Sad news from France ! Loms PHILIPPE has sustained a
se- verer shock than mere political reverses, or even the weapon of the assassin levelled at himself, could give—an accident has killed his eldest son. The Duke of ORLEANS was fatally stunned by a fall near Neuilly, on Wednesday : in leaping from his carriage, which the horses had run away with, he tripped and fell ; and he never recovered his senses. After all his soldierly exploits in Africa, with all the regal career before him, the young Prince perishes by an awkward jump from his carriage If no blame attached to the character of the Duke of ORLEANS, there was little remarkable in it ; yet there is scarcely a man in France on whom the future fate of the country hung more directly. The nation is swayed by the most conflicting opinions ; it is more prone than graver people to give effect to political discord in ac- tion: the Orleans branch, whose rule has at present kept the na- tion in some sort of troubled order, wants the security which was increasing as its occupation of the throne was prolonged. A link in the chain of succession has been torn out ; and while Louis PHILIPPE is nearly seventy years of age, his heir, the son of the dead Duke, is not yet four. Should the infant survive, therefore, a long regency is inevitable : but no Regent ever yet had the same power which he would have had as King ; and the head of the French nation wants all the power that a ruler can have, of a legitimate kind, merely to hold his place. The Duke DE NEMOURS is already talked of as Regent ; but, of course, as yet merely at random, because after the King's death be would be the natural male pro- tector of the child. It is, however, really too soon, even for the politicians of France, to survey the possibilities and contingencies that may follow this unfortunate event.
It throws the subject of the elections into comparative insignifi- cance. They had proceeded too far for it to have much effect on the result ; and had it happened sooner, the alarm of the electoral classes at the prospect of any jar to the social and commercial wel- fare of the nation would probably have rendered them more Con- servative. It would in that case only have altered the result in degree. The success of the Government in the elections, however, whatever it may amount to, does not dissipate the gloom and ap- prehension of the political world at Paris.
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