ORLEANIST ESTATES. How the French Princes Acquired Them.

Otago Witness, Issue 1824, 5 November 1886, Page 34

ORLEANIST ESTATES. How the French Princes Acquired Them.

After Louis XVIII illegally gave back to Louis Philippe the immense territories which he claimed as the representative of the d'Orleans and Penthieves, he had 398 lawsuits with peasant proprietors and fishers on the coast of Normandy. His father's apanages brought in a yearly income of 400,000d01. Not less than 4,000,000d0l was due to creditors. Louis Philippe, keeping the favours extended to himbyiiouis XVIII, got them to reduce their claims to 600,000d01, which the income of a year and a-half would pay. The half of his mother's estates went to his sister, the Princess Adelaide, who the late Count de Mole used to say was the mother of the Due d'Aumale. But he being splendidly provided for under the will of the last of the Condes — a will whereby hangs a scandalous and tragic tale, — she bequeathed her inheritance to her nephews, Joinville and Montpensier.

When Louis Philippe had all but filched the throne from Charles X in 1830, he took care that his broad lands were not to become Orown property, by making a gift of the reversionary interest in them to his younger children. The eldest son, who he hoped in the course of time would be King Ferdinand, was given nothing because he was to have a civil list allowance and his father meant to bequeath him money invested abroad. If instead of arbitrarily confiscating the Orleans estates, the Emperor Napoleon 111 had questioned the title of Louis Phillippe before a court of law, that title would have beendeclarednull.it was so manifestly illegal. The title of the Due d'Aumale to Chantilly was a forged will, drawn up by the English mistress of the Due de Bourbon — one Sophie Dawes. She left herself a charge of 2,000,000d0l on the Conde estate, and with the exception of a legacy to found an asylum for orphan children of chevaliers of St. Louis, all the rest to the Due d'Aumale, for whom she had got her senile lover in 1822 to stand godfather. As the expediency of confiscating the Orleans estate is now discussed by the governmental press and warmly advised by the Radical journals, a bill to confiscate them may perhaps be presented to the Chamber next session.

The Due d'Aumale is at once magnificent and mean. He spends largely on ostentation because he is vain, and thought that by keeping up a brilliant establishment and making Chantilly a great political, military, and social centre, he and his family would hereafter be enabled to hold the national pursestrings, and, in short, reign and govern. But the closest economy was observed beneath the fineshow. Baudry was poorly paid for his ceilings and altar-piece in the chapel. If a great deal was spent on the castle, all the furniture, pictures, and books were chosen from a speculative point of view. In short, they were an investment which, if ever brought to the hammer, would probably fetch a great deal more than was paid for them. There were categories of wines for the different classes of guests at the gala dinners. Imperial or royal personages, ambassadors, and so on drank better vintages than those who sat below them, and the guests at the ends were helped by the servants to thin ordinaire, and in lieu of Madeira to the fiery Zucco from the Sicilian vineyards of the late Duchesse d'Aumale. She was the only daughter of Leopold of Naples, Prince of Salerno, for whose advantage his mother, Queen Caroline, caused the estates to be confiscated of the Neapolitan aristocracy that had recognised the French. As these properties devolved after her death on her only surviving son the Duke of Guise, the Due d'Aumale inherited them from him when he was carried away 13 years ago by scarlatina. I have never heard of a generous or public spirited action of this princely millionaire, but of many paltry and mean actions. He promised M. Thiers not to enter the Assembly if that statesman did not stand out against a bill to repeal the law proscribing the Bourbons and another to restore to the d'Qrleans the estates confiscated by Louis PhUUppe, But not only aid ha. break his word

on the ground that "it was not given in writing," but voted against Thiers on the memorable 24th of May, when he imagined the fall of that statesmen might a little later enable him to become Stadtholder of a Royalist Republic, or Lieutenant-general of France to govern in the name of the Comte de Chambord, who he knew would never return to be king unless on his own conditions. The Due d'Aumale's suits against poor old women who are guilty of the offence (which usuage here sanctions) of picking up dead wood and gathering withered broom in his forests are of constant recurrence. In this respect he is not worse than the rest of his family. The Orleans princes, the King of the Belgians and the Comte de Flandre (as sons of the late Queen of the Belgians, born an Orleans Princess), and the Duchesse Clementina of Saxe-Coburg hold jointly a forest near Amboise. Well, they are often plaintiffs against poor old creatures who are charged with picking up the dead wood that falls to the ground. When judgments are given the names of all the illustrious " pursuers," as the Scotch would say, are posted on the dead walls. Fortunately for the defendants, the forest code is extremely mild and distinct from the civil code. It is due to the Comte de Paris to say that he has inherited his mother's charitable feeling toward the poor, and was extremely good to his humble and poverty-stricken neighbours at Eu.

The estate at Nouvion, where the Due d'Aumale was when the news of the decree of expulsion^ was brought him, contains 25,000 acres, in which there are some of the richest pasturages in the north of France. It extends over the spurs of the Ardennes, which strike into the Aisne. The hilly part is given up to forest. There is a fine old chateau, which was built contemporaneously with the Tuileries, and in the same style, on this estate. It is within four miles of the Belgian frontier. — Paris Correspondent New York Tribune.