THE ROMANCE OF CRIME,

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume I, Issue 20, 14 November 1861, Page 6 (Supplement)

THE ROMANCE OF CRIME,

Our readers will have observed in tho news by th ‘ Airedale,’ published in the Southern Cross, mention of two extraordinary crimes recently perpetrated in London. \V c allude to the attempted murder of his only son by tho Baron do Vidil, and the attempted assassination of Major Murray, who however in a conflict for life succeeded in destroying his would-be murderer. Of the personages engaged in tho latter melo-dramatic crime very little is known ; but the Baron dc Vidil and his antecedents are not quite so obscure ; and most persons who had any knowledge of Louis Napoleon, Court D’Orsay, Court Morn ay, and other adventurers of that school, while they were in England also know something of Baron dc Vidil, who was an intimate associate of theirs and almost the only parvenu of the circle or clique by which they were surrounded. The Baron de Vidil was an adventurer in (he worst sense of the word, as the following brief notice of his strange history will show—

Alfred Vidil was tho son of a glove-maker at Nancy in Franco. He came to England in early life, and about tho year 1830 was (he employment of a wholesale glove warehouse in Bread-street, Cheapsidc. He was a young man of dashing exterior and insinuating manners and was in the habit of making his appearance on Sundays on horseback in Hyde Park. His smart horsemanship, stylish manners, and fashionable dress attracted the attention of a Miss Jackson to whom ho introduced himself as the Baron de Vidil, and without the knowledge of her friends succeeded in captivating her affections and ultimately of inducing her to marry him. The young lady was the daughter of a Mr. Jackson, of Chapel-street, Grosvenorplacc. Her father was a man of considerable wealth. He had been a commissariat officer in the Peninsula war in winch position he had made a very large fortune. After his daughter’s marriage with Vidil, Mr. Jackson for a considerable time refused to see or acknowledge her. Previous to his death, however, he relented so far as to leave her the sum of £30,000 —secured from her husband during her life, and afterwards settled on her son, who was born about twelve months after the marriage. This son is the young man an account of whose attempted murder by his parent we elsewhere publish and who his known as the Court de Flahault.

Mr Jackson while he lived refused to see the man who had inveigled his daughter into what he considered an improper match ; and took every means in his power to prevent Vidil reaping any pecuniary advantage from his marriage. Mr. Jackson died shortly after making his will, aud his daughter did not long survive him. Vidil, who had assumed the title of Baron, of course without any legal rigid, now found himself as the natural guardian of his son, in possession of the interest derivable from the £30,000 left by his child’s grandfather. He assumed the style, and succeeded in obtaining an introduction into the fashionable circle of which the Count D’ Orsay was a leading member. Mrs. Parker, his deceased wife’s sister, adopted her little nephew, who, when he grew up, was sent to Cambridge. Vidil made frequent visits to Paris, aud having the command ofmoncy, his assumed title of Baron was readily acknowledged at that time even in circles of highly aristocratic pretensions. The assumption of such prefixes as Count and Baron was so common in Prance in Louis Philippe’s reign by penniless adventurers, that a man really in possession of means, as he now was, ran no great danger of being very closely' questioned by his associates; who had indeed, to much need of his pecuniary assistance to look very narrowly at his claims to

aristocratic birth. In company with Count D’Orsay, Count Mornay, and other fashionables of that class, Vidil had no difficulty in gaining admission at the Tuileries. Under Louis Philippe’s government, when Marshal Soult was one of the Ministers, and through the influence of the Marquis Mornay, his brother, the Count Mornay, was named ambassador to Sweden. The Count, on proceeding to Stockholm, took his friend, the Baron de Vidil, with him as an attache. He did not remain long in Sweden, but the circumstance of having been connected with the French embassy to Stockholm contributed to fix his standing, and to give him an introduction to the circles of royalty itself. Whether ho succeeded at that time in obtaining such an official recognition of his assumed title or not is disputed. It is not at all improbable that he did do so, and that, at the present time, he really is what he formerly pretended to be.

On the flight of the Orleans family, Vidil, who happened to be in England, was one of the first to offer his services and sympathy to the royal exiles. He continued to visit at Claremont up to the time of the commission of the horrible crime with which he now stands charged on evidence too conclusive to admit of a doubt of his guilt. Having had the command of the proceeds of liis son’s fortune during the whole of his minority, on the young man coming of age about two years since the Baron was suddenly deprived of resources except as a dependent on his son and consequently embarrassed in his circumstances. To relieve himself from this position, and to enable him to indulge the expensive states and habits to which he had been so long accustomed, he no doubt planned and attempted to execute the horrible crime of murdering his only son.