Year: 1870

During the reign of Louis Philippe the muir
der of the Duchess of Praslin, and the suicide
of her husband consequent upon the general
suspicion of his guilt, were so bad in their effect
as to imperil the prestige and power of the
monarchy. History has repeated itself of Late
not in the murder of Duchess by an ava
ricious Duke but of Red Republican by
Prince of the House of Bonaparte The throne
has again been shaken as by earthquake, and
though the shock has been only gentle re-
minder that the volcanic people of France may
yet prove eruptive, the Empire may well feel
warned. Up to this time, however, Napoleon
appears to have taken only partisan hold of
an event which has enraged the greater part
of France The people who mourned for Victor
Noir have seen nothing to make them forget
that the murderer Of their friend.w kns-
man of an Emperor, who stood ready with
100000 men to treat them to massacre, and who
brought about the conviction Of Rochefort even
before he subjected his cousin, the assassin, TO
trial.


What is now related of the Emperor's dispO-
sition toward the Prince can only aggravate
the popular mistrust The correspondent of an
American paper claims authority for the state
ment that more than once Napoleon visited his
kinsmen in prison. On one of these occasions
the burly criminal grasped the hand of his pro-
tector, and said with playful expostulation but
cousin, | could not have my face slapped,
"you know" to which His Majesty replied
"Well, on the whole, Pierre, think you have
"acted for the best.n This little speech, if en-
tirely true, prepares us for the result of the
Bonaparte trial and the future issue between
the Empire and the Republic on the point Of
the Republic. The former will take the rufllan
Princes word for it, and give him q light
sentence. The latter will swear by NJ. Fon-
vielle, who took oath at the grave of his friend
that the Prince, who struck his victim and
then killed him, was altogether the aggressor.
Here are the elements of q standing quarrel to
be carried over into the next crisis and the next
revolution. Those who believe that the En-
pire is n fraud are, of course, inclined to trust
the peoples story,


There is still another phase of tho Bona.
parte calamity. The imprisoned Prince is re-
ported to have declared that he had no desire
to be assassinated by those who have sworn
to avenge young Noir. "The beggars have
"sworn that they will kill my children" said
he; "but | hardly believe that they are capable
" of that" Yet we have at hand new asser-
ton, probably 10y one of the Government pa
pers, that Princess Pierre BOnaparte has re-
ceived numerous letters threatening death to
herself and her Children. How much of this
statement is fiction, and how much is truth,
We cannot easily discover but it is certain
that dozen friends of Victor Noir have pub
licly or otherwise sworn To avenge him in the
most meodramatic style. dozen will hardly
comprise the number of avengers which a man
may have who had all Paris singing tho Mar
seiildiSe at his funeral The body of an En-
pire rather than that of Prince, would prove
sufficient mark for their hate. relative OF
the great Corsican has. at all events, provoked