The Sun.
London, England, 1863-06-25 00:00:00

THE FRENCH ELECTIONS.

M. de Persigny is good enough to let the public
know what he thinks of the elections. The semi-
official papers this evening publish the following
circular, which his excellency has addressed to the
prefects :

' Paris, June 21.

" M. le Prefet,—After having received and ana-
lysed your reports, and those of your colleagues, on
the late elections, and taken due note of the order
and fairness with which the electoral operations
have been conducted, as also the perfect freedom
with which candidates of every description have
been able to come forward, I am happy to have to
congratulate you on the zeal which you, your sub-
prefets, mayors, and other subalterns have displayed
in your efforts to enlighten the populations as to the
choice they were called on to make. With the ex-
ception of incidents which may have given riae to
protests on one or the other side, the peaceable man-
ner in which the elections have been accomplished,
does the more honour to the country as they have
been hotly contested.
"For the first time during the last 10 years the
opinions more or less connected with previous Go-
vernments have formed a coalition. On a few points,
and especially in the great centres of population,
generally more easily impressed by the excitations
of the press, that coalition has succeeded in taking
universal suffrage unawares ; but the immense
majority of the country has responded to the ap-
peal by the Government, and has left the coalition
but a few names to console it for its defeat.
.
the
infi"u're
nh
ceeeol election, ttihoen ,f
uhtouwr
ee voe
fr
,thweicllouhnatrvye.
arrivingthe
summit of power, he had no party of his own, but
by a few points was connected with all the parties
existing in the country. Some considered him as
the representative of order—others as the embodi-
ment of unity of power; some looked upon him as
the principle of authority—others as a Wise liberty;
for the greater number his accession was the tri-
umph of democracy—for all, the dignity of France
abroad.

Out of all these various elements was formed
what may be called the party of the Government,
whether in the aggregate of the agents of public
authority, from the ministers down to the humblest
functionaries, or in the constituted bodies, the
Chambers, the councils general, and the municipali •
ties. Thus composed, the general organization of
the country was deficient in homogeneity, and it is
natural that, according to circumstances, and until
they had been amalgamated by time, these various
elements should betray some trace of their origin.
But the late elections will have done more for their

cohesion than time itself. Attacked on e
and resisting the shock, our political e,
gained in strength, and in the Chamber
country the party of the Government is he,
constituted.
" Another important result is due to the late eit-• a
dons—our institutions, criticised by the Opposition
under the pretence of their being capable of
improvement, have received a fresh consearation
from the success of the Government candidates.
What the French people meant to express, when
they voted the plebiscite in 1851, was not only
their wish to establish authority and liberty on
unshakeable foundations, but also their intention
to give up copying, in a democratic country like
ours, the aristecrritic constitution of a neighbouring
nation ; it was above all a resolution condemning
the fatal doctrine, the result of which was to trans_
for power from the hands of the Sovereign to orators
in tha Legislature.

" The oppoleition loudly asserted, that in the last
to years the country had changed its mind, that it
;spired not only to perfect and modify the working
orour likrties, but to change its essential prineiplce.
Ile country has protested against these assertions.

" And now that the struggle is over, I recommend
you, M. le Prefet, as quiet is gradually restored, to
take counsel from those sentiments of moderation
which are the mark of a strong Government and a
paternal administration.
" The Emperor's Government, you are aware,
excludes none. Consisting itself of men of all
parties, and unceasinglyrecruited from among them,
it remains faithful to the mission of reconciling them
all. It is open to all men of goon 7'7, and sets
si4l -nly those who, not aezepting the fundamental
bases of our institutions, such as they are laid down
in the plebiscite of 1851, are thereby in opposition
with the will of the French people.—Receive, &c.,
" F. DE PERSIGNY."
This extraordinary document is described as the
last will and testament of M. de Persigny.

The late Accident on the Brighton and
Victoria Line.

Yesterday the adjourned inquest on John Salmon,
the engine driver, whose death resulted from the
fearful injuries he received during the recent acci-
dent at Streatham, on the Brighton Railway, was
held in the lecture room of St. Thomas's Hospital,
before Mr, Carter, the coroner for the eastern divi-
sion of the county of Surrey. As, however, a jury
could not be empannelled in consequence of the ab-
sence of two of them, who it is stated were fined in
the sum of 20 each, the coroner said he thought it
advisable, more particularly pending the public and
official investigation into all the circumstances of
the accident, appointed to take place tomorrow
(Friday), to adjourn the inquiry to the Bth July.

so n Tribe,
severelyn inquiry
u i r tyh e fireman,
at
titi
sarte.dT,w
Thomas's
wasom ha o, it
sf,osu nwdi-t
slobe
Hospital,
far
yesrecollected,ter yesterday,
convalescent
,ass,
to be able to go about and in a condition to give his
evidence, the most important that can be adduced
relative to the probable causes of the catastrophe.
The causes that conspire to produce this particular
class of accidents, denominated in French railway
nomenclature by the term " derailment," or the
escape of the engine and train from the rails, are, it
may be usefully mentioned from the reported expe-
riences of the railway department of the Board of
Trade, attributable either to impediments left on
the rails, to the wheels or axles breaking, or to the
rails or chairs being out of gear, but to which of
these the accident in question is to be traced remains
to be discovered by the scientific inquiry which has
been most assiduously prosecuted by Col. Yolland,
the Government inspector, and the officers of the
company since the accident occurred.
The Guards are going on well, so much so that 20
of them have already left the Military Hospital in
Rochester-row, where they were under the super-
intendence of Drs. Lane and Wardrope, and Ser-
geant Ruston, and have resumed their duties at the
Wellington Barracks for some days past. Only
seven now remain in hospital, and all save one, who
is feared to hive been permanently disabled, will
leave the hospital for barracks very shortly. Up
*e the. presant titne_no clue apperxe—te) b.ave been
discovered to account for the unexolainettaccident,
artl..as no photograph appears to cave been taken
of the scene of tare disaster, and as the line was not
left in state quo until such time as an inspection on
the following morning could be made, great diffi-
culty will be experienced in arriving at a clear
practical conclusion.

