The Sun.
London, England, 1853-05-20 00:00:00

THE FRENCH EMPIRE,

There is a very long article in the Siècle on the
turning tables, Sze., which is now the prevailing
topic of the day. This journal does not deny the
reality of the phenomenon, but considers that
greater importance is attached to it than is de-
served. We extract as follows :

" We laugh a good deal at the savage tribes who re-
main indifferent in presence of our manufactures and our
civilisation, and who become impassioned for paltry glass
things, buttons, and clumsy looking-glasses. Are we not
somewhat like those savages when we fall in ecstacy
before turning tables and hats ? God forbid that we
should give the most timid denial to facts more or less
exact which are related to us every day ! We believe
that hats turn and tables turn, and that ships themselves
turn. But what is that intended to prove ? That the
human being possesses an electric or other power, and
that that power can give movement to inert matter ?
But does that wonderful discovery date from yesterday I
A long time before hats were made to turn, the
Abbd Paramelle struck the soil with his foot, and a
spring was found there. The fact is incontestable,
and almost undisputed. Let savans set to work to
discover the cause and the consequences ; until then let
us endeavour to be cahn, and let not the turning tables
take all the time, already so restricted, which business
leaves to agreeable conversation and private parties.
For ourselves, who certainly cannot be accused of being
rebellious against novelties, we profoundly respect the
phenomenon spoken of, because from this phenomenon
a world may arise ; but no one will ever persuade us that
to employ their forces, and apply their intelligence, a
man and a woman should pass their time seated im-
movably round a table, to give to it, after a long wait-
ing, a movement which stops as soon as the hands cease
to form a chain ! We have a magnetic and electric
fluid—so much the better, if science can turn it to ac-
count to prevent or abridge the evils that afflict us.
Enthusiasm in that case would be justifiable. If the
foetus should one day become a great man, we will ad-
mire it ; but, for the moment, it is only a foetus. Let
us fasten it in its glass bottle, and send it to the Aca-
demy, that it may tell us what we must think of our fluid.
We have also a muscular force, and this force, which
was at the beginning of society a supreme argument,
is at present ranked amongst vulgar spectacles.
Why so ? Because we have discovered that the ox,
the horse, the ass, the camel, and the buffalo were
a thousand times better provided than we in that re-
spect ; and so, instead of ten of us being employed
in dragging a plough, we have found it more simple
to confide the task to the animals which God has placed
at our disposal. At a late period we found this mus-
cular force inefficient, and we invented muscles of steel
moved by steam. It is the same with respect to the
electric fluid. We have a little of it, but the atmosphere
which envelopes us is saturated with it. We place our-
selves round a table, as serious as Quakers, and we
shout miracle when, under the influence of our slight
electricity, it makes eight, or ten, or fifteen turns a
minute, whilst we look with indifference at the loco-
motive which passes with thousands of travellers at the
rate of 15 leagues an hour. We make a hat dance, and
the crowd stops, and we fall into ecstacy. A wire,
however, leaves the city of London, crosses the sea,
touches Paris, and from Paris goes to all the great cen-
tres of population, not only of France but of Europe ;
in an instant, with the rapidity of thought, that wire,
for which time and space do not exist, transmits news
from London to Berlin, and from Paris to Marseilles ;
and we find that simple, whilst the piece of furniture,
obeying slowly and painfully the magnetic pressure of
our fingers, plunges us into incredible ecstacy and ravish-
ment. Will your table and your hat carry a despatch
from one end of the territory to the other more rapidly
than the electric wire ? Do you
,give us a surer and
more rapid agent ? Assuredly no."
We find nothing else of sufficient interest for
extract in the original columns of the Paris journals
of yesterday.
The Patric newspaper contradicts the assertion
of the American journals, that certain French ships
of war were on their way to the Sandwich Islands,
for the purpose of acting against those islands.
The same journal also declares that there is no
foundation whatever for the rumour which has
gone abroad, that the Commander of the French
frigate Jeanne d'Arc has purchased a territory on
the shores of the Red Sea, and that he intends
taking possession of an island situated in that sea.
Yesterday the Corps Legislatif resumed the ad-
journed debate on the Budget of 1854. The credits
demanded for the payment of the national debt,
and for the dotation of the Legislative powers and
the Ministerial offices, were voted by the Assembly.
There was considerable activity in the market for
Government securities at the Bourse yesterday at
the commencement of business, and Wednesday's
quotations were well maintained ; as the day ad-
vanced, however, a change occurred, there being a
very decided downward tendency at the close of
business. The Three per Cents., for cash declined
25c., and the Four and a Half per Cents., 10c. For
the end of the month, the Three per Cents. fell3oc.
and the Four and a Half per Cents., 25c. Bank
Shares declined sf. Closing prices :—For cash—
Three per Cents., 81f. 10c. ; Four and a Half per
Ceuts., 103 f. 90c. For the account—Three per
Cents., 81f. 15c. ; Four and a Half per Cents.,
103 f. 75c. ; Bank Stock, 2,710 f. No transactions
took place to-day in the Mortgage Bank Shares,
which are still quoted at 880 f. ; those of the Societe
Mobiliere fell 2f., closing at 940 f. 50c. The market
for railway securi des was also firm at the com-
mencement of business, but an unfavourable
change took place, and at the termination a decline
had occurred in the quotations of most of the more
important lines. Paris and Rouen and Orleans
shares each declined 10f. ; Paris and Lyons, 6f. ;
and Northerns, bf. In Paris and Strasbourgs an
advance occurred of 2f.