He was immediately conveyed to a neighbouring
wine shop, where he was bled, and his medical attendants
have reported favourably. It is said the accident to the
Duke of Orleans is more serious than at first supposed."
The Times correspondent, writing two hours later, thus
announces a catastrophe which plunges the Royal family of
France in the deepest affliction :—" His Royal Highness the
Duke of Orleans was thrown from his cabriolet in the Bois
de Boulogne, about twelve o'clock, and although no danger
was apprehended from the accident at first, alarming symp-
toms appeared afterwards, and the Duke breathed his last
about half-past four o'clock."

The duke has left an infant heir to the throne of France,
and as in the natural order of human life, Louis Philippe
cannot live many years, there is the sad prospect of the
dangers which threaten the probability of a long minority in
France. The Sun of Thursday states—" All France rejoiced
when the Count de Paris was born ; yet, had the Duke of
Orleans died childless, the Duke of Nemours, his brother,
would have succeeded him as heir-presumptive to the
throne, and thus the alarming prospect of a regency in a
kingdom so unsettled as France, could not non- stare every
European statesman in the face. We are unwilling, at such
a moment as this, to mix up politics with the relation of so
distressing a catastrophe, but not to regard it in a political
as well as in a private point of view, is to overlook its
importance to England as a nation. Nothing can be
more momentous than the time when this calamity,
has befallen France. Happening at the close of an elec-
tion in which the capital has declared itself hostile
to a Cabinet anxious only to maintain the peace of Europe,
without detriment to the honour and interest of France, it
cannot but give an impetus to the spirit of disaffection, and
rekindle the hopes of those who have been labouring for
years to overthrow the Orleans dynasty. For ten years
have they been predicting that the Monarchy of July would
descend to the grave with its Royal founder, Louis Philippe,
and this sad accident will appear a partial realization of such
predictions, which cannot but work dangerously upon the
imaginations of the more ignorant and more sanguine Revo-
lutionists. In whatever light we view the death of this
young, amiable, and accomplished Prince, we see in it the
cause of much apprehension—of much sorrow to Europe."
The Duke of Orleans was born at Palermo, on the 2d of
September, 1810, showing him to have just reached the age
of 32 at his death. His mother, Marie Amelie, the present
Queen of the French, is daughter of Ferdinand, King of the
Two Sicilies, and whom Louis Philippe espoused at the time
that he was wandering abroad as plain Duke D'Orleans.
The departed Duke was one of a family of seven children,
to whom Marie Amelie has been ever warmly attached. The
Duke de Nemours, Louis Philippe's second son, was born
at Paris, on the 25th of Oct., 1814.
__

In the attempt to assassinate the King on the 28th of
July, 1835, the Dukes of Orleans, Nemours, and the Prince
de Joinville rode together • the young Duke, however, es-
caped ; Nemours' horse, and that of the Prince, were both
wounded, but not severely.

The Duke married on- 30th January, 1837, a Princess of
the house of Mecklenburg Schwerin. The marriage was
celebrated at the Palace of Fontainbleau, and in the splendid
gallery of Henry the Second. By this lady his royal high-
ness has left two sons, the Count of Paris, born August 24,
1838, and the Duke of Chartres, born November 9, 1840.

(From the Moniteur Parisien.)
A frightful catastrophe—a misfortune which all France
will deplore—has to-day happened. At noon, his Royal
Highness Monseigneur le Duc d'Orleans, who was to have
started this evening for St. Omer, went to Neuilly to take
leave of his august father. At the end of the Chemin de la
Revoke, the horses of his carriage ran away. The prince
leapt from the door, and received a most fearful fall. He
was raised from the ground in a state of perfect unconscious-
ness, and was borne inao a neighbouring house. Medical
aid was given—a vein was opened—leeches were applied—
but all was in vain. At four o'clock the prince was dead.
The king, who was to preside at the cabinet council in
Paris, had quitted Neuilly. He arrived at the spot where
the accident occurred when the prince was being raised.
His majesty was accompanied by the queen and Madame
Adelaide. One may well imagine how heart-rending a scene
that melancholy renconter occasioned. M. le Baron Fain
left immediately to announce to the ministers assembled at
the Tuileries, the event which had delayed the arrival of
the king. The ministers started immediately for the purpose
of being near his Majesty. The body of the Duc d'Orleans
was placed on a litter, and carried by soldiers to the chapel
of the Chateau of Neuilly. The King, the Queen, Madame
Adelaide, and M. le Duc d'Aumale, followed the funeral
cortege on foot, attended by a batallion of the 17th Light
Regiment. Their duty drew tears from the soldiery. Be-
hind the litter, mingling indiscriminately with the members
of the royal family, followed the ministers, officers of every
grade, and citizens of every class, who had collected on the
first tidings of the catastrophe. Several clergymen, who
also followed the cortege, repeated prayers for the royal dead.
The prince was alone in the carriage. The carriage, called
the demi Daumont, parried a tambour in front, which came
off and struck against the horses. The startled animals ran
away, and the postilion succeeded in stopping them when
they had run about 40 paces. But the prince had already
fallen. The death of the prince is attributed to the dislo-
cation of the dorsal spine. The king gave orders to Gen.
Rumigny to depart for Plombieres immediately, where the
Duchess of Orleans then was. This evening the theatres are
closed,

(From the London Times.)

Amidst the terrible and fa,tal series of calamities which
have stricken the royal house of France, none have fallen
more suddenly on that devoted family—none have flung a
deeper gloom over the future destinies of that country—than
the accident which has cost the life of Ferdinand of Orleans,
the heir apparent to the throne. * * * * An aged king
414 an infant heir seem to belong to the most trying periods
of Frenpb history—periods indeed infinitely less trying than
that which awaits the copa now ; for even amidst the dis-
turbances and the e-;cesses of former regencies, the person of
the sovereign was sacred, an the traditiunal principles of the
royal authority were inviaate. At the present time it is
needless to enlarge on the importance of the highest personal
qualities, the resolution of manhood, the experience of life,
and the authority of a mature reason, in the ruler of France.
The history of the last twelve years, and the character of the
present king sufficiently prove that no weaker prince could
have surmounted the frightful difficulties of his position.
* * * * It is, of course, premature to speculate on the
arrangements which may be hereafter contemplated by the
French government. The royal family is happily not wanting
in members of an age and character to support the dynasty ;
but the heir apparent is an infant, and, in human probability,
the supFpme power* most pass into the hands of a ffgOnt upon
the demise of the present king. The Duke de Nemours is
obviously the prince whose position, as eldest uncle of the
heir apparent, points him out as the fittest person' to act, in
case of a minority, although the unbroken health and una-
bated vigour of the king, lead us to hope that the present
reign may yet be prolonged for many years. But, under all
the circumstances which may arise out of this distressing and
unexpected crisis, there is no one person to whom France
would look with more hope and trust than to the widowed
Duchess of Orleans. That princess, more illustrious for her
virtues and her character than for her birth and station, has
won? to a remarkable degree, the confidence of Louis Philip,
and the reapeot of the nation. As the mother of the infant
heir, she cannot but exercises most important influence over
his future destinies; and to whomsoever the legfilature may
confide the political power of the guardian of that prince, she
is naturally called, as the surviving parent of the King of the
French, to duties of no common magnitude. Even amidst
the gloom and grief of her affliction she appears to be marked
out by this portentous event to maintain the rights of her
son, and to prepare a sovereign for his people ; and if we
are not mistaken, she is eminently qualified to discharge the
high, though melancholy, duties which may devolve upon
her.