The Sun.
London, England, 1865-08-23 00:00:00

FRANCE.

The Session of the Councils-General opened
yesterday throughout France.
Abd-el-Kadcr has left Paris for Brat, to be
present at the maritime fetes there. The Emir
alighted at the house of M. Gusson, Receiver-
General of the department and son-in-law of
Marshal Bugeaud.
" The departure of Prince Napoleon for his seat
at Fran
on the Lake of Geneva," mays the

Nord, "is fixed for the 30th inst.; the Prince will
be accompanied by the Princess Clotilde and the
two children. Their stay will last until the middle
of October."
The Countess de Montijo and her nephews, the
Counts de Nava del Tajo, have returned to Paris
from Fontainebleau. The Countess, it is said, will
shortly return to Spain to pass the rest of the sum-
mer on her property of Garabauchel.
The Emperor and Empress, on arriving at Con-
stance, took for themselves and suite six close car-
riages to proceed to Arenenberg. In spite of the
rain, which fell heavily, the population assembled
on the road in great numbers. The village of
Ermaningen received the Emperor under a
triumphal arch, hastily constructed, and bearing
the inscription, " Reconnaissance." The village
of Salenstein saluted him with a salvo of
artillery. At the entrance of the park, where the
crowd was most compact, the august travellers
alighted to proceed to the chateau on foot. The
Emperor shook hands with some of the persons
present, whom he recognised, and addressed to them
a friendly greeting. Their Majesties went first of
all to the chapel, where is the white marble statue
of Queen Hortense. After a time, they entered the
chateau.
The following are some statistics concerning the
manufacture of pianofortes in France :—ln 1863,
that country received from foreign countries only
113 pianos, worth about 113,000 f., all of which,
with one single exception, were re-exported. In the
same year France exportedinstruments to an amcunt
lof 3,796,696 f. This superiority, according to M.
Cottenet, secretary of the Statistical Commission
of Paris, is due above all to successive improve-
ments in the instrument itself, to the attention
paid to the most minute details of construction, to
the excellent quality of the woods and materials
used, amongst which must be specially noticed a
particular sort of felt only made in France, and ex-
ported to all foreign countries. It appears that
the square metre of that substance costs 340 francs.
Three principal houses execute all the labours of
that manufacture ; from the sawing and planing up
to the varnishing and last finishing operations.
Tools of a special kind and an excellent subdivision
of labour enable them to contend, both as to price
and quality, with the great manufacturers of foreign
countries. The number of houses which, in Paris
only, are engaged in the construction of pianos is
179, employing more than 2,100 workmen and four
steam-engines of the force of 42 horses. The
amount of business in 1863 was 11 1-3 millions, of
which 9 millions represented the sale in France ; the
remainder is for the sale in England, America, Bel-

glum, Prussia, &c.
An invention for the extinction of fires, the pro-
perty of MM. Courtines and Monnet, was tried two
days back in the Rue d'Abbeyrille. A pile of faggots
saturated with tar and petroleum was erected in a
large courtyard, and set fire to. When the whole was
thoroughly in flames the inventor ayproached with a
small metal cylinder, and from an issue effected by

means of a spring in it a stream of liquid was pro-
jected on the burning pile; in less than two
minutes the fire was completely extinguished. The
effect is produced by water charged with chemicals
haying the property of producing carbonic acid gas.
The cylinders may be prepared beforehand, and the
liquid preserves its quality for more than two years.
As the apparatus occupies but little space it may be
always kept ready on board ship or in a corner of a
theatre or apartment. When required for use all
that has to be done is to open the tap ; the liquid
then rushes out with a force sufficient, it is said, to
project it to the height of the second floor of a
house;

The bulletin of the Paris Observatory gives the
following as the atmospheric situation yesterday:—
"In the afternoon of Sunday, storms broke out
at Berne and at Lessina, in the Adriatic. The for-
mer ought to be attributed to a depression on the
Channel ; whilst the latter is connected with the
barometrical depression the centre of which was
found on Sunday in the environs of Trieste. This
morning the winds are strong from the west on the
eastern side of the Channel, but the sea is calm at
Brest ; the sky is getting cloudy on the coasts of
the Bay of Biscay, and storms seem probable in the
South of France. The barometer remains stationary
in the north of Russia, but is falling in the Crimea,

and a strong west wind was blowing this morning

at Nicolaieff."—ln Paris yesterday the thermometer
at three in the afternoon marked 27 Centigrade
(80 3-5 Fahrenheit).
A singular accident occurred the night before

last to a woman residing in the Rue des Troia-
Couronnes. Returning home late, after the porter
had gone to bed, she endeavoured to reach her key
through a small window in the lodge without dis-
turbing him. Not perceiving that the casement

was shut, she thrust her head through the glass, the
points of which entered so far into her neck that she
was unable to move either way until the porter had
carefully withdrawn the glass by detaching it from
the window-frame. The woman's wounds bled so
profusely that it was found necessary to take her to
the Hospital St. Louis.

The Brussels journals announce the departure of
the Count de Flandre to join the King and Royal
family at Ostend.
BOURSE, Aug. 22.—Two o'clock.—The market is
weak. The excitement even of the continued dis-

counting operations is wanting as regards the Credit
Mobilier, hardly any shares of this company having
been announced to-day, though there are still a
certain amount of Threes discounted. Threes, for

the Accounli, are sc. lower—at 68fr. 10c. Crddit
Mobilier Shares are at 777 fr. 50c. North of Spain
are quoted 218 fr. 75c. The shares most dealt in
are those of the Austrian Railway Company, which
have advanced 6fr. 25c. on the strength of the im-
proved relations between the two great German
Powers. Three o'clock.—The market has continued
in the same feeble state to the end, with the excep-
tion of Austrian Railway Shares and New City
Bonds, which latter have been quoted 468 f. 75c.