The Sun.
London, England, 1854-08-17 00:00:00

FRANCE.

The Emperor of the French, having been con-
gratulated by the Bishop of Bayonne, on his fete
day, made the following reply :

"Monseigneur—Custom ha; willed it that there should
be one day in the year for every nation to celebrate the
fete of its Sovereign. In presence of this general mani-
festation, and of the prayers which are addressed to
Heaven throughout the whole of France, it is the duty
of the Sovereign in his turn, to deliver himself up to a
strict self-examination in order to ascertain whether he
has done every thing that depended on him to merit
this concert of good wishes and marks of respect. It is
his duty, above all, to come to the foot of the altar to
implore Divine Providence, by the intercession of the
ministers of religion, to bless his efforts, to enlighten his
conscience, and to give him constantly strength to do
good, and to put down evil.
" My presence on this day at Bayonne is a fact which
I mention with pleasure, for it proves that France, calm
and happy, no longer feels any of those apprehensions
which oblige the head of the State to be always armed
and on the qui vive in the capital ; and it proves that
France can support a distant war without her internal
life ceasing to be free and regular.
" I thank you, Monseigneur, for the prayers which
you address for me to Heaven ; but be good enough also
to call down its protection on onr armies; for to pray for
those who combat as for those who suffer, is still to pray
for me."

We read in the Constitutionnel
"A. notice relative to the Turkish loan, as settled
with the house of Goldsmid, who alone had undertaken
it on commission, was to have been published in London
to-day. But we have reason to think that this publica-
tion will have been postponed, for the ambassadors of the
Sublime Porte at Paris and London appear to have re-
ceived precise instructions from the Divan adverse to
that form of operation. It is, therefore, probable that
the Turkish loan will be effected upon another basis and
other conditions."

With the exception of a variation of the enter-
tainments in the Champs de Mars, the fete of
Tuesday may be described in a word as a repeti-
tion of that of last year, but not so well done.
The Parisians who, taught by many successive
precedents, expected to see the Place de la
Concorde and the Champs Elysees transformed
into something different from what they had
ever seen before, were disappointed at finding
the old properties brought out again and put up
in precisely the old form. This disappointment
was the greater, because the plan of last year's fete,
invented by the late lamented M. Visconti,
although it produced the most splendid illumi-
nation ever beheld, included none of those
improvised cities, temples, grottoes, monuments,
historical statues, and allegorical groups which
have excited curiosity on .former occasions.
The decorations d la mauresque appeared tame
and monotonous in the extreme to those who saw
them for the second time, and remembered that
a year ago they had been voted ineffective by day-
light. The theatres (open gratis) were exceedingly
attractive. As early as four in the morning many
people took their stations before the doors with the
deliberate purpose of standing in a crowd for ten
hours to insure a place. By eleven o'clock the
opera was besieged by a crowd, sufficient to fill the
theatre at least four times over. Among the
people thus prepared to pay so dearly for gratuitous
pleasure wero many very well dressed. At the
Opera Comique the places were open to all corners,
with perfect fairness. There were blouses in the
dress circle, and smart toilettes in the pit. All the
theatres were quite full, and the police very properly
took care that they should not be more than full.
The weather was fortunately cool, and those who
got places enjoyed the performances as fully as on
any ordinary occasion. In the Champ do Mars the
principal entertainment consisted of the Siege of
Silistria, the gallant defence and glorious death of
Mussa Pacha, and the ultimate retreat of the Rus-
sians. Silistria was represented by a pictorial
pasteboard erection, such as we have often seen at
the Surrey Zoological Gardens. The siege opera-
tions conducted in due form were somewhat dull
to behold. There was a portcullis and a drawbridge,
and the principle part of the fun was to gee Turkish
cavalry sally out to charge the Russian cannon—a
manoeuvre highly necessary for scenic effect, al-
though not quite historically correct. Owing, how-
ever, to the weakness of the drawbridge, these
charges, instead of being executed in the dashing
way we have seen them done at Astley's, were per-
formed at a walk, and the effect was tame. Mussa
Pacha died drawing his martial (Ottoman) cloak
around him, and surrounded by his Wife and chil-
dren. It is said that the 200,000 spectators in the
Champs de Mars were deeply moved by this spec-
tacle. Instead of the three balloons promised there
was only one. This ascended at five, and bore in
large letters of gold the motto, "Turkey, England,
France." Austria, although our very good friend,
is not yet far enough advanced in the alliance to
be associated in these aerial honours. There were
boat races on the Seine between the Pont des In-
valides and the Pont de Jena. Two four-oared
matches were pulled between French and English
crews, and the English lost them both.

EXECUTION OF THE WILL OF
NAPOLEON I.
The Moniteur contains the following report made
to the Emperor on the subject of the Will of the
Emperor Napoleon I.
Sire,—Last year, at this period, I had the honour to
present to your Majesty the report of the commission
charged to examine the questions relative to the execu-
tion of the Will of the Emperor Napoleon 1. In this
report, the bases of which have been approved of by
your Majesty, the commission proposed to devote to the
execution of the Will a sum of eight millions, thus
divided :-
1. Three hundred thousand francs to the
officers and soldiers of the battalion of
the Island of Elba, or to their widows
and children
2. Two hundred thousand francs to the
wounded at Ligny and at Waterloo
3. Fifteen hundred thousand francs to the
officers and soldiers who fought from
1792 to 1815, for the glory and inde-
pendence of the nation.
4. Four hundred tthousand francs to the
town of 13rienne
5. Three hundred thousand francs to the

300,000.

