An EXTRAORDINARY STATEMENT

Ashburton Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 2158, 26 June 1889, Page 2

An EXTRAORDINARY STATEMENT

A writer to a London periodical: referring to the circumstances attending the abdication of King Milan, of Servia, gives it as his opinion that the.' sovereign of the Servians had been mesmerised, and was laboring under the hypnotic influence when he vacated the throne. The writer, m support of his extraordinary statement, which was forwarded from Belgrade, ■fays that there is at present a consensus of testimony, including that of his Majesty himself, that the latter's nerves were entirely unstrung, or otherwise m a high state.of te.nsiqn ; thrtjheate littleFand suffered/frpm? insomnia and various syjm|>toms of the^hysteripal'timperament. Madame Artemisia Ghrfstitch pos. sessed, m the writer's opinion, a mqit. extrao-: | ordinary and altogether unaqcount^ble indiien^e over King Milan, ' especially' distorting m" an astonishingly flagrant manner all his views regarding herseli. Strange to say, although those who po.sessed.lhe intimate acquaintance of Madame Artemisia considered her intellectually, beneath the average of womea, the •King was wont-to declare that her knowledge andjgrasp «f all subjectsf-political and mun'daqe—wore; greater jthose of all his t Ministers and court put together. Nobody can arrive at a- solution ;of the e^tr^rdinary estimate put by Milan upon ibis" lady's accomplishments^ Again, m support of his contention, *the. Writer states that Madame Artemisia and her sister were perpetually engaged m hypnotic and jthoughtT«'ading experi-~ mentsji bom nrivately. and ffa the] select? corapanyrof ihe3King,And m bne "*br twd'otliersrThe King was also referred to by Madame Artemisia as "a good medium, she had obtained an unenviable notoriety among her acquaintances for her hypnotic powers. Then the Kin^Vihcn ; failrly cornered m an argument regarding his then proposed abdication, would answer :" It is no u?e of your talking ; I must do it,"' in the tone and) manner familiar to those who have studied hypnotism. The King's strange behaviour on the morning- of the abdication is also commented upon by the writer, who ; mentions that " ari ' eyewimess said that the King came m briskl^ enough, and then suddenly stopped with his eyes downcast, When he be^an speaking, one of his most intimate friends standing by remarked upon the extraordinary' change m his voice. • • The King was speaking- like a ventriloquist," said the eye-witness, " and if I had not seen his lips move I should not have ; beiieved it was Milan. His eyes had a wander-' ing sleepy look, and he seemed to me to' be acting under compulsion." The writer concludes by stating that if it can be proved that Milan was once mesmerised by Madame Artemisia, his strange, caprice m the divorce, as m the abdication, will be explained as hypnotic suggestion, instead of being the untrammelled actions of a free king. »?The j secret," he . adds, " has been well kept,. and probably will never emerge from the region of conjecture, but this statement toughes 'it closely."