NEWS BY THE MAIL.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume 14, Issue 1142, 8 April 1870, Page 3

NEWS BY THE MAIL.

(From the "Avrus" correspondents.)

•. ■ : THE AUTEUIL TRAGEDY. I

The French empire has suffered, a sudden ' shock by an event which has thrown all Paris into a ferment cf excitement. Prince Pierre Bonaparte, a first cousin of the Emperor, shot a journalist dead, and is now in the Conciergerie, awaiting his trial before the High Court of Justice for murder. There was a burst of indignation which threatened to sweep away the Imperial throne; and there can be little doubt that a revolution would have immediately flooded the streets had the outrage occurred a few months earlier, before the recent concessions to constitutional Government. THE CHALLENGE, The most contradictory accounts are still before the public. What is certain is that the quarrel which had this tragic end originated in the licence of the press. Certain "irreconcilable" organs had bitterly attacked the Imperial family. A Corsican journal, the Revanche, had in particular stirred the auger of Prince Pierre, and he retorted in a strain very offensive to his enemies in another Corsican paper, The Avenir de la Corse. This mischief was brought nearer home by the Afarseillase, the journal of the incendiary M. llochefort, which in a violent article accused the prince of being a renegade republican, and moreover a brutal Corsican, capable of any act of violence. Prince Pierre immediately addressed a challenge to M. Rochefort, since published : — " Monsieur, — After having insulted one after the other every member of my family, sparing neither women nor children, you now employ the pen of one of your flunkies to insult me. Nothing can be more natural ;my turn was sure to come. Only I have perhaps one advantage over most of those who bear my name. lam a Bonaparte — but at the same time a private individual. I write to ask you if you consider yourself personally answerable for the bespatterings of your inkstand. I confess. I have little hopes that you are, as I see by the papers that your constituents have instructed you to refuse all satisfaction, so as to preserve your valuable existence. Nevertheless, I make this attempt in the hope that a slender remnant of the feelings of a Frenchman will induce you to depart, so far as I am concerned, from the measures of prejudice and precaution you have thought proper to take. If then, perchance, you consent to draw the bolts which render your honorable person doubly inviolate, you will find me neither in a palace nor in a castle. I live plainly enough, at No. 59, Eve d'Auteuil, and I promise that if you will call you will find me at home. Awaiting your answer, I still have the honor to salute you. " Pierre Napoleon Bonaparte. Meanwhile it had been determined at the office of the " Marseillase" to send out three separate challenges to the Prince, on account of his own scurrilous allusions in the Corsican paper ; and the seconds had been chosen to carry them — all three on the same day. Those of M. Pascal Grousset, the actual writer of the offensive article in the " Marseillase," arrived first at the house at Auteuil, in the suburbs of Paris. Their names were M.M. Victor Noir and Uric de Fonvielle. Those of M. Rochefort followed, not far behind, but reached the door just in time to see M. Fonvielle emerge, and to hear that his companion had been killed. THE HOMICIDE. There were no witnesses of the interview bejond the parties concerned, and their statements differ essentially. Almost the first words led to an altercation, when the Pi'ince, who was armed with a revolver, shot M. Noir through the heart, and, by his own confession, subsequently fired also at M. Fonvielle. M. Noir staggered from the apartment, but sank at the foot of the stairs, and died on the pavement outside. Prince Pierre asserts that his visitors were the aggressors, that M. Noir struck him on the face, and that he fired in self-de-fence. M. Fonvielle declares that it was the Prince who struck M. Noir, and that he fired without provocation. Your readers may like to compare the two accounts. The following is the narrative of M. Fonvielle, as published in the " Marseillase : — NARRATIVE OP THE WITNESS M. ULRIC DE PONVIELLE. "On Jan. 10, 1870, at 1 in the afternoon, M. Victor Noir and myself called on Prince Pierre Bonaparte, at his house, No. 59, Euo d'Auteuil. We were sent by M. Paschal Grousset to demand satisfaction of the Prince for insulting articles against M. P. Grousset, published by him in the Avenir de la Corse. We gave our cards to the two footmen who opened the door,* and we were shown into a little parlor on the ground floor. In a [ew minutes we wore asked to go upstairs, and we passed through a fencing into a drawing room. A door opened, and Prince Pierre Bonaparte came in. We advanced towards him, and the following conversation ensued : We said ' Monsieur, we come to deliver a letter from M. Paschal Grousset.' • Then you don't come from M. liochefort, and you arc not his creatures {manauivres) ?' ' Monsieur, we come on another business, and we beg you to read this letter.' I handed him the letter, and he went to a window to read it. Having read it, he crumpled the paper, and then coming back to us said, ' I have called out M. Eochefort because he is the <porte dnipeau (flag officer) of the crapule {crapule is one of the strongest Billingsgate expressions in the French language, and signifies gross, coarse, villanous hoggish people. As to M. Grousset, I have nothing to say to him. Are you all {solidaires) with these chavognev ?' {charogne is another choice Billingsgate expression meauing a nasty stinking carcase.) 