The Sun. — 1870-10-19 (London, England)

IMPERIAL TRAGEDY.  TOURS, OCT. 15. Few events connected with the miserable fall of the Second Empire have made a more profound impression than a catastrophe which has taken place at Paris. The news of this affair is the most absorbing item brought by the latest balloon mail. Interested as the Tours public is in the progress of the blockade which is called a siege, it forgets for the moment the forlorn condition of the capital on receipt of the intelligence that Judge Delesvaux has committed suicide. The event and the revelations which it discloses form another tragic episode in this most dramatic of struggles. The papers from Paris tell us that Judge Delesvaux destroyed himself in order to anticipate disgrace and punishment--though not the penalty of death —before one of these tribunals over which he had so long presided. His infamous deeds had come to light. There was no escaping either arrest or exposure. The Imperial servant's resolution, therefore, was taken. On the night before he committed suicide he sat up all night writing a quantity of letters. His servants observed his remarkable activity, and displayed some uneasiness—one valet even making an excuse for entering his room at three in the morning whilst M. Delesvaux was still at work. The intrusion was sternly resented, and the manufacture of letters went on. The valet, horrified at the appearance of the judge, whose face wore an unnatural look, remained up all,night. At six o'clock M. Delesvaux called him, handed over the letters which had been written during the night, and forbade anyone to disturb him. Immediately afterwards he shot himself. The report of the pistol alarmed the house ; the room was broken into but it was too late—the judge was quite dead, with his head shattered.  The legal functionary who has put this end to his career was one of the tools, as he has been one of the victims, of the Empire. He did much of the Imperial dirty work, and was elevated to honour and dignity in consequence. At the coup d'etat he displayed diligence on the side of the President Louis Napoleon. He at the time acted as Commissary of Police, and ultimately rose to the Presidency of one of the civil courts, after long service in the notorious Tribunal of Correctional Police. It was in this latter. function that he rendered the Empire the most valuable assistance. One of his chief branches of business was the punishment of journalists who thought that the Imperial Government was not exactly the form of rule that France could wish. These unfortunate geLtlemen had no chance whatever with M. Delesvaux. If there was a case against them he made the most of it; and if there was no case he invented one. People wondered why he was such a terror to the race. They now learn the reason. M. Delesvaux had a small salary, but, in addition, was paid a commission upon every political prisoner he convicted, the amount of the reward being regulated by the rank of the victim, and the length of imprisonment, and exorbitancy of the fine which M. Delesvaux had the impudence to inflict. Such was the justice of the Emperor Napoleon's reign. It was in this 'capacity as judge of the Correctional Tribunal that M. Delesvaux more than any other man in France, was able to crush the cause of liberty in this country. Paid on such a system, it was natural that M. Delesvaux should overdo his zeal. Some of his condemnations were so flagrantly unjust as to amaze Imperialists and Republicans alike. But if such exoesses injured the Emperor, they did not injure M. Delesvaux. • He was a man of lonely disposition, seldom courted any body's company, and cared nothing for the savage satires with which the journalists revenged their injuries. Just the man for the post was the late judge; but it seems that he had so much conscience that he dare not face his exposure. It is a sad revelation, and moreover it was not needed to root out the disease of Napoleonism which has so long plagued this land. Tha end has been effectually attained already.