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

P, IMRE OP MIRAN§

An extraordinary wren from Paris, dated six o'clock un
Wednesday affPrnoon, containing the afflicting intelligence
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 accident 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 now 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.