'Monsieur,' I answered, ' we come to you loyally and courteously to fulfil the mission entrusted to us by our friend. " Aro you solidaires with those wretches ?' Victor Noir answered, 'We aro solidaires with- our friends.' Then, suddenly advancing a step, and without any provocation on our part, Prince Bonaparte struck M. Victor Noir on the face with his left hand, and at tho same time drawing a six barrelled revolver, which ho had concealed in his pocket, he fired point blank upon M. Noir. Noir started, pressed both hands against his breast and rushed out of the door by which he had entered. The cowardly assassin then fell upon mo and fired point blank upon me. I then seized a pistol which I had in my pocket, and while I was about taking it out of its case the scoundrel rushed upon me ; but when he saw that I was armed ho drew back, got into the doorway, and poiuted his revolver at me. Seeing then in what a trap we had fallen, and fearing that if I fired ib would be sure to bo said that we were the aggressors, I opened a door behiud me, and ran out crying ' Murder.' A second shot was fired after me, which made a hole in my palelot. Iv the street I found Noir, who had had strength enough to get down stairs, bub was dying. Such are the facts, and I demand that prompt, exemplary justice be done on this crime. " Ulric de Fonvielle." statement 01? prince heere. One of the Figaro writers, claiming an acquaintance with the Prince, visited him I that same afternoon, and conjuring him

for many reasons to tell the exact truth, was invited to enter the study, where ho showed him, lying upon his desk, an account of the circumstances written.with his own hand. It runs as follows : " They presented themselves with a menacing air, and their hands in their pockets, and gave me the following letter : — " ' Paris, January 9. " ' To Messieurs Ulric de Fonvielle eb Victor Noir, Redacteurs, of the Marseillaise. ■ " ' My dear Fi*iends, ; — Here is an article recently published with the signature of M. Pierre Napoleon Bonaparte, and which contains very gross insults to the redacteurs of the Revanche, a democratic journal of Corsica. . I beg you, my dear friends, to call on M. Pierre Napoleon Bonaparte, and demand from him that reparation which no right-minded man can refuse under the circumstances. — Believe me, &c, " ' Paschal Guouset." " After reading this letter I said, ' Yes, with Mr. Eochefort I will fight willingly ; but with his creatures, no.' ' Eead the letter/ said M. Victor Noir in an imperious tone. ' I have read it,' I said ; 'do you hold yourself responsible for its contents ?' All this while I had my right hand in my trousers pocket, holding my little five barrelled revolver. My left arm was half raised in an energetic attitude, when M. Victor Noir struck me a severe blow on the face. M. de Fonvielle then drew from his pocket a six barrelled revolver. I stepped back two paces and fired at the one who had struck* me. The other crouched down behind an arm chair, and tried to fire at me, but he could not cock his pistol, I stepped forward two paces and fired at him, but did not hit. He then ran away and went out of the door. I might have fired again, but as he had not struck me I let him go, although he still had the pistol in his hand. The door being left open, I saw him stop iv the adjoining room and point his pistol at me. I then fired again, and he went away." AEEEST OF THE PEINCE. There was great commotion as soon as the circumstances became known, which was increased by the revolutionists, who represented the Bonapartists as abovealllaw,and tried every means to inflame public feeling againstthewholelmperialfamily. The Emperor was absent shooting at Eambouillet when the news of the catastrophe arrived, and was informed of it by the prefect of police, who was in waiting at the railway station. M. Ollivier, in his new capacity of Minister of Justice, met him at the Tuileries, and received his approval of the order promptly to arrest the Prince. It is said that tears stole down his usually imperturbable face as he gave his ready sanction to this step. Prince Pierre Napoleon Bonaparte, who is now fifty-five years old, is a sou of Lucien, Prince of Cauino, and, as such, has not borne the rank of an "Imperial Prince," though receiving the Emperor's pension as a member of the imperial family. He has long been noted as a man of violent temper, aud has had many quarrels in the course of his adventurous life. He has served in various enterprises in different parts of the world, and has always been distinguished by his reckless beai'ing. Before the coup d'etat he was a red of the deepest dye. He has never much frequented the court, nor has he been recognised generally by society. For some years ho has been living in retirement, having married a woman of very humble rank. It was at first thought that he would be tried by an ordinary