The Sun.
London, England, 1864-08-25 00:00:00

FRANCE.

ST. ETIENNE, AUG. 21 (Evening).
A banquet took place here this evening in con-
sequence of the Assembly of the Council General
for the Department of the Loire.
The Duke de Persigny, who presided, proposed
the health of l‘l.po!eon EL, " the founder of liberty
in France." The Duke's speech was:a complete re•
view of the theory of the Imperial constitution.
He showed the form of liberty to vary with every
free people. "The present physiognomy of liberty,
properly so called," said M. de Persigny, "may be
recognised by the striking signs of the solidity and
duration of the governments which it founds, and
above all ,by the passion it inspires for great
things,"

M. de Persigny then demonstrated that the poli-
tical institutions of England are not adapted for
France. "It not being possible," he continued,
"for authority and liberty to remain in the hands
of one class as in England. Instead of subordinating
one class to another, it Was natural to render them
independent, and this is the fundamental principle
of our institutions."

said :—" In order that the
The Speaker further
liberty of the press may be a benEfit, it is necessary,
in a country newly constituted, that a new, vigorous,
and independent
political generation should ariss
to replace the minds enervated by revolution."
"Some journals," says the Pattie, "have spoken
of the approaching departure of the Emperor for the
camp of Chalons. Toe exact day is not yet fixed,
but the expectation is that his Majesty will leave
St. Cloud between the 26th and the 28th, to remain
absent only five or six days. Some change may be
made in this arrangement in consequsnco of the
arrival of Prince Humbert, the precise day when
his royal highness will reach Paris not being known.
Nothing has
yet been decided respecting the visit
which the Imperial family makes each year to
Biarritz."

The Dresden Journal publishes a note contra-
dicting
the statement made by the journals that
the occupation of
Lauenburg by the Federal troops
had given rise to differences between Hanover and
Saxony, and that a note containing complaints had
been sent to the Saxon Government on the subject.
The Dresden 'Totowa affirms that no note or any
other communication has been received from the
Hanoverian Government relative to the affair of
Lauenburg.
The Siecle makes the following observations
on the line of conduct which the Emperor Maxi-
milian has adopted in his now States :—" The in•
telligence from Mexico refers to the impatience
with which the first reforms of the new Emperor
are looked
means
took
p su forward to. That prince has found out
the
of exciting in the highest degree the
curiosity of his new subjects, who all, like the Jews
on Mount Sinai, stretch forth their hands for the
abundantsinily pos-
sesf
sion
constitutions, decrees, and regulations prepared
sneeswsiolna law, t previoushe au t:
authority
rtywith
th governmentsa
n
beforehand, and in that way they inaugurated the
era of happiness promised, but, alas ! always post-
poned. In doing so they showed but little adreit-
ness; the illusions and hopes were toosoou dissipated,
and the discontented quickly manifested their dis-
pleasure or their disappointment by renewirg
the hardly.interrupted series of conspiracies and
pronnnehunientos. Maximilian proceeds in a dif-
ferent manner. Shut up in the palace which crowns
the hill of C.paltepec, ho envelops himself insilence
and mystery. Rumour declares that he is occupied
in dark manipulations of systems destined to recon-
struct the gcvercmzntal machine—to effnce the
wrinkles of the Mexican people already ritlYcted
with signs of a premature old age. At four in the
morning the Emperor is on feot, interrogating,
noting, studying, and labouring in his great work.
This activity, unusual in those climates, has pro-
cured him the admiration of the foreign residents.
The Mexicans themselves are, however, but slightly
touched with this ardour, which they do not under-
stand. They aro above all astonished at being kept
at a distance, and not being able to treat their
monarch with the familiarity which formerly
existed between them and their presidents. Lastly,
they are impatient at the long period of gestation,
the end of which they cannot foresee, and the
authors of the celebrated report which declared for
the Mexican monarchy can hardly explain the hesi-

tations and scruples of their elected, for in his place
they would havo presented a hundred solutions for

his one. By a rather singular revulsion, the clergy
and the reaction, which ought to love the sovereign
of their choice, have arrived at the point of fearing
him; on the other hand, the honourable men of the
Liberal party, whilst keeping at a distance, how-
ever, seem to show a certain sympathy towards
Maximilian as a private man."

