The Evening Telegraph

The Acquittal of Prince Bonaparte by the High Court of Justice at Tours has created an immense sensation and much astonishment in France, but in other parts of the world astonishment would have been the result of the opposite termination of the trial. The High Court of Justice is an institution organized to acquit in such a case as this. The article upon it which we published on Saturday will show how exceedingly difficult it would have been to secure a verdict of guilty, even with the material modification of "extenuating circumstances." It would undoubtedly have been much better for the imperial regime to have so manipulated the affair as to secure a slight recompense to the people for the useless killing of one of their number, by the infliction of a nominal punishment, at least, upon the passionate scion of royalty. The Rochefort faction will now be enabled to claim that a Bonaparte may slaughter whom he will without encountering the risk of punishment, and such a claim as this will be productive of not a little mischief.