Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1859-06-18 00:00:00

FRA_NCE.

PARIS, Thursday Evening.—An article appears in
the. Journal des' Debuts of to-day, which is not
Without interesfat the presen moment, and to which
'it may be as well to direct attention. -It is signed
by the " Secietaire de la Redaction"—a formula
aometimes employed by a government paper when it
gives a communication emanating from more 'autho-
ritative source than usual. That such is the case in
the present instance I do not affirm ; but if it be,
the selection of the Journal dei Debate, rather than
the Patrie, or the Conititutionnel, is, perhaps, not
.without an object. It will, probably, be copied in
the Ministerial journals, and will have additional
weight from the fact of its having
er first appeared in
so serious and so impartial a pap as the
The subject of the article I allude to is the Island of
Perim. After a geographical description of that
took, the Debuts says :
"When the English occupied Perim they pretended to
have purchased it from the Sultan of Raheita for the pur-
l:lose of building a lighthouse: The Sultan protested, and
still protests, we are assured, against a cc ...ion to which he
' had not consented ; he has accepted nothing and received
nothing ; for which he gives a very good reason, namely,
that the island did not belong to him.
" But whether sold or taken, the island of Perini displays
now the flag of England floating on a fort. and not on a
lighthouse. While she lights up the straits of Babelniandeb
she appears disposed to keep it. It is not a signal man, but
a sentinel. *. * *
_ "Experiments in muanery, interesting and significative,
Were carried on 'in 1858 in the strait of Babelmandeb ; a
frigate anchored at Perim could 'easily throw balls on the
coast .of Arabia far into the land, and on the other side, in
the direction of the Ras-Domeiral, and it was proved that
it crossed its fire with*a battery established on the coast of
Danakil. We deem it useless to add any commentary on
these details. :We. admit with difficulty that the English
only look upon Perim as a rock meant to serve as a basis for
a light-house, or as a support to some section of an electric
cable."

Speaking of Aden, the Debats observes :

" When iogaloaandhowishecl to establish a line of steamers
between Suez Indianh poessipus, she had to seek
an intermediate point whereon
ofereAon ,to establish a„ coal depot.
'Aden, to the south-west ala, a few miles outside the
strait of Babelmandeb, was forma to be on the direct route
,of Bombay. Aden offered an exacedlleont.pc.rtd' s Peasy of defence ;
n
Aden was taken. PossesSion of
.the otherday, .and as something will occupied, us
was
The last accounts received from the French head-
quarters in Lombardy informs us that the Emperor
is concentrating.his troops in order to attack the
-kitstrian army with an overwhelming force. It is '
'expected that a decisive battle will be fought in the
'course of next week.
The efforts made by Austria of late to indu"ce the
minor German Powers
,to make her cause in Italy
their own is remarked on by the Pays, which con-
siders all probability of. such interference to be at
present remove& from the united causes of the mo-
deration of Prussia, from the neutrality of Russia,
and the fall of the Derby Ministry.