court, but it soon appeared that ho was included in the privilege of tho senatas consttUum, which requires that any member of the Imperial family be tried only by a High Court of Justice, especially constituted, the judges to be selected by the Emperor from the Court of Cassation, and the jury consisting of councillorsgeneral of the departments. This High Court has been summoned to assemble ; it is the first time it has been convoked, and will probably be the last ; for M. Ollivier, in announcing the fact to the Corps Legislatif, intimated plainly tho opinion of the new Ministry that this exceptional jurisdiction should bo abolished. The Prince surrendered himself to the authorities without waiting to be arrested. Public opinion, as it weighs the probabilities and takes into account the usual quiet formalities of duellists, at present inclines strongly against him, but we must wait for the results of a minuter examination. M. Noir, the victim, was a very young man — scarcely more than twenty —of Jewish extraction, whose real name was Salmon. He was originally a linen-dra-per's assistant, and had not long devoted himself to journalism. An additional sentiment was touched in his death by the announcement that he was to have been married the very next day. KEVOLUTIONAKY APPEALS. The " Marsellaise " was seized the next morning, but not before its frantic appeals had found wide circulation. As was natural, its whole staff overflowed with vehement indignation at the death of their comrade, and they appealed to the populace against the whole party of Bonapartes. The front of the journal, which was printed in very large type, aud in deep mourning, was prefaced with the following brief article from M, Eochefort : — " I have been weak enough to believe that a Bonaparte could be anything else than an assassin. I ventured to imagine that an honourable duel was possible in that family with whom murder and lying in wait are traditions aud customs. For tho lust 18 years Prance has been in the bloody handVof theses cut-throats, who, not content with shooting clown Eepublicans in the streets, lay disgraceful snares for them, aud slaughter them in their osvn houses. Freach people, have younotliad enough of this. — Henki Eociiefokt." Then followed M. de Fonviello's narrative ; next a leading article, reviewing the facts, and drawing tho inference that Prince Pierre had intended to entrap Eochefort, and " kill him by one of those sudden blows which arc traditional in his family." Afterwards came a brief necrological notice of affectionate praise, signed by every member of the staff; and at the end a short letter, signed by a crowd of signatures, calling upon every citizen to attend the funeral, and " prove ouce for all that this is tho last assassination which tho Enipiro will bo allowed to accomplish." Atthemeetingof the Corps Legislatif the following evening, M. liochefort made a violent speech. He declared that an assassination had been committed by a member of the Imperial family, " ou a young man clothed with the immunities of a sacred office — for a second, while parleying about the preliminaries of a duel, was like the bearer of a flag of truce ;" and he asked whether, " after such an event, aud many others preceding," they wcro living under Bonapartes or Borgias." There was thereupon a great uproar, but the speaker continued, " I call upon all citizens to arm and enforce justice for themselves." M. Ollivier replied with much moderation ; ho stated that the Prince had asked to be tried by the ordinary assize court, but that the senates consultum, as it stood, was clear and binding, though he intimated that subsequent inquiry might. load to a change of the law, -by which the High Court must be convoked. " A homicide has been committed by a person of high rank," he

said; "we prosecute him, and we shall prove that, faithful to democratic principles, we deal out equal justice to great and small." Subsequently, a letter was read from the Procureur General, demanding the permission of the Chamber to prosecute M. Eochefort, who was guilty less of a press offence than of an offence against common law, in having, in the Marseillaise of that day, "hot only insulted the Emperor, but endeavored to provoke immediate civil war." The proposal was forthwith, according to usage, referred to a special committee. * ' When in the evening M. Eocheforb appeared in a carriage on the Boulevards, he was loudly cheered, and a crowd gathered to escort him, singing the now familiar Marseillaise. THE FUNERAL. The expectation of an emevte was almost universal. The funeral was fixed for the next day, Wednesday, January 12, and every preparation was made on either side. The Emperor must himself have experienced some disquieting hours, for it is said when he was seen in the gardens of the Tuileries early in the morning, he was greeted with hisses, and taking the hint, immediately sent for a private cab, and went round to the different barracks to show himself to the soldiers. The body of Victor JSToir lay at Neuilly, and from an early hour crowds of people, dressed in mourning, streamed along all the roads in that direction. Heavy rains did not deter thorn, and they embraced all classes. The demonstration was the more imposing from their serious orderly demeanor. Neither