The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser. — 1847-08-31 (Liverpool, Merseyside, England)

THE MURDER OF THE DUCHESS OF PRASLIN. The Paris papers of Sunday week confirm the account of the attempt made by the wretched Duke of Praslin to  COMM  found in his bed-room  has not  d the third had contained the Tirdr. rt  an end to his exist( preven  now taken to  recurrence of the  attempts. The agents of the where the Duke is confined.  never leave t  permission from.aqiigh quarter that the Duc de Praslin obtained the means of putting an .end to his most wretched life. It is impossible, with every desire to be credulous, to attach much credit to the statements, put forth on ,authority, of the manner in which the duke committed suicide. Up till the account -we ,publish to-day it was generally believed that laudanum was the particular poison he had employed. He was represented as having swallowed the fatal draught at his own house. The most eminent physicians in Paris were called in to administer remedies, but until yesterday evening we heard nothing of any doubt as to the nature of the particular poison. More than this, no mention was made of this attempt at self-destruction until after he had been in the custody and under the watch of the police. On referring back to the accounts which we published from day to day, it will be found that there was no talk of poisoning at all until the Itduke had been put under careful surveillance. M. Allard  and his agents are not men from whose vigilence it is easy to escape. The prisoner could not have moved or breathed without their connivance or_ permission. We can have no doubt that the Duke de Preslin swallowed poison •on two occasions. The 'first time was at his own house; and when he had been recalled to life by the efforts of the physicians it was necessary to call in, the means•were furnished him of repairing his first failure in his cell at the Luxembourg. We have but little doubt that en the first occasion the duke swallowed laudanum ; on the second arsenic. An explanation put forth by the Journal des Desbats, that after his arrest a phial was disco•eered in the pocket of his dressing-gown, which had contained a mixture of laudanum and arsenic, appears .utterly incredible. Do men ordinarily comminele these  poisons ? No :it was necessary to explain away the laudanum in the first, and the arsenic in the second instance; and, therefore, the idea was devised that the duke swallowed a mixture of the two poison•. In order to free Chas f••-`,  zee uovernment from suspicion, it oeen turther declared•.that the swallowing of this compound potion took place at a period antecedent to the arrest of the duke. The farts, however, do not stand so, or all the accoul is we 1• Iti st be incorrect. With re nave receives hitherto mus, gard /to the second dose (if a second dose was indeed taken,) it must have been in the prison of the Luxem eyed. agents, that the-potion Was taken. Can we, Then, resist the conclusion that, in permitting. the prisoner an act_of•se4f-destruction, M. Allard was acting upon high  authority ? If this be so, we much doubt whether the government have been well advised in permitting the prisoner to escape from the sword of justice. Weextract the following from the,Patrie of Wednes day evening : The Duke of Praslin died in consequence of arseni  journal. It is not said who pre  poison, and at s  moment  thy of credit, the circumstances of the morning of the 18th. 'The Prefet of Police and M. Allard, the chief of the police de .s.Vrete, arrived at the Hotel de Sebastiani about half-vast five in the morning. The commissary of police of the quarter and his agents were already in the chamber where the dead body was lying. The ProcureurGeneral, M. Delangle, arrived about six o'clock. The Duke of Praslin was there, going and coming from one room to another, and expressing his surprise at the mode in which the murderer could have entered the house. After M. Delangle had carefully examined the localities,  he declared in an energetic Manner that the had not come from outside, it being most evich  belonged to the house. The Duke-of Prasli on hearing M. Delangle express himself thus nutes after the Procureur-General addressed  tions to the Duke, which intimated the direction Which his suspicions took as to the author of the crime. The Duke became then of a cadaverous tint, and his agitation, his altered features, and his general bearing, showed to those present who ought to be considered the murdere,' fit*',.mag'  the moment the examining .strates and tn. _ cureur du Roi entered, the Duke of Praslin disappeared immediately. He went to an upper floor on which was his bedroom. It is thought, with reason, that it was at this instant that finding himself suspected he swallowed the poison. About three hours elapsed when the Procureur-General had expressed a suspicion. From that moment the complexion of the Duke became yellow ; this was the result of the poison. The disorder in the organization augmented visibly when the Procureur du Roi told the Duke what overwhelming charges there were against him, ' Confess that you are guilty,' said the Procureur du Roi--` confess that you have assassinated your wife.' The Duke looked at the magistrate, and concealed his face with  tude of  ,sassin  if not for society, you  are bound to speak the truth makes this a duty.' The Duk trate, and appeared as if he was going to conic hut suddenly he_turned round, and said, ' l  the honour of your fa-m  Decidedly ; I  cannot say that The Procureur General i  ited, but the Duke would not  reply a single word. From this moment the Duke was rigorously watched. Dr. Louis and his habitual physician endeavoured to combat the effects of the poison, which in consequence of the over-dose did not produce immediate mortal 'overed  poisoning  THE COST OF ItHE