The Northern Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1856-05-20 00:00:00

FRANCE.

(FROM OUR OWN CORRFSPONDENT.)
PARIS, SUNDAY EVENING

The Government professes to be very anxious
to put an end to the trafficking in places, conces-
sions, &c., which has too long been tolerated in this
country, and it claims public admiration for its
profession. But the thing is too firmly rooted in
the manners of the people to be easily extirpated,
and people, there are, who say that the Govern-
ment would have earned a better claim to public
gratitude, if instead of waiting till now, when all
its principal adherents have enriched themselves,
it had endeavoured to check the evil years ago.
The movements of the Austrian Archduke con-
tinue to be recorded in the official and semi-official
journals, but nobody pays any attention to them.
The Austrians are not, and never will be, popular in
France. The young Prince, however, does his
best to make himself agreeable, and lauds im-
mensely Paris, the Emperor, and the French.
Arrivals of detachments of troops from the
Crimea, take place daily at Marseilles and Toulon ;
and such of them as are not labouring under sick-
ness, are marched at once into garrisons in the_
interior, whilst the men belonging to them, whose
period of service has expired, are discharged.
Vast damage has, it is feared, been done in the
departments by the recent inundations. The
weather continues very cold for the season (people
wear great coats out of doors and find fires accept-
able within) ; and it is feared that if a favourable
change does not soon take place, damage will be
done to the crops and the vines.
The trial of Palmer at London excites a good
deal of interest here. All the papers give long
reports of it, and some of them appear to have sent
over special reporters.
An Imperial decree in the Moniteur authorises
Marshals Vaillant, Canrobert, Pelissier, and Bos-
quet, and a long string of military and naval officers,
to accept the decorations of the Order of the Bath,
conferred on them some time ago by the Queen of
England. Some surprise has been expressed that
this decree was not signed and promulgated long
ago. It bears date the 20th April.

PARIS, SATURDAY EVENING

A Berlin despatch informs us, that the Corona-
tion of the Emperor Alexander, has been defini-
tively fixed for the 24th August ; also that the
Emperor of Austria will, in the month of June,
pay a visit to the banks of the Rhine. With re-
gard to the latter part of the despatch, I hear
that, if it be true, it is not improbable that the
French Emperor will go to the Rhine to have an
interview with his Austrian Majesty.
An official return just published, shows that the
gross receipts from French railways in the first
three months of the present year were 59,843,581 f,
or 10,930,142 f (more than £400,000), than in the
corresponding period of last year. The length of
railway worked on the 31st of March last, was
5,609 kilometres ; on the same day last year it was
4,609 kilometres.
A letter from Rome announces that very liberal
reforms have been made in the customs tariffs.
Prince Oscar of Sweden is to arrive here on
Monday ; he is both major-general in the army,
and rear admiral in the navy, of his own country.