The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1858-01-30

nees have the public TO talk about swinish
brutality of words that is in 1T keeping with
the swinish brutality of the deed that was COM
mitted when poor old Teresa Spitzlen breathed
her last!
OF course the jury enjoy the fun of the case
and instead of going into it with the gravity
BETTING one of the most vflanously savage
acts that ever disgraced the city-they natural
ly share the good humor of the counsel They
are coming to look at it as good joke; why
should they not-why should they not acquit
the prisoner without delay-when the prosecut-
ing officer does his best to convince them that
there is no occasion for indignation or disgust.
but merely chance for good laugh?
The Late Attempt on the Life Of the Emperor.
The attempt on the life of the Emperor Ma
poleon, of which we gave brief account in
our paper of yesterday, affords remarkable a.
lustration alike of the popularity of the social
system in Europe and of the frightful insecure
ty of public affairs in France. The attack was
made, we hear, (like that of Fieschi upon
the life of Louis Philippe,) with the aid of IN
Internal machine, or continuance of gun barrels
fastened together, and 80 directed that the dis
charge, simultaneously emitted from all the bar
rels, swept Large area. The machine WAS
planted near the entrance to the Italian Opera;
and though the Emperor himself escaped, the
aim of the conspirators was 30 true that the EN-
peror's hat was perforated by ball, five of his
attendants were killed, and sixty wounded, ef
whom eleven are in critical condition. Well
may such frightful instrument Of death be de-
nominated Internal
No direct clue to the authors of the atrocious
attempt or to their motives has yet been dis
covered. Four Italians, among them pair Of
Counts Qtalian Counts have been arrested; and
we hear also that another suspicious character,
an exile of 1852, had been arrested just before
the discharge, and found heavily armed. But
if the police have any further information as to
the perpetrators of this nefarious act, or their
designs it has not yet been made public.
One cannot help suspecting that the obscure
Italians who invariably figure as the criminals
on these occasions are only the puppets in the
shsw, and that the strings are pulled by other
hands What motive could half dozen Italian
chepaliers d'ndusrie have for numbering the EN-
peror? What could they gain by such an act
What wrongs have Italians to avenge. One
| cannot but recall the stories 30 current in Ed
rope about the readiness Of Italians to under
take murders for pay. There are people enough
| in France to whom the Emperor's death would
indeed be boon and q blessings must WE
suppose that they hire rufians to do the deeds
1t is we'll known that this is the third or fourth
attempt on Louis Napoleon's life, and that
o,,rbo on ante Ia Ia
life Of Louis Philippe. OF course no monarch
nor even the President of republics secure
against assault. We have all heard Of the At
tempts upon the lives of the Queens of England
and of Spain, and other European sovereigns.
But these attacks upon the rulers of France diff.
fer from all others in their completeness, their
| skilful plan, and the tremendous character OF
their instrument. The attempts to murder
Queen Victoria end other European sove-
| reigns have invariably been the work Of
| individual lunatics; they have been marked by
an utter absence of skill method, and aim. The
| regicidal exploits Of the French have on the
| contrary been characterized 10y cunning dex-
! terity, combination and holiness. Are we
to suppose that the murderous propensity Is
stronger among the French or Franco-Italans
| than in other nations or that the sovereigns
| Of France possess more individual unpopu.
larity than the rulers of the rest of Europe?
1t is to be hoped that the authors of this last
| abominable crime will be detected and whole
somely punished. One cannot conceive an act
better calculated to be widely injurious than
| the murder of the Emperor Napoleon. Three
| inches lower down, and the ball emitted from
the internal machine on 18th January, 1858,
would have plunged Francc--and very likely
Europe bodily--into chaos and disorder com
pared to which the confusion and anarchy of
1852 were mild and immaterial. The En-
pcror Napoleon gone, his wife woman Of no
particular intellect, his son in his cradle, nis
relatives all either conspirators OF imbecies,
his Generals each looking out for his own ad-
vancement, France would without doubt be
plunged on the morrow into o civil war and no
human being can say how II would come out
out Of it-whether Us an empire, as q king
dom, as n republic, or as a European copy
of the Mexican States The whole d Europe
might have been thrust into revolution and
ruin had that ball taken a course three inches
lower down. 1t may well, therefore, be hoped
that the perpetrator of so fiendish an attempt
will meet with the penalty due to his guilt and
that no considerations of pity will be suffered
to interpose between his neck and the guillo-
tine. At the same time, the escape of his Ma
jesty will naturally suggest not only to himself,
but to his friends and councillors, the necessity
of making some settled preparations for so pos
sble an event as another and more successful
attempt upon his life lest, by mischance,
France should be taken by surprise and hurled
into civil war before she have time TO turn.
Common nrudence shnnld teach the French