Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1883-03-24
ORSINI'S BOMBS


the Proceedings Taken to Secure the Ex-
tradition of Bernard as an Accessory
Made Interesting by the British Demand
for Sheridan.
The case of Sheridan naturally lends in
terest to the treatment by Great Britain of
the question of extraditions for conspiracy
to commit political murders. The most
memorable instance of this treatment is
the refusal of Engla nd to give up the al
legged accomplice of Orsini on the demand
of France.
The evening Of Jan. IA, 1853, witnessed
one of the most important and far-reach-
ing of all the regicidal attempts of the
century. Felice Orsini, an Italian exile,
had not long before made a romantic es-
cape from prison at Mantua, and had set
| England IN flame with his lectures in de-
| nunclation OF Austrian rule. He was, we
| are told, "a handsome, soldierly looking
| man, with intensely dark eyes and dark
| beard, IN appearance almost the model
Italian conspirator of romance He had
convinced himself that the principal, if
not the sole obstacle in the way of an eff
fectlve intervention by England in Italian
affairs was the emperor of the French,
and to the removal of Ma
| poleon III. Orsini devoted
| himself with the desperate devotion and
the patient craft characteristic of the
Italian conspirator in a patriotic cause
On the 14th of January Orsini and his fell
| low conspirators made their attempt in
the Rue Lepelletier, throwing three pear
| shaped bombs filed with decorating pow
der at the carriage in which the emperor
and empress were proceeding to the opera.
Ten persons were killed and 1876 wounded
by the explosion, by which were caused no
| fewer than SIG wounds, great and small.
The crime, however, failed of its purpose
in every respect. While the empress was
slightly wounded and innocent people in
suite and among the onlookers were the
sole sufferers, the cause of Italy, despite
! the fiction which has survived to the pres
ent day, profted nothing inasmuch as
months before, at the time of the congress
of Paris, Cavour had virtually arranged
with the emperor of the French the plans
of policy which were afterward carried
out.
| Orsini was himself wounded by the ex-
| plOsion of the bombs, and was tracked by
his own blood marks. Not only did he
avow his guilt, but he made a strenuous
effort to clear of all completely in it man
accused of participation in the conspiracy.
France assumed toward England a de-
| cidedly hostile attitude. 1t was
asserted and taken for granted
that England was country
where "the assassination of foreign SOW
ereigns was encouraged by the population
and not discouraged by the laws" and
Count Walewski, in a very vigorous dis
patch, asked whether England considered
that hospitality was due to assassins-
whether English legislation should ''con-
| tribute to favor their designs and their at
tempts, and continue to shelter persons
who, by their fragrant acts, put themselves
outside the pale of common rights and
under the ban of humanity?" One result
of the conspiracy and the CORES pondence
was the introduction on the 9th of Febru-
airy of the conspiracy to murder bill, by
which conspiracy to murder was removed
from the class of misdemeanors to that of
| felony, punishable with penal servitude for
! five years as a minimum or for
| life as a maximum. To this Mr. Kinglake
moved an amendment, declaring that
| while the house of commons sympathize
with the French nation and was anxious
upon proper occasion to consider any
| might be likely to defeat repetition of
the attempts upon the life of the emperor,
| it was inexpedient to legislate in compii-
ance with Count Walewski's demand. while
Mr.. Miner Gibson submitted an amend
| ment expressing regret that the govern
ment had not made some reply to the dis
patch of the French minister previ-
ously to asking the house to amend the
l5T1Tr LII
amendment the government was beaten.
| upon the 10Th of February, by vote
| of 234 to 219, the majority being com
posed of 146 conservatives, 81 liberals, and
4 Peelites- Gladstone, Graham, Cardwell
and HERBERT the result being the forma-
ton of the Derby cabinet. At the same
time five prisoners were charged before
the French court of assizes with the at
tempt to take the life of the emperor and
empress. Orsini, Pierri and Rudio were
sentenced to be executed as parricides, the
| punishment of the last named being COM
muted to penal servitude for life, a SEN
tence also passed upon Gomez, in whose
favor extenuating circumstances were ad-
mltted. DR.. Simon Bernard was accused,
although he had not been taken into Gus
tody. He was French refugee, a surgeon
by profession, who had lived a long time
in England. ''The arrest of
Bernard" says contemporary historian,
was understood to have been made by
virtue of information sent out from Paris,
and no one could have failed to observe
that the loosest accusations of that kind
were always coming from the French capt.
tai" DR.. Bernard was put upon his trial
before a special commission on the 9th of
April, as an accessory before the fact, and
was defended by the late Mr.. Edwin James.
In his charge to the jury the lord chief
justice, while declaring that there was not
in the dispositions any direct and positive
evidence to show that Dr. Bernard was
aware of the purpose to which the grenade
manufactured in England were to be put,
insisted that they disclose serious facts
leading to the presumption that the
doctor was an accomplish. Said the lord
chief justice:
Residing in London and being very in
innate with Orsini, Bernard was instru-
mental in causing the grenades to be man