The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-07-20
WEDNESDAY, JULY 90, 1870.
SUICIDE or THE FRENCH MINISTER

SUICIDE or THE FRENCH MINISTER
A DESPATCH from Washington announces that
Provost Paradol, the newly appointed French
Minister, committed suicide at one o'clock
this morning. The only explanation given
Of this extraordinary event is that he has
been very busily engaged since his arrival in
the United States, and that the oppressive
heat CON bined with his exhausting labors,
produced a temporary mental alienation,
during which he sought death in the high old
Roman fashion. This explanation may be
correct, and in support of it the fact is
worthy of notice that weather like
that to which sweltering American humanity
has been subjected during the last few days
is more insupportable to newly-arrived and
unacclimated foreigners than to our own citi-
zens. We are strongly inclined to believe,
however, that no speculations on this sad and
delicate subject can be complete which do
not take cognizance of the moral causes that
were only too we'll calculated to fill the soul
of the departed diplomat with gloom and de-
spondency. There is no man living, ex-
cept perhaps Rochefort, who has said
more bitter things of Napoleon, and who has
cherished deeper hatred and contempt for
his whole character and policy, than Provost
Paradol. Of all political summersaults that
by which he became the confidential agent of
O man on whom he had showered every form
of abuse is one of the most remarkable We
know of nothing in the annals of political
literature more cutting and contemptuous
than the famous ''stable-boy" article which
is referred to elsewhere.
MI.
appointment of the author of this article by
the Napoleonic stable-boy was no doubt
more keenly felt by the Minister than the
monarch. The latter could console himself
with the reflection that the skilful pen which
had assailed him would henceforth be devoted
to his SERVICE while the former could not
forget that this new task involved deep self
abasement. 1t is but just to the memory of
Paradol to assume that in undertaking it he
was influenced by the belief that q new
era was about to be opened
in the empire, and that he would help to
liberalize French institutions instead of be-
coming the slave of tyrannical system.
While he was crossing the ocean, however,
new complications suddenly arose that
changed the character Of his duties here and
the face of politics in the land he left behind.
war was suddenly precipitated by the act
of the master whom he had so thoroughly
despised, against the better judgment, appa-
rently, of Paradols official friend, Olivier,
and clearly against the open remonstrance of
Paradols old preceptor, M. Theirs. The
brutal instincts of the stable-boy had once
more impelled him to adopt a policy that
will entail endless misery upon
his beautiful mistress, France, and that may
involve himself and all his chosen favorites
in hopeless ruin. To mind keen in it's per-
ception of these features of the new compli-
cation, and, perhaps, of many others of a
still more irritating character, which are only
understood by those who are familiar with
official Secrets, the unanimity of American
feeling in behalf of Prussia must have been
specially disheartening. Paradol had been a
great admirer of this country, and had
warmly espoused the cause of the North
during the Rebellion, so that he
had a just claim upon our kindly
regard which was we'll calculated
to insure for himself, personally, an enthu-
siastio reception in all loyal American circles.
He could scarcely fail, in turn, to be deeply
depressed by the fact that the people of whom
he thought so wellinstinctively pronounced an
adverse Judgment upon the late movements
of Napoleon. And if the conviction suddenly
flashed upon him that the underlying idea of
the stable-boy in sending him to America
was to trick him into an involuntary use of
his presumed personal influence in this
country to strengthen a premeditated
policy of which he ParadoD was ignorant at
the time he assumed official chains, it is not
difficult to understand the intense desire of
a gifted and sensitive nature to seek relief