The Sun.
London, England, 1864-05-17 00:00:00

7

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often in caricatures. The peak in front has got a.
fellow in rear rather longer than itself, and es be
article is seldom brushed or well polished
leathers, it would make a Guy of the smartest *of.-
dier. The boots are of the Wellington pattern, well
made and sufficiently roomy, and of excellent ma.
terial. The shape must not be taken as altogether
inferior to that of English soldiers' ankle boots, and
as involving an unnecessary redundancy of leather,
because in Denmark the winters are long and sloppy,
and the trousers can be worn inside the boots—the
appearance of the men's lower limbs being much.
better than that of British soldiers in their new-
gaiters. The knapsack is of calf-skin coveriog,and
contains the usual requisites of what I believe you
call the kit, two spare shirts, comb, brushes, spare
trousers, knif-, fork, &c. The weight of this article
seems greater than that of the knapsack borne by
the British soldier. The firelock is too frr quently
the old smooth-bore, in fact, Brown Bess with r
percussion lock. But Belgian rifled muskets aro
being fast substituted, and I only hope that thu
soldiers are as quickly trained to the peculicritii.s
of their use. The bayonet is rather short and not
very handy. As to the mariner in which firelock
and bayonet and other appointments are kept, the
less said the better. There is a want of smartness
and taste on the part of the men, and the officers
seem altogether too few, so that it is quite
impossible that they could see everything. :I
forgot to mention that the undress cap is
of dark blue cloth with a small leather peak.
It is a sensible, useful, and becoming head-
dress for campaigning. The officers' dress is the
same as that of the men, but of course of different
and finer quality of material. Their buttons,
like those of the men, are of white polished
metal without device. They have nothing to wear
indicative of their respective regiments, as their
shoulder-straps are narrow and without numbers.
The marks on these shoulder-straps point out the
rank. It is the sole outward grade of infantry
officers. The sub-lieutenant wears upon his
shoulder a plain narrow double cord, while the
lieutenant has upon his cord two small wafer-like
buttons. The captains rejoice in a third button,
and often very aged gentlemen wear them, as pro-
motion, in common with a few other things in
Denmark, is frightfully slow; For field officers
the shoulder-straps are made more wide, of
plaited gold lace, plain for the major, with two
buttons for the lieutenant-colonel, while the gen-
tlemen well stricken in years, who has attained
the rank of full colonel, has his three small buttons.
These are the shoulder-knots worn in war and on
active service. In peace, for court and dress recep-
tion, epaulettes, showing in their distinctive deco-
rations also the rank of the wearers, form the com-
pletion of the uniform. Officers' swords have steel.
scabbards. They are large, heavy weapons, as if
made for use, and hang from the good stout waists
of the wearers—we never squeeze our waists in
Denmark to the waspish proportions of the mid•
body of French military men—suspended by black
patent or polished leather. such are the Danish
officers and Danish soldiers in their uniforms and
appointments.

Scenes in the French Legislative Corps,

PARIS, Sunday Evening.

In the Corps Legislatif yesterday, M. Stievenart
Bethune (a new opposition member, who was elected.
for a northern department against M. Boitelle,
brother of the Prefect of Police) moved to suppress
the funds applicable to the pay of the rural police,
on the ground that that institution was worse than
useless. He desired to do cheerful homage to the
utility of the police in Paris and other large cities,
but he had the best reasons for knowing that the
rural police, a very modern creation, and one which
happily did not exist in all the departments, served
no good purpose, and was mainly nothing else than
a scandalous instrument of electoral tyranny. The
members of this body were illiterate, ill-mannered,
and having no legitimate employment naturally
sought occasions to meddle with citizens, and curry
favour with power. This was their normal condi-
tion in what he would call times of pence. But in
tine of war, that was to say, during elections, these
men transgressed all hounds of decency. Then thu
rural commissary of police became an undisguised
electioneering agent, he spoke everywhere in the
voice of authority, and treated his district like a
conquered country. His mouth continually vomited
threats, and no idle threats either, for they were
constantly followed by the penal visitations of the
local magistrates.
M. Peiletan followed with a demand for the
repeal of the law of public safety, and he based his
arguments mainly upon this consideration, that the
present government had, in its own point of view
at least, less need than any other of laws of public
safety, because it kept liberty in a state of suspense.
Liberty of the press, liberty of association, liberty
of public meeting, commercial liberty, parliamen-
tary initiative, ministerial responsibility, all the in•
stitutions, all the guarantees of 'B9 were promised
only in perspective, but immolated for the present
by reason of the necessities of public order. Well,
it was not unreasonable to argue that all that the
Government had deducted from liberty it must be
taken to have gained in security. Whence, there-
fore, the necessity for exceptional laws of public
safety. (Applause on several benches.) M. Pelletan
then went through the list of various repressive laws
passed by the Government in the course of the last
12 years, and showed that in practice they had all,
been found unnecessary. The Government every
now and then got frightened, and asked for harsh
laws, which after all it did not want. The law
against keeping up " intelligence abroad," which
bad been called for on the pretext that it was a
necessary protection against the scum of society, had
been put in operation against just three persons,
viz., a judge, the Marquis do Flers, M. Shearer, and
M. Taule, a medical student. M. Sheurer, a most
respectable inhabitant of Alsace, had been pulled
out of his bed, and taken to a cell in Mazes. Ho
was prosecuted, and sentenced to three months' im-
prisonment. He had paid the penalty which the
law awarded, but he was liable to-morrow, upon,
perhaps, an angry man's denunciation, to be trans.
ported. When he thought of such things he could
scarcely believe the statue of Mirabeau was yet
standing in the building within which he spoke.
Here a long altercation ensued between the Duke
de Morny and M. Pelletan, the president laying
down that a deputy had no right to dispute thelaw,
and M. Pelletan replying with unanswerable force
that it was the especial province of the Legislative
Body to criticise bad laws. After this a battle
royal ensued between the Duke de Morny and M.
Picard. They wrangled in almost Billinsgate style.
The Duke de Moray told M. Picard that the Gee
vernnment were not afraid of him or of anybody
else. Picard inquired Is that a threat ?"
Morny rejoined,to which
de
„ it is no threat to say that the
you.
Government is not afraid of If the Govern-
mentto threaten,
were inclined perhaps the lan-
guage we hear would not be addressed to (Tu-
multuous applause on the benches of the majority.)
Picard attempted to explain, but could not get a
hearing, and M. Jules Favre exclaimed "This is vioe
lence." At this juncture M. Thiers said—" When
the interests of the country are in question no one
will frighten us, not even the Government." M.
Rouher said -M. Thiers had only
just come into the
house, and did not know what had passed, but the
latter said he had heard it all, and persisted in his
observation. M. Gamier Pages brought forward
the subject of the violation of his domicile, and the
interference with his electoral meetings. MM.
Rouland and Rouher replied on behalf of the G -
vernment that the law justified what had been done
—or, at any rate they thought so—and it was for
a court of law to pronounce. The Government had
tolerated electoral meetings, but they had reason to
think that N. Gamier Pages was at the bend oi an
unlawful society, which sought to carry the elec•
tions throughout France.

SIR EDWARD BIILWER LYTTON'S "Last Days of
Pompeii" is now :n opera by Pabol.
ig. TRIERS is said to be Writing the history of
French finance.

A beautiful specimen of the finest Irish lace,
value one hundred guineas, has been prepared for presen-
tation to the Princess of Wales, by the ladies of Ireland, in
remembrance of the Royal marriage.