The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1852-03-09
Royal yillanies


than Inc confisca,ion of the vast Orleans pro- |
pertv, held by the family Of Louis PhIippe.-
10 seiz, by bold coup de main. ON estates |
worth fifty millions of dollars, ia a stroke cal |
culated TO awaken the apprehension Of mil |
fsondres, and create general alarm among
wealthiwas no doubt acquired in a rather eoiyo-
cal manner, and may do more good when ap-
piled to the purposes to which the president
has doomed il; but the end in this case cannot
justify the means, for his act strikes at the
great principle Of security on which all pro-
perry rests. Certainly, nobody will suffer by
the decree, but some of the representatives Of
account is not less but its victims will suffer
double misfortune-that of being robbed
and of having none to sympatlise with them
But what a pitiful outcry these despoiled
princes and princesses, their husbands and
their adherents, are raising against this high
handed act of despotism! Not word did
they utter when the audacious dictator tore the
French constitution into shreds; they looked
with eomplacent silence on his wholesale mas
sacre of unoffending citizens; they raised not
murmur against his many outrages in the nams
of 'order;" but now they get angry, and enter
urgent protests-proving that even royalty is
not exempt from the application Of the COM
mon maxim, "lf you touch my purse, you for
felt my friendsbip!" The King CT Belgium,
in behalf of his wife, the Queen of Spain, in
right of her husband, and, in fact, half the
crowned and semi crowned heads ofthe smaller
states Of central Europe, object with a yehe-
mence proportioned to their pecuniary loss.
Some fun promises TO come out Of the affair.
too-some "excitement' for the scandal-lov
something "rich," which for time at least
| may draw the attention of Paris even from the
| acts of Louis Napoleon himself. 1t seems that
since the decree confscating the property of
the Orleans family, there is a general revival
of claims of previous owners, of their descen-
| dants, to the greater part of Louis Philippe's
| cquisitions-especially to the immense estates
belonging to the Conde family. Many Of our
readers will recOllect the circumstances attend
ing the strange death of the last of the Condos.
That lively old gentleman had taken, to soothe
| the sorrows of his seniity, mistress-a dash
| ing Englishwoman, known originally as Lucy
Dawes, but at the period we speak of she was
| the Baroness de Feucheres. This imperious
| female kept the paralytc old Conde in state
of vassalage and terror-a mere slave TO her
will. She was particular pet of Louis
| Philippe, who had just then ascended the
| French throne. He conceived kind ofpater-
nal regard for her, and by subtle course Of
| batteries and attentions, acquired a complete
| ascendancy over the exemplary woman. 1t
was a matter of great surprise at the time,
| that notoriously abandoned woman should
royal morality, this pattern Of all the regal do
mestic virtues.
One night the Conde was heard whining
and supplicetlDg for mercy the hands of his
| virago, who, in moment of passion, had em-
| belished his illustrious face with a pair Of
black eyes. The next morning the old gentle
| man was found dead, suspended from his bed
| post. At first his friends lamented his hard
| fate, which had driven him to suicide to escape
from the prosecutions of his shedragon; but
| a little reflection served to convince them that
man who from PARALYSIS had entirely lost the
use of both arms, could not easily hang him.
SELF and the dashing Miss Lucy Dawes was
suspected 0s his murderess. This suspicion
| gained strength from many collateral clrcum-
stsnces; and when it became known that the
| will of the deceased had been made just before
his death, dividing his property between this
woman and the kings sou, the Due D'Aumale,
| tshe getting the bulk of the money, and the
duke the estates, it required all Louis Philippes
power and popularity TO suppress violent
outbreak of popular Indignation. The rela-
tves of the Conde, the Rohan, who were cut
off without dollar, brought their action al
the time; but, from court influences, then well
understood, were defeated.
These influences no longer exist, and the
Rohans are again bringing forward their claim
to the estates, the largest in France. The
supposed murderess is dead, but several wit
nesses, and the advocates ON both sides, are
living, and additional evidence, stronger than
| any yet produced, can, it is said, be brought
forward on the part of the Rohans. The rela
| tionship between the harriden and the murder
ed Conde have never been questioned; mol
has il ever been denied that the virtuous Loui:
Philippe was in the closet alliance with the
feminine infamy for no other possible purpose
than that of fleeing the imbecile owner of thu
| greatest name and fortune in the county,
Such is sketch Of the interesting "develop
ments' to which the gossips of Paris are look
ing forward. II tremains to DE seen, however
whether Louis Napoleon will permit the Duk
or the memory of his father or if the dictate
will allow the trial to proceed at all, as its issu
might perhaps interfere with the seques,ratol
of the property.