BOURSE, Aug. 22.—The market has been again
heavy, and Stock and other Securities have been
offered. Threes, for the Account, however, remain
unvaried at C6fr. 30c., but Mobilier have declined
to 995 fr, 50c. Railway Market also dull, with
lower quotations for several of the lines. Tao mar-
ket became rather ti:mer towards the close, and left
es follows:

It per Cente. O4 45
Do. end
3 por Cents
Do. end month 66
Credit Mobilicr
Do. end month 1000
Bank Shares 3300
Credit Fonder 1210
Roman
RA ILI

Orleans
Worthern
Lyons and iledituranean
Southern
Western
Eastern
Sardinian O
Austrian •
Lombard
North of Spain
Saragossa„
Ditto to Bar3elona

Italian L,an 67 50
Jo. eild. month 67 55
Ditto Threes,
New Mexican
Itu.ssialt
Austrian .....
---
Spanish Threes 46i
Rome liobt .. 4B 50
Deferred

'AY'S.

Cash. Account.
888: 75 ~ 885 --
980 980
915 917 50
637 50 .. 638 75
522 50 .. 520
495 .. 495 ---
345 345 --
430 431 25
538 75 .. 538 75
410 410
498 75 497 50

Tha Vitrified Forts of Scotland.

A correspondent of the Icily _Review, we observe, has
been recently starting a new theory as to the origin and nee
and purpose of those remarkable objects generally known
as Vitrified Forts. The theories hitherto propounded in
connection with the subject may be briefly stated. Dr
Anderson, r, ho was among the first to draw attention to the
matter, gives it as his opinion, in the Archoologia, that the
vitrification of these forts is an effect designed by their
builders. He supposes that the ramparts or walls wore first
built of such common stones as the place afforded, and in
the course of building all the interstices bat ween the rude
and rough stonework was filled up with vitrescible iron ore
common enough in the norther:a parts of the island. The
wall being at last finished in this manner, a brushwood fire
was kindled all around it, which, melting the vitrescible ore,
the whole would become connected into a were or less cc•
harent mass in proportion to the intensity of the heat and
the time the fire lasted. As the country then abounded
with wood, there would be no scarcity of fuel. Such is the
first theory. The second, that of Mr Tytler, is this ;—These
_ _

'orts were places of defence—a sturdier sort of Caledonian
palls designed by cur unconquerable quasi Maori ancestors.
According to this theory, they first began the fort by erects
ins a strong double row of palisades, the outline of the in-
tended structure. These palisades or upright stakes were
probably warped across and closelyint er woven with branches
of trees and such brushwood as was at hand. Into he in-
termediate space between the double row of palisades or
wooden fences thus formed, all sorts of rubbish, stones of
every description, earth, branches, stems, and roots of trees,
were thrown; little care or trouble being necessary, all tha
was wanted being the filling up of the vacant space between
the palisade rows, to the required'height, indeed, but any-
how and with the. readiest materials that came in the way.
The fortification thus formed souse neighbouring enemy
would attack, literally, with fire and sword—fire first, which
meeting with so much ready fuel in the closely interwoven
double row of palisades, would burn fiercely, acting upon
the intermediate stone conglomeration which would thus
become vitrified. The third theory is Sir G. Sinclair's. Ile
supposes that from fear of invasion, or other wise in prospect
of hostile attack from some neighbouring tribe, the natives
of a remote period selected a conspicuous spot, naturally a
hill top, for lighting beacon fires upon for the purpose of
spreading an alarm from one part of the country to another.
ro prevent these fires from being spread about and scattered
by the wind, they piled heaps of stones to leeward of the
fires, and hence the vitrification. To ourselves we confess
none of these theories is quite satisfactory. But supposing
them to have been designed as places of defence, we should
meantime be more inclined to go with Dr. Anderson's views
than with those of his brother theorists, The new theory
to which we have alluded, and which is to be found in a
well-written communication to the _Daily Review of July
12th, is, that the hills or duns on which wo find what are
called vitrified forts, were in truth the mountain altars of
the ancient fireworahippers. The author argues his case
in a very able manner. 'We refer our reaiers to the article
itself. Our object at present is merely to draw attention to
the subject, and to assure the writer of an otherwise very
clever paper, that on ono point at least he is quite wrong,
He sees, or pretends to see, that the vitrified walls arc never
found to be circles, hut ell pees, and supposing a central
fire in the focus of these ellipses, he coolly conies to the
conclusion that this would be a designed though rude re-
presentation of the heav my motions, " according (ho says)
to the Copernican system, which was derived from Pytha-
goras from the 'East, whence the system of fire worship
originally came," ergo, these are the works of the worship-
pers of fire or of the sun, and at a period long anterior to
the Christian era. All we have time to soy at present is,
that there is not the shadow or a shade of proof, probability,
nor, we had almost said, of possibility, that the ancient fire
worshippers knew anything whatever of ellipses or their
foci either. The circle and the circle only—the most
simple, and perfect, and beautiful of curves—was alone
known to the ancient ire worshippers, and held by them as
sacred, and by it only. Let us further add, for upwards of
five thousand long years, was it ever attempted by the astro-
nomers of each age to account for the planetary motions,
The ellipse, it is true, was known to the mathematicians of
ancient Greece, and its properties, very different from the
properties of the circle, may, for all we know, have afforded
them an amusing subject of speculation, but nothing more.
Neither they nor the astronomers of many succeeding cen-
turies ever once thought of erecting the ellipse in the
heavens, and making the solar system move harmoniously
in obedience and subservience to its laws. This was re-
served for the immortal Kepler, who quite in modern times
—about the time, that is, that our own James VI. ascended
the Euglish throne—after long years of undaunted perseve-
rance and toil, was the first to announce to the world the
hitherto undreamt of truth that " planets revolve in elliptic
orbits about the sun, which occupies the common focus of
all the orbits." This is helper's first great law, deservedly
entitling him to be styled "The morning star of modern
astronolical science." What then, let us ask the ingenious
author of the new vitrified forts' theory, what in the uni-
verse —(the term is surely fitting here, if anywhere)---what
did or could the ancient fire worshippers know of the ellipse
or its foci? What did Pythagoras or Copernicus either ?
Absolutely nothing ; as far at least as we now know it in
its connexion with the laws which regulate the movements
of the heavenly bodies. • The new theory must stand or fall
without any help whatever from an " ellipse" or a "focus"
and their introduction at all, so inopportunely and irrele-
vantly, into the discussion, has, we confess, not a little
assisted in strengthening our other objections against
an otherwise very plausible and ingeniously argued out
hypothesis.

