The Northern Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1856-03-11 00:00:00

FRANCE.

(FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)
PARIS, SUNDAY EVENING.
From the slme high source to which I have been
indebted for the few facts that are known about the

deliberations of the Conferences, I learn to-day
that the despatches brought by Count Scheoaloff,
and other couriers of inferior rank, to the Russian

plenipotentaries, are of a more satisfactory nature
than had been expected, from the tone of the
Russians in the recent sittings of the Conferences,

and that, consequently, once again the hopes of
peace are rather in the ascendant. The despatches
in question are said to refer to the questions of
Nicolaieff and the Bessarabian frontiers.

In consequence of them, the sixth sitting
of the Conferences, which was held

yesterday, passed off favourably. The precise
point at which the negociations have
arrived, I am unable to state ; but what I can tell

you is, that on two or three sittings, it seemed
very unlikely that there would be any result, and
that more of them, Lord Clarendon even went the

length of exclaiming, " I see there's no chance of
our coming to an understanding."
The official Moniteur contains this paragraph
this morning :—" The expectations of peace give

rise to numerous projects of commercial enter-

prises. New companies are in course of formation,
and they address every day demands to the
Government. It is the duty of the Govern-

ment to resist exaggerated

impulses, which

may compromise the affairs already commenced,
and do injury to credit. The Emperor has decided

that whatever maybe the issue of the pending

negoeiations, the Government will maintain the
reserve it has imposed on itself, and that no issue

of new shares will be made in the course of the

present year." Alarmists see in this announcement
a sort of warning that peace is not likely to be made
by the Conferences ; but it does not admit of
that interpretation ; it merely shows that the
Government considers that the situation of things
calls for prudence.
Old Prince Jerome, the Emperor's uncle, was
taken ill on Friday night, and it was repeated
yesterday thathe had had an attack of apoplexy, but
medical bulletins issued to-day, sny that his coin-

plaint was inflammation of the chest, and tha

after being bled, he was going on well.
Large crowds of these intelligent Parisians, of all
classes have, during the last few days, been
flocking in crowds to a shop in the Rue Vivienne,
to see the linen and dresses prepared for the Im-
perial child, whose birth is expected. These things
are very splendid, and are immense in quantity.
As a specimen of the want of information even
on their own affairs, under which the Paris news -

papers labour, I may mention that it is only this
morning that they published, from the Belgium
papers, the programme of the ceremonial to be
observed on the accouchentent of the Empress ; yet

you will remember that so far back as Wednesday
last this document was communicated to me, and
made such slight mention of it as it appeared
to me to deserve. Several of your London
co-temporaries will, however, be obliged, no doubt,
to content themselves with publishing the docu-
ment, or the summary of it from the French papers ;
and this will be, in its way, a new proof of the
superior sources of information opened to the
NORTHERN Timms—for, though this thing be of no
great importance in itself, it required a man to
have access to high official quarters to obtain it.
The programme has excited a good deal of ridi-
cule, and no wonder, for it is like ceremony gone
mad. But the grandest bit of absurdity in the
whole thing is the granting to the forthcoming
imperial baby the Grand Cross of the Legion of
Honour and the Military Medal. Wits say that
the English Government ought to send it the
Crimean Medal as well !
The Pope, dit on, has written a letter with his
own hand to express regret that he cannot come
to Paris personally to christen the child,
but accepting the offer of being its god-
father. It is said, however, that the
baptism will not take place before June,
and the Emperor hopes that between this and then
the Pope may see reason to change his determi-
nation. The Queen of Sweden, who is a Catholic,
and who is besides a relative of the Bonaparte
family, is spoken of as one of the godmothers.
Nothing is now said about the Queen of England.
As regards commerce, the situation continues
unchanged, that is to say, merchants and traders
are waiting to see the turn the Conferences will
take, before embarking in speculation. The con-
sequence is, that few orders have within
the last week been given to manufacturers,
and the transactions of retailers have not been
brisk. At Lyons, Rouen, and in the manufactur-
ing towns of Alsace, there has been more activity
than at Paris. In wheat there has been a general
decline. At Havre the prices of cotton have
remained unchanged. The quantity sold during
the week was 14,331 bales ; that imported 3,786
bales.

It is again reported that a marriage has been
definitively settled between Prince Frederick
William, heir to the Prussian Throne, and the
Princess Royal of England; and that it will be
publicly announced in May next, when the Prince
is to make a new visit to England.
Accounts from Constantinople to the 28th ult.
have arrived. Omar Pacha and Selim Pacha had
been ordered to suspend hostilities. The mouths
of the Danube were free from ice, and the Lloyd's
vessels had resumed their navigation. The Eng-
lish were continuing their preparations for a
campaign in Asia.
The Great Central Railway Company of France
has obtained the concession of the railway from
Madrid to Saragossa.

PARIS, SATURDAY EVRNING

The Emperor, by a letter inserted in the Moni-
tear, has ordered the Minister of War to see that
the Councils of Revision are more severe in accept-
ing recruits for the army, as heretefore they have
admitted young men who are physically unfit, and
who have consequently had to be discharged,
thereby subjecting
.the government to unnecessary
expense, and making the following year's levy
more onerous to the population. In 1854 it
appears that not fewer than 5694 young soldiers
after being passed ny Councils of Revision, had to'
be discharged as unfit for service, and the govern-
ment was in consequence subjected to an outlay of
£60,000.
Madame Marrast, mother of Arnaud Marrast, the
celebrated republican journalist, who played an
important part in Louis Philippe's time, and in
the Revolution of 1848, died yesterday.