The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1868-09-29
OBITUARY..
Cnnnf WnIewakI.

The cable announces to us the death OF Alex.
ander, Count Wslewski, son OF one Emperor OF
the French and cousin OF another. The origin
and the story Of this really clever and brilliant
man are alike romantic Daring the heydey of
the first Napoleon's triumph over united Europe
in 1909, in the time when Talma came from
Paris to play before 'parterre of Kngs,u at
Tlsit and the Emperors OF the East and of the
West, Alexander and Napoleon, met on raft in
the river Nfemen to divide the world, lovely
Polish lady, married, not to Moor, indeed, but
Polish noble old enough to be her 'graudsire
carved IN alabaster," met at Warsaw the arbter
OF Europe. The arbiter of Europe, unlike the
rival OF young Lochinvar, was neither "a
ceived violent passion for the beautiful Coun-
tess Walewski, and stated the fact In his usual
clear, imperial, and peremptory fashion. Who
could resist the master OF forty legions? The
Countess Walewski was not only beautiful, but
intelligent and patriotic. She loved Poland and
the hopes of Poland in the person OF the terrible
Corsican who alone could make those hopes
realities and Poland q nation once more. or
course, the laws alike Of God aud man forbade
the vile of aPolish noble to save her country
by becoming the mistress of French Emperor.
But nice customs courtsey to great kiDgs.n and
so long as Napoleon held the continent in his
iron grasp, his fraitties and sins were counted
to him, even by eminently respectable persons,
AS creditable illustrations of the fact that after
all he was man, and shared the weaknesses OF
his kind.
NJ. de Lamartine has drawn a most path etc
picture OF the despair in which the Countess
April, 1914, at the door of the cabinet in the
palace of F0ntainebleau In which the Emperor
Napoleon was meditating upon his abdication.
The poetlcal historian declares that the Polish
lady alone, of all those whom Napoleon had
attached to his person, remained faithful to the
falling hero, and that her most poignant grief
was the stern refusal Of the Titan In his agony
70 admit even her true and broke en- heart to one
moments communion with his spirit IN its
death-throes of empire. This Is all very effec-
lively told by NJ de Lamartne, and is recon-
meneed by. us to be believed by all those who
dote upon the emotional in history
AS plain chroniclers of things movable and
known, we can only make ourselves response.
BILE, however, for asserting the fact that Count
Alexander Walewski, just deceased, was always
declared by his mother to be the son of the
first Napoleon. The declaration was obviously
supported by the personal appearance of the
deceased noolemap. With the exceptions,
perhaps, of the Prince Napoleon Jerome and of
the Prince Pierre Bonaparte, no men of our
times have borne so close personal resemblance
to the first Emperor as the late Count Vale wski.
He was born on the 4th of May, lslO and was
consequently In his twelfth year when, on the
9th OF May, 1921, his imperial father died at st.
Helena. He was then a schoolboy in
S;s SSenevs, & and three years afterwards, in
Against the will o the Gam% Duke on,ta
tine, the brutal and atrocious scoundrel
who irreparably disgraced the House of Roman
Off by his conduct in Poland during the Polish
revolution IN 1881, the young Walewski made
his escape to France in 1929, aud was conse-
quertly enabled TO profit, for himself and for
his country, by the French revolution of 1880.
Being neither Pole nor a Frenchman, and yet
at the same time both Pole and Frenchman,
the young Walewski accepted delicate mission
from Marshal Sebastiani, Minister OF War under
Louis Philippe, to Poland. He fulfilled his
in Po,and Su aarne ,ha ane forces
oodnry on the goroays bnt Gnnfa
field of Grochow. When Poland, "the France
of the North" was finally overpowered by the
brute force OF numbers, Count Walewski, see.
ng no immediate hope for the land Of his
mothers ancestors frankly made himself a
Frenchman. He became naturalzed in France,
and proved himself worthy of his naturaliza-
ton by undergoing baptism of fire and blood
ss an officer of the Chasseurs d'A,rique and of
the Hussars in the wars with Algiers. He sub
sequently passed from the army into diplomacy,
and long before the iall of Louis Philippe he
had made himself name in the Foreign Office.
IN lS4O during the critical period OF the
0uadruple, Alliance, be was intrusted by M.
Ihlers with the honor OF France in the East,
having been sent at that time on private mis-
sion 10 Mehemet Ali just before the lombard
ment OF st. Jean dare by the British fleet under
Sir Robert Stopiord.
His conduct in this mission secured to him the
respect and confidence of the President. Iu
lS49, the Prince President Louis Napoleon sent
him as French Minister to Florence, and in
1850 he was advanced to the post of Ambas-
sador at the Court of Naples, from which post,
after the coup Getdt he was despatched to
MI the high and responsible position of Am
Ddhsduor III LOnuOn. Ills subsequent career Is
more generally known He was called to the
head of the French Foreign Office in 1855. on
the retreat of M. Drouyn de Lhuys, and in 1856
he had the intense satisfaction of presiding over
that Congress of Paris in which Russia con-
fessed her terrible Crimean defeat, and France
was once more recognized, under a Napoleon,
as the arbtress OF Europe. Count Walewski
as President of the Corps Legislatif since
that memorable epoch, and in private lie,
confined to gain upon the esteem and respect
of the French people, and his DEATH at
the early age OF fity-eight, undoubtedly de-
prives the Emperor Napoleon III of one of his
most trusted and most Independent advisers,
and France of statesman who, to rare advan.
tsges OF position and of circumstances, united a
faculty not less 1are for the knowledge and the
of the public interests. Count
Walewski was twice marned-once to a daugh
ter of the English Earl of Sand wich, and once
TO the last female descendant of the last Polish
sovereign OF Poland. 1t is we'll known also
that he had formed close connection with the
empress of tragedy in our times, and that two
oupg men, now in the first flush of manhood,
who have been duly recognized as the SOFAS
''born out OF wedlockn of tbs Count Walewski
inherit with their noble Polish name fusion of
the blood of the great Corsican conqueror with
that of the immortal Rachel.--N. Y. World