PRINCE BISMARCK'S DANGER.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume X, Issue 87, 12 April 1875, Page 4

PRINCE BISMARCK'S DANGER.

The following despatches from the Times' correspondents at Paris and Berlin relate to a supposed plot for the assassination of Prince Bismarck:— Paris December 22. The North German Gazette gives an account of a plot for the assassination of Prince Bismarck, the particulars of which have, been kept secret for fifteen months. In September, 1873, a French Archbishop received an anonymous letter offering to rid the world of a monster who, after bringing beautiful France to the brink of ruin, was exhibiting unmeasured animosity against Catholicism. The writer undertook to effect his purpose before the end of the year if the archbishop would send 40,000f to insure his wife and four children against want, and 20,000f for himself. In order not to compromise the priesthood, he suggested tbe use of an iogenioos cipher and counselled the archbishop, when replying, to give no indication on the envelope from which it proceeded. In a second letter he pressed for an answer, enclosed his photograph, and disclosed hiß name and address — ' Duchesne Poncelet, Rue Leopold, Seraing.' The archbishop very properly communicated th-- letters to the French Government, who lost no time in informing Prince Bismarck. The Belgian police made inquiries, and found that Poncelet was a mechanic of reproachable babits, respectably connected, a regular attendant at mass and confession, in good circumstances, and of averaste education. In the first half of 1873 be was employed at Aix-la-chapelle, and specimens of his hand writing correspond with the two letters. The photographs, however, were not his own, but that of a former fellow-workman named Gaudy, then living at Lille, who is suspected of being an accessory to the plot. The archbishop received another letter in cipher, pressing for an answer ou the ground that there was no time to lose. Poncelet was thereupon watched, and made preparations as for a visit to Germany; buta comrade in that country, to whom the Aix-la-chapelle police had put incautious questions, sent him word that it would be dangerous for bim to cross the frontier, and he abandoned tho journey. Wbat has since become of him is not slated, the Gazette simply remarking tbat the reasons for not divulging the affair have ceased to exist. — Berlin, December 22. — The Berlin police have cautioned Prince Bismarck not to continue going out alone and on foot as he is wont. The .recent official disclosures respecting the plaus of Ultramontane assassins do not seem to exhaust all that is known by the police." •*■■