200,000

1,500,000

400,000

300,000

town of AlLlry
6. Thirteen hundred thousand francs to
the provinces which suffered from the
two invasions
7. Four millsons to the private legatees,
or to their widows and direct heirs 4,000,000

Total
In the month of January last, the Council of State
was called on to draw up a bill on the basis pro-
posed by the commission, and the preparatory exa-
mination of this bill was confided to the united sec-
tions of legislation and finances. A commission,
chosen from these two sections by the President of
the Council of State, was charged to collect the in-
formation indispensably necessary for drawing up
this bill. The commission not being able to com-
plete their work before the close of the legislative
session, it becomes necessary to provide, by an ex-
traordinary credit, for the execution of the will of
the Emperor. A longer postponement of a measure
of reparation which was announced in the iioneteur
as long ago as the 14th of August, 1853, would
only tend to prolong sufferings worthy of all the
sympathies of France and of your Majesty, and
would be fatal for a great number of the legatees.
Death every day thins the ranks of the old de-
fenders of the country. Among these deserving
soldiers of the Republic and of the Empire, these
wounded of Ligny and of Waterloo, these devoted
servants, the heroic men who composed the batta-
lion of Elba„ those who still survive are aged, and
for the most part poor and infirm ; the await with
legitimate impatience for the accomplishment of
the hopes which they have been authorised to con-
ceive. It is, therefore, urgent to satisfy them
by acquitting towards them a national debt doubly
sacred. These considerations have struck the Coun-
cil of State, and it has recognised in them all the
conditions required by the decree of May 31,
1838, for the opening of an extraordinary credit.
According to the information collected as to the

number and position of the legatees,- the sum of
eight millions, propesed by the first commissson,
appeared sufficient to carry out thelthe pious idea
of your Majesty- and the intentions of the
august testator. Assuredly this sum is but a
feeble compensation for the 117 millions which
properly belonged to the Emperor, and which
the deqee of the sth August, 1848, brought
into the public treasury, and it is also far
from compensating for the 200 millions which
Napoleon I had appropriated out of his pri-
vate domaine in favour of the victims of the war ;
but the disasters which the Emperor had then in
view have been relieved by time, and the country
has already in part repaired them. There cant
therefore, be no longer any idea of securing tho
literal execution of the last wishes of Napoleon
but it is important to ratify the remembrance of it
by a national and definitive measure. Of the credit
opened four millions will serve for the payment of
individual legacies, and four millions will be de-
voted as well to the payment in full of the legacies
in favour of the battalion of the Island of Elba and
the wounded of Ligny and Waterloo as to repair
the disasters of Brienne and Mery, to increase the
amount of assistance which, thanks to the generous
initiative of your Majesty, France now grants to
the old soldiers of the Republic and of the Empire ;
and lastly, leave to the provinces mentioned in the
will a testimony of the glorious souvenir with which
the Emperor on his death bed honoured their patriot'
ism. The division of this sum cannot be given up to
common rules. Your Majesty has the indisputable
right of imposing on the distribution of funds sport'
taneously devoted to theaccomplishment of the last
wishes of your immortal predecessor, the jurisdic-
tion,
which can best secure the proper execution a
it. It is not, moreover, possible to leave to the
ordinary tribunals the solution of questions which
may arise out of that division, and to expose the State
to judicial proceedings with the legatees, and it camp
therefore, be only confided to a special commission'
In order to accomplish more exactly the wishe6
of the Emperor, this commission must act oil
the rules laid down in the report of the 12th of
August, 1853. Its decisions will not be valid un-
til they have been sanctioned by your Majesty, but
they will receive from that sanction a sovereign
and absolute authority against which no judicial
proceedings can be instituted. I have, in conse-
quence, the honour to propose to your Majesty the
two following decrees : one opening and extraor-
dinary credid for the execution of the will of the
Emperor Napoleon I, and the other naming a COg?:
mission charged with the division of the said
credit. I am, &c.,
" ACHILLE FOULD, Minister of State."
The report is followed by the two decrees above
alluded to signed by the Emperor, and dated
Biarritz, the sth inst. The members of the Con:
mission appointed are General Count d'Ornanfe,
President • M. Rouher, Vice-President ; M. Au
Parieu, M. J. Boulay (de la Meurthe), M. o
Royer, M. Perron, M. Lehon, and M. Mesnard.
In consequence of the fete of the 15th, no Paris
paper except the Moniteur appeared yesterday
morning.
The Three per Cents. closed yesterday at 71"
50c. for the end of the month ; and the Four-an
a-Half per Cents. at 99f. 50c. ; Orleans Ballsi
Shares, 1,195 f.; Rouen, 972 f. 50c.; Havre, 50
50c. ; Great Northern, 837 f. 50e. ;
790 f. ; New Shares, 627 f. 50e. ; Paris-and `fie t'
955 f. ; Lyons to th Mediterranean, 860 f. ; We,.s
ern of France, 650 f. ; Bordeaux and Cette, 6201
Great Central of France, 498 f. 75c. •
Strasburg,
; Lyecsfr
Geneva, 506 f. 25c. ; Bank of Credit Mah'e I
708 f. 75c.