troops nor police* were visible, though large bodies were held in readiness. The vast multitude of citizens has been variously estimated at from 50,000 to 200,000. At Neuilly a cry was raised by a knot of mischief makers to take the body through Paris to Pere la Chaise; but a brother of the deceased protested against this step, and was supported by Eochefort, and by M. Delescluge of the " Eeveil," who said that the Government had prepared an ambuscade, and that it was necessary to postpone their revenge. There was no procession to the grave in the Neuilly cemetery, only a surging excited mass around the hearse. M. Eochefort fainted, overcome by his emotions. Over the grave, M. de Fonvielle, who was with Victor Noir when he was killed, made the following speech. "Citizens, — In the presence of this grave, and in the presence of you all, I swear that Victor Noir was murdered by the dastard Bonaparte. " Without any reason, without any motive, without any provocation on his part, he was killed in cold blood under my own eyes. " Victor Noir, — Friend, brother, whose blood has been spilled in the house of a prince for the holy cause of liberty and the Republic. — 1 will avenge thee — I will avenge thee !" M. Eochefort, who had taken refuge in a cab, was followed on the way back to Paris by a huge crowd, who shouted the " Marseillaise," or raised such cries as " a has V assassin /" '• Vive la Republic !" As the mob reached the Eond Point in the Champs Elysees, a regiment of cavalry moved across the avenue, and barred all approach to the Corps Legislatif. liochefort asserted his 'right to pass that way as a deputy, but was refused. He says that the reply made to him was " You will be cut down first," and that thereupon he appealed to the crowd thus : — " Citizens disperse, you will be massacred uselessly." The roll of the drum seconded his advice, and when the cavalry put their horses into a walk, the mob scattered in every direction. So 'the day terminated. M. Eocheforfc found another way to the Chamber, and there subsided into silence. At night some bands of rioters showed on the Boulevards and elsewhere, but there were no serious disturbances. It is a new sign that in some places the bystanders and shopkeepers interfered with sticks to chastise offenders into peace. PROSECUTION OF EOCHEFOET. An attempt was made to fan the popular feeling into a revolution. "All revolutions," wrote M. Eochefort in the " Marseillaise " the next morning, "have had three days ; yesterday was the first." " The people too," said another contributor, " have their three rolls of the drum before the action begins — you have just heard the first." But the firm attitude taken by the Government soon dissipated these dreams. The Ollivier cabinet is strong by virtue of the pledges it has given to liberty ; and the revolutionists are but too well aware also of the tremendous power it can call to its aid in the army. Various statements have been circulated in the streets, some evidently for the purpose of inflaming the passions of the people. Marshal Canrobert, who commanded the troops, was said to have been asked what he would do in case of a riot. " Mon dieu, the thing is simple enough," was the reputed answei\ " I also must have a corpse ; without one I don't stir. But as soon as one of my men has been demolished — r — r — r — ran. !" " What do you moan by — r — r — r — ran ?" " Mean-P I mean that 1 will shoot down 40,000 men if necessary, and calm Paris in five minutes." The Marshal read this conversation to his astonishment in a newspaper while at the opera, and immediately commissioned one of his aide-de-camps to give a public contradiction. When the question of tho prosecution of M. Eocheforfc came up in the French Chambers, M. Estancelin moved that it should not be proceedod with, but was met with a declaration by M, Ollivier that if the Chamber refused to authorise it, the Ministry would be unnble to carry on tho Government. M. Eocheforfc spoke, and urged that if it was agreed to, tho people would believe that the Government wished to get rid, at any price, of a member it disliked ; but for himself, " he did not wish to prevent this blunder, for every mistako made by the empire profited the republic." Ultimately, the prosecution was authorised by v majority of 226 against 34. But on reflection, tho expediency of this course was much debated, aud many fears were expressed that it might provoke further manifestations. It does not appear to have subserved any purpose beyond the bare assertion of tho power of tho Government. The trial took place ou the 22nd instant, when M. Eochefort was sentenced to six months' imprisonment, and a lino of 3000 f. Two of his colleagues in l\\e Marseillaise were also condemned to a similar punishment. They none of them appeared to plead. It is understood that lenient sentences were passed at the instigation of tho Government. Legal opinions differ as to tho effect on M. llochefort's present position, but it is said that the sentence of imprisonment cannot be enforced before the prorogation of the Chamber. In the meantime the excitement is subsiding; and the Chambers are addressing themselves to the discussion of the commercial treaties, and the greater reforms by which constitutional government is to be developed.