THE PRINCE IMPERIAL’S CLAIMS ON THE REPUBLIC.

Kumara Times, Issue 804, 29 April 1879, Page 4

THE PRINCE IMPERIAL’S CLAIMS ON THE REPUBLIC.

The Paris tribunal has given judgement on the long-pending and intricate dispute between the Prince Imperial and the State. It holds that the Prince is not bound to restore in kind certain articles of furniture which the civil list was bound' to keep in good condition, but will be free from liability on this head on paying over 706,000 f, The Chinese Museum at Fontainebleau is declared the property of the State, some of the objects having been presented by the army to the Empress, This was an act of courtesy, a homage to the head of the State in the person of the Empress, and it is not shown that any articles were purchased by her until the fact of their being placed in a palace made them national property. The same ruling applies' to the armoury at Pierrefonds! The State relinquishes its claim to certain pictures placed in the Louvre without any intention of making them public property, and' : agrees to restore them ; but other pictures possessed by the Emperor on his accession, and not thus expressly reserved, passed to the State on the principle of devolution. As to the Sdvres, Beauvais, and the Gobelins, the full value of the surplus raw material found therein upon their resumption by the State is to be paid to the plaintiff. Such manufactured articles, moreover, as were not deposited for the purpose of decoration or as models are to be handed over to the claimant. As to private furniture, the value is to be paid to the plaintiff minus 5 per cent per annum for depreciation ; but the State is nob responsible for partial loss caused by war or circumstances beyond its control. The Prince’s claim for re-payment of the quota given by the civil list towards the restoration of Pierrefonds is rejected, on the ground that that castle is public property. ■ 00, too, with regard to the sum devoted by the Emperor to alterations in the Imperial pavilion at Chfilons. As to Chatigneraye, the Empress’ estate, she agrees to abandon her rights for the sum of 18,720 f. Such of the Emperors’s rifles, &c., in the Tuileries as have been discovered the .State agrees to restore. The claim of. the State to the reimbursement of the civil list for September, 1870, minus the proportion of the first four days, is rejected, the established principle being that the monthly payments to the Sovereign cannot be fractioned in comsideratipn of his not reigning the entire month. Neither side having sustained all its claims, two-thirds of the coat are to be paid by the Prince and one-third by the State.