THE COTTON SUPPLY ASSOCIATION.

The sixth annual meeting of the the Cotton Supply Asso-
ciation was held at the Town-hall, Manchester, yesterday
afternoon at 3 o'clock—Mr. John Cheetham, the president,
took the chair. There was a good attendance of spinners
and manufacturers.

The report of the executive committee stated that they
had had to deal with an amount of correspondence far ex-
ceeding that of the previous year, including communications
from all parts of the world where it was posible to grow
cotton. In reply they had given instructions, and, to the
extent of their resources, assistance. So great had been the
demand that they were reluctantly compelled, in conse-
quence of scarcity, to restrict the quantity of seed supplied,
and in some instances to decline applications. Their re-
sources, if doubled, would have been insufficient. In five
years they had distributed 6,107 cwt. of cotton seed, and had
placed in the hands of those who could most usefully em-
ploy them 642 cotton gins, 62 ploughs, and numerous other
agricultural implements, horse and cattle gear and driving
wheels for gins where steam power could not be obtained.
Medals and prizes had been awarded in India, Egypt,
Turkey, Asia Minor, &c., for valuable assistance and for
the best treatises on the management and cultivation of the
cotton plant. They had called into existence a variety of
agencies in Turkey,ltaly,Egypt, Spain, Portugal,Australia,
Brazils, Paraguay, and South America, whose efforts were
relied upon as valuable in developing the resources of their
respective countries. After alluding to the enlightened
policy of the Turkish Government in granting uncultivated
lands belonging to the state for cotton cultivation, rent free,
with exemption from all taxes for five years from import
duties on implements and machines, and commutation of
tithes, together with a liberal distribution of seed, the
report states that in Upper Egypt uncultivated lands are
to be exempt for ever from all contributions to the state if
turned to cotton growing ; whilst the PortuguesesGovernr
ment in India had granted a like exemption for fifty years
--an example of Government interest and encouragement
in striking contrast to the inertness of our Indian Govern-
ment, of which the committee had so often had reason
to complain. In Madras an improved policy had been
initiated in a few cases by the remission of assessment
for five years, but in July, 1862, Sir C. Wood revoked the
offer of the local government, and ordered their instructions
to be withdrawn, on the ground that the remission of rent
was not only objectionable in principle, but rendered the
trials to grow cotton quite unsatisfactory. During the past
year cotton had been received from Belize, Canary Islands,
lonian Islands, River Gambia, China, Hong Kong, Vie.
toria (Australia), Japan, Tortola, St. Lucia, Cuba, Mexico,
Central America, and Chili ; all of which places, had sent
no supplies in 1861. The large supplies of cotton which
the American war had suspended could ()tidy be gradually
obtained elsewhere after years of exertion ; but in propor-
tion as the association, by the spread of information,
supply of seed, and establishment of agencies, should be
able to multiply the sources of newsupply, it would contri-
bute to abridge the present severe crisis, and prevent recur-
rence. Tho committee call the attention of machinists to the
fact that there is still great room for improvement in ma-
chines for cleaning cotton. The aggregate quantity of seed
distributed in the past year was 1,205 cwt., or sufficient to
sow 45,000 acres of land. The committee had also sent out
arele
62 cotton gins to Queensland, Sydney, Adelaide, Africa,
effortpar s onfotwh e
wouldwor d . b The
greatly
to committeebe
anyttionnkny,Ntal, and
relaxation
other
of r
e
axa
deplored, and say that at a time like the present, when so
many mills are standing idle for want of cotton, no means
should beleft untried to remedy such a state of things. The
instincts of self-preservation ougb t to obtain for the associa-
tion the hearty support of the trade. "The large amount of
capital embarked in the cotton industry, the vast population
employed end dependent upon it, the remembrance of its
former prosperity, and the imperial as well as local interests
involved in its restoration, shall doubtless make every one
eager to rescue it from the ruin with which it was now
threatened." The accounts state the subscriptions at £4,096
10s. 4d., and the total receipts at £6,235 Os. bd., of which.
there is a balance of £145 Is. 11d. still in the bank.
Resolutions were moved adopting the report and accounts,
and appointing the president, committee, and officers to con.
duct the business for the ensuing year, which were adopted
unanimously.
-

ilussiAN CLEMENCY.--The Posen. Journal has
the following :—" Madame M--, the wife of a
landed proprietor in the neighbourhood of Wilna, waited
on General Mouravieff, the new governor, and requested
him to revise the papers connected with the case of her hus-
band, who, she said, had been condemned unjustly by the
former governor, Nazimoff, to six years' banishment to a
distant government of the empire. Mouravieff listened
very politely to what she had to say, and promised to make
known the result. On the Bth Madame M— received
information that her husband was condemned to be shot,
and on the 10th sentence was carried into execution."

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