FOREIGN NEWS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume II, Issue 76, 19 June 1852, Page 3

FOREIGN NEWS.

FRANCE,

Louis Napoleon seems secure on his seat. He has sent the Duke of Bassano as envoy to the Court of Belgium. The correspondent of the Daily News says:—

" I am able to assure you on good authority, that one of the demands which M. de Bassano is charged to make from the Belgian Government is the removal of the monumental lion from the field of Waterloo, and the demolition of the pyramidal mound of triumph which it crowns. The application now made by Louis Napoleon for the demolition of the trophy makes one recall his laconic declaration before the Court of Peers, when tried for the seditious attempt at Boulogne. He then said, ' I represent as principle the sovereignty of the people, as system the empire, and as action the retrieval of Waterloo.' The two first points have been jj, carried, and it is certain no means will be neg,*ected to achieve the last. It is a ' fixed idea 1 with the President, and you may rest assured that he.^yill prosecute it with the dogged tenacity of purpose which marks his character. —r^anwhile, it is true that the Prince ridicules *-Ifae preparations for national defence against invasion which are talked of in England; and I understand that he mentioned, the other day, at his dinner table, as an instance of the crotchets which prevailed in some heads across the Channel on this subject, that an English gentleman had showed him a plan which he had formed for the fortification of his own mansion, as a precaution against piratical incursions of the French in case of war. But nothing would be less conclusive than to infer the pacific intentions of Louis Napoleon for such ridicule ; since it is well known that he treated with dis-

dainful mockery the surmises of a coup d'etat at the moment when the project which he scornfully disavowed was matured in his head, and he was only waiting for an apt juncture to strike the long meditated blow."

The chief matter of public interest was the progress made by the several military commissions for the trial-of the offenders who took part in the late disturbances, both in Paris and the provinces. Treating of this subject the Times correspondent says:— " The military commissions in the department of the Nievre are prosecuting1 investigations into the cases of the arrested. They divide them into three categories ; one comprising those who are to be transported by court-mar-tial—the second, those who are to be transported to Cayenne ; the third, those who are to be released, those liable to be again arrested by the administrative authorities " as a measure of general safety." At Nievre 260 cases have already been decided ! none of the prisoners, it is said, are to be sent before a court martial, but at least 60 are to be transported to Cayenne, and a considerable number to Algeria. Arrests in the arrondissement of Nievre continue to be made. At Clamecy there are 150 prisoners. Several of them have been ordered for trial by court martial, and the majority of the remainder for transportation to Cayenne and Algeria. At Cosne the number of accused is not so great as the Clamecy."

The new Legislative corps were to be elected on the loth February, and the new Chamber convoked for the Ist March.

The correspondent of the Daily News says : —"We are now within three weeks of the elections, and very much in the dark as to the way-in which they will be conducted. It has long been avowed by the Government that they intend openly to recommend candidates to the choice of the electors. But what amount of semblance of fair play will be given to other candidates nobody can tell. The intentions of Government are plain. They mean, in the first place, to carry the elections ; and, in the second, to allow, in districts where they think it may be safely done, some little appearance of freedom, in order to be able to say hereafter that the elections were free. It is found a puzzling task to hit the true medium with reference to both the objects."

Marshal Jerome Bonaparte, the uncle of the President, is appointed President of the Senate. He also holds the presidency of the Invalides.

The Minister of Marine, M. Theodore Duclos, is to be dismissed. The cause is scandalous immorality. The Minister has an action of bigamy against him. The motive assigned for this change in the cabinet would be grave enough at courts having any just pretensions to strictness, but is simply ridiculous under a Government which is scarcely more straitlaced in its morals than the Directory. SPAIN. An attempt has been made on the life of the Queen of Spain. She was stabbed "by an ecclesiastic. The wound seems to have been dangerous, as the latest news was this:—" Feb. 3 —I have just met one who comes from the Queen's chamber. This afternoon the news is bad. The peritoneum has been pierced by three inches of the poignard. Notwithstanding the bulletins, she has been much agitated the whole night, and only slept a little through opium. People go so far as to dread a sad issue within five or six days. On the sth, the Queen's state was considered satisfactory. On the 7th, the criminal who made the attempt was executed. He was a cousin of the famous Curate Merino. He was thus described :—The assassin is nearly siX feet high, stout-bodied, dry, wrinkled, countenance, very bright eye, low forehead, white hair. He left his convent in 1820. He has a small annuity. He is said to be a good classical scholar. It appears that he had sung mass, and confessed and shroven several penitents on the clay he committed the crime. The weapon with which the crime was committed is a common poignard of Albacete. The blade is pierced and very slight, the handle of white horn, and the sheath of iron. The assassin was taken to the quarters of the sergeant of the halberdiers. He at first assumed an appearance of the greatest surprise, tried to deny his crime, and asked why they arrested him. In the midst of the confusion, and thanks to his sacerdotal character, it might perhaps have been easy for him to have caused it to be believed that he was innocent, but upon begin-

ning to search him, the sheath of the poignard was at once discovered in his cassock. On the production of this irrefragable proof he could no longer deny his crime, and he said with the utmost tranquility, " Well, it was me." The assassin gave his name as Don Martin Merino, born at Arnedo, in La Rieje, a priest, aged 63 years. On being asked whether he was attached to any parish, he said, " No, I am a mounteback, and Igo from one to another." Among other things, he said that on leaving his bouse in the morning, he had sworn that he would not re-enter it without having killed the Queen, that he had long since bought the poignard to assassinate the Queen Mother and the Duke of Valencia; that at that time there would have been no use in killing the Queen, because she was too young, and besides, although she was Queen by virtue of a declaration of the Cortes, that declaration was contrary to the law, and that his object was to do a service to humanity. On being urged to say whether he had any accomplices, he said he had not, but i£ there were twelve such men as he, the lot of human kind would be different. Since Louis Napoleon's coup d'etat, it has been remarked that Merino appeared absorbed and excited. Some unconnected sentences that he let fall led people to believe that he was meditating a criminal project.

General Armero had informed the editors of the journals that the recent Royal decree on the periodical press would be rigorously executed, and he consequently advised them to use the utmost circumspection in the publication of political intelligence. The Heraldo pledges itself literally to obey that official injunction.