Dean or alive Olivier Pain the French coumuuist, has recently occupied a good deal of attention, If be is the Father Victor, or Kanovies the Russian spy, who has been exer the Iudinn police, his vanity must have been highly tickled. telegraphs have been at work in India, Afrion and Europe enquiring as to the truth of his statements to the magistrate at Cochin, Rochefort hins been stirring up the destractives of France to avenge the murder of Olivier Pain. The occa. gion has given M, Rochefort an opportunity of displaying his unrivalled powers of vituperation, He stands apart as a supplier of vitriolic personal abuse; and ling been called " wholesale supplier "of foam at the mouth." here is said to be no such caller of names in the world Lo, except, perlinps, M. Paul de Cassagnae, and an miuble wish Las beau exproased to hear a match between them. Ne one, onn form any iden of how it would end. M. Rochefort supplies Paris every morning with @ new sensation; an arrangement in vitriol, Everybody, we ure told, reads his paper, the Intransigeant, for "ite name-calling, og certain other papers are rend for their money article or literature." M. Rochefort is thus a personage in Pang and in some other parts of France, and what he writes is believed by the demagogy. Ihe reported death of Olivier Pain in the Soudan was an opportunity which Lis former associate was not likely to let pass. News was brought to Ruchefurt, that instead of having died of a favor on the While Nile in Ovtober 1884, Pain bad been done to death by the British Commander, noting under the direct orders of the Gludstone government. And about the middle of August there appeared in the Zutransigeant a letter signed by MI. Selkivitch, describing himself as an ex-interpreter to the British army in the Soudan, in which he asserted that vier Pain was shot on the 18h April, 1885. The deed was done, according to Selkiviteh, by two Bashi-Brzouks under the eyes of Major Kitchener, to whom that horrible duty had been entrusted." The blood-money which the Huglish Government had by tele-ges aubborized to be paid was divided have carried o to the'heart of many " "Red" Parisian, for what could be more natural, more comme il fant than that having treacherously imbued their hands in the blood of the brave, the miscreants should celebrate their crimes with a fole. M, Rochefort then curpnesed himself in his vituperatiou of England and Englishmen, Ho called for vengeance, the eunice of the French people; and having done #0, he immediately proclaimed to his delighted followers that, in consequence of his exposure of the treachery " the British embassy was shut up, bolted and barred from basement to garret, and Lord Lyons was cowering in one of its recesses from the threatened tary of French indignation, As a matter of fact, Lord Lyons had left Paris some weeks before M, Rochefort had begun to blow what he culls French indignation into " flame. But that was a matter of detail, which M. Rochefort could not allow to stand in the way of an inspiration of invective, or his admirers to spoil their eu-joyment of his "prove urds." Asa mutter of course, Mnjor Kitchener promptly denied having been inst: acted by his Government in regard to Pain, and Sir John Walsham furnished to M. de Freycinet evidence supplied by the Foreign Office, which clearly showed that the story of the shooting of Pain was a pure inven AN that did vot matter to M. Rochefort, who when Inst mail left home was still rousing the indignation of France.
In May Inst a mysterious stranger arrived at Cochin and speedily attracted general attention, He first appeared tu India at Kurachee and at once comtenced @ rapid and circuitous journey by Bombay, Poona, Kundalla, Mudras, Toticorin, Trivandrum, Quilon and other picea, finally resting at Cochin, He Appears to Lave given himself out as Father Victor a priest of the order of Reformed Barnabites; an order which is of doubtful existence. He was arrested as a suspicious character by the Deputy Magistrate of Cochin, and underment several examinations in the Court there, He stated that his own name was de Kanovies, of a good Austro-Hungarian family, and that Lo belonged to a Reformed Barnabite mounstery in Manchuria, Che Austro-Hangarian Cou at Bumbay doubted the claim of nationality and would not interfere in behalf of Father Victor or de Kauovi But this would not be of great importance to the suspect, who was amply supplied with funds and bad retained all the Bar of Cochin and an able and popular Solicitor to boot. The Father bud early in his career in Cuohin been suspected to be a Russian spy, and it was in that supposed capacity that he came within a Section of the Code of Criminal Procedure, as a person unable to give an account of himself. The Catholic ishop of Bombay issued a wame ing against him and repudiated his priestly pretensions; the relations in Europe, the de Kanovies family, were silent when he appealed to then, nor is it o-train that such a family existe; the Bur of Cochin ceased to defend him even while yet his money was- unex. hausted; those who lad bailed Lim once refused to do so again, and finally the Magistrate of Cochin having vainly asked himself: "If Father Victor is not @ priest what is he?" ordered Lim to find security for Rs.10,250 in all, This the Father, being unable to do, received six mouths' simple imprisonment, Now this mau spoke Arabic fluently and claimed to be familiar with the Koran, and he possessed an Arab disguise, On his arrival at Cochin, he bud two photographs taken; one represented him sitting rending a book, und the other standing with " hookah in his band, These photographs are said to be likely to find favour with the Mussulmau population yenr Cochin, fanatics whom he was supposed to have come to stir up on bebulf of the Mubdi. Lhe photographs were identified ab Bombay as those of Olivier Pain by ove Spaugaro, a chemist, who made un affidavit to the effect that be hid seen Pain in Cuiro in May or June, 1884, and bad conversed with him there, Father Victor admitted having been in Cuiro in 1884 bat suid it was in Javuary, doubled having seen Spangaro, and denied being Olivier Pain, whom how-over be stated ho knew, Further be showed considerable knowledge of the political affairs of Egypt, Turkey and other European powers. Finally, Pain and the Father resembled ench other; both bad blonde hair, blue eyes, pointed lips and spoke nasally, ''be Father has gone to mil, taking the secret of his identity with him, He said he bad come to Cochin to have his character cleared of the suspicion of being Russian spy, and he bad remained, there waiting for a remittance which vever came, 'I'hero in the account of his examinations, ug given in the Magistrate's judgment, to identify Lim with Pain that could not be accounted for, and the death of the Adviser of the Mahdi seems about as certainly proved as anything could be, Probably be wus a Ruesiau spy, or an agent of some soclely of fanatics, or it might be of those in Egypt and Europe who are known to have supported the Mahdi, But it is an odd coincidence that while Rochefort was firing away at England for murdering Paiv, @ man in India should have been under suspicion of being the fever killed m himself. If he is Pain, Rochefort w deny Lim, and denounces lim as, impostor.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.