TEE MURDER OF MR. BRlGGS.—lntelligence
Way be anticipated in the course of a few days,
potaibly hours, that the suspected murderer Muller is in
the hands of justice; as the Victoria, in which he sailed,
had been out 30 days when the steamer left which would
bring the mail duo to-morrow (Friday). If the arrange-
ments of Inspector Tanner, the chief of the metropolitan
police, and Sergeant Clarke, assisted by the New York
authorities, should be successful, the American officers will
board the Victoria in the open roadstead, acccompaniod by
the English officers. The American police will arrest
Muller and take him before the proper authorities at New
York. The warrant will then be produced by Mr Tanner,
and evidence given of the alleged complicity of Muller in
the murder ; and should that evidence be considered suffi-
cient, he will be remitted to England, and for that purpose
be given into the custody of the English officers. In the
event of their not being any steamer leaving within a con-
venient period of the magisterial examination at New York
being concluded, although Muller may have been given up
to Mr Tanner's charge, he will ba kept in ward in the
House of Detention there until the departure is fixed, when
he will be taken on board the steamer by the English
officers of justice, accompanied by the New York police,
and when safe on shipboard left entirely in charge of Chief
Inspector Tanner and Sergeant Clarke.

ACCIDENT FROM FlRE.—Yesterday morning the
family of Mr Chetwynd, Gordon-terrace, Highhury, were
aroused from their sleep, between one and two o'clock, by
loud screams and cries for help issuing from the sleeping
apartment of Miss Maynard, who was on a visit to the
family. On proceeding to her room they discovered the
lady with her nightdress awl the bedding on fire. She had,
it appears, fallen asleep while reading in bed, aid the candle
fallins set the bedding on fire. Mr Chetwynd smothered
the flames with a carpet, but the young lady is shockingly
burnt, and not expected to recover.

TIIE ATTACK. ON MOBILE.—What if the report
of the Fcleral success of Mobile should turn out to
be a fabrication? The telegram forwarded by General
Butler to President Lincoln announcing Farragut's victory
has a very suspicious appearance. It purports to be taken
from the .IZiehinowl Sentinel of the Bth, on which day the
paper must have reached Butler, as he telegraphed the so-
called official despatch of General Maury, at three p,m. of
the same day, to Washington. How could General Butler
have got the Richmond paper at Bermuda Hundred on the
Bth. And 's
it probable that the Confederate Secretary of
War eould publish such intelligence? Fourteen of Far-
ragut's fleet are stated to be wooden ships, and only four
ironclads—one of which, the Tecumseh, was sunk by Fort
Morgan, The action took place at the entrance of Mobile
Bay, thirty miles from the city, on the sth instant, and
was telegraphed the same day to Richmond. Now, thoughi
it may be true, it certainly looks very like a stock-jobbing
canal-cis—Liverpool Courier.